In the ages old game of Not It!, the last person tagged is “it” until he/she can tag someone anew and shout the same. Take that to an adult level and you have government.

South Dakota Squidley writes me with a cogent observation. What if? I concur with him. This isn’t like being a little bit pregnant. This is Not it! in its superlative form. What if VA actually succeeds in getting claims out the door in 125 days by 2015? Forget the abysmal accuracy (VA claims 86% vs. CAVC remand rate of 60+%) and just imagine the consequences. Alright, back up and imagine even more appeals filings in light of the aforementioned inevitability of error-prone decisions.

Here’s the sad, unvarnished truth. Of 1,250,000 claims adjudicated in a recent year, 60,000+ are going on to appeal. We know of the “Hidden Valley” closet down at the VARO where your claims cool off for a year after receipt of the Form 9 before being boxed up and FEDEX’d® to 810 Vermin Avenue. This is, of course, the invocation of the FORM 8 and the fabled “Laying On Of Hands” to move it to the mail room. . Having now been CERTIFIED as substantive, the claim proceeds on to mildew in Washington DC for a year in their in-box. Pray for no remands or that timeline flies out the window.

Squidley, formerly an employee of the Canoe Club, is on to something as I said. More Vets filing equals more Vets appealing. More Vets appealing means more claims piling up in the Hidden Valley. After they escape that, they’ll just pile up higher at the BVA. The VARO guys are just playing Not It! with the BVA. More claims out the door, right or wrong means more work for the tired, overworked, under-martinied VL Judges with golfer’s elbow.

In 1961, twenty Boards of three judges were authorized with each having a Judge/doctor who could make medical decisions on-site. In 1988, with the passage of the VJRA, Congress withdrew the power of the stethoscope from the Boards. No longer were they allowed to opine on your Hep.  Although they quit hiring doctors with a juris doctor minor, they haven’t gotten that memo yet but that’s a story for another day. In 1994, the backlog started to grow. Vietnam was coming home to roost.  VASEC abruptly redefined a “Veterans Board of Appeals” (plural) to consist of 1 (uno) (single) one judge each. All of a sudden there were 60 Boards. This was a bigger hat trick that Jesus doing the Loaves of Bread with Anne Greensprings.

Everything went swimmingly until  larger numbers of Vets started showing up who keep getting clobbered in these War games. VA continued to plod along at their usual tortoise pace blithely unaware that another tsunami was fast approaching. The BVA, being very innovative, started investing some of their senior legal deniers with the exalted title of Acting Veterans Law Judges. They were allowed to do this for 90 days at a stretch, or simply grab a claim out of the basket and run with it. The only problem is they take the one on top. If it’s a humdinger with tons of medical jive in it, he/she stands a good chance of blowing the call. The obverse is true, too. That’s how we got that first jetgun claim in 2004. I’m sure that unlucky fellow moved on when the bonuses and achievement awards dried up. The VASEC put a note on the Bulletin Board and said “We’ll have no more of that nonsense.”

Moving on to 2013, 14 and 15, Squid calls it as even on the time to adjudicate. The claims will sit in some new limbo. Did I forget to mention the other closet? How about all you folks (me included) who opted for the DRO review? Foolishly thinking the VA might revisit your claim with compassion, they simply re-deny-but-but you lose a year minimum. This is yet another convenient waiting room before you even get to the Form 9 waiting room.

Your claim will eventually be denied in a shorter time as VA measures it. Accuracy is assuredly going to go down. Remember haste makes waste? VA will probably have an acronym to cover that contingency. It will be reviewed a few more times at the RO the old-fashioned way but this will now be post-125-day limit. After the original, magic goal of four months and five days has transpired, they can revert to form and start filing in the Hidden Valley again. Try to remember that VA uses semantics the same way they do everything. Absent any compelling language from the Under Secretary for Denials Allyson “the Chipmunk” Hickey, they are free to take another three years playing tiddlywinks with your claim before handing it off to the BVA.

Unfortunately all the delays in the world are not going to change the number of the judges. They are still invested with the same sixty. Even assuming every Leagle Beagle in the house was capable of strapping on the  “Acting”mantle, there would be no staff attorneys left to flesh out the denials. The bottleneck has just reappeared down the line. Moreover, with an ever-increasing number of vets demanding a do over, the numbers and delays will simply increase at this level. Note also that this doesn’t envision even more yet, nor does the head Chipmunk mention any delays other than the one specific instance of an initial filing decision. Once that 125-day hurtle is semantically surmounted, it’s back to the 2 year grind to a SOC.

Vets email me and say “Well, thank goodness they’re finally going to deal with this backlog problem.” Newsflash. Nothing will change. You’ll get in line and they’ll be handing out denials a week later at the other end. The longer, more protracted denial you are more familiar with will then commence.

The last lump in the python is the CAVC. In 1991, with the same number of judges, they issued 118 cutting edge decisions including Shafrath and Wilson. By contrast, our esteemed Court of eight currently has an unparalleled Not It! sum of seventeen (yeppers, count ’em) under their belt. When the new group of Vets arrives with $50 in hand seeking to fix VA’s screwups, the final phase of yet a new Hidden Valley will begin. It’s a good thing they’re all going to Electronic files. They’re running out of places to hide them.

 

The above is Winston Salem’s Hidden Valley on the sixth floor. Here’s The CAVC’s :