Life is good. It’s summer. It should be good-and moreover, it should be redolent with good memories and fun. But, as the title to this blog implies, there’s gonna be a continuing heartache for a few of us due to VA’s financial intransigence and the insane insistence on clinging to ignorance of SMC. But before we enter the doldrum stage, here’s my granddaughter Daphne who just learned to walk last Sunday. She started screaming for joy and scared the bejesus out of her parents. Now she screams any time she’s walking. I reckon that’s gonna be pretty exciting for a while. 

The only good news in this story is Mikey found me and there is something we (I) can do. Right off, filing a HLR (Higher Level of Review) is a waste of perfectly good electrons these days. VA is broke, dude. They’re suffering the empty pocket disease. When you don’t have any baksheesh, you can’t write rating decisions granting benefits other than Zeros for Heroes or 10%ers for Tinnitus and HTN. Got it?  Jack and Jill are shit out of luck if they toodle on up the hill to fetch a pail of water. The well is dry and will be for a few months.

So, when did this happen? Well, as near as we can tell, they pulled in their horns late last year when they saw the overwhelming response to their campaign for Free PACT Money. The very word’ free’ generally can start a stampede in its own right but when VA uses the term, it’s going to be a gully washer. And it was, right up until somebody looked at the bank account and sounded the alarm. Almost $3 buh-buh-buh-billion in the red. That’s slightly more than a rounding error.

So, in my practice, I see a lot of high-dollar ratings. SMC metastasizes like cancer when it goes unpaid. And when VA ain’t paying, it’s like a gigantic case of constipation building up. But who loses? Well, gee, Dick Tracy. Guess who? The Vet. By not paying him/her, the rating just keeps racking up bucks for the Vet but the downside, from his standpoint, is that it’s also racking up bucks for me on my 20% fee agreement. That simply isn’t fair any way you hold it up to the light. VA could care less from what I can gather.

This is grossly unfair for any number of reasons. Vets expect prompt adjudications. Anything less, especially due to financial shenanigans, is not grounds for an excuse. But what happens when they just start fudging and write decisions denying entitlement based on a) their ignorance ; or more likely, b) purposefully knowing it will go on appeal or to an HLR which will further delay the inevitable paying off the piper. Either way, they’re off the hook pour le moment and get to proceed to the next train wreck.

This blog deals with proposition b above. Meet Mikey. Mikey is very ill and has an indwelling catheter from his Vietnam prostate cancer residuals. He’s no doing too well. He’s in a nursing home. Sometimes his heart goes into 78 RPM tachycardia and they have to give him the juice to slow it down and reset it. This is his heartache. I filed him for the very least of his worries as you can read here.

Redact 526 for loss of use and a&a_Redacted

That went over like screen doors in submarines. VA didn’t even bother to consider aid and attendance for his 100% prostate cancer. I asked for it but the problem here is endemic to the M 21 and hence, VA’s ability to grant. If you’re getting a&a currently, and you apply for a second entitlement for same, there’s a catch 22 in there somewhere (unwritten) that if the Vet is stupid enough to ask for it twice, the VA isn’t too terribly obligated to explain being greedy isn’t permitted.

In the rating decision below, they really stepped on their necktie. If you understand SMC, you’ll know that by granting the loss of use of the legs on top of the previous grant of SMC L for a&a, that you automatically advance to SMC O. And, because one of those two ratings is for a&a, you proceed to SMC R1 and collect your $200 dollars for passing Go! just like Monopoly. Except in this game it’s $9,635 every time you pass Go. That’s due to the Cost of Living Allowance  (COLA) increase year over year.

Redact R1 win but no dough_Redacted

But what can we make of this? You’ve seen the Fail blogs on Reddit™. You had one job… and you blew it. In this example, VA has one job and they screw it up over 75% of the time. And worse, get promoted for their ineptitude.  No matter how much they try, the error rate never improves. And when you introduce SMC at the higher levels into the mix, the error rate shoots up to about 98%. It’s ugly. VA’s read is “We gave you a&a back in ’21. You only get it once. So buzz off.” After the gazillionth remand to grant R1, you’d think this concept might sink in. But noooooooo.

This is why a HLR is futile. How can you argue for a second a&a when their rule book incorrectly says one ice creme cone to a customer? If we were arguing a higher rating, say for PTSD from 50 to 70%, what you’d see in an HLR is a concession of either a duty to assist error or a difference of opinion. In either case, it would disappear into a black hole for 4 months and finally emerge as a new HLR decision saying “Yep. We screwed up. We’re going to redevelop this and order a new c&p for another psychiatric opinion.” Two months later, you’ll get the call to go see Dr. Phil down at VES for another check up under the hood. He’ll reconfirm you’re closer to 50 than 70. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. At that point, your VSO will do what I did and take it to the Board to get sorted.

You folks will be experiencing this for a while until they prime the financial pump and get caught up. Then there will be a new calamity. Have you ever known it to be different? It’s like a cross between the Three Stooges and the Keystone cops… with horrible consequences for all of us. Enjoy your weekend. The Gravenstein apples are almost done and the peaches are looking peachy.

The best of all news for last. I emailed the Seattle Regional Director the other day and asked why I hadn’t heard back from the VR&E Officer on the progress for my greenhouse grant after 74 days. He’s her boss. I asked him to sashay up to the eleventh floor and put a mirror under her nose to see if she was still among the living. Boom Shaka Laka Laka. My email  runnethed  over. Everyone who is anyone at VR&E Seattle said not to worry. They are on it. My counseling psychologist, or what passes for one, is coming out Tuesday morning bright and early to do the reconnoiter and survey what the damages are going to be. They were talking $65 K back in Fall 2017. Inflation and delay has driven that up to close to $200 K in the interim. So don’t feel pregnant and alone. I probably won’t see my grant until the funds are replenished either.