What Will Iris Inquiry Tell Me?

[veteran7796]

Will an IRIS inquiry tell me more than what the reps on the 1-800# tell me (which is nothing I cant see on E-benefits)? All they said on the 1-800# is, "your case is in the development phase, we can't tell you anything other than that". I requested a detailed status on my claim, which, according to my VSo already has a decision but for some reason is just sitting in ROE.

Thanks.

[veteran7796]

Im not sure the VA cares if we want answers. LOL!!

But, in a nutshell, I am in a very bad way financially and the back pay would do wonders. I just got my first 30% check in July 2014 because I had to repay my separation pay and that took nearly 2 years worth of compensation pay to complete.

Altogether, even though I have been service connected for one contention at 30% since October 2012, I have never gotten paid (until last month) and rightfully so...I understand the laws and that's the right thing. But as my VSO said, it was a CUE (Error) by the VA and I should have been rated for my neck a long time ago. If they had rated me correctly, I would have started getting paid over a year ago at $683.00 versus the $477.00 check I just started getting in July 2014.

So, with the increase I will be effective back to my original filing date of 5/31/2011 for my neck and by my calculation that gives me about $6100.00 back pay. That would absolutely catch me up and then I could sustain from there financially with the new compensation payment AND increase (what a relief that would be).

But, Im literally on the verge of financial collapse. It's gotten bad the past few months with medical bills, childrens expenses (Im a single father of 3 boys and get NO child support) and I'm just way behind on everything right now.

Edited August 13, 2014 by veteran7796

[john999]

I have written congressmen and senators, newpapers, IRIS etc. about problems with VA health care. I don't bother asking about claims. I know that is usually a black hole. Nobody calls me back except something unrelated to the issue I raise. I know how to get money out of them, but it always takes planning, evidence, understanding of the rules of the game, and time. I told them I wanted fee base for all my dental care after making me wait a year for a cleaning, and exam because I was sick the day of an appointment last year. They are punishing me for calling in, and trying to reschedule my appointment. In the meantime I have spent $7000 getting implant, and two new crowns. I want to get paid for that, and I know what I have to do. I have to go to fee base and put in claim for "unauthorized care/payment". I did it before but it may not work this time. The VA just refused to do a crown for me, or an implant after pulling one of my teeth. They did such a poor job on one tooth it cracked and had to be pulled since it was already a root canal and crown. I have to get a partial or implants. I do think they want us all just to get dentures so we never come back to have our teeth worked on again. I plan to take my natural teeth to the grave.

John

[veteran7796]

Yeah, I had written my Congressman Bill Flores about 4 times with no response whatsoever. He even serves on the Armed Forces Committee and I got nothing...not even an acknowledgement that they got my correspondence.

[vern2]

I sent IRIS and email asking why my VARO could not access the documents that i had uploaded in support of my claim. This is the response:

We apologize for the delay in responding to your inquiry. We are currently experiencing a high volume of inquiries, and are working as quickly as possible to respond to each in a timely manner.


The records indicate we received multiple documents in 2013 to support your claim; we are unable to determine why you could not verify this on eBenefits. To speak with an eBenefits specialist please call 1-800-827-10001-800-827-1000 (when prompted please press the number 7).

Veterans Benefits Management System

Generally, when documents are received they are uploaded into the Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS). The Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS) is one of the new tools we are using to help process Veterans claims faster, and more efficiently. VBMS is a web-based, electronic claims processing portal created to give VA the ability to process Veterans claims paper-free. It is helping us move from a paper-based claims process to an electronic claims process. Unfortunately, the contents of this system cannot be monitored by eBenefits. The programmers are aware of the problem.

The advantage of the VBMS system is we are able to immediately access information electronically and not wait for the information to be scanned into the system. In some cases scanning information into the system is taking up to 75 days.

Unfortunately, at this time there is no means for eBenefits to record which documents were uploaded or display that list. The eBenefits team has plans to enhance the feature to include this capability soon.

After you successfully upload files, the eBenefits system displays a message listing each uploaded file with the file name, file type and date uploaded. You should print this message out, if possible, or save the screen image, for your records, because you cannot see this page again once you close it.

[Stretch]

Iris is peggy's sister.

[Navy04]

I agree with info above. I used to have pretty good luck with IRIS and Ebennie. The last year has seemed to be hit or miss though. Good luck either way and keep us posted.