Vike 17- What Exactly Is The Process?

[Guest jangrin]

Vike 17,

It is fairly apparent that you have had or currently have exposure and experience in the VA claims process. It would be really nice if you would take a few minutes and explain the claim process (ideally the process) the typical claim takes through the VA maze and the steps it takes to be processed and granted. Start to Finiah.

I understand that their are many problems and things don't go smoothly, but having an idea of what happens and typically how long it should take and how many different people are assigned to each file and who makes the detrmination.

You know what I mean, the flow chart of a typical claim. It would be most helpful. And please who are those people who answer the 800# and the IRIS inquiries. Why so many different answers to questions that contradict each other? Help us out here maybe with some addtional knowledge we can be more productuive and help unclog the VA claims systems by doing our part more completely or something.

Thank you

Jangrin

[Brandy]

Jangrin,

I'm sorry to hear about more C&P exams for your husband. They had all of your husband's VA records and if other exams were needed they should have ordered them when the other's were scheduled. Our claim is exactly where yours was before you received these two letters. The VA told us last week that our claim was ready to be rated and I can only hope that a decision will be made. I don't know what I would do if they came back and ask for another exam. They had my husband go to six exams. As you know he has DMI since the service and we have claimed several secondary conditions to this service connected disease. I have had our local congressman involved since October trying to get them to at least make a decision on his amputation and defer the rest, due to our hardship situation. I know the congressman's office has been trying to get them to make a partial decision because I specifically ask when I call the 800#. They told me that the congressional liaison there at the VA has tried to walk our file over to a rater for the amputation to get it rated right away. The problem was at that time the c-file was not there, it was at the examiners office. I was told that he must have taken the temp file that they keep there when the c-file is out. So I let the congressman's office know this and once the file was returned to a rater I ask them again to walk the file over and make a partial decision.

As of now we have not heard anything and I am the same as you, fed up and tired of waiting. We sent them over 650 pages of medical evidence besides their own VA records. Since all of your records were from the VA and not private doctors, I don't understand why they are asking for more exams. When my husband went to his eye and renal exam, the doctor's read the records from the VA local clinic for his eyes and the renal doctor said he was impressed by the amount of information and what we provided to them from my husband's kidney doctor. Each of them based their exam on the records because they were not very old. The other doctor's however, did not care that recent medical records were provided. They made my husband do a stress test on a treadmill. He has a below knee amputation of his right leg and PVD and PN in his left. He could barely hold on to the rails. He only lasted 4 minutes on it. When I got the records from the exam, I seen where the doctor that requested the exam specifically checked "NO" next to "Treadmill". But they put him on it anyway. He almost fell off a couple of times.

Well, again I am sorry for the news you received. Have you talked to your local congressman's or senators office? Maybe they can help if you tell them how old your claim is. I think that your claim is older than ours. We were told that our claim was sent to the "Tiger Team and is ready to rate". I guess we will see what happens.

The VA has told us that they do not like to make partial decisions and this is one of the reasons we got the local congressman involved. I know they can make partial decisions and do it all the time. A partial decision may hurt us right now, but we need at least some decision because of our situation. Even though right now all we can do is wait, this only makes me more angry and ready to fight. When we receive a decision I am sure we will have to NOD some things and I have other claims as well. I will, in the end, WIN this battle with them because there's no stopping me now. The longer they make us wait the more I will learn about their regs and throw them right back at them. I have learned so much from this board and one particular member that has helped me so much with the process because I still have so much to learn.

Take a break for a couple of weeks and then please stick around the board and keep fighting!

Brandy

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Hey everybody, Just an Update on the Claim,

Well. just when you think that you have all your ducks in a row and everything is moving along something gets you. Today my husband got two letters from the VA for 2 more C&P exams.

One is for the 7th of February in Temple, Tx and the Vet center there. It doesn't even say what the exam is for.???? Why wouldn't they say what it is for. The other one is in March for PSYCH. exam in AUstin. This really is unbelievable, he had what they called a disability C&P exam back in September. This is so unorganized , why didn't they schedule them back when they scheduled the other one???

After being told for the past 3 months that the claim is at the rating board and now having more C&Ps scheduled months apart we are just flat disapointed and very tired. My husband told me today that he will die from his heart condition before the VA even gets his Diabetes II service connected.

I (we) are so sick of this waiting I think we are going to take a break from the board for a while. It has been a really rough couple of years trying to even get an initial rating for even his DMII.

Thanks everyone for your past help, just wanted you to have an update, of the VA stringing things out for as long as they can.

Jangrin

[john999]

Brandy

When I had the Agent Orange Registry Exam the doctor doing the exam said I had DMII and peripheral neuropathy. I still had to go and get C&P exams even though the AO exam is about as complete an exam as you will ever get at the VA. My C&P exams were done in 10 minutes. My AO exam took weeks of testing. They pretty much ignored everything my AO exam doctor said. He told me to file a claim for disability otherwise I would not have known. You have to do it the VA way or hit the highway. What the rating system and C&P doctor system does is not medicene, but you have to go along with the parade.