Va Regional Office , Double Talking

ammodad · July 27, 2006

hello brothers and sisters , in arms

i am here once again to say the fight goes on ,

what does it mean when they tell you we have proof of your illness in your service records but we show no record of you being treated for this illness out side of service .

ok now you and i know what this means , specially when the only doctor you have seen sence being active is the va regional doctor and all of your medical records come from that one place , and you have several hundred pages of them treating you for the mystrious illness that they cant seem to find .

is it truely the fact that they are overwhelmed or are they just that , i got fed up with the we cant find in your medical records any proof of you being treated for this illness , so what i did was went to the release of information office where all records are there for you to get and i copied all the records pertaining to the illness they so called couldnt find and i , reopened the claim once again with there own statement as fuel against them , now they make it clear on the third page of the denial form reason as to why they couldnt approve my claim is that although they found proof of a illness in service they couldnt show where i was treated out of service and that if i could provide proof of treatent out side of service they would approve my claim . i sent all the records of my being treated for this illness along with the page from the denial letter whith their reason for denying me , to my congressman . he sent me a letter which was really heated in repsonce , i dont have to tell you how angry he was i nearly burned his fax machine sending the records via the fax machine and after reading the reason they gave for denying me . he opened a big can of

whats wrong with you guys on them . i called them to check the status of my claim and they tell me they cant say its under congressional investigation . now they cant say that they never recieved the records from me because i sent them the very same copy i sent to the congressman and i highlighted each page with yellow high lighter along with adjoining pages of meds for same illnesses and made it know that i had contacted him where do you guys think this will end . i figured this would be good reading as to what they would do or say next . i am awaiting their response .

the congressman sent me a reponse letter telling me he was happy to be of service and that he couldnt believe what he had seen and read and that they had decided the way they had but that he would be following the progress of my claim and watching them .

still fighting the lung disease and i am still here every day is a new day and jesus is where i look for the ability to get up in the morning , i will continue to fight until i cant do so any longer they train us to stand fast and bring the fight if nessasary , we wouldnt back down then, why would we do so now .

i was told by a vet freind of mine they look for us to die out before anything can be done or if they deny you enough you will have died before you could have really made a differance .

i dont think so even if i dont get approved , i will go smiling knowing i took it to them and they will be tired of looking at my name on appeals and reopened claims .

Edited July 27, 2006 by ammodad

Testvet · July 27, 2006

it means now the fun and games really start, have they scheduled you for a C&P exam yet? Then it will have to be reveiwed of course, and hopefully it won't be sent to the wrong office to catch dust, and oh yea every letter or contact with your congressman gives them another 60 days to send your file to the "congressional reply office" whatever that is, yea I went down that road, two years ago my claim was finally approved in April 2006. I hope you have better luck than I did, you can next expect to get low balled and have to appeal it again. You just think the fun and games are over, they have really just begun.

Vike17 · July 27, 2006

Ammodad,

"what does it mean when they tell you we have proof of your illness in your service records but we show no record of you being treated for this illness out side of service ...ok now you and i know what this means , specially when the only doctor you have seen sence being active is the va regional doctor and all of your medical records come from that one place , and you have several hundred pages of them treating you for the mystrious illness that they cant seem to find"

It means that the VA is aware of your inservice injury (probably through your SMR's), but they don't have any records of continuity of treatment from time of discharge. Just because you were treated at the VAMC does not mean the regional office has those records! The VARO and the VAMC are two different entities within the VA and don't regularily communicate with one another. Only in the case of setting up C&P exams and when a servcice-connected veteran is hospitalized due to the their service-connceted disabilities does the two talk with one another! Under the "Duty to Assist," just tell the VA which VAMC you treated at and the dates, and they will obtain those records for you!

"is it truely the fact that they are overwhelmed or are they just that , i got fed up with the we cant find in your medical records any proof of you being treated for this illness"

Some regional offices are overwhelmed with enormous backlog, but that has nothing to do with them not being able to locate records!

"so what i did was went to the release of information office where all records are there for you to get and i copied all the records pertaining to the illness they so called couldnt find and i , reopened the claim once again with there own statement as fuel against them"

After you obtained those VAMC records and sent them to the RO, did you receive another "Duty to Assist" letter stating that your claim had been re-opened?

"now they make it clear on the third page of the denial form reason as to why they couldnt approve my claim is that although they found proof of a illness in service they couldnt show where i was treated out of service and that if i could provide proof of treatent out side of service they would approve my claim"

Did you then receive a denial after that stating your treatment records from VAMC was not "New and Material," or are you still talking about the first denial? Does your treatment records show a "chronic" condition? One or two treatments over a period of a number of years probably wont cut it according to the current law. If this is the case, you may need a IMO to connect everything!

"i sent all the records of my being treated for this illness along with the page from the denial letter whith their reason for denying me , to my congressman . he sent me a letter which was really heated in repsonce , i dont have to tell you how angry he was i nearly burned his fax machine sending the records via the fax machine and after reading the reason they gave for denying me . he opened a big can of

whats wrong with you guys on them"

I think it's a little premature to get you congress critter involved. At least until it's clear whether or not the VA denied your claim a second time after receiving the treatment records from the VAMC, after you re-opened the claim. If the VA did deny the re-opened claim after they received the treatment records from VAMC, a simple NOD would be sufficient. That probably would not have taken as long as getting your Congress person involved.

"still fighting the lung disease and i am still here every day is a new day and jesus is where i look for the ability to get up in the morning , i will continue to fight until i cant do so any longer they train us to stand fast and bring the fight if nessasary , we wouldnt back down then, why would we do so now ... i was told by a vet freind of mine they look for us to die out before anything can be done or if they deny you enough you will have died before you could have really made a differance"

Lung disease? what kind of disease? Do you mean cancer? Are you a Vietnam veteran? If so, the VA will service-connect this a being presumed as incurred while in Vietnam because od AO exposure. Your vet friend is way off base when he/she said they wait for veterans to die so they don't have to award claims! The reason why it takes so long is due to the enormous backlog the VA has. I think according the morning reports, the VA has over 600,000 claims in the pipeline! You put this together with all of the steps in processing the claim (according to the law), getting evidence, the wait peroids set forth by the Court ect... it's no wonder a claim can take so long.

Vike 17

Edited July 27, 2006 by Vike17

Hoppy · July 27, 2006

AMMODAD,

It sounds to me like they do not understand the specific diagnoses. The fact that you were prescribed the same meds in service as you were post service is good but you need stronger evidence.

You need to get a doctor to review both the inservice reports and the post service reports and write a letter that the are either the same disease or related and that they are more likely than not the result of serving in the armed forces.

The RO does not listen to your assesment that they are the same. You have to get a doctor to make the assesment. They are supposed to schedule a C&P if you have a post service diagnosis. Get a post service diagnosis. You might need to get a C&P or IMO to write up a resolution of disputed diagnoses.

They did the same thing to me and it took seven years to get it straightened out. My claim was before 2000 and they refused to schedule a C&P. I was treated in service for a disease called "allergic edema". Post service I was treated for a disease called "angioedema". Both diseases had the same symptoms and the same meds. It affects my lungs along with many other symptoms. They wouild not listen to me or any literature I sent them. Eventually, I had to gat a doctor to review the SMR and a stack of post service reports and write a report that they were the same disease. The doctors report based on that review of the medical records led to service connection. My claim was a slam dunk that took seven years to resolve.

The frusatration that I experienced was quite extream. I used to write rants in middle of the night and post them to hadit. Find a way to vent the frustrastion get good medical evidence and jam it down their throat.