I have been a very outspoken critic of the Department of Veteran Affairs compensation and claim process, which has NOTHING to do with the health care side of the house, they are two different entities the claims process is done thru the Veteran Affairs Regional Offices (VARO) and health care is done thru the Veteran Affairs Medical Centers and clinics (VAMC) I receive excellent health care from a fine outstanding team of health professionals, a cardiologist, a primary care doctor and a psychiatrist, I have regular appointments, I see the cardiologist and primary care doctors every 6 months, and the shrink every 3 months, if I have immediate medical concerns, I call and I am worked in either the next day or told to go to an emergency room near my home, and the VA usually pays the bill for the ER care since it is for service connected medical issues (my heart) my severe heartburn is and has been caused by the VARO part of the system.
In this article Crisis at the VA as Benefits Claims Backlog Nearly Tops One Million
During the past four months, the Department of Veterans Affairs backlog of unfinished disability claims grew by more than 100,000, adding to an already mountainous backlog that is now close to topping one million.
The VA's claims backlog, which includes all benefits claims and all appeals at the Veterans Benefits Administration and the Board of Veterans Appeals at VA, was 803,000 on Jan. 5, 2009. The backlog hit 915,000 on May 4, 2009, a staggering 14 percent increase in four months.
My claim at the Board of Veteran Appeals (BVA) took from Dec 2003 - April 7, 2009 for the Judge to award the claim, more than 5 years, completely uncalled for, for many veterans they have no income while they are waiting for the compensation claim to be approved.
They end up depending on family and friends to care for them if they are unable to work. They live in trailers parked on other peoples property, they sleep on friends couches, they learn where the food banks are located (my favorite food bank is the Catholic Social Services) they even offered to get me a lawyer to handle my Social Security Disability claim pro bono back in 2003, luckily I didn't need to my SSD claim was approved in 4 months based on the cardio cath that was done by the VA Hospital on October 20, 2002, which showed my ejection fraction to be 25%, and that 2 of my bypasses had closed off to close to the wall of my heart even with stents placed in them, that they were inoperable.
The VA doctors determined that day, I was a medicate until death patient. SSD agreed with them and I am on the seven year review plan with SSD.
My VA claims process was an entire different story. I was given the name of a Service Officer at the VAMC I go to, and was told that he is the "best in the business" he worked for the Governor of the State of South Carolina, no one told me he was actually an American Legion service officer, and he never mentioned it, his business cards stated he was the representative for Governor Mark Sanford.
He told my wife and I that I could only file for one medical issue at a time, since I had numerous issues, heart disease, PTSD, herniated disks, sciatica, GERD, hemmeroids, psoriasis (autoimmune disease related to chemical weapon exposure) we decided that the heart disease was the worst problem and we filed the claim for it in November 2002, I wrote then Secretary of the VA Anthony Principi a letter stating that due to the numerous problems in my military career, I knew my claim was going to be problems, the human experiments at Vietnam Veterans of America, et al. v. Central Intelligence Agency, et al. then I was also a Gulf War One veteran and there are a lot of problems with Gulf War Illness, and also the attempted murder and robbery at Fort Wainwright, Alaksa in Feb 1975, I explained to him all of my medical problems that I felt should be service connected from my time in the Army.
No one told me that the letter I sent to Secretary Principi was considered an informal claim and established an effective date for benefits, according to the fine print in the VA's own rules. Secretary Principi in turn sent my letter to the Manager of the VARO, in Montgomery, Alabama, which is amazing since I was being treated at the Augusta GA, VAMC and my home of record was Hopkins, South Carolina at the time. The letter I received from Alabama is dated Dec 6, 2002.
It is not my fault the VA sent the letters to the wrong offices, and did not handle my claim properly, I did the things I was supposed to do. The rest of my fight with the VA has been previously documented 4300 Men killed or disabled! No questions asked. the VA and DOD did not want to address any of these issues. They didn't either, until the BVA Judge did on April 7, 2009.
My journey has been well documented here on Daily Kos, you have been with me thru the bad times and the great times (when I won) it has been a long journey.
But along the way, how many other veterans gave up in disgust and out of frustration, myself I gave up in May 1997, on the heart claim, because I had a great job (letter carrier at Postal Service) and Blue Cross health Insurance, I did not need the stress of fighting the VA, and so I quit 2 months into it. Little did I know that in a few short years I would need that claim to be won. I just wonder how many thousands if not hundreds of thousands have given up in disgust as I did?
Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said during a hearing in March that the VA is "almost criminally behind in processing claims."
This sums the system up pretty well as it is now
But without immediate intervention by Shinseki on the benefits claims backlog, the VA will continue to be mired in controversy.
"This is an unmitigated disaster, and grounds for the removal of top [Veterans Benefits Administration] and [Board of Veterans Appeals] officials," Sullivan said. "President Obama and Secretary Shinseki need to clean house at the Veterans Benefits Administration now, before VA's claim system collapses. Although hiring more claims processors will help, VBA also desperately needs new leaders and new policies.
"The wars and economic devastation continue to generate a flood of new patients and claims for VA. However, the Captain of the ship has changed at VA, and a new course has been plotted. Only time will tell if Secretary Shinseki can turn the ship around without additional damage to VA or harm to our veterans."
Demand that your elected officials hold Secretary Shinseki's feet to the fire and President Obama's and fix this messed up system. Linda Blimes a co-author of the 3 Trillion Dollar War has proposed a claims system where the VA accepts the claims and pays them, if there are red flags to make them suspect fraud then investigate the claim, and charge the veterans with fraud, very few claims are fraudulent, less than 2%, as shown by GAO reports on review of past claims. Instead of letting the nations veterans become destitute, homeless and divorced due to slow processing by the Department of Veterans Affairs Compensation and claims division.
Write and ask your elected officials to encourage the adaption of Linda Blimes suggestion, this would really help this nations veterans and their families, and for us to keep "The Promise".