I was told Tuesday by my VR&E counselor that the Seattle and OaklandVAROs are no longer accepting new claims. All claims are being rerouted to Salt Lake City and other VAROs with less of a backlog. Brilliant. How about outsourcing them to a subcontractor? I guess that might put someone out of work if it was revealed that the civilian counterpart to a prestigious all-paper bureaucracy was more efficient, accurate and timely.
So if some of you discover you are getting your denials on Salt Lick City’s VARO literature, relax. It took about two months to send the records there Pony Express. And, I presume Vets understand SLC has it’s own backlog albeit not so long. Any NODs will have to still be routed through SEARO. It will be like a private Claims Management Center in another state-gee… just like the AMC, huh? Somebody probably got promoted for that one.
asknod
Bethanie Spangenberg
kcraveiro
robinhoodesqvetsatty
Wesley McCauley
Veterans Claims Help 
And you could even see letterheads from the Dakotas Regional Office Sioux Falls, heaven forbid! 🙂
I have to say though that their denials do come lightening fast. Just everything else seems to go around the in the circular file for a while. I still think they should revamp the system and have a “Western District” in Denver and an “Eastern District” in DC and then scrap the Regional Offices. Have a local County VSO as the local liasion. Contracting it all out would save billions, and about 60,000 federal employees would lose their jobs. And of course the Unions wouldn’t have their hands out for thier “cut”. Not that I wish being unemployed and homeless on anyone but dead wood is dead wood. Better than worm wood!