Is it common for the VA to request your med record after you give the copy to the DAV?

[iscswaw]

Hello,

  I have been reading many of the forum articles over the last few months.  I want to thank you all for the incredible information you have given and all the help you have offered to everyone.

 

I submitted a BDD  claim with an NSO at the DAV on Mar 21, 2017.  I am officially retired on Jul 1, 2017.  I did the claim and provided the DAV with a copy of my service medical record (approximately 1000 pages).  I checked EBenefits since I have not heard from the VA concerning any C&P appointments and found a request that I submit my service medical record.  I am wondering if this is a common problem when submitting a claim for the NSO or VA to lose a whole medical record?  Thanks for your help.

[Vync]

Welcome to Hadit!

Even if you use an agency like the DAV, you are still responsible for providing any non-VA medical treatment records to the VA. They are supposed to act on your behalf, but are still prone to human error. Also, get a copy of any forms filled out by the DAV for you. Even if they say they submitted the request, go ahead and send an extra copy yourself via certified/registered/return receipt mail or electronically via ebenefits. Just make sure you have your own way to verify the VA got it because they have a habit of losing things or things might get lost enroute to them.

The VA should be able to access your service treatment records (STR's) electronically, but they might not have been received yet. Back when I got out in the 90's, they gave me my medical records to hand carry.

You did good by not submitting the originals to the VA.

If you have and treatment records from civilian facilities which are not in your STRs, you'll need to fill out a separate Release of Medical Information Authorization form for each provider so the VA can request them (even if you send them your copies they need to verify).

Additionally, I know this sounds like a lot of work, but It might be a good idea to go through your records, every page front and back, and only submit copies of pages related to your claim. It is what I call spoon-feeding the VA. Let's say only 100 pages pertain to your claim. If the VA has to go through all 1000 pages to find those 100, that takes time. Also, what if they are not accurate and only find 60 instead of 100 pages? It doesn't help. Give them exactly what they need, only pages beneficial to your claim, and never send originals. Keep your originals in a secure location like a fireproof safe, vault, or safe deposit box. I bought myself an HP scanner and spent many nights scanning pages into PDF files. Now I have a catalog of everything and a copy in my safe. It can also help make any future claims easier to research.

Good luck!

 

[pwrslm]

Most copy machines these days are all in one, they scan, fax, copy and do back flips for you.  The one I got has a tray feeder for scanning, so I took 25 pages and scanned them all into one PDF file, then uploaded each file (1 of 10, 2 of 10, etc..) on EBenefits.  If you can see them on the EB site, and can download and read them, they are officially in your claim file.

[iscswaw]

Thanks Vync and pwrslm.  I will be buying a doc feeder printer/scanner and getting to work in my records this weekend.  I appreciate the advice to review the records and only provide them the pertinent files.  That should cut down the amount that I have to send in.  But I will have an e-copy along with my originals.  Thanks again for everything all of your folk do here.  So helpful.

 

 

[Vync]

When you scan the documents to PDF, be sure to have them saved with full text indexing/searching. It makes it easier to find certain words. It's not perfect, but can help a lot.