New Claim showing up ?

[Johhny_Drama]

Hello

 

I have a current claim for PTSD increase. I’m currently at 50 percent. I had a C&P exam and I also had my physiatrist who prescribed meds and my LCSW therapist send in the notes. This is sitting in gathering evidence. 
 

that’s accurate however I’m noticing claims in ebenefits and the vet .gov site saying claim closed for 

• Payment Issue (New)

I don’t even know what this is. It’s showing up as a second claim that’s like i submitted a new claim and I didn’t. The only claim that should be open is my request for PTSD increase. This was showing up when I had my Sleep apnea secondary to ptsd denied. This on the 23rd of Dec I see this new claim again listed as Payment Issue. I plan on calling but have anyone ever seen this ??

 

thank you 

[GBArmy]

Johnny_Drama Call Peggy, 800-827-1000 right at 8:00 A.M. or wait a couple of hours. Don't get your anxiety up; just call. We have no way of speculating and, if such and such happened to one veteran, it doesn't mean the same thing will happen to you.They may have to connect you to finance for a more detailed answer. Since you are talking to Peggy, you might as well ask what they can update you on concerning your claim, like where is it currently, is it at your RO or elsewhere. how long, next step, new C&P scheduled yet, etc. 

[brokensoldier244th]

"payment issue" is not a official or even unofficial vbms status so who knows? Ebenefits had always been inaccurate but  it's not a direct window to your e folder, either. It was an idea that VA tried to do, but the contractors that wrote the code did a hack job. Putting things into vbms is relatively easy, taking them out again is very hard. 

 

We aren't working today. An EO from three president made Christmas Eve a holiday for federal employees.

Edited December 24, 2020 by brokensoldier244th

[brokensoldier244th]

I should expand on this, now that I am awake. 

When I said 'putting things into VBMS (what we use to look at your claim file) I meant actual 'code', like programming changes, not documents or evidence. 

Ebenefits was a joint initiative between VA and whomever did the coding. It scrapes data from your claim file to generate the status you see, but we, as VSRs and RVSRs have no idea how it comes up with some of the status that it does, or when it updates, or what data it has access to from where, other than we know it updates at least once a day overnight. Therefore changes you 'see' in Ebenefits may not be indicative of anything that has happened to your claim file in the last 24 hours, and potentially longer over a weekend. If you upload from Ebenefits you should see those uploads represented pretty quickly, usually within 24 hours- about the same as I do. If you mailed stuff to an RO and it gets transferred to Janesville and THEY scan it in it can take a few days, but we backdate based on the postal date, not the scanned in date.  

I don't know if transitioning to VA.gov will make things any better. I can only say (not be because I can't, just 'cause I literally don't know) that what I see in your claim file and what YOU see are different things because I can see transactional data within seconds after a change is made, a document is added, etc, if it was internal (one of us or an RVSR). Things submitted by you take a day or so.

This is why even if you work on your own claims its good to have a VSO around. THEY can see your Claim file the same as we can if they are NSO (national service officers- DAV, AM Legion, VFW, etc), and I would assume that state and county level VSOs can as well. Not every lawyer that works VA claims has a POA identifier in our system I could almost guarantee- there are just too many lawyers. While they are busy as hell and some are better than others when it comes to communication its either that, or request your Cfile. That request will be a 'fixed in time' as of the time its generated, though. 

No, I don't know why it takes so long, especially since most anyone in the last 20 or so years has an electronic claim file from the start, and older than that has been scanned in for most veterans, though it is still ongoing and there ARE some of you out there that still have paper files that haven't been scanned in all the way, yet. I make requests for stuff like this every day, and I can tell you that right now with covid it takes me weeks and longer to get anything back, same as you, because the national records centers are all in varying status of operation and staffing.

It sucks, believe me, and I apologize for them. I can work from home and access what I need- THEY can't remotely scan a paper file in a giant warehouse, so if their location is not open to staffing nothing gets scanned. This is affecting a LOT of claims for SC that involve research like duty location (for exposure, AO, etc) and MST/PTSD (where I may need OMPF or STRs to verify stressors, medical treatment for events that happened, LOD's, MP reports, adjudicative actions by Boards and Courts Martial) and I can't get the records any faster than you can. 

While you can represent yourself I don't know that you can get access as a POA to your own file (or a family member doing POA for you). The process is a pain, involves a lot of paperwork, lots of security and verifcation, and a whole host of other stuff in a CFR that Ive read but don't completely understand since it doesn't really apply to what I do daily- I have enough CFRs and M21 to read already!

 

 

[Johhny_Drama]

6 minutes ago, brokensoldier244th said:

I should expand on this, now that I am awake. 

When I said 'putting things into VBMS (what we use to look at your claim file) I meant actual 'code', like programming changes, not documents or evidence. 

Ebenefits was a joint initiative between VA and whomever did the coding. It scrapes data from your claim file to generate the status you see, but we, as VSRs and RVSRs have no idea how it comes up with some of the status that it does, or when it updates, or what data it has access to from where, other than we know it updates at least once a day overnight. Therefore changes you 'see' in Ebenefits may not be indicative of anything that has happened to your claim file in the last 24 hours, and potentially longer over a weekend. If you upload from Ebenefits you should see those uploads represented pretty quickly, usually within 24 hours- about the same as I do. If you mailed stuff to an RO and it gets transferred to Janesville and THEY scan it in it can take a few days, but we backdate based on the postal date, not the scanned in date.  

I don't know if transitioning to VA.gov will make things any better. I can only say (not be because I can't, just 'cause I literally don't know) that what I see in your claim file and what YOU see are different things because I can see transactional data within seconds after a change is made, a document is added, etc, if it was internal (one of us or an RVSR). Things submitted by you take a day or so.

This is why even if you work on your own claims its good to have a VSO around. THEY can see your Claim file the same as we can if they are NSO (national service officers- DAV, AM Legion, VFW, etc), and I would assume that state and county level VSOs can as well. Not every lawyer that works VA claims has a POA identifier in our system I could almost guarantee- there are just too many lawyers. While they are busy as hell and some are better than others when it comes to communication its either that, or request your Cfile. That request will be a 'fixed in time' as of the time its generated, though. 

No, I don't know why it takes so long, especially since most anyone in the last 20 or so years has an electronic claim file from the start, and older than that has been scanned in for most veterans, though it is still ongoing and there ARE some of you out there that still have paper files that haven't been scanned in all the way, yet. I make requests for stuff like this every day, and I can tell you that right now with covid it takes me weeks and longer to get anything back, same as you, because the national records centers are all in varying status of operation and staffing.

It sucks, believe me, and I apologize for them. I can work from home and access what I need- THEY can't remotely scan a paper file in a giant warehouse, so if their location is not open to staffing nothing gets scanned. This is affecting a LOT of claims for SC that involve research like duty location (for exposure, AO, etc) and MST/PTSD (where I may need OMPF or STRs to verify stressors, medical treatment for events that happened, LOD's, MP reports, adjudicative actions by Boards and Courts Martial) and I can't get the records any faster than you can. 

While you can represent yourself I don't know that you can get access as a POA to your own file (or a family member doing POA for you). The process is a pain, involves a lot of paperwork, lots of security and verifcation, and a whole host of other stuff in a CFR that Ive read but don't completely understand since it doesn't really apply to what I do daily- I have enough CFRs and M21 to read already!

 

I appreciate the explanation and taking the time  

what I am trying to say is when I look at my current open items / claims I will see the PTSD one which is valid  however under that I see a new claim and I don’t know what or why ..it says payment issue as if I opened up a new claim and called it payment issue  that’s where I’m confused  I will call Monday but just wanted to see if anyone ever noticed this  I don’t see any additional information either  just payment issue and nothing else  

 

[brokensoldier244th]

Mostly likely its an internal action of some kind. I had something similar when they took forever to take my son off my award after he went to school on DEA. I had to pay back that few months of dependent pay. There was a 'claim' added to my C file as an administrative action because, being an adverse action it's still a 'claim'- just coming from their end and not your end. Payment issue could be all sorts of stuff. Have you checked your EFT settings in Ebenefits? Have you gained or lost a dependant? Are you in Voc Rehab or something? Do you owe anything back for separation pay that they forgot to recoup whenever ago? ( I had one of these the other day- the guy had an award letter that said  "blah blah blah you get X amount, but wait, we have to recoup sep pay so you actually get Y"- except that for some reason years later VA finance is saying it wasn't recouped)

[Johhny_Drama]

1 hour ago, brokensoldier244th said:

Mostly likely its an internal action of some kind. I had something similar when they took forever to take my son off my award after he went to school on DEA. I had to pay back that few months of dependent pay. There was a 'claim' added to my C file as an administrative action because, being an adverse action it's still a 'claim'- just coming from their end and not your end. Payment issue could be all sorts of stuff. Have you checked your EFT settings in Ebenefits? Have you gained or lost a dependant? Are you in Voc Rehab or something? Do you owe anything back for separation pay that they forgot to recoup whenever ago? ( I had one of these the other day- the guy had an award letter that said  "blah blah blah you get X amount, but wait, we have to recoup sep pay so you actually get Y"- except that for some reason years later VA finance is saying it wasn't recouped)

I am single no kids nothing changed.  I had a appeal denial and didn’t get any extra funds. My rate is not changed. Not in any school... I have a claim for increase that’s in middle of gathering evidence. 
 

Here is what I see now. Again, this was just added to my status and I didn’t request this. This claim about payment thing started on Dec 14 and closed Dec 17. I don’t have a clue if this was just saying my rating was not increased therefore no back pay etc due? I didn’t even file a new claim about any payment issue. 
then on the 23rd I get this same thing a new claim and about payment issue. I only have 1 open claim for a increase and that’s showing open and normal. Hopefully the pics will help explain this.