Visn 6 Vets And C & P

[Berta]

In Part from Jim Strickland VAWatchToday

Full story at http://www.vawatchdogtoday.org/

"The word is that the process of conducting C & P exams is so far behind that VISN 6 (and maybe others) are preparing to "BLITZ" C & P exams to catch up. Blitz refers to a violent and sustained attack with intensive aerial bombardment. I'm not sure that blitz was the best choice to name a program that deals with veterans but there it is."

and

"Most concerning to me is that I believe this is the perfect opportunity for a point of appeal of any denial that may come of one of these exams. Any veteran who is subjected to a C & P examination under "blitz" conditions and who is denied may immediately claim that he or she had an inadequate exam. That this process was not a part of the examiners usual duties is clearly adequate to trigger an appeal."

[jbasser]

Blitz is a word often misused in order to get a lot of things done in a short period of time. The VISN is the group that consist of several VA Hospitals as they are divided up into VISN's.

C and P departments are usually employees of the VBA.

I can see where this would pose potential rush jobs in the C and P processes.

J

[Commander Bob]

I'm not sure that blitz was the best choice to name a program that deals with veterans but there it is."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blitz

[broncovet]

Years ago, I learned a hard lesson on waxing floors. I gobbed on the wax, and spread it around. When it was done, it looked terrible. I asked about it, and they said, Did you read the directions?

"No Time"

"Well the directions state to remove all the old wax and dirt first, then apply the new wax in 3 coats"

"Yes, but you did not hear me. I said I didnt have time for all that".

He responded, "Well, if you dont have time to do it right the first time, when are you going to have time to do it over?"

Of course the wax wont stick to old wax and dirt and oil. So, I had to do it over, and this time it took longer, because I had to remove the old wax and the new wax, then 3 coats of new.

I doubt the VA is going to "save time" by doing a poor job of rushing medical exams. Instead, they are going to create job security because those appeals will still be going in ten years....well after "new claims" are processed by computer software, and only appeals have to have people to work them.

[broncovet]

I would add this:

VA employees should understand there is a push on for electronic claim processing, similar to the way lenders often approve loans for things like cars or computers. Most of the time, these things are awarded by the computer. If your credit score meets their minimum, and the income is good with sufficint time on the job, its done. They only work the marginal cases by "hand" and even then the employees will rarely deviate from the software's criteria.

This would probably eliminate dozens and dozens of RO's and their jobs will be gone. Just a few national RO's with computers with pre programed software that zip, done. Everyone has the exact same criteria. Cleveland wont be stingier than Maine or New mexico with its Vets. Vets from Cleveland will love the fairness while Maine and New Mexico Vets will complain that their brother got benefits last year, before the automated processing, and his is denied.

Thousands of VA employees complaining about their work load now, will be filling out resumes instead, as a $500 computer replaced them. This consolidation has been happening for decades and it is almost inevitable that it will also happen at the VA, whether we like it or not.

No, I dont like it that when I call about my new video card, the customer service rep is from China or India, and I cant understand them. But I got my video card for $14, and did not want to buy the one for $249 that had local service. So, soon the guy at the computer store who made $35 per hour explianing my new 14 dollar video card had his job outsourced to China where they pay em $2 per hour.

VA employees are best to not complain about the work load, but instead work diligently and giving more effort than required. When the conversion happens, they will keep only the very best and most well connected employees to stay. The others will be given pink slips.