The Sec Bob Mcdonald Really Cares About Veterans!

[63SIERRA]

Lets get something clear, WE CANNOT EXPECT 100,000 VETERANS to be able to call one man, to have our claims taken care of, so lets not get on a path of expecting immediate, direct action from the secretary.. There is a long line of others, who should be doing that job. If some veterans are getting results by directly contacting the Honorable new secretary, thats great, but he cannot do everyone elses job and his too, which should not be, to call the undersecretary and tell her to do her job, who then calls the regional office and tells them to do thier job,.. It should not, and CANNOT work that way.

VA is a big machine, and EVERYONE must know thier jobs, and do thier jobs effectively for it to work.

Based on several congressional investigations ive watched, and observed how the UNDERSECRETARY, has rrepeatedly refused to take responsibility for the shortcomings of her wheelhouse and seemingly constant state of denial, I believe replacing the undersecretary would be a good improvement,

Granted, I dont know what the internal processes are in that position, but denial of responsibility, lack of integrity and passing the blame are not qualities of a good leader. Fudging number,s blaming others, and making repeated promises that are not kept is a black hole of gauranteed failure, We can do better, we must do better. I believe congressman Jeff Miller would make an awesome undersecretary because he care about veterans.

I dont know or even care what his political affiliations are, but I believe he is a good man who would do a good job.

Edited January 4, 2015 by 63SIERRA

[63SIERRA]

That is definitely what is wrong with processing claims. The veteran is misinformed and ends up sending too much information or too little. When I am processing claims I see that a lot. The veteran will say he/she was seen at a VAMC during a certain time period and then we go out to the clinic for the dates listed only to find that there aren't any in for those dates. There is a 30 day suspense put on a claim when requesting federal records. Okay so when 30 days is up then there is a follow up for another fifteen days along with a phone call to vet and the clinic only to find out neither party has records. The problem is you have wasted 45 days when an exam could have been scheduled. Many times a veteran will guess at the dates instead of knowing for sure what the dates are. So it is wise to do your homework before submitting claims. I am a veteran who works at VA benefits so am only telling you the truth on some of the hold ups. Good luck on your claims everyone.

We are getting alerts on ebenefits saying information the RO requested is past due, although we have sent it in. THEN we must sign a form asking if we have submitted all of our evidence.

That is a question we cannot answer, because we dont know what the RO has or doesnt have. ONE quick phone call would fix that.

For example. Vet has a claim, and has sent in all evidence. Va sends a form asking if he has anymore to submit. Vet calls liason at regional office and asks them for a quick rundown on what evidence they have in thier possession, and if theres anything else that they could submit that would assist them in making a fair, accurate decision. Ro liason informs claims RSVR that veteran has submitted all needed evidence and claim is ready for rating. If all evidence is not of record, vet is told what is needed and tries to assist in obtained it, and a priority is made by the RO to obtain as well.

WE do not have free unfettered access to our claims file, so we dont know what is in there. recieving a copy of the claims file can take months or years, and may not even be up to date, and all inclusive when we finally do recieve it.

Isnt it ironic that veterans cannot readily view thier own claims file , especially since they are now being digitized?

Edited January 4, 2015 by 63SIERRA

[foreveryoung]

I think this is a great gesture for Secretary McDonalds to even offer to look over the Hadit site. I know he's only one man and can

only do so much. But, if 10 Veterans can be helped by his office directly or indirectly that's a start.

After reviewing this site, I hope the Secretary will take away some of the issues and concerns Veterans have and help put in place

some changes in the Massive VA system. It's a long shot, but we need to start somewhere. One step at a time.

[Chuck75]

Lets get something clear, WE CANNOT EXPECT 100,000 VETERANS to be able to call one man, to have our claims taken care of, so lets not get on a path of expecting immediate, direct action from the secretary.. There is a long line of others, who should be doing that job. If some veterans are getting results by directly contacting the Honorable new secretary, thats great, but he cannot do everyone elses job and his too, which should not be, to call the undersecretary and tell her to do her job, who then calls the regional office and tells them to do thier job,.. It should not, and CANNOT work that way.

VA is a big machine, and EVERYONE must know thier jobs, and do thier jobs effectively for it to work.

Based on several congressional investigations ive watched, and observed how the UNDERSECRETARY, has rrepeatedly refused to take responsibility for the shortcomings of her wheelhouse and seemingly constant state of denial, I believe replacing the undersecretary would be a good improvement,

Granted, I dont know what the internal processes are in that position, but denial of responsibility, lack of integrity and passing the blame are not qualities of a good leader. Fudging number,s blaming others, and making repeated promises that are not kept is a black hole of gauranteed failure, We can do better, we must do better. I believe congressman Jeff Miller would make an awesome undersecretary because he care about veterans.

I dont know or even care what his political affiliations are, but I believe he is a good man who would do a good job.

Any single person can do just so much. The problem is really the VA's "systems" and regulations. They are not designed or applied in ways that produce the results intended and required by law.

Taking years to resolve claims, or months to provide needed medical treatment & services are NOT what was intended and required.

Instead, the classic situation has been that efforts to minimize payments and services to veterans, while maximizing the administrative system were the most important goals.

As a result, there is a serious conflict between getting things done "by the book", and getting things done as they should be.

One of the general comments is that the RO has an exceeding restrictive "thou shall follow" set of instructions, As with many of such things, if claims don't exactly fit or follow the "yellow brick road",

they get sidelined for further consideration, or just denied (simpler). The production goals and the implementation of them has a serious impact as well.

[63SIERRA]

The Govt allows the whole population of the country to file taxes on what basically amounts to a loosely regulated honor system.

Yet the warriors of this country who are in the top 15 percent of the best citizens that reside in this country, get treated like miscreants and habitual felons who are trying to game the system.. We are treated as lying unless proven otherwise. The process has pretty much become a contest between the veteran and the regional offices on who can stack up the most evidence. With C&P examiners working directly for the VA or contracted out and PAID by the VA, many times the veteran gets a innacurate exam, and the claim is denied. If the veteran cannot afford to get a second opinion from an outside the VA doctor, its almost impossible to win the claim.

As of late, many veterans have been recieving the C&P exams that were done at the VAMC, And finding many errors . Since then, the Va has decided to not let the vet have access to the results of thier C&P exams until AFTER the claim is decided. We never have been able to view the results of our C&P exams done by contracted services such as VES.. Now why would that be? once a vet loses a claim, the regional offices can wash thier hands of it, and forward it to the appeals board, which can be a 3 to 10 year wait. Once the regional office " punts" your claim off the appeals, it is no longer a claim in thier bean count. The claim is not considered in the existing claims on hand at the RO, even though the claim is not officially settled. Furthermore, once the claim does finally go to the appeals board it is many times remanded BACK to the Regional office for another ride on the merry go round of denials. When undersecretary Hicky was asked about that, the reply was to the effect of " we arent responsible once it leaves us" . WHAT and interesting concept.. Deny claims by any means possible, hope the vet just gives up, and if they dont, ship it off to appeals, its no longer my problem.

Time is on the VA side, not ours. If the claim goes on for several years , or if the vet dies, well the undersecretary, regional offices, ect.. They all collect a paycheck, while the vet suffers, commits suicide, loses his house, car, family, self worth ect.

Edited January 4, 2015 by 63SIERRA

[Tbird]

I have no problem with Secretary McDonald visiting the site.