The Big Question Out There

[JHawks]

I know this is probably an insane question but here goes..............

Now that Nehmer claims have been being worked since 10/2010 and all the other "Priority" claims have helped bog things down, once a "Normal", run of the mill, one item claim reaches the "Decision Phase", what kind of a time frame are we looking at for completion?

My claim for just one item hit the "Decision Phase" on 1/20/11, 31 days ago. Is it real to expect them to complete it in the next week or two or are we looking at a much longer window?

I'm NOT complaining at all. I know the rules. Go fishing, get a hobby or have a beer and relax. Just curious what the recent track record has been for those whose claims have been in "Decision Phase" for a non-priority claim and how long it took to complete.

[jbasser]

Make an appointment at the RO to go see your claims folder. Check it for yourself.

J

[JHawks]

Nehmer has really bogged us down because we have had to dedicate a group of workers to do ONLY that, so you can imagine the the weight the rest of us have had to shoulder. But if you have only one issue, I am fairly certain it will be done soon. VA is panicking right now because of the pressure being put on it to produce and "break the back of the backlog" as Shinseki said....he wants VA to look uber busy, so they are cracking the whip now to push out 1 issue cases (at least in my office) There's a faily good chance you will hear something sooner than later.

Veldrina,

You brought up an interesting question in my mind here. I know that you know what you're talking about considering what you actually work claims every day. I am curious that you said there is a push to push out 1 issue cases right now. My question is how can a rater determine a file folder is for just one issue without spending the time to look through the file itself. Is there a system in place whereby a folder is marked or something so that a rater can quickly determine which ones are single item cases? That would make sense to me if they did something like that.

I'm just curious.

[JHawks]

Make an appointment at the RO to go see your claims folder. Check it for yourself.

J

Funny you should suggest that. In Atlanta the state provides a VSO that has an office at the RO and has access. I posed that question to her and she responded that my response was not included in my file. I found out by looking on Ebenefits. My claim went from development to decision phase on 1/20/11. The section where it tells you they are waiting on the response to the letter was closed on 1/20 and noted items not received. No documents that I submitted were listed. By then it was at the raters. I did fax the documents to the VSO in Atlanta per her request. I just hope they allowed her to give the documents to the rater instead of going back to development. She said she turned them in. However, that was a couple of days after 1/20 and I haven't seen the claim go back. So who knows. I will just sit back, relax and see what happens.

[john999]

JHawks

Are you suffering money pressue? That makes it harder to wait. Dealing with the VA is a career. It is a long term relationship if you want them to keep producing checks.

[JHawks]

JHawks

Are you suffering money pressue? That makes it harder to wait. Dealing with the VA is a career. It is a long term relationship if you want them to keep producing checks.

John999

No, not suffering money pressure (thank God for that). I've always had a curious nature I guess.

[Veldrina]

Our front office (aka veterans service manager & asst. mang) ran a list through one of the systems we have. MAPD is a program that tracks the development of claims & shows how many issues are being addressed. They use another program to pull all the ones that are a single issue, have ppl pull the files, then send them to the rating team. It's not infallible as a few of them are sequential end products (claim that came in after another was already in system) or an IU claim, which isn;t actually a single issue since we have to consider any s/c disabilities as increases. But we have had a cart full to pull work from, which has improved our production & thereby the office's. Not that it;s helping a bunch of us in the long run, since we've been under production thanks to a host of issues.

Veldrina,

You brought up an interesting question in my mind here. I know that you know what you're talking about considering what you actually work claims every day. I am curious that you said there is a push to push out 1 issue cases right now. My question is how can a rater determine a file folder is for just one issue without spending the time to look through the file itself. Is there a system in place whereby a folder is marked or something so that a rater can quickly determine which ones are single item cases? That would make sense to me if they did something like that.

I'm just curious.