Posted on Nov 12, 2013
How can the VA speed things up with the claim status?
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I have currently been waiting for almost 3 years now for a claim I submitted. I am already getting a percentage but that claim only took 6-8 months. With the obvious increase in Vets getting out of the service and all the wounded warriors we have the claim status is going slower. What can we or the GOV do to help speed things up? Hire vets to help vets? Hire more people in the VA system? Thoughts?
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VA Claim
VA Claim
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I initially started to post a suggestion for each person posting on this thread - but I think I'll go this route.
Folks - don't deal with the VA on your own. Too many of us do this and end up as so many of you are describing. Find a Veteran Service Organization (VSO) of your choice (i.e. - VFW, DAV, etc.) speak to one of the VSO's Service Officers and sign a VA Form 21-22 to permit your selected VSO the authority to look at your file within the VA while it is being processed. Sometimes it's a simple thing - like signing a form 5103 and mailing it in that's holding things up.
A couple of words of caution - (1) expect your claim processing to take time. (2) getting a lawyer will not make things any better unless your claim is in the queue for BVA, etc. (3) never give the VA original copies of military records - give them copies. (4) Don't be afraid to challenge VA findings - use outside doctors and the VA's own DBQ forms for help your case. (5) you can challenge the VA decisions ad naseum - take advantage of it.
I can't answer all the questions you have - mostly because I don't have your case file in front of me. What I can provide is some specific suggestions and tactics on what to do. If you have specific questions, please do NOT put them here on the forum. PM me and I'll get with you and make suggestions. Again, I don't have all the answers, but I'll bet I can find someone that does....... even if you might not like the answers!
Folks - don't deal with the VA on your own. Too many of us do this and end up as so many of you are describing. Find a Veteran Service Organization (VSO) of your choice (i.e. - VFW, DAV, etc.) speak to one of the VSO's Service Officers and sign a VA Form 21-22 to permit your selected VSO the authority to look at your file within the VA while it is being processed. Sometimes it's a simple thing - like signing a form 5103 and mailing it in that's holding things up.
A couple of words of caution - (1) expect your claim processing to take time. (2) getting a lawyer will not make things any better unless your claim is in the queue for BVA, etc. (3) never give the VA original copies of military records - give them copies. (4) Don't be afraid to challenge VA findings - use outside doctors and the VA's own DBQ forms for help your case. (5) you can challenge the VA decisions ad naseum - take advantage of it.
I can't answer all the questions you have - mostly because I don't have your case file in front of me. What I can provide is some specific suggestions and tactics on what to do. If you have specific questions, please do NOT put them here on the forum. PM me and I'll get with you and make suggestions. Again, I don't have all the answers, but I'll bet I can find someone that does....... even if you might not like the answers!
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TSgt Scott Hurley
I will piggy back on this for the AF. When I got out I was given two copies of my medical records on CD-ROM. One was for me and the other was for the VA. Of course the VA did not know what to think of the disk. But I did print my entire record for them. But I still handed them the disk too. And like PO1 (Join to see) said, go and see the service officers of the VFW, American Legion, or the DAV. They are there to help. Even if you are not a member. They will still help you.
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PO1 (Join to see)
TSgt Scott Hurley Exactly! Membership is NOT required - of course the VSO would like you to become a member, assuming you are eligible. I can assure you I deal with veterans daily that are not associated to any VSO at all. Those individuals that do not want to become members get the precise same level of dedication to their situation as members from me.
Why? LOL! I get asked that question all the time - the answer: when I needed help with my claim(s) no one offered to help and I was struggling mightily - all in vain. When I talked to a Service Officer from a VSO he was able to find the difficulty with my claim in about 2 days, gave me the direction to go...I took it from there. So, I decided to repay the debt AND to pay it forward. There's no shortage of people that need help. Sometimes though, it's harder to convince the smart ones - especially the college educated ones - that dealing with the VA alone is NOT the best way nor the intelligent way to go about it......
Like my great-great-grandfather used to say: "Diploma don't mean nothing if you don't use your brains"....smartest man I ever met. He only had a 4th grade education but raised 13 kids, fought off Comanches, Apaches and mexican bandits and ran one of the larger ranches in the state of TEXAS. Never made it to the record books for anything - but was still feared by bandits and held in very high esteem by everyone else who met him well into his 80's.
Why? LOL! I get asked that question all the time - the answer: when I needed help with my claim(s) no one offered to help and I was struggling mightily - all in vain. When I talked to a Service Officer from a VSO he was able to find the difficulty with my claim in about 2 days, gave me the direction to go...I took it from there. So, I decided to repay the debt AND to pay it forward. There's no shortage of people that need help. Sometimes though, it's harder to convince the smart ones - especially the college educated ones - that dealing with the VA alone is NOT the best way nor the intelligent way to go about it......
Like my great-great-grandfather used to say: "Diploma don't mean nothing if you don't use your brains"....smartest man I ever met. He only had a 4th grade education but raised 13 kids, fought off Comanches, Apaches and mexican bandits and ran one of the larger ranches in the state of TEXAS. Never made it to the record books for anything - but was still feared by bandits and held in very high esteem by everyone else who met him well into his 80's.
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The VA has tried hiring more people. But of course it takes time and energy to get these new hires trained and ready to go. Sadly, I don't see the back log ending anytime soon. With the number of Veterans returning from deployments plus the number of older Veterans finally putting their paperwork in, to get the backlog totally cleared would require a lot of time, people and money.
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I feel your pain I am on about 2 1/2 years on my appeal as well, I keep getting the excuse of normal times, but as you stated with all the new vets and initial claims taking priority, appeals get pushed back farther and farther.
I would think that a good fix would be to have a 25% of the claims process be handled for appeals and the other 75% for initial claims, but we know the reality is it will never happen that way.
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Cpl Jania Masterson
I know hire more people like me to do the claims. That would create tons of jobs and the claims would get done.
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