Dva Private Internet

[GuaymasJim]

Has anyone ever been able to access information on DVA's private internet?

Here is an example:

http://vaww1.va.gov/CBO/appeals.asp

DVA policies on their various directives are found there, but there does not seem be be a way to access it. I know my way around a computer and the internet, but nothing I've tried has worked.

I am especially interested in the example above. I am attempting to file and administrative healthcare denial straight to the BVA, but am not getting the VAMC to give me a written signed denial on which I can file a NOD.

Any thoughts or ideas"

[Philip Rogers]

The link didn't work for me.

pr

[Berta]

The VA can deny health care if this form is not properly filled out, or the information isnt properly stated in it . It is in Section II:

Section II - Insurance Information: Include information for all health insurance companies that ... if required to do so, will result in denial of VA health care enrollment. ... Section VI - Previous Calendar Year Gross Annual Income of Veteran, ...

http://www.va.gov/VAForms/medical/pdf/vha-10-10ezr-fill.pdf

In other cases the Office of the Inspector General VA ,upon contact from the veteran, will intervene in any denial of what they determine to be a Patient Safety Issue.

We had a vet here that OIG helped right away in that regard.

I didn't find his initial; post.

:

“I am attempting to file and administrative healthcare denial straight to the BVA, but am not getting the VAMC to give me a written signed denial on which I can file a NOD.”

What documented evidence do you have that shows you have been denied healthcare?

I think this would be a matter for the VHA to resolve, and not the BVA.Then again we dont know why they denied the healthcare?

Here are the IG's state by state investigation numbers:

http://www.va.gov/oig/about/investigations-contact-list.asp

I have always faxed or emailed the IG in the past regarding various issues ,but today their email site says this:

Contact the OIG Hotline

The VA OIG Hotline is not currently processing complaints due to a lapse in appropriations for the VA OIG. We will resume normal operations when funding is restored.

Thank you for your interest in the Department of Veterans Affairs.

• Hotline Complaint Form

Other Contact Resources

E-Mail: vaoighotline@va.gov

FAX: (202) 495-5861

Mail:
VA Inspector General Hotline (53E)
810 Vermont Ave., NW
WASHINGTON, DC 20420

[Berta]

PS, I think I should add......if a veteran is improperly denied VA health care, and that denial leads to a Section 1151 issue,

the 'denial' of health care then becomes an "omission of an act", under Section 1151, 38 USC.

'Omission of an act' means the VA failed (omitted) to do the proper steps medically that led to a veteran getting an additional disability or dying.

Personal example:

Husband (combat SC vet and VA employee) is rushed to the Bath ER while on his job because he had collapsed.

EKG the same day revealed abnormal heart patterns and stated right on top possible or probable ischemic event.

The ER diagnosed him with sinus infection ,sent him home for 3 days, and 'omitted' reading the EKG or treating him with any follow up care ,even though the Med Certificate called for that to be done to "R/O CAD". The VA never followed up on the ER certificate and the EKG until 6 years later and then tried to cover up the earlier incident because I had questioned the doctors about it, not knowing at that time what the ER cert had said.

That ER certificate was my prime piece of initial evidence for my FTCA/1151 claims.

One could say he had received a 'denial' of medical care but that was not really the issue.....the VA did 'treat' him on that day and subsequently until he died for the next 6 years.

but their treatment 'omitted" acts that would have medically saved his life, which is often the main basis of many successful 1151 claims resulting from misdiagnosis.

[Berta]

One more PS on this....it sure gives me flashbacks because Monday is the anniversary of my husband's death....19 years ago.....

When I got smart and got his med recs, and filed under FTCA/1151, I did plenty of research....not easy at all in those days, at the local county law library and at Corning College library.

I found something after sending many days looking through files of VA internal documents.

What I found was that in the VA doctor's M21 , the doctors were supposed to treat employees with the idea to get them back on the VA job ASAP!.

I got a copy of that M21 page and sent it along with my medical evidence.

I had discovered t why he didn't get proper care that day. They treated my husband as an employee and not as a SC veteran.

Things changed radically when I made a stink about that.Most of my friends were VA employees as well as SC veterans.

There was even scuttlebutt in the dept my husband worked in (that held many PTSD Vietnam Vets) that VA might try to kill them all.

because they almost killed another SC vet in the same department and I helped him get 100% P & T under 1151 and the same year a non vet employee sued them and won because they treated her broken leg (an on the VA job accident, and VA was at fault) as an ankle strain. She still walks with a limp.

M21 for VA doctors has been revised since those days.

[GuaymasJim]

PR, it never works for me either. I have encountered this before as a drilled down into a particular VHA regulation. Look closely and you will see it is VAWW1.VA.gov When I run across it, the Directive always mentions that policies regarding this Directive can be found at ..... This is a VA only site. Or words to that effect.

A vet can appeal a medical decision like which medication or which procedure within the VAMC, but no higher. A vet can appeal an administrative decision directly to the BVA: NOD--SOC--Form 9 in other words the whole nine yards without going through the VARO. This is what I am struggling to do.

Here is the directive: VHA DIRECTIVE 2008-039 which was recently superseded by VHA DIRECTIVE 1032. You will notice on the last page:

c. Appeals Procedure Guide, found at:
http://vaww1.va.gov/cbo/apps/policyguides/contents.asp?address=VHA_PG_1601G.
NOTE: This is an internal VA Web site and is not available to the public.

First, I have grave reservations about a governmental agency using tax dollars to produce policy information that is restricted from the public. Second, and more to the point, if a vet doesn't know which hoops (s)he has to jump through, then how can they jump through them; and how does the system give the vet due process?

Berta, you are a treasure. I only wish you had acquired your knowledge in a different manner. I have a well founded fear that I am going down the same spiral as your husband.

[JT24usn]

Anything we use and are held to should be viewable for anybody. M21-1mr and 38 cfr part 3 and 4. These are out rules and guidelines for both hospital and benefits. Jmho

http://www.benefits.va.gov/WARMS/docs/admin21/m21_1/mr/part3/subptv/ch07/M21-1MRIII_v_7_SecA.doc