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Disability Claim Since Nov 10, 2010 And Call From Va Satellite Office

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ABH1

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Hi Folks,

Need some assistance from the many vets here:)

Here is the original posting:

Update my fellow vets:

Still waiting for RO in Oakland to complete the "review of evidence" per the ebenefits website. Since then, have been to the VA hospital for treatment 8 more times. I asked my VSO if I should send in additional evidence for my SC eczema but he says they will automatically investigate. Is this true???

Question I have: Been receiving corticosteroid intralesional injections under my skin in my hands since December of last year. Does this constitute "systemic" therapy for VA standards? Received injections once per month with "kenalog 10", a corticosteroid. Currently rated at 10% for eczema of the hands and stuff is much worse. Sent in request for increase on 11/2010

I noticed on the ebenefits website that the last evidence received was fro 4-2012 and have sent much more via my VSO. Should it show everything after 2 months?

Do you recommend me stepping over my VSO and go direct to regional office and request my "C" file copy? Maybe adding in manually all the latest data from the VA local hospitals?

Here is what the ebenefits website mentions below:

The ebenefits website displays in the header:

Claim Received: 11/10/2010

Claim Type: Compensation

Original Estimated Claim Completion Date: 12/13/2011 to 07/03/2012 Your claim is being processed by the Regional Office. We generally process claims in the order received. We recognize that your claim has exceeded the projected completion date and remain committed to completing our review as quickly and accurately as possible. Thank you for your patience.

Any help is always appreciated:)

Respectfully,

Danny

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I noticed on the ebenefits website that the last evidence received was fro 4-2012 and have sent much more via my VSO. Should it show everything after 2 months?

If I was in your situation at this point, I would send my evidence to the VSO AND the regional office; it should not take this long for the VSO to get your documents to the VA, just my opinion.

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05/09claim and Why bother to tell vets "average time for claim is xxx days but yours is over the limit. Give me a break, most of them are well over the recommendated days. Vet received same bs notification on ebenefits site, BTW vet does send all info to VSO @ VARO and faxes to VARO...so he waits and waits...system is so flawed.

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I asked my VSO if I should send in additional evidence for my SC eczema but he says they will automatically investigate. Is this true???

Just my opinion but I prefer not to "assume" that VA will automatically investigate anything as you only need to look at some of the post by veterans here that believed the VA would do the "right thing". I'm also of the opinion that WE are the best advocates for our claims and should be proactive with our claims. I sent updated information into VA myself (return signature/receipt requested). I was told by one of the elders here that it was her opinion not to continuously do this because it might set you claim back in the process BUT if you truly believe the current info that you have would be pertinent as far as the rating goes ...then send it in but don't do it to often. I sent the information in and it set the claim back to Gathering of Evidence from Review of Evidence but only for 2 weeks...then it moved back to Review of Evidence. I think Carlie was right - you have to weigh the evidence you have and understand that it just might set your claim back in the process.

noticed on the ebenefits website that the last evidence received was fro 4-2012 and have sent much more via my VSO. Should it show everything after 2 months?

Ebenefits can be right or wrong - updated or not updated. Personally I have found that the ONLY thing that has been updated correctly is "the information we have received" section. My VARO (Winston-Salem NC) has been pretty fast in updating this section - usually about a week or two from when I send the information it shows on ebenefits. Each VARO is different from my understanding in regards to how fast they update. I always request a receipt/signature when I send things by mail to prove that it was sent/received - my VARO is about 7 hours away so it's a little rough for me to go there. I would at the least make an inquiry if they did not show they are in receipt of info I sent two months ago.

Do you recommend me stepping over my VSO and go direct to regional office and request my "C" file copy?

It appears there are two trains of thought in regards to requesting ones C file copy while the claim is being processed. Some state to wait until the claim has been decided because requesting a copy of C file will take it out of its present location on someone's desk ...where it will be sent to another department to make copies......then hopefully it will be returned to the desk it came from (hopefully with none of your files lost) but who knows where on the desk (bottom of the pile) it will eventually end up. Other comments that I have read state that if you are in disagreement of the rating upon completion and intend to file a NOD - having the C file already in possession is a good asset. So they chose to send for it before completion. Seems everything revolves around whether your willing to go back in the claims completion process and weighing the pro's and con's.

Edited by USMC5811
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I asked my VSO if I should send in additional evidence for my SC eczema but he says they will automatically investigate. Is this true???

Just my opinion but I prefer not to "assume" that VA will automatically investigate anything as you only need to look at some of the post by veterans here that believed the VA would do the "right thing". I'm also of the opinion that WE are the best advocates for our claims and should be proactive with our claims. I sent updated information into VA myself (return signature/receipt requested). I was told by one of the elders here that it was her opinion not to continuously do this because it might set you claim back in the process BUT if you truly believe the current info that you have would be pertinent as far as the rating goes ...then send it in but don't do it to often. I sent the information in and it set the claim back to Gathering of Evidence from Review of Evidence but only for 2 weeks...then it moved back to Review of Evidence. I think Carlie was right - you have to weigh the evidence you have and understand that it just might set your claim back in the process.

noticed on the ebenefits website that the last evidence received was fro 4-2012 and have sent much more via my VSO. Should it show everything after 2 months?

Ebenefits can be right or wrong - updated or not updated. Personally I have found that the ONLY thing that has been updated correctly is "the information we have received" section. My VARO (Winston-Salem NC) has been pretty fast in updating this section - usually about a week or two from when I send the information it shows on ebenefits. Each VARO is different from my understanding in regards to how fast they update. I always request a receipt/signature when I send things by mail to prove that it was sent/received - my VARO is about 7 hours away so it's a little rough for me to go there. I would at the least make an inquiry if they did not show they are in receipt of info I sent two months ago.

Do you recommend me stepping over my VSO and go direct to regional office and request my "C" file copy?

It appears there are two trains of thought in regards to requesting ones C file copy while the claim is being processed. Some state to wait until the claim has been decided because requesting a copy of C file will take it out of its present location on someone's desk ...where it will be sent to another department to make copies......then hopefully it will be returned to the desk it came from (hopefully with none of your files lost) but who knows where on the desk (bottom of the pile) it will eventually end up. Other comments that I have read state that if you are in disagreement of the rating upon completion and intend to file a NOD - having the C file already in possession is a good asset. So they chose to send for it before completion. Seems everything revolves around whether your willing to go back in the claims completion process and weighing the pro's and con's.

Thank you so much for the recommendations!

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Update:

Still waiting for VA Regional in Oakland, Cali to finish "review of evidence', only been three months:) it was in "prep for decision for three months before that but then I heard that Oakland Regional office was shut down for 6 weeks for "re-training" of it's raters.

So far my initial claim is over 2 years and waiting. My VS rep has no power to assist.

Funny thing happened yesterday.... I work for BMW North America in SF bay area.

I get an email that this person ( won't say her name ) who is interested in a BMW convertible in the 23k range.

I see that her email is a "VA.GOV" email account.

So i email and call her direct, left her message. Her number is located in Sacramento area. Come to find out it is the "satellite VA office" in Sacramento.

She calls me back and we are talking BMW stuff. I ask her what she does for the VA. She says she is a something specialist, not sure exact term she used? So I say, "are you a rater? She says, how did you know that? Told her I have a VA claim in the system since Nov 2010? She says she is sorry.. Tells me about the re-training for 6 weeks was due to the error rate at the Oakland RO was too high n many Vet claims. She says that she is being paid "overtime" since re-training and that the airforce and something else are being released soon and the job will get much more backlogged.

She tells me that my file is most likely sitting on her desk.....somewhere...

We proceed to discuss more BMW.... ( I think she realizes that she is speaking with me while she is supposed to be working on VA claims...) She wants to get off the phone now.

So I ask her, "would you mind telling me where my claim is located"? She asks for my last two digits of my SSN. I guess this tells of location??? Tells me that it is located their at her office....

After some thought after our discussion. Was she on break? I sent her an email direct and she said she was looking at her computer. So she was at her desk.

Was she getting paid overtime to search for BMW cars? Was she on break? This conversation was at 1:36pm in the afternoon by the way.

This bothered me a bit... Not because my claim was sitting at her location for over 760 days not completed but rather, the cavaleer approach of the errors that were made by the Oakland regional office. There was no sense of urgency or want to help the vet with a claim.

Am I reading this all wrong? If I am, please let me know.

I tell my wife this incident and she goes nuts over it and tells me that I should have asked for special favor.... I don't feel comfortable and happy to wait my turn as many vets have been waiting a long time as well.

Thanks for letting me vent that out.

Respectfully,

Danny

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Update:

Still waiting for VA Regional in Oakland, Cali to finish "review of evidence', only been three months:) it was in "prep for decision for three months before that but then I heard that Oakland Regional office was shut down for 6 weeks for "re-training" of it's raters.

So far my initial claim is over 2 years and waiting. My VS rep has no power to assist.

Funny thing happened yesterday.... I work for BMW North America in SF bay area.

I get an email that this person ( won't say her name ) who is interested in a BMW convertible in the 23k range.

I see that her email is a "VA.GOV" email account.

So i email and call her direct, left her message. Her number is located in Sacramento area. Come to find out it is the "satellite VA office" in Sacramento.

She calls me back and we are talking BMW stuff. I ask her what she does for the VA. She says she is a something specialist, not sure exact term she used? So I say, "are you a rater? She says, how did you know that? Told her I have a VA claim in the system since Nov 2010? She says she is sorry.. Tells me about the re-training for 6 weeks was due to the error rate at the Oakland RO was too high n many Vet claims. She says that she is being paid "overtime" since re-training and that the airforce and something else are being released soon and the job will get much more backlogged.

She tells me that my file is most likely sitting on her desk.....somewhere...

We proceed to discuss more BMW.... ( I think she realizes that she is speaking with me while she is supposed to be working on VA claims...) She wants to get off the phone now.

So I ask her, "would you mind telling me where my claim is located"? She asks for my last two digits of my SSN. I guess this tells of location??? Tells me that it is located their at her office....

After some thought after our discussion. Was she on break? I sent her an email direct and she said she was looking at her computer. So she was at her desk.

Was she getting paid overtime to search for BMW cars? Was she on break? This conversation was at 1:36pm in the afternoon by the way.

This bothered me a bit... Not because my claim was sitting at her location for over 760 days not completed but rather, the cavaleer approach of the errors that were made by the Oakland regional office. There was no sense of urgency or want to help the vet with a claim.

Am I reading this all wrong? If I am, please let me know.

I tell my wife this incident and she goes nuts over it and tells me that I should have asked for special favor.... I don't feel comfortable and happy to wait my turn as many vets have been waiting a long time as well.

Thanks for letting me vent that out.

Respectfully,

Danny

Must be nice to shop for a BMW of all things at work on the taxpayers dime. Must be all that overtime money making up for her messing around on normal time which she should be working on claims. Not to mention to think she can afford a vehicle like that on a raters salary in California.

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