Question:
Jim,
Thank you for the great work you do through your postings. The information, advice and source links you provide is a great service to those of us actively navigating through the VA maze.
I have a question that I have not seen addressed in your postings previously. My question centers on how you believe a VSO’s individual performance is rated by their respective organizations – if they are at all. In a nutshell, is win/loss “score” kept as an individual performance measure?
In my case, I did sign with an AL VSO (before I knew better) but have pursued my case for a rating increase completely on my own – have never heard a word from the VSO and, of course, no returned phone calls. I’m positive that I will prevail (even if it is in round 2, 3 or 4), since this is a solid very well founded case, but I don’t want the VSO to get credited for a “win” since they have done absolutely nothing for me.
If I fire the VSO will that action cause any additional delays in the decision process?
Again, thanks for all you give to our brothers and sisters.
**220 days claim pending, 65 since C&P exam – and counting**
Answer:
Your "signature" cracked me up. I hadn't seen that before and you can bet I'm plagiarizing it from you. I'm guessing that there is a "widget" available to set a clock like that.
Good work!
(I've looked and there are plenty of counters available around the Internet that will plug into your home page, your web site or even your email. Commonly called “Gadgets” or “Widgets” you can find them with a Google search and start a timer for your claim or appeal! Help keep the VBA informed with a high degree of accuracy! They'll love you for it.)
It's very unfortunate that there seems to be no accounting in any VSO group of a win/loss record.
In my recent columns about legislative actions in Ohio we noted there was no performance measurement on Veterans Service Organizations who were granted millions of state tax dollars. Further, there are no standard or accepted practice guidelines for Veterans Service Officers. Yet these are the same self serving groups that lobbied against veterans rights to retain a certified, practicing, licensed attorney to assist them. They were obviously protecting their own nests and almost won.
However, I wouldn't bother with the VSO now. It might cause a hiccup and you don't need to do that to make a point.
If it goes like mine did, you'll win your case and 3 months later your former VSO will send you a form letter congratulating themselves for their hard work on your behalf.
Along with that you'll get more invitations to purchase a Life Membership, a t-shirt and a hat.
Their membership numbers are spiraling down the bowl and these are desperation moves for survival. Don't pay it any attention, you can't help or hurt them.
Stay focused on you, not them. Keep up the good work.
Jim Strickland's Mailbag: Volume #43 for 2008
NOTE: Letters in my mailbag are reprinted just as they come to me. Spelling and grammar are left as is and only small corrections are made to improve readability, ensure anonymity or delete expletives that may offend some readers. This is not legal advice. You should always seek the advice of an attorney who is qualified in Veterans' law before you make any decisions about your own benefits.
06.09.08
Question:
Jim,
Despite the numerous documents I have submitted to the VA, it seems like there is not enough proof to make this people get the ball rolling for my claim. I foresee my claim going all the way to the end and possibly getting denied.
I have a strong track of medical record that supports my claim for a variety of service related illness. Would you recommend hiring a lawyer? Do you have a preference in mind?
My job is getting jeopardized by my poor attendance record due to illness and visits to the VA Hospital. I need a stronger advocate and resources to acquire more evidence from the DOD (USMC). I have called many times to various agencies and I'm always unsuccessful to not get any positive feedback. I have been pointed to different agencies around and about, I basically lost my faith in the system, despite the availability of FOIA for Veterans requesting information.
Answer:
Thank you for your service to our country.
I'm just guessing that you are receiving a steady stream of letters from the VA requesting more information. I almost hate to tell you this but those are computer generated and fairly meaningless.
Some years ago the courts ruled that VA has a "duty to assist" a veteran with gathering evidence. One way the VA fulfills that duty is to inform you of your right and the necessity of having all the evidence possible to win your claim.
Unfortunately, they don't look to see if the evidence at hand is adequate and then stop sending the letters and decide your case. Your folder/file is marching in place in a line of 400,000 to 600,000 others and it's doubtful it has even been looked at by anyone with any authority.
Once your benefits application is received at VBA the machine goes to work. It's too bad that the machine is poorly constructed, poorly designed, needs oil and there are few people who are competent to work on it.
Your application was received, dated and passed to a Veterans Services Representative (VSR). To get from the mail room to his or her attention may have taken months.
This DVA employee quickly screens the file and application to ensure validity and enters things into an ancient computer system. Then you get letters. If you have told VA that there are records they should get for you, that process begins. Depending on the amount of stuff that should be retrieved, the appropriate inquiries begin. The VSR may schedule you for a Compensation and Pension (C&P) exam now.
While that's happening, your folder is sent back to "Start" to wait its turn. As documents continue to arrive, file clerks put them into (hopefully) your folder. Nothing else is happening and nobody is reading the arriving documents. Note that if you have been writing letters asking why there are delays, you've wasted time and paper...they aren't being read as they arrive, only filed.
Eventually, your folder gets to the VSR again and he "perfects" your folder to ensure that all the things needed are there. (He ignores all the angry letters you wrote) As much as a year may have passed by now and nothing substantial has happened to your application. If the VSR determines that more is needed or requested documents have not been delivered, the "duty to assist" burden requires VA to try again. More letters may go out, more computer inquiries may be sent.
Your folder is returned to its own limbo to wait. You keep getting those letters that drive you crazy. Eventually, your folder is "perfected" and the VSR will put it in the very long line to be sent to a Ratings Veterans Service Representative (RSVR).
There it marches in place for weeks or months waiting its turn. It isn't looked at by anyone during this wait.
Finally, the time has come. It's Monday morning and your folder has been delivered to an RSVR for adjudication. This individual is on a quota system and should adjudicate or close 5 files today. He's got his coffee and he's staring at the 5 cases and he sees that each folder is about 6 inches thick.
You're probably wondering why he isn't getting his data off his computer screen? That would be because there is no meaningful computerized data. The computer system serves as a control system. There are calendars for timely reminders and some info about the veteran in these but the VBA is a paper driven organization. Your folder was delivered to the RSVR in an old grocery cart pushed around by a very junior employee.
The folders, and much of the paper in them are old. Papers fall out, get jumbled and files are misplaced and lost. Your old military records are sometimes faded and impossible to read.
To properly adjudicate your claim the RSVR must read every detail in there. That RSVR should have a good medical background and understand what is there without spending time looking it up and researching it.
Rarely is any of that true. The RSVR doesn't have the time to do a great job, she's lucky if she has time to do a poor job.
Accuracy isn't tracked. With the quota system, the goal is to close the file, nothing more. A closed file is a good file and everyone will get hefty bonuses at Christmas. Your VARO is judged only by how many files it can close.
If the decision on a case is wrong, one of 2 things happens; the veteran gives up and goes away or he appeals. Either way, it's taken care of and closed. Someone else will take care of it in the future, what counts today is getting that file closed.
So, the RSVR looks it over close enough to find a couple of points to deny on. He isn't searching for reasons to approve, he looks for reasons to deny. It's quicker that way. Approve equals difficult. Deny equals easy.
If the RSVR denies, you get a letter and that ends it unless you appeal. Your application for benefits has been in the chute for 1 ½ years before denial.
If your claim is so well perfected that it must be approved, the RSVR looks for data to support the lowest rating possible.
If approved, your file goes on to a more senior person or persons for review. It's entered another waiting period and sits for weeks or months. Their job is to find a reason to overturn the approval or to assign an even lower rating.
When they finish, and the final decision is made, computer entries are made and you receive the award letter, the finance people begin calculating your back pay and so on.
It's easy to understand that by now you may have been waiting for over 2 years.
Your VBA is a little behind in its work. It's estimated that in the 57 Regional Offices that process claims there are 400,000 to 600,000 cases waiting. The reasons for this are plentiful.
During the Clinton years both the military and the VA saw massive cutbacks in personnel. There was peace and prosperity and we just didn't need all these folks. The WWII veterans were dying and Vietnam veterans were avoiding the VA at all costs. Why should America spend tax dollars on veterans when they were dying off?
Then there was an attack on our country that changed everything.
We moved quickly to rebuild our decimated military and create a potential need for veterans services. Then, there was another phenomenon that nobody anticipated.
WWII, Korea and Vietnam veterans who had been somewhat at peace with their history saw war pumped in over broadband cables into their living rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms.
On large screen televisions across the nation we watched as the twin towers fell. We could clearly see those poor souls jumping to the concrete streets below to avoid the conflagration of jet fuel A and steel above. Then the towers fell and we were given close up live views of terrified people running screaming through the streets.
This was repeated so many times that even the most jaded of us complained, "Enough already."
Then came the surprise. Our WWII, Korea and Vietnam veterans had recurrences and escalations of PTSD that shocked them and everyone else. The sights and sounds of 9/11 drug buried memories to the surface. Watching America mobilize for war sent many vets over the edge and they started seeking help at a poorly staffed and unprepared VHA. At the time, most VA mental health services were provided at off campus locations, Vet Centers, far away from the VA that veterans loathed.
Vets who needed mental and physical health care began to flock to VA and overwhelmed the system. About then we all learned that we could file disability benefits claims on a computer and file claims we did. We joined Internet chat groups to discover that other guys got 30% for hemorrhoids and 60% for diabetes and even 100% if we couldn't keep a job.
Web sites like VAWatchdog were providing great information on how to file your own claims and even handle your own appeals. In 2007 lawyers were invited to the party. More about lawyers in a moment.
By then the broken bodies and shattered minds of our newest, youngest veterans started coming home. Vietnam vets were getting older as all this happened. The numbers of Type 2 Diabetes, prostate cancer, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, lung cancer and other presumptive herbicide cases increased dramatically.
We filed more claims. Then, we filed some more claims. Veterans were writing to me to tell me they had 12 or 13 claims in the hopper.
Congress responded by looking the other way.
Some of the representatives who were tasked to protect our rights were busy with other things. A good example of that might be Senator Larry Craig's obvious disdain for veterans. A formerly powerful Senator, Craig has served and led numerous committees that govern the future of veterans.
He made his contempt for us clear last year: "CRAIG ISSUES WARNING ABOUT MANDATORY FUNDING FOR VA".
It seems that Craig had his mind on other things at the time http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfAUG07/nf082807-11.htm
Even our health care system lacked in many areas. The "scandal" at Walter Reed uncovered the fact that the health care infrastructure meant to serve our needs had crumbled in neglect.
That there is little or no communication between DOD and VHA quickly became apparent. A wounded soldier who received good care from Walter Reed was lost as a veteran. A seamless system for transfer of records to ensure a continuity of care didn't exist.
A year or two ago, the VBA decided that it was time to beef up staffing and went on a hiring frenzy. They were determined to hire and train 1000 or more new employees and get them trained and up to speed ASAP. Some seasoned employees predicted this wouldn't go as well as planned. http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfDEC07/nf120707-1.htm
As you may have guessed, the new employees aren't working out very well. The toll free calling system might be seen as typical of the "progress" at VBA.
Toll free numbers for veterans to call seemed a good idea years ago. It didn't work very well but at least the calls were routed to your VARO and a few veterans got the information they needed.
In a rush to use these new employees, the VBA has decided that these telephone calls will now bypass your VARO and be answered at a regional call center by the new employees. The transition of this barely functioning service was done quietly. I wouldn't have noticed until my readers began raising hell about the terribly flawed information they've recently received when they called VBA toll free.
I asked a few "VA Insiders" what was going on? These "Insiders" are friends, strong supporters of veterans and their VBA employer. They like their jobs at VBA and want to be proud of their work. I depend on them and trust them to tell me the truth.
One summed up his opinion of this new call center process by telling me, "The call centers are filled with retards...they don't seem to know $h1t."
The GAO must have overheard his assessment and then looked into how well things were going at our new and improved VBA. http://vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfMAY08/nf052808-3.htm
Your issues are routine and ordinary. Every other veteran is experiencing just what you are and there is nothing you can do about it but wait your turn.
Finally, no...a lawyer won't help you. The fact is, you can't retain an attorney to assist you with your benefits at the VBA until after you have been denied.
In years past there have been a number of attempts to change the ancient law that restricts veterans from using lawyers to wrestle with the VBA. Each time, heavy resistance from VBA and its allies have halted any such progress.
At long last, in June of 2007 a law was finally in place to allow us to retain an attorney. It was a watered down version of what we asked for but we're used to, "It's better than nothing" in the veteran community.
Why did it take so long and why the struggle to get that far?
Your Veterans Service Organizations, those groups that are there to protect you, joined the VA hand in hand to fight against your right to hire a lawyer. These organizations receive state and federal tax money and other benefits if you use their poorly trained and unsupervised Veterans Service Officers to file your claim. They didn't want you going to a skilled, certified, licensed lawyer. They might lose your business and those tax dollars.
There you have it. Now you know why you're waiting, why all the idiot letters are being delivered and you understand more about the process that you wanted to.
The next time you write to me will be when you finally receive that award letter. When you've opened it to discover your claim was denied or underrated and that they seem to have ignored all the evidence, you and I will speak about your appeal. That's really pretty simple...you just lawyer up and settle in to wait 3 more years.
Welcome to the real world of the disabled American hero.
