Claim Transfer/la Earthquacke January 1994?

[SCAATY]

My first VA claim was filed in LA October 1993, but was transferred to Philly in 1994 because of the earthquacke. I was wondering if anyone else has had problems locating VA claims records because of the earthquacke? When my claim was transferred to Philly they either lost several important records from my VA doctors, or never bothered to get records, that I requested them to get, from civilian doctors. Seems like they did a real half-assed job in adjudicating my claim back then. I know the duty to assist was vurtually nonexistant back then, but still...

Just wondering

[Quint7]

My claim wasn't transferred, but my paper records from getting the Gulf Vet test done in July 1994 at the LA VA medical center are now stored in the Valley. They could only find a small part of the record (blood test baselines) 2 years ago and the hospital itself has no record of me being there for the test.

[broncovet]

Do you have evidence that the VA recieved your claim in 1994? A letter from the VA acknowledging the claim would be good, or any VA letter mentioning the claim. The reason this is important is that would make this a "pending" claim, of which there is a potential for BIG Retro. This means if you get the claim approved you could be looking at a large retro, with a 1994 effective date.

[Stretch]

This is what I did.

After requesting my civilian doctor records for the VA, with no sucess, I went after the records myself. This is kind of difficult because I live in AR., now, and my records were in Downey CA.

When you request records from the VA, they send request- - 1st 2nd then 3rd request- - with 30 days between each request. Usually they send the request to the wrong department and come up with no records.

If you get on the phone and call the records department of the hospital that you were treated at; locate the person who handles records; then ask for a copy of your records to be sent to the VA and yourself.

There was no charge when I did this. All you have to do is give them the VA address, and be very nice about it. You would be supprised how this works.

Anything that you can do yourself, well you had better do it yourself.

[SCAATY]

BRONCOVET

Claim was adjudicated and denied. I just think that when they transferred the claim to Philly some records were lost in the transfer.

STRETCH

I was hospitalized in Sepulveda in 1993. After that I started outpatient treatment at the Santa Barbara VAOPC, which is part of VA West LA. In 2004 I filed a second claim for benifits, and a SSDI claim. That is when I realized that these records had never been associated with my c-file. I spent hours on the phone with both West LA and Santa Barbara, but nobody can find the records. Still have the fax correspodence from those attempts. And yes, I was very nice, and they were very helpful.

My problem is this was the first time I was treated as an outpatient, and the first time I had a regular shrink. I remember being very specific with this doctor about my Navy days and SERE school, I don't remember discussing the MST with him though. I just find it really odd that they can't find those treatment records. I gave up on trying to find these records until I looked at my prescription history on myhealthevet which shows that I was prescribed medication from Santa Barbara. All my medications were changed as soon as I started going to Santa Barbara for treatment. Just seems a bit odd that of the over 18 years I have been going to the VA these are the only treatment records that are missing. Ya, I know, it shouldn't surprise me, but it does.

Anyway, I believe the VA committed CUE in the original 1993 claim and that is what I am working on. There are other CUE issuses witht that claim, but if I could locate those records I think it would prove my case.

[Stretch]

2004,I went to the West La VA., right up the hill from the freeway. My psych was Dr. Heart. Dr. Heart (2nd floor) was very good. The hospital was pretty good, but I know that everyone else in the psych dept. were hurried and seemed not to care about much about anything. The social workers were not good, but the gal downstairs doing evaluations was pretty dedicated. Seems to me like that place was more for payouts of homeless people. Ever notice the cars on the street in front of the Psych Dept.?

That place is a mixed up mess.

I had the doctor write out his evaluation and give me a copy before I left each time. I just suspected that I would not ever get a copy of these medical records. You might have to make a personal visit to try to get the records. This can take hours of waiting with this clinic, but it may be worth the effort.

Please try to get these records yourself. Good luck.