Provisional Claim Closed

[Alishape]

I am writing because I finally got my big brown envelope and I have some new info regarding the process. My claim was closed and I was given a provisional rating under the new initiative to close older claims. Several of my contentions were denied, but the letter said I could submit new evidence for a year before the rating decision became permanent. I had some info, but wasn't sure where to send it because according to ebenefits the claim was closed, leaving me with no electronic submission option. Plus the claim said to send the info to the address at the top of the letter. That's cool and everything except for two things. First, ebenefits also states that my claim is on the way to the scanning center and second, my claim was fast tracked at a different RO than my original RO. The address at the top of the letter was not the same as the one on the envelope. Of course being a good ex-sailor I followed the directions on the letter.

I felt a little shakey about the whole thing so I called Peggy. Peggy said that he was going to put in a request to have my claim reopened. That means no lengthy appeals process, and access to electronic document submission if it gets reopened. He also suggested I fill out a VA form 21-4138 statement in support of claim to send in with the documents. I'll keep you all posted on how it goes, but so far I'm feeling pretty optimistic. I wanted to share because I know I had been looking for some info about this new initiative and others will be too. More later...

[Alishape]

Anybody seen any movement since the original fast tracked letter went out?

[cham1968]

Anybody seen any movement since the original fast tracked letter went out?

I did C&Ps last month and on the 12 of July my claim moved on Ebenies to Preparation of Decision. That's about all I got so far. It's going to get interesting I guess. Any more with you?

[harleyman]

ALISHAPE -Posted 12 June 2013 - 07:19 AM

Here with an update. I mailed some info for the denied contentions to my RO in Baltimore. I also faxed that same info to the RO in Hartford that had temporary jurisdication of the claim when it was closed. I did this at peggy's suggestion, and I hope I didn't complicate things unessecarily. Anyways, they received the packet on the 22nd of last month according to certified mail receipt. On the 6th of this month ebennies posted that they'd received it. When I checked the status this morning, the original claims still has a closed status, but there is a new claim with tthe original claim date. The status of that one says administrative review. So as far as timelines go, I got my fast tracked provisional rating on the 13th of May and one month later after submitting more info, (actually the original info that was in my smrs), I'm back under administrative review. Hopefully a real person is actually reviewing it.

Reply- A perspective from the way my RO handles this is as follows:

If a Veteran receives a rating decision from a Regional Office other than their "usual" home Regional Office of Jurisdiction (ROJ), it usually means your file met the criteria to be "brokered out" to a Regional Office that is not as busy. They have established teams to handle the brokered work, and brokered cases are usually worked as a priority.

Once the Rating Decision is made by the Brokered office, and authorized, and the notification letter is sent out, your file is returned to your ROJ. Your file can also be brokered based on the type of claim, i.e. St. Paul does Pension claims, Muskogee does Education, etc. So your file could be sent to another RO for processing based on issues.

If your file is brokered out for a decision, it can also be returned to the ROJ. The file was sent for a decision, but the office handling the Brokered file, found that it wasn't ready and it needs more development. So they send the file back telling the VSRs what additional development needs to be done before it can be rated. Things definitely fall through the cracks, and files often need to be re-worked.

I would always send in any evidence in support of your claim to your home ROJ. Mail is held in a special holding area (called diary mail), waiting the return of your file. We your file is return the mail is attached and the mail and file are sent to the team for processing. Sometimes a temporary file is made while your claims file is brokered out, or if it has been sent to BVA. Your home RO can call your file back at any time. If mail comes into the Brokered RO they will just forward your mail on to your ROJ.- Hope this explains the process a bit.

[cham1968]

Harleyman, WOW that was a mouth full and it would seem to be a lot of lost paper LOL. Thanks for the information.

God Bless!

[cham1968]

[cham1968]

Anybody seen any movement since the original fast tracked letter went out?

My claim is complete. But similar to yours I had quite a few 0% and some unbelievable non-connects. Also some that any 8yr old would see as SC'd but not the VA LOL. Still awaiting the BBE(big brown env) so I'll keep you posted as well. Your a few months ahead of me so I'll be watching to see how your timeline goes. Also, did they give you reasoning for not connecting other issues or was it just a blanket statement? How much information did they give you about what medical information they had when they denied SC.

God Bless Good luck