STARDUST RADIO WITH RICK ON SUNDAY

Posted on August 16, 2013 by asknod
Fukitol

VA-Recommended Medication for everything

Stardust Radio’s Richard Townsend will be hosting me this Sunday night on Firebase Adrian. Same Bat Time       (1900 Hrs EDT or 1600 Local Nodtime). We’ll have the latest on chemtrails, how to Monsanto-ize your veggies in the future and a few ways to avoid stepping on your necktie when going for extra VA claims goodies. The farm report-most assuredly. Please feel free to call in and interrupt. Here’s the link to join us. Same Bat Channel.

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 LIVE call in line … 877-213-4329

And the first caller gets a free autographed Asknod book if you don’t already have three or four! We even pay shipping. And we also have those Agent Orange Urine testing Kits for $560 post paid (lab fees included). Local taxes apply.

Posted in Stardust Radio | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

WALTER REED WHERE ARE YOU?

Posted on August 16, 2013 by asknod
200px-WalterReed

Wally

In what would make any physician, especially a military one, roll over in his grave, would be to see the way the military and by extension, the VA, treat our soldiers and Veterans when they think America isn’t looking or paying attention. This just in from a number of you but the first was Frank.

Imagine yourself somewhere in the hierarchy of  the administration at Walter Reed. You’re a shavetail O-4 or O-5 light bird and you get some garbled communication to quit subsidizing the local lunch counter and informal “Feeb’s internet watering hole” called the Warrior Cafe.  This emanates from above and with little guidance on what, exactly, to do. Wanting to make a good first impression and show your budding innovative, leadership abilities, you show you can handle the pressure.

The cafe is beginning to be a political hot potato and was never designed to be anything more than a stopgap measure and a sop to the severely disabled “problem children” of the military-those who were unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the “boom” moment. A burger and fries joint fast approaching a political time bomb. Unsupervised thinking. Idle fingers and the Devil’s workshop. Pissed off wives. Pissed off future Veterans with remodeled bodies and PTSD. A witch’s cauldron of discontent. What to do? Why, make the free food expensive. Make them vote with their wallets and their feet. .

Stir in a soupçon of Fox News and voila!  The army is forced to trot out poor Lt. Col. Catherine Wilkinson down at the Fort Fumble PR Office tasked with saying it was all a horrible misunderstanding. Nothing could be further from the truth. That’s a rather tall order that probably hasn’t been issued just yet. It’s still in verbal format.

Seems the patients in Building 62 (the Feeble Ward) with no arms, eyes and legs were told their Electronic Benefits Cards were no longer going to be accepted at the Warrior. In order to eat, they would be required to assemble in formation and stumble, roll or crawl half a mile to a temporary Roach Coach on the other side of the sprawling medical campus for their three squares a day. On it’s face, this seems like a reasonable accommodation as three birds can be killed with one stone here. Sustenance, money saved and Physical Therapy sounds like a marriage made in Heaven to Walter Reed’s middle management.

warrior_sign

Now remember, these fellows are all still in the military and the UCMJ applies. You don’t just throw down the prosthesis and say “Hell, no. We won’t go!” On the flip side, it’s always fun to pick these things apart on Monday morning and try to follow the train of thought that led to this disastrous decision. Only the government or a military officer could screw it up this badly.

Real Life

Somewhere, somehow, a commissioned officer had to decide the Warrior Cafe was getting to be too unprofessional, too “controversial” or too political.  I’m sure it came to the attention of someone that to have this sanctioned inside a military building was akin to having a Vietnam Veterans Against the War Info desk in the front hallway with Jane and John seated behind it. This is usually what provokes such ham-handed tactics.

Welcome. The cafe is straight ahead and to your left.

Welcome. The cafe is straight
ahead and to your left.

At any rate, the ramifications of having to armor up for a half-mile jaunt to Un café sur Roues (fine French dining experience- try our fries) were never thought through. Squelching the Warrior Cafe by forcing penniless soldiers to eat free elsewhere in a more controlled environment certainly seemed apropos. Alpha 6 Actual calls it “What my point reports”.  Sometimes the disparity in reality can be frightening. We in the enlisted ranks (and apparently Fox News) call this predicament “eyes on the ground”.

Now magnify this story one hundredfold and add in the poor pregnant wife (Paige Wetzel) trying to balance her now-legless husband (Sgt. Josh)  and his host of medical problems and dining dilemmas against having a baby on Monday the 19th. So much for all those Lamaze birthing classes together. Josh is going to need all the wheelchair stamina he has just to get to his food-let alone the Maternity Ward.

In spite of all the mea culpas issuing forth from the Puzzle Palace, nothing has changed at the Warrior Cafe. Hours have been reduced and the EBTs are still slated for the circular file. In God We trust. All others pay cash. No more foodstamps accepted.

In addition to the weekend closure, the base also decided to reduce the cafe’s hours from 60 to 50 a week. Instead of closing at 8 p.m. it now closes at 6 p.m., making it difficult for those getting occupational therapy to get there in time.

Brilliant. Does the Army have a REMF medal for that? Legion of Merit? Commendation Medal ? Outstanding Unit Citation with a Combat “V” device for Vindictiveness? Were I a descendent of Walter’s, I might blow an ass gasket and ask that his name be removed. They ought to hire a five star chef from a nice restaurant and set him up with a first-rate kitchen for these heros. Dinner should be served to them on fine china rather than a cattle drive to the feed trough. We know that will never happen but it’s fun to dream about what it would be like to be a politician.

Here’s a last blast from the article:

Adding insult to injury, there are only two handicap-accessible tables in the (faraway) trailer, and neither the bathroom nor the exit doors has push-button access.

“It’s quote unquote handicap accessible, but for guys who have serious mobility injuries — like they can’t use their hands that well — you know it is tough for them,” Josh Wetzel said.

A warm round of applause for a news organization (FOX) who was not willing to ignore our troops and actually bothered to investigate. I only hope the email I sent our President has the same profound effect on Independent Living Program policy. Which causes me concern. It’s been a week or more since I sent that…

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How come he’s not moving?

Posted in All about Veterans, Complaints Department, Future Veterans, Gulf War Issues, Inspirational Veterans, Medical News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

HOW COME WE NEVER HEAR…

Posted on August 15, 2013 by asknod

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I received this one from Joseph Average Veteran on the travails of Mr. Carl Lowe, former esteemed, exalted Loyal Moose of  VARO Whacko in Texas from 2000 to 2011. It seems his paltry $173 K a year didn’t even cover the cost of  quality sturgeon eggs and morel mushrooms on toastpoints chased by Perrier Jouet.

Fortunately for Mr. Lowe, the VA had already studied the problem and came up with a supplemental budget plan to reward him with “frequent denier” points. These in turn could be redeemed around Christmas every year for a valuable cash prize of about $13 K. The munificence and largesse permitted Carl and the Missus a valuable cushion to the wine cellar. Similarly, they could steer valuable VA “meet and greet” business to the caterer who just happened to have the only fresh sturgeon eggs and ice carver in Koreshville or thereabouts.

So how come we never hear…

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Washington, DC UPI

By staff reporter Bradley Manning

Department of Veterans Affairs spokesman Jed Clampett (no relation to the TV Clampetts) met with reporters at the Department of Veterans Affairs building, 810 Vermont Ave. NW this morning and confirmed it was Veterans Law Judge Steven Forrell whose body was found in his BMW Z4 with the engine running in the garage this morning. His wife of six years, twenty four year-old Winona, found him when she got up at 10 AM.

“I was like why am I hearing this car, you know, and I like left my favorite Yoga mat in the Corvette so I went out to get it. Whoa, you know. The smell was like over the top so I opened the garage doors. Stevie was out of it so I called 911 and got back to the Yoga thing on TV. It had something to do with carbon dioxide and it like toasted him you know? He’d been acting really weird since we took the second out on the mortgage last year. Jez, I hope he had a good term life policy with a mortgage rider or I’m screwed. Bummer, huh?

Coworkers said he had been extremely depressed over the length of time it was taking to get his promised VA bonuses. VA has been experiencing a backlog in distributing checks to Service Center managers, the aforementioned Veterans Law Judges and, well,  just about generally everyone who worked at the VA. The suicide rate has climbed dramatically among government workers since the bonus backlog began and peaked in 2012 according to the latest 2012 VA statistics. Judge Forrell’s demise marks the fifth VA Veterans Law Judge to take his own life in the last twelve months.

VA spokesman Clampett

VA spokesman Clampett

Mr. Clampett emphasized the fact that the bonus delay is currently down to a mere 474 days from date of eligibility- a significant drop of over 12 percent over this time last year. VA financial beancounters project this “perfect storm” will be resolved by 2015 and the average wait will henceforth be 125 days or less (with 98% accuracy). Mr. Clampett also pointed to the fact that VA has hired 1600 new medical personnel in the psychiatric field and over 200 new psychologists who will be available to help any of these government workers who are Veterans.

VA began instituting the Veterans Bonus Moolah System (VBMS) electronically in 1812 shortly after the invention of electricity. It’s been slow going said Clampett because it’s so difficult trying to hide the payments off the books. Only recently have VA personnel been through ASPIRE training to keep two sets of records-one just for the VAOIG. VA is also keeping a close watch on its workers for signs of mental instability, stress, depression, gambling addiction, ETOH abuse or sudden, new personality disorders.  Coworkers are encouraged to report anything strange about their fellow workers anonymously by email to IRIS@va.gov. using their VA email addresses.

DON’T BE SELFISH IF HE’S SUICIDAL

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TURN IN YOUR COWORKER

(800-827-1000)

The bonus you save may be your own

Posted in Humor, VA BACKLOG | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Guilty plea in HCV case

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Laura

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This story has been reported extensively in the national media but in case you missed it, yesterday in NH, David Kwiatkowski, 33, pleaded guilty to drug diversion activity since 2002.   He admits to serially infecting at least 45 patients with HCV in multiple states.  At Exeter Hospital, he admitted to swapping out syringes about 50 times and this resulted in 32 known infections.

He also infected one veteran at the VA Medical Center in Baltimore with his strain of HCV–a veteran who had no risk factors for HCV.  This is a tragic case of lax hospital procedures and drug addiction at its worst. “It was all me,” he told authorities. “I’m killing a lot of people.”

The plea agreement court papers are here but are a bit blurry.  Zooming helps.

It’s so easy to transmit HCV in health care settings even when the needle is replaced but a vial is not–as the illustration below shows.   In Kwiatkowski’s case, the needles and syringe vials were tainted with HCV.  And his victims were older and sicker; their immune systems were less able to clear the virus.  Misery multiplied.

Syringe -Unsafe Injection for blog

HCV transmission in health care settings

Posted in Guest authors, HCV Risks (documented) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

CHEMTRAIL BEEN BERRY BERRY GOOD TO ME

Posted on August 13, 2013 by asknod
Leigh's Silver Queen

Leigh’s Silver Queen

9 foot August Corn 004What a marvelous year so far. I’m still alive in spite of the fact that I’ve been staying away from VAMCs. I had no idea there were chemtrails- or is it Chemtrails? How can the Government afford to spray my garden and fertilize my corn for me? How long have I been missing out on this? Do you have to apply somewhere to get on the Spray List? Is this part of the Affordable Care Act? Do they put Fluoride in it? All these queshuns. Who cares? Sprinkle some of it on and what do you get? Well, 9 foot corn unless I miss my guess. Either that or the Silver Queen that Leigh and Paul sent me is from the legendary Jack and the Bean Stalk stash. 

Check out the Fe Fi Fo Fum butternut. The thing is like a plant possessed. It escaped the reservation back in May. I got it from a penniless Japanese farmer who was evacuated out of the Fukushima district after the scientists spilled some of the atoms they were bending. I cheated a little bit by starting her in the greenhouse in February and it was the only seed that clicked under the Geiger counter. Whoa, there Mr. C. Theorist. Just kidding. No trails, no radiation. Joke. Toy gun. Not the same plant.

Magic seed from Northern Japan

Magic seed from Northern Japan

9 foot August Corn 007As for the pumpkins, my little Cupcake chose the seeds this year.  Yes, apparently, you can accessorize with pumpkins, too. Really. That VW celery color is soooo last year, dear. I had no idea. How on earth did I ever do without all these colors for all these years? The reason there aren’t more colors is because I gave away about 20 plants. I didn’t catch the “mixed seeds blend” in small print on the package until the weird things started growing. As if I didn’t have enough to do, the vines now need to be “crossed over” so the colors are intermixed while they grow. To “integrate” them. In the verb form. Seriously. Cupcake always has such interesting ideas on growing. Just think how excited she’ll be next year with even more colors! A man’s got to know his limitations and exploit his weaknesses.

pumpkins currently segregated.

Pumpkins (currently segregated).

Check out the “chematoes”. There are six in that cluster and they’re huge. 9 foot August Corn 0099 foot August Corn 008   In retrospect,, I should have seen this color thing coming last year with the tomatoes. We now do six colors so the salads are “more balanced and  accessorized”. Surely you can see that.  You can have good taste in colors but not the reverse. I never knew I needed that.

I expect I’m one up on her. Six flavors of corn. And I’m learning from the unfortunate situations of others. I’ve integrated it all together this year (mislabeled). Cupcake calls me the “Accidental Gardener” since the romaine came up with the sugar snap peas in the same bed last spring. Seed happens.

White "cracker" corn

White “cracker” corn

Bi-corn with Transgendered corn in background

Bi-corn with transgendered corn in background

Okay. Just so we’re straight. No aliens. No chemicals. No radiation. Right? All the corn is straight. It’s just incredibly tall. Trust me. You can never be too careful with chemtrail jokes.  No plants were harmed in the shooting of these pictures. All rights reserved. Standard copyrights apply. Attitudes of author do not necessarily represent WordPress.com. Not responsible for content. Objects are closer than they appear. Click on them. Then click again. The graphics on this camera are incredible. You can focus in on any area of the picture depending on where you place your cursor.   All my posts with this camera do this. It’s on  the six gazillion pixels per square pinhead setting. I can’t figure out how to change it.

Posted in Food for the soul | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Some will live to 118 years and beyond, says SSA

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Laura
hamlet

“To be or not to be..”

The following is a bold and stunning prediction from The Social Security Administration (SSA)–see last sentence: 

That mortality rates are found to continue to decline, at every age for which adequate data are available, demonstrates that no absolute limit to the biological life span for humans has yet been reached, and that such a limit is unlikely to exist.

The skeptical reader may assume that SSA is in cahoots with Congress to justify raising the age at which people can collect their Social Security benefits indefinitely and this prediction serves that purpose.  However this is the conclusion SSA actuarial scientists have decided based on US years of mortality data.  Here’s the sentence above in context:

Great strides were made in the twentieth century toward eliminating the hazards to survival which existed at the young ages in the early 1900’s. Very little additional improvement to survival rates is possible at these young ages. Survival rates at the older ages are projected to continue to improve steadily. Projected gains in the probability of surviving to age 90 during the next 50 years are about the same as experienced during the past 50 years. For age 100, projected gains are much greater than for the past. Figure 5 (last chart via link) shows population survival curves based on period life tables for, from left to right, 1900, 1950, 2000 and projected years 2050 and 2100.

Although the shape of the survivorship curve has become somewhat more rectangular (less diagonal) through time, it appears that very little additional rectangularization will occur because survival rates are already so high at the young ages and are expected to continue increasing at older ages. The so-called “curve squaring” concept, though appealing to many, simply cannot be supported by the mathematics of mortality. The age at which the survivorship curve comes close to zero, through the compounding of single-year probabilities of survival, has increased greatly during the twentieth century and will continue to increase, as further strides are made against degenerative diseases. That mortality rates are found to continue to decline, at every age for which adequate data are available, demonstrates that no absolute limit to the biological life span for humans has yet been reached, and that such a limit is unlikely to exist.

This prediction may have an effect on veterans’ benefits too, now and in the future.

Not everyone is going to be happy with the prospect of living decades past the age they thought they’d leave this mortal coil.  Others will welcome the news with joy.  After all, if a tortoise can live to 150 years, and Giant Sequoias for thousands of years, why can’t we hang out with them on this beautiful blue marble?

One thing is certain though, many people will be eager to help you leave this vale of tears if you reach an extreme age, infirm or not.  Better fill out those advance directives while you can!

The 2009 period life table is here: http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/STATS/table4c6.html

Posted in Guest authors, research, vA news | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

OBAMA DOES ORLANDO

Posted on August 11, 2013 by asknod
What say we blow this popsicle stand and head up to the Vineyard for some pasture pool? I gotta new Big Bertha I'm dieing to try out.

What say we blow this popsicle stand and head up to the Vineyard
for some pasture pool? I gotta new Big Bertha I’m dieing to try out.

This just in from Frank. In an amazing redux of Debby does Dallas, President and Mrs. Obama blew into Orlando with much fanfare to address the DAV hierarchy and dole out the political favors to America’s finest that keep them elected. Then it was off to cooler climes in Martha’s Vineyard for a much-needed respite from the harsh, thankless, grueling job of being the Commander-in-Chief.

The DAV Pony Show was only missing Gen. Eric Shinseki and Brig. Gen. Allison “Accenture” Hickey to make the circle complete. We can easily understand why Gen. Shinseki stayed away. He tends to shun the cameras.  Not so Ms. Hickey. Considering Hickey is angling for his job, it would be a natural fit for her to come back after the 2011-2012 VA Human Resources imbroglios and try to make nice with them. She just got a new ‘do for summer, too.

It must have have been horribly distressing for Allison to find out the CEO of DAV makes more than the VASEC-or her, for that matter. I, for one, wasn’t exactly nonplussed. Any nongovernmental organization is usually replete with hidden featherbedding and the Big Three (DAV, VFW and AmLeg) are no strangers to this phenomenon.  It simply came as a rude surprise to find out that politics and money have infested Veterans Service Organizations. The only grief currently is that the cat is out of the bag. Strangely, the drive-by media have allowed this to subside along with the 22 Vet suicides a day.

It used to be said that “If it bleeds, it leads” in newspaper parlance. That doesn’t apply to the military. It was common to see news from the Vietnam battlefront relegated to the middle pages of most big newspapers by the late 60s. Similarly, when it is discovered a childrens’ charity is raking off 88% of the take for salary and allowing the remaining 12 to matriculate down to the needy ones, it makes the back page for a day. Twenty two idiots a day who choose to suck on a lead lollipop is not a failing of Congress nor can it be laid at their front door. Maybe at the VASEC’s down at 810 Vermin Avenue NW-but surely not the Casa Blanca at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. In this administration’s eye, Vets, and the military in general, are a scourge  on the US Treasury. Suicide, in their eyes, is merely a Darwinian theory like survival of the fittest.

The President and his wife made a grand showing before taking off for Martha’s Vineyard for their first official “vacation” this summer. I wonder where all the severely disabled American Veterans will be taking theirs this year. Maui? Kennebunkport? Perhaps the gorgeous white sands down in Mississippi on the Gulf Coast that have recently been deoiled? So many choices it just boggles the imagination. The indecision, along with the denials of benefits, must be killing them.

Here’s a pertinent quote from the Explainer-in Chief:

“After years of military service, you shouldn’t have to wait years for the benefits you’ve earned,” Obama said.

For scholars of the English language, “should” is a conditional verb. Perhaps its time to enact legislation putting in something less conditional with more teeth such as “shall”. Then we wouldn’t have to buy so much Jet A gas for Air Force One and the First Family could just fly straight to Boston from Andrews AFB and avoid Orlando entirely.

Speaking strictly for myself, I am now going on twenty years (five times longer than my 4 years in service) awaiting my delayed “benefits I’ve earned”. The upside to all this is that my lawyer pointed out VA will have no time to start whittling away at the ratings because they will be protected by twenty years of entitlement as of April 1, 2014. I guess VA didn’t think 38 CFR § 3.951 through on that one. I expect they’ll have to change that regulation (retroactively, I might add) to thirty years in light of the intractable backlog. We simply can’t squander money on  ratings in this day and age anyway.  Tony Principi said as much recently. Medical science (and QTC) is forging ahead by leaps and bounds. A rumor at VA has it there’s a cure for most Agent Orange diseases just over the horizon as soon as we’re all dead.

I got a bang out of this definition:

“A claim is considered backlogged if it has been in the system for 125 days, or roughly four months”  said White House press secretary Jay Carney.

Gee, Jay. You could get a job over at VA after you’re cashiered for lying. What’s the definition of a claim 7300 days old? Unavoidably delayed? I sent an inquiry in to his (and our illustrious Boss)recently bemoaning the sorry state our Individual Living Program has fallen into. My tagline was “What would you think if your advisors showed up one Monday morning and said “Gee, Mr. President.  This is weird. We have a longstanding food stamp program with 25 million slots open and only 18 million showed up for all that free food.  All we can surmise is that there must not be very many food-deprived individuals out there, huh?” With only 2,700 slots open for the most  severely disabled Veterans of America on the IL program, the VA could only find 2,428 who wished to apply and were not malingering. I guess the rest were just faking those missing arms and legs. Vets are good at trolling for that sympathy thing.

20120718_055839_1a stinson c

For as long as I can remember since the Vietnam Boundary Dispute, politicians in DC have been beating us to death with their lips. I know Sen. Patty Murray sounded good when she bitched about the sorry state of Vets Affairs but she never followed through. Col./Senator Bernie Sanders has been rather quiescent up there in Vermont but that would be expected as he settles into his new armchair. Representative Filner was another example of more recent fame in the Veterans arena. Maybe Anthony Weiner missed the boat on this one. I think he could be rehabilitated as a Veterans Service Representative and go on to a wonderful career sparking female Iraq/Afstan Vets. He’s tech-savvy as evidenced by his prowess with an I-phone. Marriage surely doesn’t seem to be an impediment.

The dog days of summer are just hitting mid-stride. Expect a plethora of these long-winded speaking engagements from the talking heads at VA to explain away the impending inability to get a handle on the backlog. While the numbers evince a declining claims filing by Veterans, nothing could be further from the truth. The foxes are publishing the henhouse production figures. Claims are increasing as more and more Vets begin the unplanned transition from the military to Vethood. With the Reductions In Force (RIF) being touted as unavoidable by Chuck Hagel, VA claims are set to go off like a good 4th of July fireworks show soon. Taking that many out of the military and putting them on unemployment or trying to stuff them into engorged VR&E programs for retraining is not a repair order. Similarly, taking newly-minted Vets offline and packing them into four year colleges is not viable forever. Like a bobber after a strike, they all surface again later with the same problem-unemployment. With all their briefings on how to apply for VA benefits at separation, I foresee a land office rush to the VAROs. VA is far more optimistic. They always are.

No matter how you slice it, there are just so many jobs. Following this latest redepression, even fewer jobs exist now and with lower wages. With the advent of the Affordable Care Act, fewer employers are comfortable with full time employment for their employees. They prefer a part-time scenario and to let the employees go into health cooperatives financed by the taxpayer. While I commend the President and Congress for their farsightedness in enacting a social/medical contract, the outcome is not having the desired effect. The predicted costs were vastly understated in a headlong rush to pass this. As Vets, we see the underbelly of subsidized medicine when we are fortunate to get in the door of the VAMC. A one hour wait for a scheduled appointment is not untoward. Having to wait six weeks to get in isn’t either. I don’t think Americans know what it is they agreed to. 2014 is going to be a rude awakening just as it was for me when I was awarded “free” medical for life at the VA.

image1s

Yo, Bob. Check it out.
There’s nothing in here.

 Veterans benefits are similarly endangered. Witness the apathy once the military wound down after the Southeast Asia Democracy Initiative in the late seventies. We are the last on the list. We are the money grubbers-the Great Unwashed. When we show up at the back door of the VA asking to redeem our promised reward, we discover the fine print of the contract or that we waited too long to act. Politicians will fake umbrage with the injustice and wail and beat their chests with their left fist so as not to spill the martini in their right. Presidents scurry to Orlando to show the false flag of solidarity with Veterans. And the beat goes on.

Promises were made and gifts were exchanged. Redeeming the promises before we die seems to be the bugaboo.

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Posted in VA BACKLOG | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

VA TO PARTNER WITH REAL LAWYERS TO HELP VETS

Posted on August 10, 2013 by asknod

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Well, obviously they are getting the thumbscrews tightened down at 810 Penny Lane NW. Having rescinded bonus pay and  golf course dictation and litigation, The VLJs are back at theirs desks hard at work. Rumor has it they have a new production goal of 1.5 cases per day, up from the obligatory one per day instituted by Gen. Shinseki in 2009. There’s still bad blood over that one.

Dissatisfied with the results of the Aspire Training , Accenture ideas brought over from Hickey, Haiku cave painting interpretation and a myriad of other boondoggles that have slowed the conversion process over to electronic format, the VA Secretary is pressing ahead boldly, going blindly in the right direction with little or no cooperation from the hired help. VBMS is the wave of the future. The problem is preventing it from becoming a runaway locomotive that blindly mows down all claims due to premature ejaculation without all the facts and evidence before it. This phenomenon is now just pushing otherwise legitimate claims into the ditch that have been in the pipeline for years in an effort to get the front door attendance figures up.

“ALL IN!” works well with cheerleaders on Friday Night in Denton, Texas. Offering a set of Ginzu Carving Knives free with a bamboo steamer for filing a Fully Developed Claim (FDC) is not going to motivate Vets. Their ills are current, longstanding and genuine. Offering a year of added benefits (read the fine print) is not what motivates us. Speed. Timeliness. Accuracy. Actually erring on the side of caution to the Veteran. Since we’ve never seen this side of VA, we are understandably confused at this sudden showing of good faith.

VA is trying to help Vets by partnering them with pro-bono lawyers in St. Pete and Chicago. I hope that doesn’t speak to VA’s mindset about their geographical IQ. The only thing I see amiss here is that these Law dogs are going to be helping prepare and prep these claims for Vets. They are not currently VA lawyers. They need a crash course in this pronto. By the time any of these guys are worth their salt, this big contrived backlog will have dissipated and the new program will be for naught. Or,… it will be so wildly successful for Veterans that the VA will acknowledge  the concept works and promptly shut it down as not being financially feasible.

Which brings us to another little problem. Current regulations only allow Veterans Service Organizations and their minions to represent Vets. Or, a Vet is free to go it alone. Openly employing attorneys with genuine JDs is shopping trouble. Granted the rules are stacked against us six ways to Sunday, but this munificence and relaxation of the rules almost always is followed by a pleasantly-worded letter telling you why you won’t be cruising on Bucks Boulevard. The mere presence of another in your claim is always given the hairy eyeball-even if its your best friend Ben who ate clay and AO with you at An Loc in 68.

If he’s a Veteran, he can represent you once. No other Vets after that. End of legal career. An attorney can legally enter in after your initial denial at the Regional Office but not before. This instance described, of course, is set in a pro bono scenario but that could all change in a heartbeat if it had to go up to the Court or the Dead Circus. They will not be ready to step into that arena with no training. Much of the time invested in your case will be lost if another has to pick up and take over later. Familiarization is 50% of the claim to me.

Posted in VA BACKLOG | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

GILEAD SCIENCES SET TO GO-BUT WHERE?

Posted on August 10, 2013 by asknod

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With all the latest trial completed, the Sofosbuvir/Daclatasivir/Ribavirin combo is clocking 100% of the last 40 patients.  The Philadelphia GS7977 trials yielded a resounding 100%  SVR of the 40 souls on it. The Seattle, Houston and Denver trials were equally impressive. Obviously, there’s no need to follow VA’s suggestion that they include  placebo pills to half the volunteers to make sure no one was faking it. Vets do that a lot, you know.

Of more import, and to me especially, Genotype 3A (G3) is being eradicated as well. G3 is easier to kill with Interferon/Ribavirin and almost a guaranteed 83 % will go SVR (remission) on it. The Victrelis/Incivek regimens are even more effective but unfortunately they have a nasty, pronounced habit of killing the patient or making them blind and riddled with thyroid issues. If you are older like some of us Vietnam -Era Vets, it’s a death sentence. Try as I did, I couldn’t convince old WGM not to do it back in December 2012 and simply bide his time. He woke up in the hospital several days after his second dose and they’re still doing a Humpty Dumpty reconstruct on him to this day. Fortunately, he’s a charter member in the Win or Die Club, so he’s not liable to throw in the towel prematurely but he says it’s like getting drug through a knothole backwards.

Sofosbuvir/Daclatasvir appears as one exciting possibility from this article. Unfortunately, all is not well in Mudville. The problem is far worse than you can imagine this time. Gilead owns Sofosvuvir. Bristol Myers Squibb owns Daclatasvir.  Ne’er the twain shall meet. The two kids can’t play in the sandbox together so we all lose. It’s like a cure for cancer but one party is taking his toys home because he wants more money. We become the pawns in this war.

Gilead is working on Ledipasvir (GS-5885) as a replacement to Bristol’s Daclatasvir but this will only improve the bottom line on the Genotype 1 population cohort. G3 Heppers will get the short end of the stick when Gilead and Bristol discontinue the GS7977 two-drug cocktail trials. It never fails. Just when you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, they build two more miles onto it.

What Ledipasvir holds for G3 Hepatitis sufferers is an unknown. One thing is that it won’t be as successful as the Daclatasvir version. It seems a crime to have a cure for something at your fingertips and then stub your toe on pharmaceutical greed. Gee, it almost reminds me of filing claims with the VA – almost.

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Posted in HCV Health, Medical News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

VA TO EMPLOY STARBUCKS CARDS, PSYCHICS

Posted on August 8, 2013 by asknod

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125 DAY CLAIM

Dateline: VA Central Office

810 Penny Lane Washington, DC 20420

In a bold move to reduce the backlog, VA’s Under Secretary for Benefits, Allison “in Wonderland” Hickey announced VA will be handing out free Starbucks® cards with the initial notification that they have received your Fully Developed Claim (FDC). The cards have a $25 dollar limit but you can refresh the card if you are denied. To do so, Vets will log in to Ebenefits site and click on the Starbucks® logo once the denial is uploaded to the site. This takes approximately six weeks. The cards are good for 2 months but if you file your claim within the next month you may get retroactive Starbucks® benefits for up to a year before your original filing date. VA officials are still unsure how this will actually result in any free coffee in the future.

The latest iteration of the FDC, according to an anonymous VA spokesman, was to drum up business and flush out some of the older Veterans filing the old-fashioned paper claims. The idea, according to the unnamed source, is to eventually forbid paper claims entirely. By letting Vets know this now, it is hoped all the claims will be filed sooner and they can once and for all rid themselves of the paper filers.

“We figure to put the fear of God in them with the new VBMS. Lots of the older guys are computer-ignorant so we’ve got that going for us. If they can’t file electronically, that pretty much sinks the old claim boat and boy are we ever counting on that. This alone will reduce the backlog at least 60% until 2016 when it is expected to hit two million claims a year. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

As for the resultant backlog inexorably building at the Board of Veterans Appeals, the plan is to revamp the CFRs outlawing any more evidence that can be admitted after the Regional Office denial. This alone, is expected to result in the eventual demise of the Appeals Management Center (AMC) and their immense volume of remanded claims for development.

Bradley Mayes, former Director of Comp. and Pen. in DC and now the titular head of the Manchester Regional Office up in New Hampshire, had this to say:

“For years we’ve been telling anyone who would sit still long enough about our streamlined process that insures fairness and a rapid resolution to claims appeals. This reduction of evidence innovation, while it may disenfranchise a large number, is just the panacea for the backlog. We’ll be running it like a Chinese dry cleaners- in by ten and out by three. We expect the VLJs will be deciding about eight to ten appeals a day.”

So what’s in the pipeline? VA is considering hiring psychics for the next generation of claims adjudications. Veterans will simply call the Prize Redemption Center at 800-827-1000 to talk to them. The specially trained seers will be fully conversant with the new M-21-2 MR (Mental Review) and capable of rendering the decisions on the spot within seconds. With the proper implementation and training, this can be applied to the BVA Appeals process as well.

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Special VA M-21 PsychComputer

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Psychic Conversion to 38 CFR method

Mr. Mayes added that with  the introduction of the Psychic Rating System (PRS), VA will   be able to rid themselves of those bulky electronic .pdf folders and slim down to even smaller, hand-held computers. “VA is on the cutting edge of technology and we want to lead the knowledge race into the twentieth century.” When informed that he was already in the twenty first century, Mayes added ” See? It’s working.”

Posted in VA BACKLOG | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments