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Fdc Filed, But I Am Hearing Conflicting Info

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traveler

Question

I retired 1 August.

MY FDC was received by VA 8 August.

My county VSO told me that here in South Dakota, FDC are being finished within 106 days.

SO, I am on vacation, and waiting for a call for a C+P.

I called Hot Springs, which is where they said my C+P would be conducted, and they told me they have NOTHING on me.

So, I called and talked to h State VSO, and she told me it would be a LONG,LONG time before all is said and done, and that my C+P's could be out as far as January or February !!

Lastly, I go on to e-benefits, and my claim is under "gathering evidence". Why would they need to gather evidence, if I sent in a FULLY DEVELOPED claim ???? 10 items, and every single one is plain as day in my Military medical records

If I don't get a C+P before January, I think I may have to get a congressman involved.

Opinions?

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I get it. It's hurry up and wait time again :)

That said, I did a FDC and went to great lengths so the pot bellied fella at the VA in his cubicle didn't have to get up and do anything....I did all the work for them! Therefore my claim should be easy as pie. I wish I could go get him a cup of coffee or something to get on his good side to get this darn thing done! :biggrin:

C+P in my situation is frankly a waste of time.....it is in my records, and anyone with a brain KNOWS I'm not going to go in there and tell them it miraculously went away! "does your knee still hurt?" ..."yes"..."ok thanks for coming in". :wacko:

The raters are required to do so many records, and it is tracked....Hell, I made it easy for the guy!

Traveler

All that work that you did was not a waste of time, like you might think so. Yes you did make it easier for the rater to make a decision and that could well be to your advantage.

If I had not gone through my records page by page and wrote every needed entry to prove my case to the Doctor prior to my 2nd C&P, then I never would have gotten my last increase. During this C&P there was a pile of records stacked on the corner of his desk, separated by rubber bands which looked a couple of feet high. He pointed to them at the beginning of my C&P and said something like "I have to go through all of this". ...I knew then he had no chance of reading my records to find anything. By me doing his research work, I was able to show him the specifics of my case and glide right through the C&P.

So yes...all that work you did earlier will probably help you later on.

Just my thoughts.

OSC

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I've been in "review of evidence" almost 4 months......no C+P's....have received 2 letters from VRO stating they are still working it and sorry for the delay......looks like they aren't going to do any C+P's on the 10 items I listed.

Edited by traveler
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Traveler:

My FDC completion timeline went from 15 to 37 months on 12/10/2014 which would take almost about 3 years to get my FDC done? I was shocked considering all of the priliminary investigative work that I did and all of the paperwork and evidence was sent with the original FDC package. I called the 1-800 and they said as far as they could tell my claim was still an FDC and was not out of the program? I think the key was that I did a FOIA which appeared to derail the process for a while? I'm still not confident that all of my 1,500 pages of medical records were ever digitised into the VBMS System? So, because I already had just received a letter from the Regional Office saying that I could come down and look at my C-File -I decided to take a trip to my RO? Anyway, to make a long story short, I did not get to look at my C-file when I arrived but got help from a nice VBA person. Then a couple of days later, I was notified that I was now scheduled for 4 ACE Exams to finish that part of my claim. Apparently, the rest of the exams are going to be done via telephone so that will be interesting? But at least I have some movement on my claim now. I planned from the start to write a newspaper article on my FDC experience so we'll see how it turns out? I still think actual claim movement is mostly determined by whom gets your claim to work it and their experince levels. I would think that complex claims take a lot of work an they are easier to shove to the back burner because the numbers looks better for a rater who has/does more easier claims. Frankly, I believe that the raters for the most part are working hard anyway and that it's a very tough job? Also, although the VSOs are supposed to fullfill the role of working as our reps to the VBA and ensuring movement on our claims, I have not personnally seen much effort by mine? I just think when someone agrees to be your rep that they acutally represent your interests in a proactive way? That all said, it just a waiting game for the most part now but it's so hard to be patient. The claims backlog is starting to flatline and even trend up again, so the pressure is going to start growing very soon again on VBA management by Congress. Unfortunately, last year we saw a big jump in appeals cases as they tried to close out cases by the end of the fiscal year, so we'll see if that's the same outcome...again?

Edited by rootbeer22
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Rootbeer 22

Welcome to dealing with the Seattle RO.

My 1st claim with Seattle was in 1984 and took 3.5 yrs.

Have had 6 other claims with not one taking less than 2 years.

Have one now that has been there 14 mos and they just changed date to 7/15-10/15......

I used to write it off to being a woman, because they were not used to dealing to Vets without testicles, now I know they just don't care ...period.

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