VA Regional Office

AFGE LOCAL 520

PO BOX 1778

COLUMBIA, SC 29202

August 3, 2013

Joe Average Vet sends this one in. We have commiserated with the rank and file employees of VA numerous times. No one, and certainly not Vets, fault them (AFGE) for the unholy backlog we are suffering. We’ve been saying for years that this should be a process where a claims manager handles a claim. Period. Think GEICO. Just like in the old days, a rater would pick up the file and get to know Johnny Vet. He might even call him up and get his measure. He’d weigh the evidence and come to a fair and balanced conclusion. VA superiors would promptly denigrate his logical conclusions and infuse doubt, shoot holes in an otherwise seamless history and recommend denial. Nevertheless, the rater would pursue it with an open mind and basically be limited by no more than the precepts of the older M-21. Even so the Vet never did fare well.

Those days are gone. We’ve been through the Model T version where everyone inserts a fender, door or motor until the claim rolls off the end of the line with 5 doors and no tires.

We’ve been through the plus seven Haiku training manuvres. We have now arrived at the DBQ/FDC crossroads. One would think VSRs would be jumping for joy at the new, simplified procedures to accurately and correctly adjudicate claims at the local State Regional Offices. The folks at the Columbia RO, alas, refuse to drink the Koolaid.

Here, in the words of a senior member of the  VARO Columbia AFGE, are a scathing indictment of what they are trying to pawn off on us across the nation.

It is clear that FDC did not provide the results that all its proponents assumed. The FDC has been around since April 2009. It apparently has not been successful. I was a Senior Veterans Service Representative when the FDC pilot program began in VARO Columbia. I am a witness that it was not successful. However, now VA is trying to tie a perceived benefit to the process instead of focusing on why it did not work.

Does this sound eerily familiar to you?

The DBQ requires the Veteran to get his own examination. There are two negatives for the Veteran. He has to pay for an examination and he may not be service connected for the disability he paid to get an examination for.

I have been harping for quite a while about the VA divesting themselves of the duty to assist and subtly insinuating that if the Vet gets it all, he stands a better chance of getting it right-and in order. This, of course, implies the VA does not.

I have been harping as well that Under Secretary for Bullshit Hickey has been more worried about getting her hair color right that worrying about getting Veterans’ claims adjudicated in a timely manner. The imbroglio she had enveloped herself with over the NOVA case that was released tyesterday at the Federal Circuit shows all that she is ill-prepared for the job she does and the VA in particular.

Remember, one of the initiatives of the transformation was FDC. So what is the purpose of this press release? This is my personal observation- public relations and an attempt to use a perceived nugget – money to entice Veterans with an option they already have to participate in a program that since 2009 has not yielded the results anticipated. Again, VA is shifting the focus from timely processing claims for all and placing their responsibilities on the Veteran.

The hair problem hasn’t gone unnoticed either.

The current USB brought in from her previous employer, Accenture- People, Process, and Technology, over 40 unplanned transformation initiatives, an “All In” attitude, and enthusiasm. However, no one cheers for their the losing team when the score is 72 to 3 and there is a minute left on the game clock. Veterans and employees are not cheering, but suffering.

Remember our assessments several days ago?

The only other thing FDC is doing on the Monday Morning Workload Report (MMWR) is not accounting for new claims as the diary won’t mature for a year, therefore, making it look as if no new claims are coming in. 

I suggest all of you who feel as I do that Mr. Robinson and his fellow VA raters ( and indeed all the rank and file) are doing a splendid job send him an email at  rbnsnrnld@yahoo.com. When the people who rate you see the perfidy and utter futility in trying to work, let alone reason, with the chuckleheads running this Dog and Pony show, it’s patently obvious that the Clowns have taken over the circus. We always presumed it was so. Mr. Robinson has now removed all doubt. When the firemen say the blaze is out of control, I believe them.