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Has This Ever Happened To You?

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puppyduks

Question

In December, after more than a year of waiting I finally got a letter stating that the VA has requested "the medical center nearest you to give you an exam". I felt good knowing that my C&P was on the way. Three weeks later I got a letter stating that my claim had been denied because I failed to show up for an exam.

I called the 800-827-1000 number and selected the option for them to call me back, which they did within 30 minutes. After explaining that I was never scheduled for a C&P exam, the very nice lady told me that she would have my claim re-opened. I called the number again a week later and another VA rep confirmed that my claim was scheduled to be re-opened and that I did not lose my initial claim filing date, which is good news. This VA told me that it may "take a while" for the regional office to see that the claim has been re-opened.

While I am glad that my claim is back on track, I am growing despondent and feeling defeated. My local VA MH provider has diagnosed me with PTSD and put me on meds. Without a disability rating I cannot afford the copayments for these prescriptions. After the VA attached my wages last November for failure to pay copayments I went off all meds. So here I sit, waiting to get a rating so that I can get treatment.

My question is, does this kind of thing happen frequently with the VA disability claims process or am I just the victim of an isolated error by the VA? Any idea how long I may have to wait to get an exam now that this has happened?

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Thank you for your words of support and suggestions. I am just sick over this. I am trying to cope the best I can. I found the exam calendar on the EBenefits web site. I guess I will have to just check it every day. I have also started calling the 800-827-1000 number every Monday to check the status on my claim and make sure nothing has gone awry. I always leave my number for a callback and I usually get a call back within 30 minutes. I may up the calling to twice a week just to make extra sure. I am always polite even when the rep is curt.

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puppyduks

Sorry for your troubles. Recently, I looked at Ebenefits and saw that 3 appointments had been requested for me since early Dec 2014, but I had not received any appt dates? Prior to that, I had a lot of issues with my FOIA requests slowing everything down. Anyway, I called the VA 1800 number to follow-up late yesterday which got me some action finally. Today, I got a call from the VA C & P folks and had a few appointments confirmed for next month. That's a change, because originally I was told that I was only scheduled for 4 ACE Exams which would finish that part of my claim and that they would all be over the telephone. However, now I'm being told that I'm going to redo some of my earlier exams which is great for me. Originally, I complained that my first back exam in particular was way off in terms or accuracy and the nurse hurt me physically by pushing my back way past the pain point? I was going to write a long rebuttal/exam support statement for that but now I will be able to redo the exam? If some of you remember my case, when the back exam was done, the nurse said, "Don't worry about these exams, the rater's will be able look at your entire file, and will figure it out for you later? That's when I decided to request a C-File FOIA to confirm all of my records were present? Also, later her boss is actually the one that recommended that I write the statement of support for my back exam to try and bring attention to the errors. In a way, I just think she was having an off day..but this kind of stuff affects Vets lives and should be done correctly in the first place. Also, as I said before, we all have different experiences, but I know that these folks are trying to do a tough job and are usually short of resources/ So, I believe that although the disability system is set up to be adversarial ---most have to keep in mind that all vets just want what is due to them...there are always exceptions to that rule - but I believe they are a very few....when someone is facing financial woes or otherwise things are tough and the world feels like it's crashing down on you-we've all been there at some point in our lives.

Edited by rootbeer22
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"these folks are trying to do a tough job and are usually short of resources"

Mr Rootbeer, after being close to the RO and having been there many times I think that resources are not the problem. It seems to be a tough job though and isn't for just anyone I should think. According to the law of the land, the VA is mandated to be non-adversarial. Only at the CAVC level is the VA Secretary and his hundreds of minion OGC attorneys on equal footing. However, that is not what we see. We see legally "flawed" decisions from the BVA. The chicken S__t judges put our remanded claims on a perpetual hamster wheel. We see "missed" C&P exams as negative evidence. We see the ROs going out and getting an IMO to counter a positive opinion. That is a bona-fide no-no for the RO to go out of their way to "manufacture" negative evidence against a claim. We see "Lost" c-files that contain unarchived Service Treatment Records. We see obvious and constant lowballs on the ratings. We see the ROs reducing or taking away ratings without due process or medical evidence. The laundry list is a long one.

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