Va Incompetence?

[ericmccowan]

I tried helping my father-in-law file his claim with the VA. I am a 100% disabled myself, so I thought it would be easy. I was wrong.

 

Our issues involve the VA refusing to sign for a claim package, closing out claims without issuing a decision (approved or denied), filing a claim for one thing, then denying the claim because they thought we filed for something different, it's horrible.

 

As I am extremely desperate to get help and information, I prepared a 3 minute video - it's more entertaining than reading a few pages of words from me. It's family friendly, no bad words, pictures, etc. Completely respectful.

 

Please watch and please give me your advice on what you would do. I know I sound desperate, but I am. My father-in-law died waiting on his claims.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bq8_Th3JNo

 

 

 

Moderator: please approve this post. I am desperate for advice and help. I need the help and advice of those people on this forum that have been through this. I tried to embed the video, but I don't know how.

Edited April 26, 2014 by Tbird
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[Terry72]

I am sincerely sorry for your loss. I watched the video on YouTube, and I was shocked at the way your father-in-law was treated. It seems to me to be a clear cut case. Like you mentioned, prolonged sun exposure was part of his job. It certainly is more likely than not that his cancer was due to that exposure. I was wondering what reason did they give for denying the original claim?

[Berta]

"My father-in-law died waiting on his claims."

You need to read this link here.




In part the Fast letter in the link in that post states:

"Section 212.
SUBSTITUTION UPON DEATH OF CLAIMANT.This section creates a new statute: 38 U.S.C. § 5121A, Substitution in case of death of claimant. It provides that if a claimant dies while a claim or appeal for any benefit under a law administered by the Secretary is pending, a living person who would be eligible to receive accrued benefits due to the claimant under section 5121(a) of this title may, notlater than one year after the date of the death of the claimant, request to be substituted asthe claimant for the purposes of processing the claim to completion.The new statute allows a person who could be considered an accrued benefits claimant tosubstitute for a deceased claimant to continue adjudication of the deceased claimant’sclaim.Effective Date- The provisions of the new statute apply with respect to the claim of anyclaimant who dies on or after October 10, 2008"

MOPH since the Fast letter came out prepared a good link to explaining this type of claim procedure.


http://www.purpleheart.org/ServiceProgram/Training2011/M-3A%20VA%20Updates-2.pdf

But it depends on many factors.

When did your father in law die?

Was his death from an Agent Orange Presumptive?

Does he have a spouse who could be the prime substitute for him as the claimant?

Did anyone file for substitution within the first year after his death?

Did his spouse file for DIC within one year after his death? And claim accrued benefits?

Is his son (your husband) substituting himself as the claimant, if the veteran's spouse is not alive?

Has he met the one year accrued regulation deadline for that?



The substitution regulations involve accrued benefits.
These are benefits that 'accrued' during the veteran's lifetime and a posthumous award granted them.

(the substitute must continue to prosecute the claim)

Personal example:

My husband died with 2 VA claims pending.
In those days there were no substitution regs, so I had to re open his claims.
Substitution can go faster (hopefully) then a re- open situation ,which survivors used to be stuck with..

Still,I had to prove his claims to the VA based on evidence in his C file and med recs at time of his death.

The VA granted them within 2-3 years, as posthumous awards.

Most substitution claims are DIC claims from the surviving spouse, and/or for accrued claims that derive solely from claims pending at time of the veteran's death.

VA makes no exceptions on the one year accrued claim deadline.(Except under Nehmer AO claims for accrued)

Edited April 26, 2014 by Berta

[ericmccowan]

I am sincerely sorry for your loss. I watched the video on YouTube, and I was shocked at the way your father-in-law was treated. It seems to me to be a clear cut case. Like you mentioned, prolonged sun exposure was part of his job. It certainly is more likely than not that his cancer was due to that exposure. I was wondering what reason did they give for denying the original claim?

They only denied one claim, all the others they closed out, with no explanation. The one they did deny, they said there is no proof that skin cancer comes from sun exposure! seriously. I'm at a loss with this.

[ericmccowan]

When did your father in law die? non va hospital in florida

Was his death from an Agent Orange Presumptive? no

Does he have a spouse who could be the prime substitute for him as the claimant? yes

Did anyone file for substitution within the first year after his death? yes

Did his spouse file for DIC within one year after his death? And claim accrued benefits? yes. They denied it

Is his son (your husband) substituting himself as the claimant, if the veteran's spouse is not alive? n/a

Has he met the one year accrued regulation deadline for that? yes

Joe dies in January of this year. When he died, they closed his claims out completely. Instead of allowing his wife to take over the claim, they closed it out, made her open a brand new claim. We are having so many problems. When we filed for skin cancer due to Ultraviolet light exposure (sun exposure), the VA got confused, thinking that skin cancer only comes from being around a nuclear weapons test. Crazy I know. So, they denied him. We never said anything about nuke tests, we told them 20 years on a flight deck, he had multiple sun burns, which gave him cancer. They said that sun burns do not cause skin cancer! Can you believe this?

[Terry72]

With the Merkel cell carcinoma, about 80% of the time the cancer is caused by the Merkel cell polyomavirus. The other 20% appear to have separate causes. Exposure to ultraviolet light, like you already know, is thought to be a major causal factor. Do you know whether the Merkel cell polyomavirus was found in any of your father-in-law's cancer cells?

[Berta]

We had a vet's daughter here years ago who proved he had skin cancer from the sun on the flight deck....

if I find her posts I will put a link here to them.

I am quite sure the veteran got an IMO however.

"They said that sun burns do not cause skin cancer! Can you believe this?"


I sure do. VA will sometimes say anything to deny a claim..You need an opinion from a Real doctor to overcome that statement with an IMO (Independent Medical Opinion) that follows the IMO criteria here at hadit..in our IMO forum.

This vet spent years on a flight deck and developed melanoma:
http://www.va.gov/vetapp05/files2/0510258.txt

His C & P doctor saw the medical link.

"ORDER

Entitlement to service connection for melanoma is granted."

Unfortunately BVA decisions are only specific to the BVA claimant.

Can you scan and attach here ( cover C file number, name and address) their Reasons and Bases for Denial and the evidence list?

Was this for both an accrued claim as well as a DIC claim?

Did he have any SC ratings at all? If so what were they for?

What is the statement on the death Certificate as to # 1 and 2 as immediate and contributing causes of his death?

Did the skin cancer cause or substantially contribute to his death?

Was he a Vietnam veteran? If so what ship did he serve on and when during the war?

We have a wealth of info in our DIC forum.

I have 3 separate DIC awards and they all took a lot of work, research and evidence to obtain.

For one of them ( DMII to AO death ) I got 3 IMOs.I didnt need IMOs for the other claims but this claim was the most important one to me and I knew the VA would
do everything they could to deny it so I got the IMOs and it was awarded. (By the BVA) The IMO fee I paid was quickly absorbed by the award.

I am the widow of two Honorable disabled veterans. The VA wants widows to stay unaware of the regs and , due to our grief, they try to take advantage of us.

I never got a proper decision first time around, except for my accrued claim. They screwed everything else I filed up the ying yangs so I kept fighting them until I won.


I am glad you are helping the widow attain these benefits.

Does she have a Vet rep as her POA?

Did the VA formally accepted the Substitution form from her yet?

There is a lot to getting DIC and we have plenty of info here in our DIC forum.

I think I did a few radio shows here too on DIC. They would be in our SVR archives.

If we see why they denied the DIC , from the denial, we can help more.