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More ShredGate stuff from VA OIG


Berta

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Minutes ago the VA OIG released a more detailed interim report on this:

http://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-15-04652-448.pdf

And Fox News is on it already.

I hope any veteran who feel their VARO shredded or destroyed or is somehow unaccountable for any of their evidence, and it is a RO next on the IG list,  will send them a hotline complaint.

Many years ago one of the most critical documents for my FTCA Issue (which the Regional Counsel and even the Chief of Staff doctor assured me had been prepared and sent to the RO, to send to the General Counsel, with other records from my files,  disappeared. I didnt know if it had been shredded or not and VA told me many times it had never existed.

This was a critical Peer Review report agreeing with my FTCA charges regarding malpracticed heart disease. VACO did their own Peer Review for the 1151 stroke and medication error and the malpracticed HBP my husband had.

I had to support my FTCA case without it. Many years later it showed up at the bottom of my C file so I used it for 2 more claims I had.

It helped to award my SC DMII AO claim and also my AO IHD claim.

In the ludicrous broohaha VA has turned my pending issues into, I asked many times, and by phone recently , if my evidence would be considered (it hasn't been even read in almost 3 years) and I got no reply at all from my RO's director ,w3ho called me again, so I told her I accepted that as a NO and this was the initial part of my mandamus writ. I  wanted the court to order them to apply 38 CFR 4.6 to my pending claim.But that writ has changed 4 times so far...and now I believe that my evidence was shredded long ago and this is why the director of my VARO refuses to read it because it no longer exists.

But I realized when I again began to formulate the  writ, that they don't even need that evidence.I have filed many more CUEs in the past month because now I know what additional errors they committed

All they need to do, as I filed VACO complaint on,last week,  is find someone at VA who can do simple math and also read and apply the specific M21-1 MR guidelines I sent to them, and I suggested they contact the Regional or General counsel who straightened this stuff out for me in the past. VACO ,with a note from Ms Hickey, assured me they are working on this but I had to correct again the info my RO gave them. I got the IRIS reply within 24 hours from sending the complaint via IRIS.

They granted everything I  asked for in the pending CUE claim but they still owe me retro accrued, as M21-1MR and their past audit shows., the manifested outcome of the CUE.

 

Geez, I got a new PC specifically to prepare the most professional writ of  mandamus I could do and my situation has changed by the week so now I have to ask CAVC to order my RO to do simple math and read a specific part of M21-1MR and apply it to my claim.

This sure has been one of the most miserable battles with VA I have had so far....but the more you draw them out, the faster their feet get into their mouths. I have a CAVC decision, as to one sentence,  to support my writ and also the VA home page has a link to Disability Comp that also supports it, plus the Nehmer audits ( 2 so far both wrong) and the M21-1M$R section regarding ve5ts with SC disabilities and also 1151 disabilities.

 

 

 

 

 

GRADUATE ! Nov 2nd 2007 American Military University !

When thousands of Americans faced annihilation in the 1800s Chief

Osceola's response to his people, the Seminoles, was

simply "They(the US Army)have guns, but so do we."

Sameo to us -They (VA) have 38 CFR ,38 USC, and M21-1- but so do we.

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I forgot to mention the tons of documentation lost or placed in other veterans' files.  I myself have had over 100 pages of medical and psychological records of other veterans that were in my C-File, as well sent to me in error inside envelopes with VA correspondence.  I also still have two pages of medical records from a female veteran still stuck in my C-File.  (These showed up in the second C-File request after the others were purged.)

Once again, these veterans sent in documentation thinking it would be safely stored in their own files to be reviewed by the VA, but instead it was thrown haphazardly into other veterans' files.  Pretty disgraceful.

Mark

 

USAF Active Duty 1988-1994

Security Police - Law Enforcement Specialist

Thank you all for your service to our great nation.

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VA OIG Hotline email addy here:

http://www.va.gov/oig/contact/default.asp

Pete Hegseth just said at Fox ( about 6:20AM) that there is a backlog of over 300,000 current claims with and an additional backlog of over that amount at the BVA....

I didnt get the actual figures....

Pete got it right in his point.This stuff started at the ROs and continues there and they deny just to get the claim deemed as  'worked on' and appear to be done, at their point, to take an EP code on the books, and then that claim goes to the BVA.

There are really 2 backlogs and he is the only person ( CEO-Concerned Veterans of America)who has defined the backlog properly.

Maybe if vets took the time to briefly tell the OIG what happened to them and their wait times, at their VARO, things might change.

Those envelopes in the shredder bin at LARO were unopened and most of them contained information or evidence critical to those veterans claims.

If it is happening there, it is happening elsewhere too.In my opinion it is going to take an avalanche of complaints from veterans to change this practice and the other incompetence we deal with every day at ROs, because those who could change it

within the system ,are just spinning on their thumbs.

GRADUATE ! Nov 2nd 2007 American Military University !

When thousands of Americans faced annihilation in the 1800s Chief

Osceola's response to his people, the Seminoles, was

simply "They(the US Army)have guns, but so do we."

Sameo to us -They (VA) have 38 CFR ,38 USC, and M21-1- but so do we.

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I agree with the addict analogy.

Everyone knows they are messed up, but its not until they end up on intervention and the cameras are rolling they trot out the crocodile tears and say they will get help, then once the cameras are gone they go right back to their dealer.

I dont agree with witch hunts and trying to hang the sacrificial lamb to atone for the sins of all of them.  I think that a major shakeup is needed or jsut a plan old privatization of the whole thing.  What we need is the vets in Congress not calling for "reform" but to "dissolve" the organization as a whole and restart with ALL NEW PEOPLE.  privatize the raters, keep the BVA and CACV intact.  the company will be paid based on claims decisions as well as how many claims are then overturned on appeal.  incentive basis for keeping under certain % of overturned decision.

 

 

70% - PTSD

->50% - OSA (Secondary to PTSD)

30% - Bilateral Pes Planus w/Plantar Fasciitis

30% - Migraines

10% - Tinnitus

20% - Back

0% - bilateral shin splints

 

 

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