HOMELESS VET WINS VHA BENEFITS

Posted on July 14, 2012 by asknod

Member Randy found this homeless Connecticut Yankee banished from King Eric’s Court. Its living proof that you can fight the system and win. Oddly, very few try what this gentleman did. Thank goodness someone gave him that helping hand. Sometimes its hard to know who to turn to when vA turns their back on you. After all, that’s what they’re there for. And just for the record, a Vet with an OTH discharge is always eligible for medical at a VAMC. He may not be eligible for compensation or pension benefits but is never denied lifesaving medical if he is in dire straits as this gentleman was. The Central office might want to read up on their own regulations before giving the bum’s rush to one of America’s heroes.

Posted in vA news | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

85% DENIAL=?

Posted on July 14, 2012 by asknod

Member Darryl emailed me with his tale of woe. He’s been denied for HCV via jetguns and/or tattoos. It seems he had some artwork done in Texas before heading to Germany in the 80’s. When he was discharged, no one annotated on Item #39 (SF88) that he had one. He does have a picture of himself and his friend sporting their brand new tats in the parking lot of what is unarguably a barracks at Ft. Hood. What he doesn’t have is medical proof or a buddy letter that could win it. I gave him the briefing on how to get there and suggested, as I always do, that he should research this site rather than ask me to do the whole thing for him. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind helping Vets get there but there is a wealth of info that we’ve assembled here and it is filed under different categories which are fairly easy to peruse.

That’s not the reason I write this. As we discussed the denial, Darryl asked why so many lose. He was appalled to find that 85% of claims end up in the trash. Let’s look at that. Are 85% of you Veterans out there conniving, lazy welfare cheats looking for a handout? It appears so. Statistics are often touted to show trends or the proclivities of people to do things. Statistics can also be manipulated. We are well into a new electoral cycle and politicians are bandying about all manner of statistics and polls about our desires and voting habits. Armed with these, we can prove up is down given enough time and resources.

This is often what VA does. Using an 85% denial figure (which they are loathe to admit), they can imply that most claims are not legitimate. They purposefully ignore that most are imperfectly developed by untrained Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs). Remember that the 85% represents requests for grave markers, DIC , and a host of other claims above and beyond the garden variety compensation/pension claims. When you throw that in the mix, you begin to discern a disturbing pattern. vA is organized and set up with the premise that you will walk in and get a fair hearing based on the merits of the claim. When they install the doorknob seven feet off the floor, this causes problems getting in. Their attitude at that point is “What? You neglected to bring a foot stool?”

We have written much on the fact that the higher you appeal, the better the quality of the justice you receive. We have also pointed out that the Supreme Court Chief Justice put the vA’s solicitor on the spot by asking him if the vA is substantially unjustified in 60% of its actions denying Veterans. His answer was yes which pokes a large hole in the 85% theory.

Most Veterans I have talked with experience a disconnect when they use a VSO and discover that the representative assigned to them is hopelessly inadequate or so overwhelmed with his workload as to be ineffectual. Either way, it spells disaster for the endeavor. Muddling through a claim and making elementary errors means many years of litigation spent on a simple claim. Nevertheless, that is what we face with the present system.

What was Congress thinking when it limited our choices to representing ourselves or using a VSO? Quite simply, they envisaged what we are told every day-that we inhabit a Veteran friendly environment to present our claims that is non-adversarial and  gives us the benefit of the doubt. Taking the page from the AVIS® commercial I say “Well, not exactly...” I call this the paper view which is a play on the phrase “Pay per View” as in  Blockbuster. Assuredly we are promised many things. So were the Indians when they traded away Manhattan. The dichotomy begins when we dig deeper.

I don’t know how many times during one-on-one, face to face encounters with vA personnel where they have smiled, did the old head bob and nodded sagely in agreement with everything I laid out. If you were a betting man, you’d think you had this in the bag. If you were a person who is astute at reading faces and demeanor, you would open a new bank account and buy a shiny new wheelbarrow to haul your future riches to the bank.

This is where Darryl was bushwhacked. The sign on the wall says Veterans Administration.  That implies so much in the mind of a naive Veteran. It certainly did to me in 1989. Add in a VSO who brings up the compensation schedule on his computer and turns the screen towards you to show you how large a wheelbarrow you’ll be needing is another. Conveniently forgotten in all this rush to add up your new-found wealth is that little 85% hurtle no one bothers to mention. The obverse of the 85% is the 15% granted. That’s slightly better than a scratch off lotto ticket (10%). And much like the scratch off lotto ticket, the return ($1)  is often less than you put into it over 10 tickets ($10).

vA  insists their claims success rate on all claims is 84%. Right. So 84% of the time they get it right? This is impossible unless they managed to turn it around in less than a year or so. Statistics don’t show that they can have a 100% success rate on giving you your headstone and the burial gratuity yet have an error rate on compensation claims in excess of 60% of the time. I think its called the Bell Curve. The compensation errors drag the headstone thing down a bit. Que Sera Sera, right?

This is why there is no confidence in numbers and why Undersecretary Hickey got the stinging rebuke from Rep. Filner that she did. Granted, she’s only been there 14 months and Uncle Eric’s been minding the candy store since 2009, but it comes with the territory. Ideally, the dapper General himself should have been seated where she was that day.

In order to have confidence in a system (and parity), everyone has to agree on how to measure things. This begins in the weighing of evidence at the RO. It also encompasses truthfully reporting what is happening, not what the RO hierarchy wishes was happening. Putting a happy face on a disaster is reserved for FEMA and the vA has no business going there. Completing a claim for disability should not be a fast track through a computer algorithm that is programmed to pay out 15 of each thousand entered. This is what we are dealt presently and it passes muster for legitimacy. That the error rate is so high is immaterial. You had your day in court-that is what they count. The fact that you will be back again and again for the next decade is not a statistic that is examined. Each claim is a transaction. Take a number and sit down.

No one will ever know what the true numbers are as long as the government uses chicanery and ruses to hide the numbers. When you and all your engineer and construction buddies are unemployed, it doesn’t compute with 8.2% unemployment. This is generally known as massaging the nmbers to obtain what you want to present to the major media. As long as we are victims of this, Representative Filner’s job isn’t finished.

Posted in Complaints Department, VA BACKLOG | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

EMPTY HOMES AND EMPTY PROMISES

Posted on July 13, 2012 by asknod

I received this tweet from the tweeter gods. To be truthful, I didn’t know I had a tweetermatic. It just showed up. And look what it said. Well, actually I did some digging to see who Aaron Glantz was.

The actual tweet said:


#VA official on disability claims: “Our inventory is different than our backlog and our pending is very similar to our inventory”
Posted in vA news | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

A HICKEY VIGNETTE?

Posted on July 13, 2012 by asknod

Member Squidley sends a suggestion for a new H-gram. A short dissertation for an e-book by her royal highness entitled:

How to deny a claim in 125 days or less

with 98% accuracy

A

Very

Short Story by

Allison A. Hickey

Posted in Humor | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BORNE THE BATTLE

Posted on July 13, 2012 by asknod

Here’s a wonderful piece by James Marten on who we are and why. It condenses the essence of our struggle then, in the 1880s post war era, as well as today.

Many American Veterans do not realize they inhabit the best of all worlds right now vis a vis their VA claims. Never in memory can I recall a time where we were respected and thanked for our contribution to America’s freedom as we are now. America, for a brief time, will give us that which is our due. At some time in the future, she will rebel at the high cost incurred and seek to diminish all that she has promised her sons of war.

America’s demeanor towards Vets is fickle. Many was the Vet, including me, who stepped off the plane at Travis AFB in California and took the bus over to San Francisco Airpatch. A great majority of us were greeted by a de facto army of protesters with nothing better to do than harangue us as we dispersed for home or new duty stations. Yes, some even spit on us. I arrived there, not in crisp 1505s, but in sweat-stained camouflage fatigues fresh out of the jungle. After two years, I had a tan that made me look Hispanic and a desire to be left alone. I was a natural target of their animosity. I resisted the urge to engage them because I was beginning to feel more affinity to them than the military.

For the next twenty years I would have very little to do with the vA except for a vA home loan. I desired nothing from them and expected nothing. Which is exactly what I got. When I did make the overture to them about remunerations for what were unarguably service connected injuries, I discovered just how jaded the concept was. We were promised a fig newton. It existed somewhere but I would never see it because it was virtual and not tangible. A mirage would be a good analogy.

With the advent of three wars and a military called to accomplish this in several different countries simultaneously while still ensuring a commitment to our allies in Europe and Korea, we discovered we were stretched thinly.  We fell back on our National Guard and other assets which were never intended to be called up unless a threat was at our doorstep or just off our shores.

America, for the moment, is honoring its commitment to its Veterans. How long will it be before the sentiments fade and the scenario described by Mr Marten in his Marquette Law Review come to pass again? It appears to be cyclic and peaks several decades after each conflict. Thus History teaches us than by 2025, a gradual wave of indifference will evolve into a nation turning its back on its Veterans once again. Just as in Mr. Marten’s thesis, we will be seen as a plague on the US treasury-undeserving of the largesse we demand as ours. Sadly, many civilians see this as a gratuity rather than a promise- something that can be rescinded when financial  turmoil demands it. This is what we experienced after both world wars.

Enjoy your time in the sun, ladies and gentlemen. Gird yourselves well and protect your six. You have no idea what’s in store for you. We who have trod this ground before you are the few left to sound the alarm. Our Vets from WW2 are all but a mention in history. Our brave ones who stood fast at Pusan in 1950 are also fading daily. In fact, the majority left are the approximate 900,000 of us who served in Vietnam and the adjacent peninsula. Our numbers are shrinking even more rapidly than those of prior wars due to the insidious nature of jungle warfare and its attendant diseases.

In sum, soon the only advocates for Veterans who are Veterans will be the post-Vietnam, pre-Desert Storm troops. They have also been given the size 2 t-shirt that doesn’t fit. Their travails over depleted uranium, CFS, suspect vaccinations and the like are a new battle only now beginning to bloom like an unwanted hernia. Somehow vA seems to think they can get a handle on this. In fact, they honestly believe they can solve it with 4,000 new employees! It reminds me of a new husband talking about his wife’s impending childbirth and saying “Relax. I know how to handle this. I read the book.”

Our nation is great because we make it so. Our Veterans are an integral part of that. To ignore their contribution and attempt to renege on the promises is foolhardy and will contribute to the eventual decline of our military. In fact, we as Veterans are a driving force for the young who seek their fame and fortune as soldiers. Our talk of past experiences exhorts many to seek admission to this exclusive club. If America demonstrates its disdain for them after their loyal service, we shall witness a decline in the moral standards and the timber of our recruits in future years. In spite of what you see now, there will be a reckoning and it will be ugly.

I close with General (and President) George Washington’s admonition:

“The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by this country.”

Read and heed in future years.

Posted in All about Veterans | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

VA’s newest plan to fix the backlog

Posted on July 12, 2012 by joeaveragevet

This new editorial explains a little about how Shinseki is going to reduce the backlog by 2015, amidst a growing number of doubters.

Once again, the VA promises to reduce the backlog.

Among the skeptics is this 94 year old man, still trying to get VA benefits.   Apparently 7 years was just too fast for the VA to complete his claim, and he waits, just like the other million or so Veterans in the “hopium” that Shinseki will fix the backlog.

So, the VA has a plan to reduce the backlog.  First,

Please observe “the old” plan which was only partially effective at reducing the backlog:

Veterans were unhappy with the old plan, so something had to be done.  There were congressional investigations into shreddergate, and the VA promised not to get caught at it anymore.  Interestingly, Belinda’ Flynns congressional testimony “forgot” that Cleveland RO was also on the list of Regional Offices caught shredding Vets evidence.

Chairman Munyan and Belinda Finn had a conversation about shredding documents in 2011,  in a congressional hearing about poorly performing Regional Offices.  This is a portion of their conversation:

Mr. RUNYAN. And there is, Ms. Finn, regarding misplacing loss claim folders, you said in your written statement this is happening in the VA’s COVER system….

 (Authors Note:  Notice the present tense “is happening” as opposed to it “has happened” in the past but fixed.   Isn’t that an admission by the VAOIG that Veterans evidence is still coming up missing far too often?   The author wants to know why the VAOIG is apparently no longer performing inspections  checking the shredder bin for these lost documents, since this statement would indicate that Shreddergate 2 is on its way. )

 (continuing with Mr. Munford’s quote) They are tracked by bar code. How are we losing files like this all the time?

Ms. FINN. What we found was the location in the system doesn’t correspond to where the folder is. So when you go to where the folder was last recorded, it is not there.

Mr. RUNYAN. Isn’t that the purpose of the bar code?

Ms. FINN. The purpose the bar code, yes, is to provide a system for tracking it. But it requires compliance that people use the scanner to COVER it in every place it goes. And if somebody misses doing that step, and then the folder gets put into a file room, perhaps it gets misfiled and then you can’t find it.  

There you have it.   Scroll to the bottom to see the VA’s newest backlog reduction program.

Posted in Guest authors, SHREDDERGATE, VA BACKLOG | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

CAVC–BOWEN v. SHINSEKI–SEMPER FI, DUDE

Posted on July 12, 2012 by asknod

Every once in a while I see a good decision but often all I see in panel opinions is negligent lawyering . Call it Driving (claim) under the Influence (of Lawyer). What else can you take away from this? I have been known to be in error more than once. The Keith Roberts imbroglio comes to mind foremost. Nevertheless, always one to read between the lines, I dug into this one. The players:

JERROLD C. BOWEN, APPELLANT,

Daniel J. Neilsen, of Seattle, Washington, for the appellant

ERIC K. SHINSEKI,
SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS, APPELLEE.

Will A. Gunn, General Counsel; R. Randall Campbell, Assistant General Counsel; Nisha
C. Wagle, Deputy Assistant General Counsel; and Jesse B. Greenstein, all of Washington, D.C.,for the appellee

The place: 625 Indiana Ave. NW, Suite 900,  Washington DC 20004-2950

The time: Now. June twenty ninth, 2012

Okay. Mr. Bowen has chosen to appeal a CUE claim from the RO directly to the Court. Lawyering 101 is know your jurisdictional limits.  Examining the legalzoom.com credentials of Mr. Neilson, I see nowhere that he is admitted to the CAVC bar. He may serve as legal counsel for Mr. Jerrold C. Bowen , however, by virtue of his loyal service to our country in time of war from 1991-1995 honorably in the USMC. The law permits that. The same United States Code says you have the right to remain stupid too.

With that said, absent any legal training in the Lion’s den of the CAVC arena, he is an unfortunate novitiate and in way over his head. I admire him. He is quintessential Marine. “That’s why they sent me instead of the Army”-type of Marine. Gitterdone Marine. If anyone were versed in this art and also happened to be a Veteran of the Marine Corps, I would seek him out among all others to defend me.  He’s not and Bowen shouldn’t have. But then, Bowen bears the brunt of the error too because this is his friend or acquaintance. Face it. They probably didn’t meet at the bar.

The second bone of contention is that there is a matter of the misaddressed letter that went awry. The Presumption of Regularity Rule was violated but the Court let the vA off on this technicality because he was offered one by the Board which would have  remedied this glaring error. I wouldn’t have. There were two opportunities to have a hearing. Either one could have been the deciding one that granted his claim. Right? Well, not exactly.  But let’s dig deeper.

Mr. Bowen had a VSO. Ruh-oh Rorge! Rorge denied!

Mr. Bowen’s rep. scheduled the hearing. Jerrold never attended because the hearing notice was mailed to the wrong address. Guess who? But here’s where the story runs up on the rocks. His representative never followed up and found out why. Nobody ever hollered  “Excuuuuuse me! Nothing but silence. In fact, they went on up to the Board and skipped the opportunity to do it in front of the VLJ when presented with the chance. Now, on appeal at the Court, Mr. Neilson tries to pull the due process rabbit out of the hat for the very first time.

Let’s pile blame up and measure it. Mr. Bowen’s claim went south when his highly trained legal counsel (VSO) stepped into the picture. Jerrold presented the claim as a new one to Mr. Rep.. But Mr. Bowen filed in 1994 for exactly the same thing. This was all in the 1994 claim to begin with so the 2007 filing was really a reopening of the old claim. When you reopen, you have to bring a new batch of evidence to the table that nobody has seen before and it has to bear on the subject you’re filing for. Thus your Disco Degenerative Disease  records are not material to a bent brain claim. You also have to fulfill a “new” as in “never before seen” requirement. Mr. Bowen just brought in all the old stuff and said “Here. I want to file for Walrus Gumboot and Ono Sideboard. Hold me in your armchair and you can feel my disease. Here’s my MEB. Push print.” The rep. on the other hand, was not keeping track of what was going on either or he could have averted this. Or…? Maybe he was differently-abled and just overlooked this discrepancy when he was perusing the C-file. That’s his job. They actually paid him to do this for to Mr. Bowen. Baaaaad VSO.

This same error code went up to the BVA with no embellishments and they confirmed what was undoubtedly a carbon copy of what the RO deep sixed. Okay. I give up. Why appeal with exactly the same stuff you just lost with? Ever hear of buddy statements? Nexus letters? Similar medical theories from Internet articles? Perhaps a hearing to explain your side of the coin? N&M evidence to rebut with?  Naw.

So, in sum Mr Neilson was handed an impossible claim riddled with defects. If you agree to do this, you have to have a plan. You have to have some impressive, convincing evidence to prove CUE. They’re getting deaf on that whole due process argument up there these days. It’s becoming the catch-all clause when all else fails. So that in itself was a non-starter. The fact that it had not been presented until arrival at the Court shows the last-ditch defense posture of  Messieurs Bowen and Neilsen. Obviously this was cooked up after viewing a lot of chicken entrails, tea leaves and adducing da bones, mon.

I don’t mean to be cruel here but ladies and gentlemen Vets- if you screwed up this bad- you need to go home and start a new line of defense buttressed by some serious medical evidence from your guys, not a medical opinion from theirs. In order to win, you have to have a strategy. A fallback position with more ammo cached is advisable for an appeal. The CAVC is the last-ditch, stand and deliver. Your whole defense has to arrive here coherent and in one piece from the get go. All the evidence has been looked at. Everything in the oven is done. What your bring here is the judicial mistake-not the “They promised me a rose garden!”

Mr. Bowen was barking up the wrong tree and will go back to the RO with his CUE claim. There he will argue the Due Process faery tale again and burn more useless candles at the altar of futility. The smartest thing Daniel could do for Jerrold at this point would be to counsel him to begin anew from the ground up and buy a really good book on Veterans Administration claims with a tell-all on how to win them. That’s what friends do for friends. They don’t waste their friend’s and their time on futile defenses. They go on the offensive and get a good nexus (or nexi in this case). That’s just what I would do if I was similarly situated. J1VO. My apologies if I have stepped on anyones’ ego or professional standings in the judicial community hereabouts.  I merely describe what I see. I didn’t write this book. The VSO, Jerrold and Daniel did.

Posted in CAVC/COVA Decision, Veterans Law | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

ANOTHER HICKEYGRAM

Posted on July 12, 2012 by asknod

In what is perhaps a redux of the famous Z-grams which Rear Admiral Elmo Zumwalt used to issue in the 70s on operational procedures in the Navy, so too is Undersecretary of the VA for Benefits Allison  A. Hickey similarly engaged. Her “H-bombs” are going off all over the place at 810 Vermont Ave. NW in DC and a few even land up in Congress.

Unlike Elmo’s legendary missives which were designed to improve Naval operations, Hickey’s appear to be panaceas to all those nasty problems we’ve been suffering with in silence for decades.  The latest appears to be a retread of the famous triage system instituted in the eighties to focus on needy Vets with problems that required immediate attention. That system was relegated to the mailroom where astute vA employees were assigned to open all the incoming mail. Its purpose was two fold and weeded out all the letters with anthrax and ricin. The important thing was that a Veteran could invoke the holy words Rule 900, and with supporting evidence, get his claim adjudicated before he didn’t have use for the money in the afterlife. This worked admirably until the claims picture changed with increased wars and their attendant fallout (injured Vets). We were instructed to call this “collateral damage” in the 70s when nape went further than we intended.

Member Squidly Didly sends us this latest masterpiece from the desk of none other than her royal highness of benefits. Its another H-bomb that simply restates the triage program and makes it sound like a brand new invention. I certainly don’t mean to sully Ms. Hickey’s reputation for innovation but if this is the best she and her henchman can come up with as a rejoinder to Rep. Filner’s tirade on inefficiency last month, we as Vets are in for a long winter of discontent. Sixteen ROs? Gee, what about the other 40, Master? In good time. Padewans. All in good time.

Veterans deserve better than for our Protector to simply repackage old programs and present them as new, cutting edge technology in the war on the claims backlog. The majority of us do not drive turnip wagons for a living and have a modicum of intelligence. Most of us can see the ham-handed tactics they are employing in a desperate attempt to hold on to their authority. The worst case scenario is beginning to rear its ugly head. What if outside agencies could be employed (read subcontracted) to successfully diminish the backlog and increase accuracy? Perish the thought. Why, that might mean they would lose their supremacy over all things Veteran. Is that such a bad thing?

Hickey is herself a Veteran. Although she flew a desk for a living in that former life, she should still empathize with Vets. The same applies to Uncle Eric. This shouldn’t be an adversarial relationship with us on the losing end. There is simply no parallel in American history for the shoddy treatment we have been getting since before the Bonus Army was decimated in DC back in 1932.

Always remember ladies and gentlemen-promises were made and gifts were exchanged when you signed up. This has been the case for two centuries since the War of Northern Aggression. You kept your promise and held up your end of the bargain. Unfortunately the government, like an ADD child, seems to forget its end of the agreement or worse-it constantly seeks to renegotiate the contract after signing to provoke a different outcome. That outcome seems to always leave us with less and less every time they renegotiate the compact. I now understand how the Oglalla Sioux felt after their last do-over with DC.

As Squid pointed out, all these purported “cures” simply are instituted at the RO level with no mention of the downstream issue of the logjam at the BVA rapidly developing. Hell, let’s revisit that and call it what it is-a clusterf**k of jurisprudence. I’m not one for expletives but we have used up all the polite adjectives over the years to describe what is going on. What Ms. Hickey and company don’t seem to absorb is that this has gone beyond the pale where simple H-bombs and press releases detailing what is in store for us don’t cut it. If they resolve the problem at the RO without addressing the next backlog phase, all we’ve fought for is a new stumbling block with a different name. Until we resolve the next most basic issue after timeliness (which is accuracy), all the speedupmyclaim.com crap is so much window dressing.

The only thing missing here is a catchy acronym like the “BOZO plan” for this new initiative. Brilliant OrganiZational Obfuscation Plan indeed. Its okay with me if you want to use that one. Somehow, it seems appropriately named under the circumstances.

Posted in Complaints Department, VA BACKLOG, vA news | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

DIAL A PRAYER(827-1000)

Posted on July 11, 2012 by asknod

Do you get this feeling every time you call vA?

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

HAL 9000 SERIES–THE M-21 1MR

Posted on July 11, 2012 by asknod

Meet the new, improved M21-1MR WARMS Computer. I bet that all this time you thought  there were little munchkins running to and fro down at the RO with C-files balanced on their heads. Busy, busy, busy. Or not. What is the M-21 1MR? It is merely the operating manual for 38 CFR. 38 CFR, in turn, is the VASEC’s interpretation, on any given day, of what it was that Congress was trying to ensure we received via 38 USCS. The M-21 is not law; it has no force of law. It merely tells raters what to do if A=B and B=C. Since the M 21 always tells us that A≠B and B≠C, we lose and get a really spiffy letter telling us so that is also suitable for framing.

Let’s take a closer look at this process. Yes, you’ve sent everything in paper format or put it all on a disc and VONAPPed it in. Whichever method you used, its immaterial. All this gets the once over on it way to the maw of the M-21 Brushhog. What exits the back end is bagged up like mulch and heads for the signature room. There it’s signed off on with two sigs and whoosh out the door. If you win, its the same  scenario unless the award goes over $25K and then it needs the Veterans Service Center Manager’s signature which oddly resembles the handwriting of the Director of C&P back in DC. Just a coincidence, I’m sure.

The point here is that there is not the hands-on process that everyone imagines. If that were so, how do we explain that the M-21 “accidentally” had a glitch and spit out a denial for HCV in Houston last fall based on STDs being willful misconduct and not LOD? This is just one we know of. How many more are there day in and day out? And how many are appealed?

Go one step further and look at the Sellers decision  several weeks ago. Three sigs and whoosh out the door. Then a “Standby. Houston we have a problem”. Better yet. Go back to the Macklem debacle last year. That’s proof positive that they’re brain dead or incapable of doing long division without a calculator.

Three decisions that we know of with glaring third grade errors. All three had the same problem. No one in their right mind would have signed them if they’d read them. Yet they did and thus it became a finding. A finding, for all of you who are new to this, is a “holding” judicially speaking that cannot be rescinded unless it is proved that it is the product of CUE (clear and unmistakable error).

CUE, as we know, is one of the hardest things in the world to overcome. It’s described as an outcome-determinative error- i.e. unless you can prove differently, then the decision stands. This is what happened with WGM. With Sellers, they got the three sigs but it prematurely escaped the RO like Pandora out of the box and they never could coax it back.   They weren’t finished “fixing it” yet. If this isn’t proof of the perfidy afoot at the vA, I don’t know that you could ever find better.  The Vet is approved but then it needs a “haircut” to mitigate the loss.

If no one is actually hands on in this process anymore, who is pulling the Oz levers? Someone has to insert the facts as they are known. The parameters are set and the little boxes are checked. The form populates and the info goes where it is aimed. Somewhere in the maze there is a glich and whoosh-out comes the wrong size of mulch. Nobody looks to see what the status is. It is what it is. Most importantly, it’s correct. It has to be, right? HAL 9000 says the AE-35 unit is due to fail and you trust it. Why wouldn’t you?

It’s evident this is why you can have a 60% error rate in this business and not even blink an eye. The implicit trust vA puts in computers to compute properly is legend. Why question why? Just do. This may be why vA employees in South Carolina are up in arms. They’re getting a bum rap and it’s WARMS’ fault.

If all this is being done via the WARMS M-21 wunderfunktion, do we really have a backlog in the conventional sense? It seems we don’t need more raters but munchkins to feed the in-basket hopper with data. Unfortunately, that will not result in more and better ratings. It will engender a new excuse protocol based on the “We need a new computer” scenario. Every time they revamp the technology, there’s that magic moment when the resident vA IT whiz kid says “Whoa! This  won’t interface with our existing system! We need to retool with the new HAL 9900. Then it’ll be all better. We could have that up and running by 2019 with 85 day/99% accuracy. Trust me.”

If I were a congressman , I think I’d go at it like Filner but with no quarter given or taken. Just a straight forward “Get it done. Now. Right? No more 2015, no more 98%, no more 4,000 more employees- no sir.” Excuses are like assholes and vA has learned the art form of how to present an asshole in the best light. Meet Mr. and Mrs. Vet(the assholes). We are the problem, ladies and gentlemen. If we’d give it a rest, they wouldn’t have this problem.

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