ptsd Very Depressed, And Was Wondering If There Is A Time To Throw In The Towel.

[Papa]

I have been waiting for over 820 days for a claim that is still in gathering evidence. Appeals that no one knows about. P&C exams that I'm suppose to take, but the VA and QTC have no clue about this. The 1-800# were you make an appointment for them to call you back, but they do not. You can not get your Law Firm to call you back. My Parkinson's, DMII, PN, PTSD, etc. are taking its toll on me, and was wondering if there? What the crap am I talking about? Quit? My ass!! Never Never Never!! Just want to choke someone at the Houston RO.

Papa

[autumn]

[...]

I hate to say this again but I started out in the claims process dealing with a vastly different VA.

These days the only way for many claimants to succeed is,unfortunately, with a strong and possibly costly IMO,from a real doctor, who will take the time to give all of the medical records, and SMRS if needed, a thorough and concise review.

You already paid the VA many times over to get proper and concise C & P exams because of your service.

But the VA has forced many of you to pay for IMOs too.

There is something Wrong with that picture -when a piss poor C&P exam is done by someone who might not even be an MD or have any expertise in the field of your disability,

yet was hired and paid by the very system your service has put into existence- the Veterans Administration.

Veterans have got to start taking some real action with the H and S VAC and their Subcommittees on Memorial and Disability .

With enough proof of incompetent C & P exams, ( eventual SC awards prove how incompetent those examiners were)maybe the VA could perhaps even be forced to even pay for IMOs.( I sure dont expect to live long enough to see that happen-then again I never dreamed VA would SC IHD to AO)

It helps to take one's focus off their VA claim as they wait for a decision.

[...]

as far as "taking some real action...", i just don't know where or what more veterans can do, young and old.

Gordon Erspamer, the attorney for the veterans rights group, in this case:

http://www.stripes.com/news/veterans/federal-court-reverses-order-to-overhaul-va-treatment-system-1.176603

said it as best as one could as far as calling/writing/ Congress about this.

Nothing has changed. now the Congressman's office i deal with, their vet advocate, tells me how understaffed the VA is, how the VA wants to do the right thing, that now due to the economy veterans are coming out of the woodwork filing claims, the two new wars are winding down, he'd prefer to give faster treatment to combat veterans as priority versus i guess someone like me that was on active duty when there wasn't a war to get ordered to, they are under budget, this state cant attract good doctors, etc etc.

i honestly think it is way past time to just write a note or call congress. correct me if i am wrong? its more time to "occupy" or whatever one does when writing Congress for years by thousands of veterans does nothing and the situation seems to get worse.

like you mention about many of of veterans that have to get outside medical diagnosis and/or medical opinions because no medical doctor at the VA will diagnosis correctly -- and why not ?? -- i can only think it is to deny rightful compensation and deny any wrong doing from earlier mis-diagnosis. correct me if i am wrong? some of us have had to spend thousands of our own savings just to get a correct diagnosis and even then have VA doctors ignore it. there is ZERO accountability at VA and VARO, ZERO.

how many CSPAN segments, youtube, websites, national media, local media have been done on this issue? many, many many. what changed? take a look at this website and vawatchdog.org and draw your own conclusions as far as what has changed.

maybe veterans that are working should have a national peaceful strike day to draw attention to the country about this issue. not just claims, but the shoddy C&P's we've all had and have to wait another year or so for the "real" C&P, the tens of thousands of letters sent to VA and Congress that do nothing as far as real results. we get the typical response like i mention above. show the world most veterans are not a bunch of whiners just wanting something for nothing.

my head is hurting now, so i stop. but i really hope veterans can find a way to bring notice to this deplorable situation. it has gone on for years, years.

if Congress and VA has really listened and really done anything about it we wouldn't be having this conversation.

[Berta]

Papa said:

"Sometimes I think dealing with the VA is worse then being in combat."

It IS combat.

Papa when I applied for my DEA Chap 35 to go to a military school- there was some area on the VA app as to why I chose this school or my future plans- forget what- and I replied to the affect that as a volunteer veteran's advocate and VA claimant, I have considered the claims process to be a battlefield , (a war of the words) so since I was a civilian, I wanted to study what combat entails.

I can assure you my education at AMU gave me an entire new take on advancing claims.

I developed War plans for every claim I had , and planned my attacks to denials with evidence and with the strong determination I would win.

Evidence is everything and in order to get my legal evidence read (particularly after my 2003 claim was awarded but they wouldnt cough up the cash,and after my December 2011 fiasco with Nehmer awarded in mere weeks after I took the bull by the horns with them), I learned how to ,in essense, kick some legal ass with the VA., by fax or by phone.

Sometimes we .as claimants, have to be aggressive in our approach to VA.I sure don't mean calling the 800# or going into a VARO and raising cane-

I mean to state our claims and any rebuttals we make to denials with confidence in our evidence and be able to tell them exactly why their decision is wrong. Use the regs in the rebuttals, as the regs control us but the regs control the VA too.

I dont mince words in my claims and never mention my frustration with them or my anger over my husband's wrongful death

So I don't mean approaching the VA in an angry way,but in a way,on paper, to let them know that you certainly intend to fight back until you succeed.

I actually don't see why vet reps do not ask VA to CUE themselves more often.

That only works in a few situations,where VA has committed a CUE right from the git go while a claim is still pending.

Then again that maneuver tactic might apply to more claims than we think!

I went over my files one day and found I used this tactic at least 4 times, to get a very fast resolve of some VA BS during pending claims. Once even in 1995 when I didnt really know what a CUE was let alone expect VA to reverse on my letter to them. They did in mere weeks.

Most recently this past December I used this tactic successfuly because the decision I got was ridiculous and legally absolutely wrong..

This is why vets need better reps out there.

For example a VCAA violation if not caught and questioned right away with the VA, is going to add years to the claim, if the claim is denied, sent to the BVA and then remanded back to the RO to correct the VCAA deficiency.

I wrote to and spoke directly to Congressman Filner many times on this problem when he was Chair of the H VAC and I wanted him to support an amendment to the VCAA that would help insure this wouldn't occur as a few years ago BVA was remanding claims all the time for VCAA violations for a re do of what the RO didnt do right the first time.

Years had passed and due to the VCAA violation the claim had not advanced at all.

I griped to other entities too in DC years ago and nothing was formally done about it.

But these types of remands HAVE dropped in volume considerably and I think vets helped that occur by questioning

insufficient VCAA letters themselves.with their ROs or maybe their reps did.

Maybe I shouldn't have said the claims process IS combat - instead maybe I should say the VA claims process has almost become psychological warfare.

You men and women deserve so much better from VA than what you are getting and George Washington

due to his famous quote on veterans, as well as Lincoln ,whose words are the mission motto of the VA ,must be both rolling over in their graves.

Edited May 16, 2012 by Berta

[john999]

If not for IMO's I would be stuck at 30%. Because I had been in psychotherapy for a long time I had met many doctors who steered me in the right direction. However, just by asking for more testing and appealing I got my heart condition increased from 0% to 60%. This was all done at the VA using their resources. Using this I got "S". This was due to BOD. I just collected more evidence than that crappy C&P exam and appealed. The IMO is the most important tool for vets. I did not pay that much for mine. I doubt I paid 300 bucks but I got them from MD's who knew how to write a report.

John

[SP4RVN1971]

Thanks everyone for your responses. Berta, you are so correct, Time, is what is hurting most of us older Veterans. In my case, my memory is not whay it use to be. I will not quit, just get so tired. I thought by hiring a top law firm would help, but so far it has not. Sometimes I think dealing with the VA is worse then being in combat. JMHO

Papa

AHH ... Remember those days in Vietnam, in the line for the mess hall. You stand in line and wait,wait, and it so long and you are about to lose it and you final get to the food line and all the food is gone.

Then you just eat bread & butter and milk or C-ration!

[autumn]

Maybe I shouldn't have said the claims process IS combat - instead maybe I should say the VA claims process has almost become psychological warfare.

You men and women deserve so much better from VA than what you are getting and George Washington

due to his famous quote on veterans, as well as Lincoln ,whose words are the mission motto of the VA ,must be both rolling over in their graves.

your posts are always so informative and insightful, we all appreciate that.

it is indeed psychological warfare, no question. and the VA has how many legal depts across the country doing one thing, "how to beat the veteran", and they inform the local VA medical personnel in indirect ways on how to conduct their business.

most of all the good helpful PCP at our local VA opted not to return when their contract ran out. i mean these doctors really were helpful and time giving. the ones that stayed have told me how they were promised this and that only to find out once they started that wasn't true. were they telling me the truth or just humoring me? i have no way of knowing.

i mention this to go along with Berta's "psych-ops" statement. many of us have hired lawyers only to see many of us end up doing most of the work, and see we could just have easily sent in pertinent letters with correct wording. they get 25% and for what? i wouldn't be so jaded about that if i honestly saw them 'fight' the VA and actually get things moving along. in my cases i never saw that. and VSO's have left me in the fallen cracks. i had to file a complaint to VSO National headquarters just to get something normal moving along. you honestly think they will address the issues? i doubt it. they are well versed in the art of humoring me.

i have every intention of having a lawyer write the forthcoming complaint. this "psych-op warfare" you mention seems to be fought with legal expertise. and as you mention, what a crying shame it has to come to that when we veterans aren't skilled in the are of legal warfare nor did we commit a crime, civil or otherwise.

so, with such a formidable legal dept backed by Lord knows what else in Washington, we the lil ol veteran, can do what, in reality that will move a mountain?

i can't speak or verbally express myself as well as i could some years back -- though no one at VA listened -- i've never actually seen a change due to any letters i've written. changes for veterans in general, not just me. i'm on a team here, it isn't just about me. what a lonely place that is up against the VA, to be alone. been there. we all have to stick together.

i for one appreciate this website and vawatchdog.ord for keeping me educated. i'd given up long ago thinking it was all me and my mistake for whatever, as the VA tried for years to get me to think. either that or they are terribly incompetent.

build another website as a veterans weapon against the VA. there has to be something that can be built, that can go viral, and wake up Washington. they love their votes don't they?

writing letters to Congress is old technology and old news

[#1Cavtrooper]

Papa, Check your PM. Thnx