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My Friend has been as to travel 90 miles for his comp exams.

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Mr cue

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So my friend calls me this morning tell me that lhi ask him to travel a 90 mile away.

This is crazy an ppl feel like this is ok.

If a veteran is disabled I don't many who can travel that far alone.

The va hospital is 10-15 mins away we're he and I have always had are comp exams.

I don't want to hear the hospital can no longer do them. Because they can.

This has to stop.

He told them he not able to travel that far they tell him it might be 2 3 weeks before they can get something closer.

Once I complete this fight.

I have a new mission

 

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4 minutes ago, Mr cue said:

So my friend calls me this morning tell me that lhi ask him to travel a 90 mile away.

This is crazy an ppl feel like this is ok.

If a veteran is disabled I don't many who can travel that far alone.

The va hospital is 10-15 mins away we're he and I have always had are comp exams.

I don't want to hear the hospital can no longer do them. Because they can.

This has to stop.

He told them he not able to travel that far they tell him it might be 2 3 weeks before they can get something closer.

Once I complete this fight.

I have a new mission

 

No, they can't.

If we try to schedule an exam and the VAMC is not accepting exams for certain things, or at all, then they aren't. Stop telling people what you *think* VA can and cannot do. Because, in this case, you are incorrect.

We routinely scan through pending exams that have gone over 30 days without being scheduled and re-route them to local VAMC if we can. If the VAMC isn't accepting exams then its not excepting exams. That's it. There isn't a way to over-ride it, it's based on the facility administrator's capacity to do an exam at that time. Thanks to covid, among other things, sometimes you just can't get what you want for a location for an exam. 

The veteran can call 800 827 1000 and request a shorter distance location and if there is one that is available we can sometimes switch the veteran to that one. I do it all the time- but only if the facility or location is accepting exams for that condition. 

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You are fighting the wrong fight, if the veteran cannot travel that far the veteran can have the LHI reschedule the exam. Two/three weeks is not going to change his rating effective date. You are still trying to force people to do something they may not be able to. Even though the VAMC is a few blocks away, there may not be a specialist that could perform the exam and you are not helping your friend. Every disagreement is not a fight to win. People are people and forcing someone to do something they may not want to do; you may get an answer you don’t want.

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"in my town", the DAV will pick up and transport Veterans, even if its 100 miles.  You see the Vans all over the hospital parking lots.  

Va cant be "everthing to everyone".   One or more Veterans, I have been told, live in foreign countries, so should VA docs come to them, if they are in Vietnam, too?  

Its not all THAT unusual to have to travel for medical care where its not available near you.  

If this Vet does not want to use DAV transportation for disabled Vets, the Veteran can have others drive him, and be reimbursed for mileage.  

I just got out of the VA hospital last week, and I was pleasanty suprised at the good medical care I received...including surgery.  

Trust me, I am very critical of VA.   The problems, many times, are caused by congress.  Example:

VA "cant pay doctors" what they deserve, because there is a cap at around $160k per year.  Yea, that sounds like a lot of money, but, try making student loan payments on $2,000,0000 in student loan debt for 10 or 12 years of medical school, and see if you still think 160k is enough.  Some doctors pay $10,000 per month on student loans.  Thats about 120,000 per year, so the 40k left over after student loan debt, seems rather small. 

Experienced surgeons should, and do, make 300k to 1 million or more, and, to attract these top docs, VA cant offer them peanuts.  

It needs to change to let VA pay doctors "docotors wages", not 40k per year after student loan debt.  That is not a doctors wage..secretaries often make more.  

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Well my case was send to the va medical center.

And I have seen others and you stated some still have a comp and pension department the buffalo ny regional hospital still has one.

Now to tell a veteran that the hospital doesn't have the doctor to do exams the va hospital has ever type of doctor.

Well my hospital do.

That the problem everyone think there is no way to force the va hand.

Like I said there is class action lawsuit there are petition there are many ways

So stop trying to tell veterans the spell the va give the regional office to tell veterans like it law. About the comp exams at the hospital

If the regional office was right there would be no board or court.

The va hospital can still do comp exams.

You stated

3 hours ago, brokensoldier244th said:

If we try to schedule an exam and the VAMC is not accepting exams for certain things, or at all, then they aren't. Stop telling people what you *think* VA can and cannot do. Because, in this case, you are incorrect.

 

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I have no idea what you are trying to say up above.

Suffice it to say that not ever veteran is close to a VA hospital, not every VA clinic or hospital has every kind of doctor to do C&P exams.

You are comingling the two scenarios. Just because a VA hospital or clinic has a "doctor for condition whatever" doesn't mean that doctor can do C&P exams- most of them don't, anyway- they see it as a conflict of interest. They are treating you, they are not in the best place to be objective when it comes to VBA. Many don't want to deal with it- their job is to be clinicians not to be gatekeepers and examiners for VA benefits. 

Treatment and benefits are two wholly separate things. There are very few VA doctors that do C&P exams, and the assumption that everyone in a white  coat that does them is a VA employee is probably where you are getting tripped up. Even in the VAMC or clinic a C&P examiner is likely still a contractor from outside of VA.

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I know right now my local VAMC has stopped doing exams. I had an exam at the VAMC scheduled for January. It was canceled and then moved to February. They called last week to cancel it again. I asked how many times were they going to cancel and they said the C&P examiners had been taken away to work in the hospital so they farmed my exam to a contractor. 

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