haims HAIMS request and status question Oct 2018

[GeekySquid]

So here is yet another question about Ebenefits statuses and trying to figure out what is actually happening.

Ebenefits now has this status

• Requested Documents are Past Due (this appeared the 22nd/23rd of October 2018)
• Attention: Development Letter Sent Development Letter Sent (this has been there since it was opened in Aug 2018)

The Dev Letter has been there since the start of the claim.

In the documents required section it says a document requested is no longer needed and has been that way since they consolidated the claims. The documents were requested from Sigonella Sicily. I have not been there since 1984 and the base had no hospital then, only a small med clinic.

The VA at this moment has not been told by me that there are hearing test results missing from my C-File. They would have no other way to know that there are tests not in the file. Those missing tests are from multiple bases, including Sigonella so why they would be requesting files only from Sig is beyond me.

I contacted IRIS two weeks before the Past Due Notice showed up and they responded the claim was waiting on a HAIMS request for military STR's from Sig

So does anyone have any idea what that Past Due Notice actually means? What actions the VA will take? am I just stuck in limbo or is there some action I can take to at least get them to issue a partial decision on the "easy" portions of the claims like the ED?

The estimated completion date is in Jan 2019. We know that is a joke.

Trapped in this mess are my SMC-K claim, which  I am fairly sure will be approved, as well reopening the Bilateral Hearing loss Claim, which the tests in the C-File definitively show the Hearing Loss was documented in-service. The other claim is for TD/IU but since my PTSD Review C&P bumped me to 100% P&T that should be moot.

thanks for any input
 

Update 10/26/2018 11 A.M PST

Being incapable and unwilling to be patient (character flaw, I know),  I have been checking Ebenefits daily (1 morning, 1 night) to see if any changes occurred. Excessive maybe but it works for me.

Today at 6 a.m. PST I looked at the claim and it had moved to Preparation for decision from the Requested Docs Past Due status. Makes me wonder if that status does not trigger a rater to actually look at the claim again?

at 11 A.M. I decided to see if Vets.gov had the same status. I believe someone told me that they were supposed to be in sync. They aren't. Vets says they are gathering evidence still.

The new Ebenefits Estimated Completion date is 12 Dec 2018, a whole month earlier than before. woohoo I might get a nice holiday gift from the VA. lol NOT!

Update 10/27/2018 5:45 PM PST

So as usual I checked this morning at approximately 8 AM CST, figuring since the claim is at site 320 and that is either Ky or TN, that is a good time to see if anyone was around or had been overnight. No joy. No change.

Now at 5:45 PM PST (my local) which should be like 7:45 CST, the status has updated again. It now says

• Pending decision approval

Which is very interesting and if it does not start bouncing back and forth between statuses, I might actually see it change to finalized in a week or two.

Right now, despite my impatience, this claim has moved fairly fast for the VA and other horror stories I have heard. This was opened Aug 20, 2018 it is now Oct 27, 2018, so if it keeps on track and closes by Nov 20, 2018 that is only 90 days. That is much faster than the 125 day average the VA says it takes for initial claims, and this one is kind of complicated to wade through. '

We will see. I will keep updating here just so there is a record of the time line and maybe help create some data points for other vets to gauge things by,

special note. I have no idea how that screen cap of this screen got attached and it wont let me delete it. sorry.

 

 

 

Edited October 28, 2018 by GeekySquid
update with new info

[paulstrgn]

I remember the Carabinieri and their popsicle sticks, you better stop when they held it out. I was there only one year but boy I had a great time in Sicily. 

[GeekySquid]

On 10/26/2018 at 3:22 AM, paulstrgn said:

popsicle sticks,

one of the weirdest things for me was the first time i was driving into Catania by myself and one popped out the lollipop. I of course stopped. He said I was speeding, which is just plain funny anywhere in Sicily, EVERYONE IS SPEEDING, all the time!. Handed me a ticket and when I asked him where i went to pay it, he said I was to pay him.

That was so weird but it was only 2 Mil which at that time with a 3000 lira to the US Dollar exchange rate cost me like 80 cents.

He and I then went to the bar he pulled me over in front of and had a scotch and espresso, each, and he used my ticket money to pay for it.

it was fricking hilarious, I got pulled over because he wanted a drink LOL

[paulstrgn]

Now that is funny. But the one thing I know and obliviously you learned this too, when the lollipop stick comes out you stop or they shoot. I had never been pulled over when I lived there, but I love the story.

I would love to go back and visit Sicily someday, I have been back to Italy but not Sicily. Going back there is on my bucket list, that was the only place overseas the military ever sent me. There are a lot of places I would still love to visit. 

[GeekySquid]

32 minutes ago, paulstrgn said:

I would love to go back and visit Sicily someday,

Make it happen, I was there 3 years ago and to my mind it is still stark but beautiful near Sig and up Mount Etna.

Yep they do shoot if you don't stop. we lost 3 marines that way. It was their fault but it was tragic to die that way just the same.

two more short stories.

First one

We had an XO who died and a CO who was Retired against his will; it was that or Leavenworth.

That meant that a new CO and XO showed up the same week. CO was cool. I had flown with him in Special Projects, partied with him and his wife, and their kids used to babysit my infant daughter. Great folks and I was stoked to have him as CO. XO was a different story. He considered himself a Godly man, and he damn sure not only told you he was, he told you that you would be one too or he would F you over. I kid you not, that was how he introduced himself.

That's not the funny part.

About a month after they got there and things settled out, their wives took a trip to Naples for a couple days. Nothing strange there. The next month the Skipper had a party at his house and he made sure that me and my crew were going to be there. He was cool to party with so I had no problems with showing up. My crew did not know him so really didn;t want to go.

Typical thing, summer, drinks, BBQ, inside outside, kids running around and thirty or so brown nosing Junior O's trying to kiss his butt. XO and his wife showed up and you could tell he was not amused that alcohol was there and that enlisted folks were mixing with officers. Heavens!

Now the funny part.

I was inside talking to the Skipper and his wife and the XO and wife joined our group of people.

Then someone asked the XO's wife how she liked Naples. She got in a huff and wanted to (rhetorically I assume) know who "those people" thought they were. She literally said "Don't they know I am a U.S. Navy Captains wife?"

Since she was in Naples Italy without a diplomatic escort or bodyguard, you have to assume the answer is a resounding NO. Anyway, trying to diffuse all our stunned looks the Skippers wife started laughing and said "I still don't know why they gave us $25 Dollar tickets for standing on a bridge."  Now I knew and so did others that that could not be why the got the tickets, so I asked her if she still had it and she went to get it.

When I read the ticket I did a spit take and spewed my Crown Royal all over the XO and a couple of others I was laughing so hard. There was only one other person there who spoke and read Italian and she grabbed the ticket and started howling. As you can imagine everyone was curious and a bit bemused over what was so funny.

I asked the XO's wife if she got one too, and she stammered that she had, and I started laughing more.

I finally caught my breathe as did Linda the other Italian speaker, and I looked at my Skipper and said in as flat a tone as I could. "You are now married to a licensed prostitute in Naples, Italy".

The Skipper and his wife howled with laughter, the XO and his wife almost had strokes on the spot and did not find it funny at all.

Skip forward about 3 months and I went back to their house and they had framed it and placed a placard on it saying what it was for and all that.

In 3 more months the XO was caught forcing a young male sailor to "service him" in exchange for leniency on some trumped up charge. Mr. Godly did make it to Kansas and as I understand it he was very popular at Leavenworth after dark. Mrs. Godly snuck out of town in the dead of night flying commercial to avoid any contact with people at any base.

Second story, really short.

i lived at the top of Mount Etna when it exploded last time. My villa was in the middle of the lava flows.

For months we would just walk right next to the flows any time day or night. There were moving like 2 meters a day which is really really slow. It was cool and I had some great pics. Keeping my daughter away from the flows was a challenge but luckily she never got burnt.

 

Edited October 28, 2018 by GeekySquid
spelling

[paulstrgn]

Those are some very interesting stories to say the least. 

I hope to go back after I retire next year, I know I will enjoy it.

[GeekySquid]

On 10/25/2018 at 9:16 AM, GeekySquid said:

Update 10/26/2018 11 A.M PST

Being incapable and unwilling to be patient (character flaw, I know),  I have been checking Ebenefits daily (1 morning, 1 night) to see if any changes occurred. Excessive maybe but it works for me.

Today at 6 a.m. PST I looked at the claim and it had moved to Preparation for decision from the Requested Docs Past Due status. Makes me wonder if that status does not trigger a rater to actually look at the claim again?

at 11 A.M. I decided to see if Vets.gov had the same status. I believe someone told me that they were supposed to be in sync. They aren't. Vets says they are gathering evidence still.

The new Ebenefits Estimated Completion date is 12 Dec 2018, a whole month earlier than before. woohoo I might get a nice holiday gift from the VA. lol NOT!

Update 10/27/2018 5:45 PM PST

So as usual I checked this morning at approximately 8 AM CST, figuring since the claim is at site 320 and that is either Ky or TN, that is a good time to see if anyone was around or had been overnight. No joy. No change.

Now at 5:45 PM PST (my local) which should be like 7:45 CST, the status has updated again. It now says

• Pending decision approval

Which is very interesting and if it does not start bouncing back and forth between statuses, I might actually see it change to finalized in a week or two.

as I suspected I am now in the bounce house.

The last status of pending decision approval had an est completion date of Nov 7, 2018.

Today as of 5:02 PM PST the status changed back to

• Review of Evidence

with an estimated date range of 11/23/2018 - 12/20/2018

so much for my hoped for early holiday present.

I suspect this bouncing may go on for a while.  wah wah wah wah wah....