Vaoig Says "rsvr's Are Confused"

[broncovet]

The VAOIG did a report on the St. Pete RO, and told us what most Vets already know. (Finding 5, Page 11)

"VARO staff did not properly address whether 22 (59 percent) of 37 Gulf War

veterans were entitled to receive treatment for mental disorders. These errors

occurred because VSC staff lacked understanding of VBA policy and

overlooked reminder notifications to consider entitlement to mental health

treatment. As a result, veterans may be unaware of their possible entitlement

to treatment for mental disorders and may not get the care they need.

Interviews with VSC management and staff confirmed RVSRs did not

always follow VBA policy to consider entitlement to mental health treatment

when they denied the Gulf War veterans service connection for mental

disorders. RVSRs stated the criteria regarding entitlement to mental health

treatment for Gulf War veterans was confusing and that it was easy to ignore

the reminder notification. VSC management stated they last had training on

this topic in December 2010."

http://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-11-04243-86.pdf

[Hoppy]

The VA has initiated claims on 'newly discharged" veterans for decades. That does not offset the numerous problems I had with a veterans claim in San Diego that involved "panic disorder" with agoraphobia. The RO ignored credible evidence, confused the issues and denied the claim by giving weight to diagnostic models that had been determined to be inaccurate and replaced decades ago. Of course the RO raters did not know that because the powers that be failed to train them on how to identify and deal with old diagnostic models. Other than that they did work rather rapidly. If it was not for a DRO who understood the issues I would still be fighting this slam dunk claim that was denied four times with the assistance of two useless if not adversarial service organizations prior to the DRO's decision.

The worst problem I had in San Diego was with doctors who were apathetic and wrote false reports. I had to get a specialist from the Long beach VA to write the reports that were cited by the DRO as containing full supporting logic when making the award for the veteran.

[donna68]

Wings,

Yes you are right and you are not confused. Infer is to invite and invite is to infer. Some staff use one term and other staff use the other term.

Hoppy,

Regarding the doctors, even though the motto is "One VA", VBA and VHA are not on the same page and there are many VA doctors that clearly are not pro-veteran, nor do they follow the work sheets or DBQ's. DeLuca is a big one that they fail to follow.