To many people I am considered a "crusader" by the administration and buerucrats of the Veterans Administration, others call me a "trouble maker" because I refuse to accept the status quo that has been the "claims process" veterans and their families have known since the
last time it was redone by General of the Army Omar Bradley
"We are dealing with
veterans, not procedures –
with their problems, not ours."
Omar Bradley; 1947
Many people even veterans are unaware of the effect General Bradley had on the VA in the 1950s, he was very active after WW2 and General/President Eisenhower used one of his best friends to help transform the perception of the public in how the VA cared for the nations veterans after WW2 and the Korean War.
The VA has always had "problems" or "issues" whichever term you use to describe the non adversarial process of the VA claims program. Congress believes it has created an agency that is benevolent to the men and women harmed in military service, to the veterans having to deal with this agency, it is anything but non-adversarial, it is a whole new unexpected war, and one they are not well armed or knowledgeable to fight.
Congress has chartered many organizations to provide "free" service officers to the veterans and the widows to handle the paperwork needed to make the applications for these benefits.
About the Veterans Benefits Administration
Mission
The mission of the Veterans Benefits Administration, in partnership with the Veterans Health Administration and the National Cemetery Administration, is to provide benefits and services to the veterans and their families in a responsive, timely and compassionate manner in recognition of their service to the Nation.
Vision
Our vision is that the veterans whom we serve will feel that our nation has kept its commitment to them; employees will feel that they are both recognized for their contribution and are part of something larger than themselves; and taxpayers will feel that we've met the responsibilities they've entrusted to us. Courage, honesty, trust, respect, open communication, and accountability will be reflected in our day to day behavior.
Core Values
Veterans have earned our respect and are our reason for being, our common purpose. All our efforts are directed toward meeting their needs.
We are committed to communicating to our veterans and among ourselves in a timely, thorough, accurate, understandable and respectful manner.
We openly share our concerns and views and listen to those of veterans in order to bring about improvements in benefits and services, and the climate in which they are provided.
We value understandable business processes which consistently produce positive results.
We foster an environment that promotes personal and corporate initiative risk-taking and teamwork.
We are open to change and flexible in our attitudes.
Respect, integrity, trust and fairness are hallmarks of all our interactions.
We value a culture where everyone is involved, accountable, respected and appreciated.
We will perform at the highest level of competence, always, and take pride in accomplishment. We are a "can do" organization.
These all sound great until you then read news items like these:
VA official: Disability claims system ‘cannot be fixed'
Baling wire and bandages cannot save the veterans' disability claims process, the Veterans Affairs Department's chief technology officer said Thursday at a roundtable discussion about ways of cutting the growing backlog of claims and improving accuracy.
"In my judgment, it cannot be fixed," said Peter Levin. "We need to build a new system, and that is exactly what we are going to do."
Levin's comments came at a meeting organized by the House Veterans' Affairs Committee to toss around ideas for repairing a system that has a backlog of about 1.1 million claims awaiting decisions and an error rate on claims of 17 to 25 percent, depending on who is counting.
Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., the veterans' committee chairman, described the system as an "insult to veterans" who, on average, wait six months for an initial decision on benefits and who can wait for years if the decision is appealed.
"It looks like we are going backwards rather than forward," Filner said. "No matter how much we raise the budget, no matter how many people we hire, the backlog seems to get bigger."
"People die before their claim is adjudicated. They lose their home. They lost their car," Filner said.
Overhauling the disability claims process is the top priority of veterans' service organization and a top priority for the Obama administration, but there is no agreement on exactly what to do.
Now let me be very clear this has NOTHING to do with the VA Medical Centers, which in my opinion offer excellent health care to the nations veterans, I have had a triple by pass, 2 stents and have been treated solely by the VAMC system since 1997, the doctors and nurses and staff are among some ofthe best available in the nation, I have had better treatment by VA doctors than I did from doctors I selected thru the Blue Cross and other health care plans I had access to thru my work as a Letter carrier from 1984-2000. I like the VA docs better, I see a primary care doc regularly, a cardiologist every 6 months, a shrink every 3 months and specialists whenever I am referred by my other treating physicians, I have nothing bad to utter about health care from the VA, if the nation went to a nationalized health care system using the VA as a model I would support it.
My issues are with the other half of the VA the claims processing or as it is normally known the Regional Office and the BVA where the claims are appealed to after the RO has denied the initial claim.
The last time the system was revised was in the 1950s by General Omar Bradley, and filed are handled the same waythey were during the Korean War, all in paper, nothing is digitized, my own personal claim file is in boxes when are about 2 feet wide and 3 feet long the last time it was seen in Feb 2009, it was composed of 11 of these boxes and was moved on 2 rolling gurneys that have 3 shelves per gurney. I doubt some of that 33 feet of paper work has not been seen since it was placed in those boxes in 1982 when I left active duty.
The service organizations have been handling the majority of claims for veterans since they were created by Congress and given their special relationships, for moe than a century veterans have not even been allowed to retain lawyers to represent them against the VA the rules stated that the most a lawyer could charge a veteran for this service was ten dollars, I can't get a lawyer to even take a phone call for ten dollars let alone fight a multi year appeals.
In July 2007 the rules however were changed and veterans were for the first time allowed to retain lawyers after the initial denial of a claim, and the lawyers could collect up to 20% of the back pay the veterans had coming to them, if they won the claim. The Social Security disability system allows lawyers to collect 25% of back pay by they have a maximum that fluctuates, the last dollar amount I remember seeing was 5300.00
It comes doen to choice, the Veterans groups make statements that no one "lawyers" should be allowed to charge veterans for handling their compensation claims. The problem with that is then they are refusing to allow me to make a "choice" either I have to use a VSO from the "chartered organizations" or do it by myself. I like having a choice of hiring a lawyer that gets paid if I do, rather than have to deal with a VSO that that has nothing in the game, he gets paid by the veterans group or state agency that they work for, regardless of how many years of appeals, if I lose my home, my car, my spouse divorces they VSO could care less. They are more worried about protecting their "turf" regardless of how well they habdle your claim one thing is certain you will be added to their mailing list and you are bombarded with offers to sign up for a "life membership" for costs of 250. - 400 dollars the PVA is the only one that does not charge membership fees, you become a member by losing the use of your legs, your spinal cord, or your heart quits pumping blood well enough for you to walk and the VA puts you in a power chair (I qualified under the later paragraph).
Then you sing a power of attorney and the VSO then submits paperwork for "you" I have seen back dated "lets make a deal" where I got the short end of thestick, I have revoked POA's, I have been told that I must let them file the claim the way they want to and not the way I want, that what I want can NOT be done and they refuse, well when they are wrong the only choice you have is to either let them proceed and lose or revoke their power of attorney and find some one else or do it yourself.
This was a recent exchange between national Service Officer and myself
On Mar 19, 8:08 pm, Mike <testvets...@gmail.com> wrote:
It is easier to blame the veterans for bad claims than it is to
accept the fact that the entire system is messed up and needs fixing.
Veterans expect that SOs are experts and know what is needed to help
them get the benefits the veteran feels they deserve.
The SOs for the most part are over worked and don't have time to look
for evidence and won't do it, the duty to assist is supposed to be on
the VARO but that seems to disappear along with the "benefit of the
doubt rule" the onll benefit of the doubt I have seen in the past
decade is the fact that VA reps doubt any veterans ever tell them the
truth, we all are just a bunch of drug seeking liars. I have been told
that to my face by VAMC docs that this is his opinion of all
Vietnam veterans, he still does not understand why I went to the
patient rep on him and asked for a new doc.
I took a shot from DAV a week or so ago because I have fired a few
SOs and revoked their POA's because their actions and demands were
counter to MY best interest. He assumed they were right and I was
wrong, he had a lot of prejudices and he sees it from the SOs side of
the table and can't be bothered to see it from the average veterans
side, who has never dealt with the VA before and more than likely> never will again after this claim action.
They do not know who is handling the process right and who is sticking
it to them. So that is why people like Jim, Larry Scott, T Bird at
Hadit and the vets at VBN have such large groups of vets asking them
for help, then there are the new vets they trust the good ol boys
so much they created their own group IAVA since they seen how well the
old established groups helped the Vietnam veterans after 1970, they
love to pit era vetes against each other and we all know the WW2
veterans are the only ones who are "real war vets" just ask them they
will tell you.
The problem is now most of them are to old to man the veterans groups
offices so now the Nam vets are the main group in force and hold the
majority of offices, but where are they on atomic vets issues, SHAD
vets, Edgewood Arsenal vets, DU vets etc, they all claim there is no
evidence anyone was harmed by the Cold war tests, and I have some
ocean front property in Arizona for you, my step father an AF vet used
in the above ground tests had 3 kinds of cancer, 75% of the Edgewood
vets are dead or disabled and the others I don't have the data yet,
but I am sure there are damages to them also.
I have NO use for any of the groups I wish they would quit wasting all
of those dead trees asking my for life memberships the only group I
belong to in PVA because it is paid for in body parts and they give
you the membership, but they also have less than intelligent SOs and
when their told me I could not get my CAD and hypertension SC
secondary to my SC PTSD he was revoked also. The service
organizations have every right to pick their SOs but nothing says we
have to use them, I have the choice of hiring a SO or a lawyer that
will work with me on my needs, and not their "wants" that is the
American way choice and if I want to pay a lawyer by god I am glad I
have that choice as an American and quite frankly I wish the service
organizations would stop trying to interfere in my right to hire a
lawyer
Their response
Mike,
I wouldn't take your POA either. There is nothing worse than the
invididual who bounces around to every VSO because he doesn't like
what he hears. It is a waste of our time, and other veterans. If
folks like you know so much about the process and claims...don't go to
a VSO...I can't stand the people that come into my office for
assistance and when they don't like what they hear, they get all upset
beacause "I won't help them." Because I tell folks what they need to
hear, not what they want to hear. If you have no use for VSO's so
what...don't join. We'll fight for you in DC anyway. But, I tell you
what, if any of our proposed legislation provides you with an
additional benefit, I expect you to return it to the VA...because hey
you have no use for us.
I haven't seen any of these "agencies" except the Vietnam Veterans of America who helped file the lawsuit againstthe DOD, Army and CIA over the chemical weapons and drug experiments from the Cold War. 1955-1975
The other groups could not be bother by only 7120 abused veterans, not enough affected veterans to waste their energy on.
Vets have always had the right to an attorney at the court level. NOD
is not a court. BVA is not a court. a Vet should not have to pay for
their benefits. This is already having adverse affects at the local
VARO levels, with how they have to deal with the lawyers. Lawyers are
submitting mass amounts of useless paperwork, creating a longer
wait.
On Mar 11, 9:46 am, "Valerie Cortazzo" <uz2bf...@verizon.net> wrote:
> The bottom line of all this is that sometimes VSO's are not what is needed
> and veterans deserve the same rights as anyone else who goes to court. The
> right to hire an attorney is a basic right for everyone in the country and
> should remain that way for veterans as well.
>
>
>
>
>
> I rest my case, both of you stated that your VSO's did nothing. I ask
> this...what did you do?
>
> On Mar 10, 7:39 am, "Valerie Cortazzo" <uz2bf...@verizon.net> wrote:
> > I agree, I changed many times over the years because the VSO's I had were
> not doing anything. DAV just sat back for 2 years until Regional finally
> sent acknowledgement that they were my rep. They are in the same building
> and never once went to find out what the problem was. Then AM Legion just
> had me bombard them with information that really didn't belong in the file
> (didn't know that until after I changed) hoping they would give up. AMVETS
> called me and my family liars and said I screwed up my claim by sending in
> frivolous info, but the AM Legion was the one I sent it to and they
> submitted it. The only one worth their paycheck was Mike at the Purple
> Heart. He saw how poorly my claim had been handled, set down a couple of
> ground rules and went to work despite being told he should stay away from my
> claim by AMVETS rep. He then told me at a certain point that I would do
> better with a lawyer because my file was such a mess he honestly didn't have
> time to go through it thoroughly and a lawyer would and had to if they
> wanted paid. He said he just had too many clients to give my claim the
> attention it needed. I got a lawyer and am waiting on the DRO decision now.
>
> > Now, my point is that although I changed there were very good reasons and
> my last VSO confirmed that by telling me he would take the claim because no
> one ever gave me a good, honest and deserving try at SC.
>
>
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 12:30 AM
> > To: For Military Veterans
> > Subject: Re: request for help in allowing vets to keep
> on hiring lawyers
>
> > No offense but you don't have a clue on what you are speaking of in
> > this instance the PVA rep got kicked to the curb quicker than the
> > rest because he was a total idiot and refused to file the claim as
> > secondary to PTSD was I supposed to keep him as my rep, the DAV
> > fired the rep that was handling my claim and the new guy insisted I
> > drop my orgininal claim and start over with a 10% hypertension claim,
> > the VFW guywas the man that the DAV fired then he quit and moved to
> > Washington that is when I went to the PVA that is when I got the
> > lawyer smartest move I ever made and the National DAV office
> > when I contacted them acted pretty much just as you did just now I
> > rest my case.....
>
> > On Mar 9, 11:54 pm, wrote:
> > > Mike,
> > > No offense intended, but no wonder you had no success with the
> > > VSO's you switched whenever the wind changed. That is not the groups
> > > fault...but yours. You need to take some responsibility.
as you can see by the many exchanges service officers do not like lawyers taking away their business and filing frivilous paperwork what the VSO leaves out is that the VA Regional Offices have their best raters deal with claims that have lawyers filing the paperwork because they know it has more chance of getting seen by a Judge and usually the claim gets handled more quickly and fairly than it would have if the veteran had used a VSO where they can keep the status quo going, and let the appeals take years, the lawyers are not going to play their games, the faster the case gets settled the lawyer gets paid.
Veterans want what other Americans have taken for granted for decades, we want the ability to make a "choice" nothing more and nothing less, if I want to throw away my money on hiring a lawyer, then that should be my choice and not a bunch of drunks at the veterans bar.