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Dishonorable Treatment - Update on VA disability claims

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Posted 3/31/2013 3:58 PM (GMT 0)
Saw an extended piece on a Sunday talk show today on MSNBC.  It was called "Dishonorable Treatment", about how long it's taking to Vets to get their disability claims.  It was as bad as I was told, and even in my own claim.

They said in 1995, the VA had a back log of 11,000 claims.  As of 2013, the backlog was now 219,000!!!!

Out of that number, they said 30% of the claims were related to Viet-Nam vets, like us here.

They said right now, if you file a new claim for Agent Orange related disability (mostly PC), the average wait time to receive payment is 462 days, and that's assuming there are no snags.

On non-Agent Orange claims, the average wait time was over 630 days.

They claimed the VA had been authorized years ago to hire around 3,000 additional staff, but had only actually hired 300 or so.

The article infuriated me, as my AO claim is now more than 3 1/2 years out.

It might be possible to see the entire piece online, but  I didn't bother to look

David in SC

When I joined the Navy literally on my 18th birthday, holding a low lottery number, and not wanting to get drafted into the Army and end up in Nam, ended up there anyway, what irony.  They didn't mind taking me then, but not like many Vets, you get the shaft when you need them.  Even the women that run my local county Veterans Affairs office, slightly joke about how the VA is hoping us older vets will die before the VA has to make good.  Not so funny really.

Posted 3/31/2013 4:51 PM (GMT 0)
David,
I've worked with the VA for over 44 years and the last few years have been the worst I have ever seen it. They have become so bureaucratic that they have become ineffective in the simplest administration tasks. They end up doing a task multiple times instead of doing it right the first time. You get multiple answers that are contradictory to simple questions; phone calls go unanswered and voicemails are returned up to two weeks later.
The local clinics seem to be well run and I would also expect the hospitals are running well; but the admin services are a mess.
I wouldn't say something as trite as it is a government department that is inefficient; but in my professional opinion (I own a consulting company that does operational efficiency consulting) It is a dysfunctional organization and adding more people will just end up making the process slower. (This has been the case in the last two years where thousands of admins have been hired and the rate of processing has actually gone down according to the Senate sub committee on VA affairs).
This is a very common symptom in companies with poor leaders who don't hold people accountable for meeting standards. Companies usually self correct as these poor ones go out of business or get bought out; but there is no self correction in government agencies.
If you compare USAA, the private insurance and banking company for veterans, to a government agency the difference is night and day. I've also dealt with them for over 44 years and every issue I have had was handled immediately with just one phone call regardless of the complexity of the issue. And my insurance rates are also the lowest around. Good service requires good leaders who hold high standards.
I'm through with my VA rant, but dealing with them just pisses me off to no end.
Posted 3/31/2013 5:44 PM (GMT 0)
I have seen 3 or 4 interviews in the last week or 2 (Candy Crowley interviewing Shinseki, Rachel Maddow, Jon Stewart) so maybe the uninformed public will finally figure out how badly disabled veterans are treated. The inconsistency in the system is incredible. Why does Purgatory, who is truly going through hell, have to wait 3 years for the same claim that I had, from start to first check, done in 3 weeks, because my claim was sent to a different office. Why do some hospitals and clinics work well, while in mine in takes 5 months for a routine doctors appointment, it's been 4 months since I asked for a simple shingles shot and I was advised maybe in a couple of more months, yet I saw online that a VA hospital in Virginia has a walk-in Shingles shot clinic. And I am really sick of politicians laying blame on previous administrations, both Republican and Democrat, when we don't care who's at fault, we just want it fixed! rant over, fell better now.
Posted 3/31/2013 6:38 PM (GMT 0)
fern - for starters, I live in a backward state (my opinion after living in SC for 25 years), the VA regional here wasted over 1 1/2 years of that time with me, and never ever had any of the facts of my case, service record, etc. correct. according to them, I was in the navy when I was still a junior in high school!

and when I finally demanded it to be sent from SC to DC, I was called names by the rep in SC, and they made hinted threats that they would buy my records if I sent it on. This I reported to my county agent and my U.S. Senator when I wrote them. But nothing became of it.

very frustrating, with my ongoing issues, I very well may not be alive to ever see it settled, but I refuse
to give up on what is a very legitmate clame

john - I respect your well traveled road with the VA and your opinion, don't consider it a rant, but simply telling the truth. if the VA were a biz, it would have been Chapter 7 decades ago.

david
Posted 3/31/2013 8:44 PM (GMT 0)
David, I have read for a long time of your well-documented PCa "treatment" and it truly borders on the criminal. And now dealing with these government bureaucrats at the VA the last 3 1/2 years is just unconscionable. I sincerely wish you justice on this terrible journey that you have had to endure.

John T, very well said; you articulated the chronic lack of accountability that not just the VA but in my personal opinion many government agencies routinely operate because of the "system". This is what happens when bureaucrats for the most part do not have to worry about making sales or profit goals that will determine whether they are employed or not and whether their agency will still operate.

Tom in Buffalo, NY
Posted 3/31/2013 9:08 PM (GMT 0)
Like John T, I've had USSA insurance for 46 years--Simply outstanding..John was critically wounded in Vietnam when he was a cavalry recon platoon leader so he is well versed on stateside VA medical facilities..In my case, I always had private insurance for my family and didn't enter the VA system until 1996 when I was diagnosed with diabetes--I retained my private insurance.
I had a physician that I implicitly trusted until his retirement and I transferred this trust to a new pcp with disastrous results--he ignored my old pcp's psa test of 2.72 a year previously and the rise to 4.89 with no dre..The end result was my being diagnosed by symptoms a year and a half later..When I received my records for my civilian RO I discovered what had happened..I submitted a claim and settled for a miniscule amount since with my diabetes and my wife's MC I couldn't submit a federal suit.
The end result is not only money for veterans but also appropriate health care..Veterans are being denied psa test for pca in accordance with the federal USPSTF "recommendation"..I hate to see veterans die when their deaths could have been prevented by early diagnosis..Yeap, I've got my congressman involved.
Bill
Posted 3/31/2013 9:21 PM (GMT 0)
I'm through with my VA rant, but dealing with them just pisses me off to no end.

you must be mad ... i've never heard you talk like that cool !  i joined the army when i was 17.  hated it.  not for me but i did use all my GI Bill -- the "real" GI bill -- before it was axed. when a chickenhawk tells me "thank you for your service" i swear i want to punch him in the face cool .

ed

 

Posted 3/31/2013 11:26 PM (GMT 0)
I'm a Vietnam vet (1st Cavalry Division, 1969-70) and Agent Orange exposee. I'm not defending the VA but I can easily see how it is absolutely overwhelmed by the IRAQ / Afghanistan war vets coming home severely maimed by IEDs. I mean, really, what should have higher priority: someone with PCa that MAY have been caused by Agent Orange or some poor soul coming home missing two, three, or even four limbs? This doesn't even factor in the whole PTSD issue. Until our country stops involving itself in unwinnable wars I don't see any resolution to the VA overcrowding issue any time soon.
Posted 3/31/2013 11:35 PM (GMT 0)
onthefence,

according to my local VA office, they claim they work the claims from the oldest conflict to the newest, but I sometimes wonder. many of us viet nam vets are getting up there in age, as our brothers in the korea and ww2 before us.

when I came back, on a hospital plane, at the time, had pretty decent care at both military and va hospitals, I spent time at Bethesda outside of DC and at the big Navy Hospital in Philly. When I was fully discharge, I went to Florida, and received terrible care with the VA in St. Petersburg and Tampa. Don't know what that is like now, as I am talking about 1971 and 1972.

In my area, western SC, the best VA hospital is suppose to be in Asheville, NC, about 90 minute drive for me, but haven't had a need to use it. Most of the SC VA hospitals have terrible names, but can't say I know that first hand.

Have no complaints of my county VA office, all older women vets, and they really pour their heart and soul out for the rest of us. My delay certainly isn't due to anything they have done, they are equally frustrated.

david
Posted 4/1/2013 5:19 AM (GMT 0)
My former commander in Vietnam, Thomas Kelley, awarded a Medal of Honor and a tireless advocate for veterans, was summarily fired as the director of Veterans Affairs by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts two years ago.

My dad, now 90, was a pilot in the Army Air Corps during World War II and got a sweet GI Bill deal, which helped him get an education and a good job.

My grandfather was an Army medic during World War I, and got nothing for his service.  He became a pacifist and was totally opposed to the Vietnam War.

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