MST Coordinator: No longer needed?

[CptDT]

EBenefits has my status as gathering evidence, and under requested documents there's an entry listed as "Request 1" for a "MST Coordinator" with a due date of "Not available" and status of "No Longer Needed."

Given that the claim is predicated on the MST, is this a bad sign?

Has anyone else seen something similar?

 

[GeekySquid]

On 10/29/2018 at 9:02 AM, CptDT said:

Given that the claim is predicated on the MST, is this a bad sign?

The value of this is based solely on your medical records, service records, any counseling in or out of the VA you included with your claim.

No one can say with any specific knowledge if this is good or bad.

The title of MST Coordinator is generally used by the VA to identify a worker who runs the MST program, holds sessions, sees patients etc.

When any type of claim is made there are lists of information the raters need that they send out for, and in the case of your claim the rater may have been trying to contact your MST coordinator, or believing you needed to speak to one, etc. etc etc.

I am sorry to say that without a lot more information offering an opinion on what that means would be a total pull it out your butt guess.

[CptDT]

8 hours ago, GeekySquid said:

I am sorry to say that without a lot more information offering an opinion on what that means would be a total pull it out your butt guess.

Thanks for the reply either way.

I suppose we'll just see what happens.

I was thinking last night that maybe it was a request from the MST coordinator, instead of a request related to a MST coordinator.

I did upload the NCIS investigation docs recently, so perhaps that's what they wanted.

[GeekySquid]

1 hour ago, CptDT said:

I was thinking last night that maybe it was a request from the MST coordinator, instead of a request related to a MST coordinator.

This is not likely for two reasons. The Claims process steps we see reflect actions the VA is taking, including responses they are waiting for. Second is that people/orgs the VA contacts have no right to "ask" anything of the VA in terms of our claims. So if you had had an MST Coordinator assigned in the past, that person would not use this path to contact you of seek an update on you, and there is no other realistic and medically necessary reason they could be asking about you.

I do wish I could help you but without more information there just isn't anything helpful I can say.

I did go back and try and look at my own claims, current and completed, because I know I have similar "no longer needed" status line on a couple of them. Unfortunately the DS Logon process is down right now and the help desk recording basically says hold your breath until we fix it.

I do remember that one such status occurred when I selected the button on the claims page saying something like I want a decision now, I won't be submitting any more evidence. It is on the claims page you re looking at to the right. I can't see it right now to give exact wording.

Anyway when I clicked that to get the case decided since the VA already has all the evidence in my Cfile waiting was a waste of time. Turns out they had tried to request records again from the same place they got the last ones. who knew?

[CptDT]

1 hour ago, GeekySquid said:

This is not likely for two reasons...

o well. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

I clicked that button as well. I expect that's just to placate us.

But yes, DEERS access is down at the moment and so the authentication to get into ebenefits is as well.

[GeekySquid]

3 minutes ago, CptDT said:

Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

i know the frustration and annoyance at having to hurry up and wait. In service I was okay with it. 3 decades later I am just over the Government saying that to me, when things are just so obvious and they can fix it with a keystroke or two.

Good luck and keep us informed. MST should never happen and is only made worse when the VA re-traumatizes the victim.

I would take a look at the recent articles from T-Bird. One has a link to a new finding by the OIG that the VA bungled most if not all MST claims cases since they changed the parameters in 2016/17 to make it clearer what they were supposed to be doing. This change was in response to a previous OIG finding that almost every prior MST claim had been bungled by the VA.

The OIG ordered the VA to review ALL of the claims to correct errors and reprocess them properly.

[CptDT]

Based on my Friday discussion with the 800-827-1000 folks, it appears that it was a request for documentation made by the MST personnel at the VA for proof of the incident (which I had already provided) so they could validate the basis of the claim before sending it to the regional office to be worked. I uploaded more documents from NCIS, and then the request was marked as no longer needed.

No one touched it after that, so it showed that documents were past due, which led me to calling the 800 number.

Looks like it's been forwarded to the regional office already though, given that the Tinnitus claim has now been dated in ebenefits whereas before it did not have a submitted date next to it.

 

 

[Rattler]

On 11/13/2018 at 7:29 AM, CptDT said:

Based on my Friday discussion with the 800-827-1000 folks, it appears that it was a request for documentation made by the MST personnel at the VA for proof of the incident (which I had already provided) so they could validate the basis of the claim before sending it to the regional office to be worked. I uploaded more documents from NCIS, and then the request was marked as no longer needed.

No one touched it after that, so it showed that documents were past due, which led me to calling the 800 number.

Looks like it's been forwarded to the regional office already though, given that the Tinnitus claim has now been dated in ebenefits whereas before it did not have a submitted date next to it.

 

 

Only believe about half of what 800-827-1000 folks tell you. My guess from my own PTSD/MST claim is they were seeking the MST Coordinator records for the effective date when you first started treatment. If it was me I would go to the nearest hospital and go get your MH records and go through them an pick out the ones that talk about your MST experience.  I think you said you had a private doc I would get them too and go through them and upload only the MST stuff. What you want to do is put the right records in front of the rater so he/she doesn't have to look for them.