VA BACKLOG IN DECLINE?

Posted on December 2, 2013 by asknod

VA ratings machine

We decided to take the Ric Shinseki ‘Find a needy Vet’ challenge and see if we could find even one sick needy Vet falling through the cracks this Christmas. Turns out we didn’t have to look very far. Our very own Hepsick, Mark, got hornswoggled into a DRO review down in Oakland’s Puzzle Palace back in February of this year. For any of you who don’t know how they are manipulating the backlog, gather around and let me illuminate you. 

Entering the VA jungle, you may not notice that you often lose the first time out. That is a 5 month fast-track claim or something fully developed. I am not referring to Presumptive AO diseases. They are in another office and do not count. They’re an automatic gimme but still take a year. No, I’m talking about a bad back, busted up knees or some good old-fashioned bent brain disease with a side of IED-shaken not stirred.

The glorious process only moves forward like a merry go round because there are just so many seats on the ride. The journey actually begins back in the line waiting to get on. After a period of time ( a year or two) you get off and have traversed the diameter of the merry go round circle and no further. You then get in line for the next merry go round and wait for your shot at the appeal or DRO review. This lather, rinse, repeat begins anew at each stop along the way to the Court of Veterans Appeals. Hurry up and wait. Sounds horribly familiar.

The Board of Veterans Appeals, in 2004, invented yet another VA Regional office in which to conduct Kangaroo justice and print up SSOCs to speed up the denial process. They call it the AMC and its located over on Eye Street near Vermin Ave.

download (1)To visualize this as a parody, think back on Lucille Ball in I love Lucy. Remember the hilarious scene in the bon bon factory where the chocolates overwhelmed the gals? Now picture them as VA raters yelling down the hall ” Yep. Got it. We’re on target to pump a bunch of ratings out here. Stand back.” Unfortunately the filing cabinets are stuffed, the storage areas are swamped, the building is being structurally tortured and the claims pile up.

downloadWhen it begins to look like they may get hoist on their own petard come Monday Morning, they merely  create a new file or column and label it “Fast Track Claims” When it begins to overflow, they’ll bifurcate it again or another one similar.

Mr. Hepsick has been riding these merry go rounds now for seven years and has won. The next merry go round he boarded gave him a 20% rating in spite of his painfully obvious condition. There’s a reason for this. If he goes away, they have less Mark work to do. If he files a NOD for a higher rating, that is an appeal and Mark has to go get in the appeal line. While standing there, the VA asked him if he was a real glutton for punishment. He answered in the affirmative and signed up for a magic 585 day DRO review. They promptly sent him out for the C&P that they should have done before rating him and had him move over to the Group W bench. And no, it wasn’t named after a guy from Texas. W stands for Wait. As in A Long Wait.

Back in the days, the old, senior raters would see one of these come in and pull it out of the stack. Off Mark would go to the VAMC for a checkie-checkie and bingo- home again, home again. Instead, with a limited number of seats, he will get on several more merry go rounds and eventually get off at 100% Permanent and Total. He knows this. VA knows this. It’s a game. Unfortunately for us, the game is getting longer. We are assured that the corner has been turned and a new dawn is just a year or less away. Yet Mark gets bushwhacked with a knowingly lowballed rating forcing him into an appeal posture to protect himself. Welcome to merry go round number 2 -your very first post-BVA win appeal for a real rating.

In case none of you recognize this, it is the VAMC version of a DBQ for Hepatitis. They are only now doing it post-appeal. This should have been done before the rating in February.

Mark’s C&P DBQ

How is it then that this is allowed to happen? February 2013 to approximately August-December 2014 for a DRO decision on whether the Markster gets a full ride? This must be some kind of heavy reading. Why you’d have to wait until Hell freezes over to get someone to give this the once over and a rubber stamp is crazy. That is the depths unto which we have now subsided. Just think if we didn’t have VBMS or Veterans Service Organizations. You wonder how long it would takes then, huh? Naw. I’m not gonna go there.

Posted in C&P exams, VA BACKLOG, Veterans Law | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

ILP GREENHOUSE UPDATE

Posted on December 2, 2013 by asknod
DSC00610

Organic, gmo-free, green heat. Click on picture 

Here’s the latest from CBS. VA Vocation Rehabilitation Counselor tells Veteran to man up and heat his own greenhouses. Veteran, In vain attempt to protect what’s left of his liver and keep organic food on the table, enlists help of local power company and his horses. Veteran signs pact to only buy “green” electricity generated by wind in eastern Washington and thus reduces global warming. Horses sign mutual trade agreement to deliver “green heat” for apples, rolled oats and leftover carrots.

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Green electricity imported from eastern Washington. Like they say, it costs more if you’re trying to save the world.

Being space-challenged because Broccoli is rude makes it difficult to walk into my smaller greenhouse. Lettuce is on track  to be ready by Easter if we don’t have a cold snap.

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Gee, I may get my ILP appeal certified and  sent to Washington for a BVA decision sometime in 2015 or 2016.  Good thing this backlog business is over.

Posted in Food for the soul | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

GEN. MOSES & THE PONTOON BRIDGE

Posted on December 1, 2013 by asknod
Yo! 14 cubits wide. Got it?

Yo! 14 cubits wide. Got it?

From the seasonally festive Battle Creek Law Offices of Law Bob Courtpants comes this endearing Army version of the story. I had no idea. It’s from a former Airborne weenie, so you have to take it with a grain a salt. A very large one, in fact.

Nine-year-old Joey, who tended toward drama, was asked by his mother what he had learned in Sunday School.

Well, Mom,  our teacher told us how God sent  Lt. General Moses behind  enemy lines  on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of  Egypt . When they got to the  Red Sea , he had his army build a pontoon bridge  and all the people walked  across safely. Then he radioed headquarters for  reinforcements. They sent in bombers to blow up the bridge. In the meantime, after the fighters achieved air superiority, they strafed and naped the Egyptian Forces. The A-10s took out the chariots and dropped CBU-26/49 delayed to impede their withdrawal.  It was a complete route and the Israelites made a brilliant tactical retreat into their homeland.’

‘Now, Joey,  is that really what your teacher taught you?’ his  Mother asked.

 ‘Mom. If I told you the teacher’s version,  you’d put me on restriction for a month and make me start seeing a shrink!’

Pontoon Bridge02

Israelites crossing the Red Sea

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T-DAY FOOD STORIES

Posted on November 27, 2013 by asknod

downloadEvery year I contribute some whiney complaint about the world and VA. This year is different. I feel positively ebullient so I will tell stories of my former life. The first concerns rotten butter. If you smoke cigarettes, you really can’t smell or taste with any finesse. I couldn’t.

When we moved over here to the country in 1989 from the bustling metropolis of Tukwila, I had inherited a refrigerator from a neighbor. This worked out well as we were renting until we got the lay of the land and found the right area to buy in. The refer sat in my garage for over 8 months before we moved over and we promptly installed it in the kitchen of our temporary abode. After about a month, I happened to get up early and make breakfast one weekend. Zooming about, I found butter in the butter door of the refer right where you would keep it. Hell, it even said butter right on the little flip up door. After a spell, Cupcake drifted in and immediately started complaining about some disagreeable aroma that smelled like rotten food. I dutifully took the trash out and also absentmindedly put the butter away. Several days later I was having my morning ritual of English muffins with fresh clover honey (again) when the Queen of Wauna announced (once again) that there was something nasally amiss. This time nothing could dissuade her from the hunt. It ended up at my face. We’d been out of butter for several days so she also wanted to know where I found it. Shoot, I ate far worse in Southeast Asia including monkey ball soup and Fig Newtons one night in the dark covered with those little black piss ants that used to get into everything. She wouldn’t kiss me for a month.

imagesSeveral years later, I was sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper as I always did in the early morning before taking off. If women only knew how important it was for us to read the obits, the tools for sale and other earthshattering subjects, they would never pester us at this crucial time of the morning. Buff, the Bichon Frisé had a rash, poor dear, and I was the pill giver. Women don’t like to get dog saliva on their hands and dogs do not cotton to taking their pills civilly. Cupcake laid the prednisone pills on the table where she normally put my vitamins and said “Don’t forget to give these to Buff.” Deeply engrossed in whether Clinton was going to outlaw 30-rd clips for black guns, I absent-mindedly nodded. As I finished up and prepared to bug out, the Okesan asked again “Did you give those to Buff?” Give what to Buff? The pills?  Hell, I ate ’em.

anthrax-in-tide-anthrax-hoax1Lastly, one evening I was cleaning up with Buckwheat jr. before I went up to bed. On the counter was what appeared to be powdered sugar. Well, hey Pilgrim. Powdered sugar usually means powdered dessert somewhere, right? I reached over and dabbed my finger in it and gave it the old taste test. Definitely not sugar but it had a weird taste for the kitchen.  I made a second pass over it. Buckwheat Jr. ran upstairs and announced I was eating unidentified powder off the counter. This caused Cupcake to fall to the ground convulsing in laughter. My fame for eating anything had finally preceded me. She and Buckwheat came down, and with straight faces, asked me if I had figured out what it was. I offered them a taste but no way doggies. When Molly, my labrador refused to lick it, I knew it was going to be ugly. Turns out Punkin was busting up laundry powder that had become clumped together and pouring it back into the box with a funnel. I don’t recommend it but it won’t kill you.  It cleans the palate, too. Sort of – you know -like when you’re at a wine tasting and one of those squirrelly Frenchie wannabes says “Here, ‘ave a table cracker. It will cleanse the palate before your next sip.”

I learned something that evening. If the dog won’t go for it, you probably shouldn’t either. I’m betting ol’ Molly Pop would have snarked down that rotten butter faster than you can say Jack Robinson, though. Anyone could have made that mistake. The butter wasn’t some horrible color of green and as for the detergent, it did look like powdered sugar. I’m not stupid, you know. I don’t eat just any old thing I find lying around.

Happy T-day and watch what you eat…

Posted in FACE HUMOR, Food for the soul | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

TURKEY FACEPAGE

Posted on November 27, 2013 by asknod

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ALIENS

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Instructions say to let chill in sink for a few hours.
Courtesy of Pop Smoke

Posted in FACE HUMOR | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

DIY Dental Plan Worksheet to see if VA-sponsored plans offer value

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Laura
dental plan compare worksheet

Preventative or preventive care? Word preferences aside, no matter how it’s sliced and diced, you’re going to have to deal with annual co-payments, deductibles, and
maximum benefits as part of the dental game.
Hope this is printable.

In case you missed this post, the VA has partnered with Delta Dental and Met Life to offer dental plans to veterans beginning January 1, 2014.  The most expensive Met Life plan offers the best coverage but it costs almost as much as my monthly car insurance premium so that’s pretty crazy.  On the other hand, oral health is extremely important and until these body parts get mainstreamed into the whole body, like brains have recently (new mental health rules), we are stuck with lousy dental insurance options.

Aren’t you glad we don’t have to buy a separate insurance policy for every region of our anatomy? Foot insurance.  Knee insurance.  And so on. Or if you only be covered for ear infection every 2 years, one broken bone, every 8 years…etc. That’s the absurdity we see in the contract we call dental insurance.

I created the worksheet above for myself so I could compare the VA plans with the AARP Delta Plan and AAA Automobile Association of America (MN)   Delta dental plan.  We’re leaning towards the VA cheapest “standard” plan for $9.73 per month.    It will cover two prophylaxes (cleanings), within a 12 month period and exams and x-rays.  After reviewing his new treatment plan, he can upgrade to a better plan.   We would be spending more out-of-pocket if he had to pay 100% for these services than the premiums.

He’s already seeing a Delta Dental PPO network dentist on their list so they’ll file the claim for us and won’t “balance bill” for more than the negotiated in-network fee. Sometimes private standalone dental plans resemble cell phone plans.  You have to commit to a time period.  In the case of Delta, you must commit to the VA plans for 12-months of coverage and then you can re-enroll on a month-to-month basis.  You have to pay via required electronic funds transfer (EFT).

A reasonable online tool to estimate dental costs by region is here: http://www.bracesinfo.com/dentalcosts/

Grievances 

Can you take your dental insurance company to small claims court if they don’t pay your dentist as per contract?  First you have to read and understand your plan(s) fine print. You can’t rely on a customer service conversation or chat session for your information about your contract.  If you have dental insurance through an employer, you might be covered under ERISA. Does the VA have a similar fiduciary role in these dental contracts–to make sure the insurance companies are working in veterans’ best interests?

Although these plans, like all dental plans, are grossly deficient, the VA has taken an important first step in helping non-SC veterans and CHAMPVA dependents, get access to some basic dental care and get screened for oral cancers.  The VA will probably get a little money per veteran for the VA’s coffers too.

Update:  My DH is enrolled, via the VA’s Delta page, in the standard plan for $9.73 per month (in our zip code).  For $116.76 total premium, he can get 2 cleanings, exams, x-rays which is a reasonable charge.  The treatment plan will indicate if he should buy a more comprehensive plan later after doing some simple arithmatic.  Most importantly, he can stay with the same sanitary dental practice.  If he buys another plan, he will enjoy an extra cleaning or two.

Posted in Guest authors, HCV Health, VA Health Care | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

BVA WIN–I’M #48

Posted on November 25, 2013 by asknod

download (1)Wow. Talk about VA backlogs. Here it is. Hot off the presses. A red hot win… or is it? Time will tell soon enough when they begin the staged ratings.

BVA decision on earlier effective date sanitized

As we all know, semantics are everything in VAland. Thus even while you read of my illustrious win, you see the utter disgust dripping from the words of the VLJ, Mark Hindin,  at having the Office of General Counsel bushwhack his poorly reasoned legal flimflam for the denial. Nowhere is there any discussion of the seminal VAOPOGC Precedent 9-97 or 38 CFR §3.156(b) that this hinges on. Also, no explanation for the blatant assertion about my claiming to have submitted new and material evidence after the issuance of my SOC.

My NOD clearly stated I  attached the new evidence with the document. It is clearly documented in my Record Before the Agency (RBA) and there is no rebuttal of it. They merely gloss over the eight hundred lb. gorilla and move over to make room for him on the sofa.  It is clearly recorded  as to the time it occurred in my BVA hearing face to face as well. No one with a JD could possibly misconstrue this timeline unless… they just don’t like ol’ Asknod.  I think they feel I was just too smart for my britches and a little comeuppance was in order.

imagesNineteen years, five months and twenty five days ago I filed my claim. I received an icy, adversarial decision today that in essence states the Veterans Law Judge had a gun held to his head and was force to relent and grant a claim he felt was unlawful.  To wit,

“Although the parties (OGC and counsel for the appellant) left it to the Board to determine whether the Statement of the Case was sufficiently complete, the parties agreed that the Statement of the Case was sufficiently confusing and they could not see how the Statement of the Case would have permitted the Veteran to provide an appropriate response. The Board is bound by the stipulations and instructions contained in the Joint Motion.

As such, the Board is constrained to find that the January 1995 Statement of the Case did not comport with 38 CFR § 19.29, and therefore that the November 1994 rating decision did not become final. The appropriate effective date for the grant of  service connection for Hepatitis C is March 31, 1994, when the Veteran filed his initial claim and by which time entitlement had arisen.”

downloadAh, mea culpas. How sweet thy sound. Five years and  five months to get them to admit it after they finally granted in June 2008. What is amazing is the semantic sweater they are weaving to say I failed to file my Form 9 on part of this (Porphyria Cutanea Tarda)  in 2010 while I was an inpatient in the Seattle VAMC. They maintain that I am not entitled to that date back to 1994 because I failed to appeal it ( a decision not yet made in 1994) in 2010.  Sound confusing?  Or, how do you file a substantive appeal on a decision that won’t be in appellate status for another fifteen years? You’ll need to borrow a DeLorean with a bodacious Flux Capacitor to make this legal epiphany work. VA really doesn’t see the dichotomy in all this.  That’s what Adobe Acrobat is for.

By the way, Miriam Webster defines constrained  as:

con·strain

transitive verb \kən-ˈstrān\

: to limit or restrict (something or someone)

: to use pressure to force (someone) to do something

 Full Definition of CONSTRAIN
1
a :  to force by imposed stricture, restriction, or limitation

b :  to restrict the motion of (a mechanical body) to a particular mode

2
:  compress; also :  to clasp tightly
3
:  to secure by or as if by bonds :  confine; broadly :  limit
4
:  to force or produce in an unnatural or strained manner <aconstrained smile>
5
:  to hold back by or as if by force

Seems not everyone down at the BVA Ranch is all smiley faces today. There is no joy in Vermin Lane this evening. Mighty Mark has plumb struck out.

And lastly, we would not be having this discussion if not for the prodding of a woman-Cupcake. She was the enlightened one who said “Hey. Did you hear that? Charles Kuralt just said something about Porphyria Cutanea Tarda and how it’s related to Agent Orange in Vietnam.” That was April 1992. Like any normal man, I procrastinated until I went in for an Agent Orange Registry exam in September 1993. Smooth move, Exlax. Thank goodness for the significant other other in my life, Charles.

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Posted in BvA HCV decisions, CAVC Knowledge, Tips and Tricks, Veterans Law | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

THANKSGIVING FACE HUMOR

Posted on November 25, 2013 by asknod

1425796_10152008625480700_514809523_nFound this on Facepage this morning. It’s the kind of thing a Vet would find amusing. Well, this Vet, anyway. Enjoy the stuffing on Thursday and think of my weird, twisted humor.

 

P.S. Here’s the best one yet:

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Posted in Humor | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS-#47

Posted on November 24, 2013 by asknod

WacoMember John who has been among us many years has finally been graced by the VA tooth fairy. It took nothing less than Virginia Girard-Brady to effect it, though. John was becoming rather disheartened after waiting for what felt like a century for the Waco RO to do his long-sought rating. You know the VA. When it comes time to cut the check they look down, stutter and scrape their feet like your prom date in your sophomore year. Getting a kiss out of them is like pulling teeth out of a live alligator-a big one. Second base might as well have been on Jupiter.

So it is with much fanfare we announce John has bearded the dragon for an 80% rating (currently) and may improve it with a well-fought Fenderson staged rating as he proceeds from here. Obviously, if he’s unemployed X 12 months, TDIU is on the table. We’ll keep you up to date as we get it from John.

downloadOddly, it took the threat of Ms. Girard-Brady to  file for an Extraordinary Writ that got them off their asses. Living proof that if you want to open a can of whoopass, write a check for $50 and proceed to Go!

Here’s his transmission.

Thanks for your advice to request a writ it help! After 7yrs 2 Appeals to the CAVC and back to the BVA not once but twice .

File Nov 2006 .First Remand from BVA April 2011 2 issues Sleep Apnea ,Major Depression . 2nd Remand to the BVA after JMR at CAVC on Jun 14 2013 for

Lumbar and Cervical injury was told Claims are all granted waiting for award letter was called by VA Waco and was Confirmed on Nov 22 2013

file a Claim in 1981 never heard anything. May you can explain this stage stuff for Lumbar spine Please thanks for all you help your book and advice

John

Shoot. I wouldn’t have missed this cat fight for all the tea in China. Way cool. Nothing like knowing you set up the perfect booby trap and got all the suckers in one blast. Win or Die indeed. Happy Thanksgiving John from the krazy krewe at Ask Nod. Yes sir. Sometimes it’s just fine to be alive..

Posted in BvA Decisions, CAVC ruling, Extraordinary Writs of Mandamus | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

VA FRAUD ALERT

Posted on November 23, 2013 by asknod

downloadI get these ever since I made the mistake of giving them my email address. Baaaaad idea.

No_Reply@va.gov

 Nov 22 at 12:43 PM

 FRAUD ALERT: Veterans should be aware of a marketing scam targeting callers trying to reach the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) National Call Center or GI Bill Call Center. A marketing company has established two fraudulent numbers that differ from the two official VA call center numbers by one digit. If the fraudulent number is dialed by mistake, the answering party will offer a gift card and try to obtain personal and financial information, including credit card information, from the caller. The answering party may even transfer the caller to the VA after the caller’s information is obtained. Note that VA never asks for credit card information during a telephone exchange. The numbers to be avoided are: 800-872-1000 (the VA National Call Center number is 800-827-1000) 888-442-4511 (the VA GI Bill Call Center number is 888-442-4551) VA has notified law enforcement authorities to address this situation, and will provide additional information and guidance as necessary.

 And this from our minders at VA. What? Another VA security breach? Say it ain’t so.

http://www.military.com/veterans-report/warning-va-id-cards-are-easily-scanned?ESRC=vr.nl

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