What Is Your Number One Complaint About The Va?

[Slowlane]

If you had a chance to "air" your number one complaint about the VA what would it be?

1. Medical care?

2. Claim backlog wait time?

3. Total communication breakdown (no way to make your point)?

4. C&P lies?

5. Hamster wheel tactics and deny deny until they die? (my favorite)

CNN has opened the nations eyes over the medical scheduling crimes. Jeff Miller has said that "this is just the tip of the iceberg". CNN has a "Contact Us" link on their website.

This might be our big chance of get some national attention on some of the above items if this (Hadit) website could unite together and go forth in numbers.

However, sadly, this thread will die in less than three days. No messages will go forward to CNN. An opportunity to get some attention before the latest scandal blows over will be lost.

Slowlane

[Berta]

John999 said it all:!


"The thing is that many claims should never get to the BVA".


http://www.bva.va.gov/Chairman_Annual_Rpts.asp

In Fiscal Year 2012 ( the 2013 report has not been posted yet)

The BVA handled 42,574 appeals specifically regarding compensation claims

For appeals based on Compensation, they awarded 12,303 (28.9%) ,
remanded 19,593 (46.0%) and denied 9,334 (21.9%)

That's right, the BVA remanded almost half of the appeals they worked on.

A remand means a re -do of what the RO should have done right in the first place.

Our government is paying people at VAROs to re -do almost 50% of what they should have done right in the first place.

To add to John's point ,which is a profound one,
many claims get to the BVA , in my opinion, because the claims were not fully supported by probative evidence at the RO level.

Then before a claim is formally set for a BVA transfer it collects a lot of dust...sitiing in stacks waiting for crap like a 646 and an I-8 to be prepared....which usually does nothing at all to advance the argument on appeal.

There are no magicians employed by the BVA. They only have what they get from the RO and there are no miracles.By time of a BVA transfer, the claimant has received a VCAA letter telling them exactly what they need to send to the VA. In many cases they might need an IMO, or buddy statements, or other types of additional evidence and they have had the time to get what they need.

I fully agree John.....that Many claims should never get to the BVA.

But we ,as claimants , have as much responsibility in the claims process as the ROs do, and that is also part of the remand problem..

John hit it on the head,in my opinion.The onus is on the ROs ( and on us)

Edited June 18, 2014 by Berta

[Slowlane]

I understand Berta about the multitudes of things that make the delays happen. Problem is, if you tried to explain it to a average citizen he would start yawning after the first 15 minutes of your 2 hour diatribe.

Strictly using math of X days to get an appeal to the BVA and X days to get a decision is the real eye opener that needs to be on national news.

Heck, the American public is aware of 22 suicides a day now and has become numb to it as if it were a traffic accident.

Hate to say it but we dont stand a chance.

[Berta]

"Hate to say it but we dont stand a chance."

In my 2 or more decades of being in the electronic veterans community , I think the problem is that.......

We Dont Stand.

[Slowlane]

"Hate to say it but we dont stand a chance."

In my 2 or more decades of being in the electronic veterans community , I think the problem is that.......

We Dont Stand.

Walt Kelly first used the quote "We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us" on a poster for Earth Day in 1970

[carlie]

AAAYYYYHHH!!!!!!!!! OK after 2 pages of good complaints can we at least come together long enough to select the NUMBER-ONE-COMPLAINT??

And the number-one-complaint is:

1.

Slow,

One way to help narrow things down would be to limit the question to either

the VA - VAMC's OR the VA- VBA.

When the question posted cover's VA and both agencies - there's just way too many answers

to narrow it down to 1 or 2 complaints.

jmho

[john999]

How about C&P exams? I had a C&P doctor tell me that many Vietnam vets get fat on purpose so they can get DMII claims increased. What kind of mentality would assume that, or what kind of desperate person would make their DMII worse just to get a few bucks more? Nobody in their right mind would make a potentially fatal disease worse just for money. However, there is a county in Florida that is known for the number of accidental gunshot wounds to the hand or foot with assumed idea that they do it for SSD/SSI. I think they call the county "Nub County" and it is in the Florida Panhandle. Is the world insane?

But to the subject of worst problem at the VA? There are so many problems the whole system needs to be abolished and most managers and doctors who have been infected with VA prejudice against vets fired. I have experienced this bigotry for 40 years. The people running the VA think of vets as freeloaders and bums. What can you expect from such a system? My VA dentist thought vets should not be entitled to VA dental care because it cost the taxpayers too much. No wonder he did such a crummy job on my tooth.

John