Houston Va

[Jeffro]

Hello fellow Veterans, i have a claim approaching 20 months anyone else having similar wait times or longer?

[Pete53]

Houston has a poor reputation even amongst other VA's. Its hard but I trust you are in the home stretch. My suggestion is to see if your VSO can help you get your claim worked. Those guys live in the VARO Office and drink coffee and know each other. Ask for help. Another route is to conisder a Writ of Mandamus or at least a threat that you are considering it.

[Teac]

@Teac..How long ago was it that you filed your claim? I sent an iris in Oct because of no movement on claim. I r'cd a call, then written response saying they would schedule my 2nd C&P. So far no complaints with Houston RO.

Dec 2008 1151 claim filed because va screwed up eye surgery, C/P was in Dec 2010. Claim decision dated Jan 2011, and has been on appeal since, and it still sits in Houston as I type this.

[#1Cavtrooper]

I spoke to my vet rep who is the DAV supv and he told me Houston RO was trying to clear out 30,000 claims by the end of this past Oct. Of course like Pete said, they are in the same bldg. Just hoping that has helped clear the way for us...

[71M10]

I would point out that comparing the timelines on an 1151 claim to that of an oridanary compensation claim is a bit like apples and oranges.

Please do not take that comment as meaning 1151 claims are less important but it is legally more complex.

Everytime I read a post on claims timelines, I can't help but think of those poor people in the gulf who on average were compensated by BP in 60 to 90 days. This happended because the governemnt forced it to happen. Often times with less paperwork than we have to produce. I can still vividly see the on-air interviews that were conducted and the outrage from the news outlets that 60 days had passed and this person hadn't been paid!

If only the same type of outrage from the news media could be displayed on behalf of veterans.

Best regards,

[MarkInTexas]

Have been with circulating inside the Houston VARO with an initial compensation claim for exactly 2 years and 6 months today. Still in Gathering Evidence stage, even after taking two C&P's back in June, 2012.

Tons of medical records provided, but no motion.

Houston's VARO may well be a black hole in the VA universe where everything is pulled in, but nothing comes out.

Good luck to all of you, and thanks for your service.

Mark

[Teac]

I would point out that comparing the timelines on an 1151 claim to that of an oridanary compensation claim is a bit like apples and oranges.

Please do not take that comment as meaning 1151 claims are less important but it is legally more complex.

Actually, 1151 claims are handled no differently than any other claim. It is an 1151 due to medical malpractice, this in itself has no affect how the claim is handled, in fact while they did agree the damage was due to the surgery, they did not award additional compensation because the max allowed was already in effect due to the cataract removal. The va argues the schedules do not allow more than the 30% already awarded. However my arguement is that I should not only receive a K award for intermittent loss of vision sometimes once a day and other times loss for three or four days, because the surgery caused pigmentary gloucoma, and the pressure is raising so high that I lose the sight. Evenually the pressure will complete the damage to the optical nerve and they will have to award for blindness. I think they are just trying to limit how much they pay ie; 10 years vrs 5 years.....