My claims process.....

[crawma]

My claim has been bounced around in a million directions (from what I read/hear is normal) but on 28 August, my claim moved to "pending decision approval" I had called the VA office about the status of it since eBenefits was not working. The guy was nice and told me that this is usually the quicker part of the claim that a decision was made but it was going to require 2 supervisor signatures and was usually a 1-2 day turn around UNLESS they find an error.

For background purposes, my claim was started in February 2018, I had 23 different conditions claimed, by May 2018 I had completed 4 exams and it had been handed to the VA. My stuff went all the way to "preparation for decision" June 20th but then on July 19th it was kicked back to "initial review" and they wanted more exams. I never actually did the exams LHI essentially pulled the information out of my already completed exams and resent it to them. August my claim moved to "gathering evidence" and the VA said that LHI had still not provided them with my documents, I did call LHI multiple times where I was assured they had. I finally called the VA regional office directly where a person looked into everything and told me that LHI did submit them but the VA system did not "recognize" the files and a ticket with the IT department was submitted. On 7 August my claim moved to "preparation for decision" again.

So fast forward today.... 30 August 2018. I suddenly show "documents past due" and decided to just call the office directly again because my gut was telling me it was not something due on my part. Apparently one of the supervisors put in a request for three more specialty exams, my soul was officially crushed. 

My question is, how normal is this and has anyone else similarly experienced this with the VA process? If so how far out were you "extended" when you had new exams? Also, I really really really need 3 of my medications and that is the thing that bothers me the most, one of them through my husbands insurance is still $200 a month. 

[MyGooseIsLoose]

Hey I can deffinatly see how this is frustrating but there are a few things to remember here.  First of all, since you filed for so many different things there is a really good possibility that some will be decided before others.  This is what happened to me with my first claim a year ago-  I filed for 3 things and within the first few months my PTSD was complete so they gave me 70% for it and sent the other 2 things back to gathering of evidence.  Basically instead of making me wait for all the other claimed disabilities to finish (and since they already rated me 70% for ptsd) they decided to go ahead and send me the backpay for the ptsd and began paying me at a 70% rate.  A few months later once the others finished up my rating was increased but I am thankful they didn't make me wait until they were ALL done because I needed the money.  This is quite possibly what is going on with your claim.  I would keep checking the disabilities section in ebenifits as once a claimed disability is finished (as in my situation) it will show up there but the entire claim will still show gathering of evidence or perhaps some other stage.  I know its confusing but they split claims up all the time.  Hope it all works out good for you.

[crawma]

On 8/30/2018 at 5:25 PM, MyGooseIsLoose said:

Hey I can deffinatly see how this is frustrating but there are a few things to remember here.  First of all, since you filed for so many different things there is a really good possibility that some will be decided before others.  This is what happened to me with my first claim a year ago-  I filed for 3 things and within the first few months my PTSD was complete so they gave me 70% for it and sent the other 2 things back to gathering of evidence.  Basically instead of making me wait for all the other claimed disabilities to finish (and since they already rated me 70% for ptsd) they decided to go ahead and send me the backpay for the ptsd and began paying me at a 70% rate.  A few months later once the others finished up my rating was increased but I am thankful they didn't make me wait until they were ALL done because I needed the money.  This is quite possibly what is going on with your claim.  I would keep checking the disabilities section in ebenifits as once a claimed disability is finished (as in my situation) it will show up there but the entire claim will still show gathering of evidence or perhaps some other stage.  I know its confusing but they split claims up all the time.  Hope it all works out good for you.

Thank you for this, I called for clarification and this is what they are doing. Such a sigh of relief, I really have some stuff I need to go to the doctor for. Today it says preparation for notification but I can’t actually see anything on ebenefits and when I called they said they can’t read me my partial decision. Time to go fishing and keep myself occupied while I wait.

[MyGooseIsLoose]

Good im glad they are closing the claims they can for now.  Once the claims that they have decided on now have been "closed" it should reflect on the disabilities section on ebenifits so I would keep an eye on that.  Then they will send you the backpay for those claims which will most likely come before the BBE.  Once the claims that they are unable to close right now (which will take longer) finish then your disabilities section will update again and you will get another back pay check (pending they are approved of course).  Im glad the VA does it like this for those who have multiple claimed disabilities.  Have a good day and remember college football is on today.

[MyGooseIsLoose]

By the way have you gone to the letter generator in ebenifits and looked there?  If not, I would check that asap.

[crawma]

On 9/1/2018 at 8:09 AM, MyGooseIsLoose said:

By the way have you gone to the letter generator in ebenifits and looked there?  If not, I would check that asap.

I got my letter tonight but still a little confused they rated me 100% but it went back to gathering evidence for those 3 things still. The letter says permanent and total. I just think it is interesting to send me back for some more appointments (which I will show up for of course).