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YOUR VA CLAIM: SHOULD YOU FILE IT YOURSELF OR
USE A
SERVICE OFFICER? -- Veterans' Advocate Jim
Strickland
has an answer that might surprise you.
Veterans' Advocate Jim Strickland
provides regular columns for
VA Watchdog dot Org.
If you would like to contact Jim about
his columns, you can email him here...
The archive of Jim's articles
is here...
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Why is applying for a disability benefit so often compared to root canal
work? Why do Veterans curse at the mention of their disability claims
process? What makes this procedure so painful for both the claimant and
the VBA?
I sometimes help Veterans who have a problem with a disability claim. I
don't represent Veterans to BVA as a “ Veterans' Service Officer” (VSO).
I offer hints to how I've done it myself and what I would do were I in
your shoes. If a Veteran is already in the thick of it and has been
working with a VSO, I often advise them to stick it out. Changing horses
mid-stream is perilous.
There are many of us who decided to rumble with VBA on our own. Some of
us weren't happy with our VSO. After years of no results, I finally
concluded I was smarter than he was. He had hundreds of claims and a
cramped cubicle, I had one claim and my home office. In the beginning, I
assumed I was required to use a VSO; that was how it was done and I
didn't want to rock any boats. Not then I didn't.
Over the last couple of years I've studied how the VBA works with
Veterans through a VSO as well as with Veterans on the do-it-yourself
plan.
Your Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) is charged by your
government to comply with and enforce law that determines disability
compensation to Veterans. These Veterans claim their military service
caused illness or injury or aggravated pre-existing conditions. Military
service is high risk. Training is often brutal, living conditions
frequently primitive and opportunities to incur a serious injury are
plentiful. Many Veterans carry the scars of physical and mental wear and
tear.
Our government long ago recognized a duty to provide for injured
Veterans. As early as 1636 the Plymouth Colony mandated that, “if any
man shalbee sent forth as a souldier and shall return maimed hee shalbee
maintained competently by the Collonie during his life.”(1) In 1865 as
Abraham Lincoln delivered his Second Inaugural Address he recognized the
enormous toll of death and injury inflicted on America's soldiers during
the Civil War. As part of his plan to heal the nation he spoke of the
need “to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow
and his orphan...”.
Applying to VBA is a simple process. All a Vet need do is complete a
short form, provide a DD214 and deliver it to the nearest VA Regional
Office (VARO or RO). The application will be reviewed in the order
received and the Veteran will get a mailing from VBA precisely detailing
the steps he must take, evidence he should supply in support of his
claim and any other requirements the Veteran must adhere to. Once that
step is completed, VBA will provide ample opportunity for the Veteran to
gather and submit further evidence prior to adjudication. If the Veteran
is sure there is no more evidence, he should then formally notify the
VBA of that and request that his case be adjudicated promptly.
We assume the intentions of our government are good. After all, we're
our government, right? The concept of caring for an injured soldier who
served to ensure our freedoms isn't something any reasonable American
will argue against. With the introduction of the Internet in our homes,
offices and public libraries, everything you ever wanted to know about
VBA law is available for the taking. So why is working with VBA so
difficult?
I've come to believe that it isn't, at least not always. Recently, many
claims I've observed, including my own application for increased
benefits, were favorably adjudicated in months, not years. No
opportunity was missed by VBA to inform claimants of needs for
documents, what VBA was required to do and what to expect. Forms
necessary for appeal or any other maneuver by the Veteran were provided
without asking. The Veteran was told clearly how to win their award.
Why then were some claims relatively easy while others were an unending
nightmare of confusion? I concluded that claims filed and managed by a
Veteran without help of a VSO seemed to process more efficiently. At
first I didn't grasp the “why” of my conclusions. It was if VBA was more
cooperative, more helpful, almost a partner to the Veteran if there were
no layers of representatives inserted in between.
Studying a handful of claims showed a significant difference in style. A
DIY Veteran kept it short and sweet. There was no legalese, no
blustering oratory and citation of previous court decisions, no fluff.
The DIY Veteran usually didn't list exotic combo platters of conditions
but focused on the main issue that troubled him. All too often the claim
submitted by the VSO was done by the “throw it all on the wall and see
what sticks” method. Veterans would write, “I had a broken leg and I'm
still limping. It hurts a lot.” The VSO would submit, “Veteran had a
broken leg that still hurts as well as hypertension, erectile
dysfunction, cataracts, hearing loss, back aches, PTSD, severe itching
of the affected leg, and a heart attack.” In the last week I've reviewed
a claim of a Vietnam Veteran who has a non small cell lung cancer grade
lllB, clearly Agent Orange related. He is dying, no question about it.
Not if, only when. In the last year his claim has been kicked around
like a soccer ball while VBA debates his Erectile Dysfunction, Type 2
Diabetes, Hypertension and a handful of other stuff that the VSO tossed
in. ED seems to be popular in 2006 and many benefits applications are
seeing it tossed in as a secondary condition.
I knew then I was seeing the results of what happens when you show VBA
you intend to pile it high and deep on their desk and send them the
message that it's their job to sort it out. Would a VA employee who was
shown this sort of poor judgment by a VSO or Veteran get revenge at the
expense of the Veteran?
I communicate with a lot of people. One of the best and brightest has
become a friend, a colleague who is a committed Veterans advocate. After
spending his career inside of the VBA adjudicating and otherwise acting
on benefits proceedings, he's now retired. He does some consulting work
for disability lawyers and likes using his experience to help Veterans.
When I get stuck and need help, he's where I often turn. I posed these
issues and my questions to him directly. Does VBA dislike any
representatives to a degree where there may be silent, unofficial
payback in the form of delays, complex denials and never ending demands
for more evidence? Could this happen even though the Veteran might be
harmed?
His answers were enlightening. I was happy to hear that in his long
experience with BVA he knew of no instance where a VA Rater practiced
revenge or otherwise intentionally fouled things up. He confirmed my
thinking that the majority of VA Raters are conscientious and wouldn't
ever consider an intentional delay of the process. Then he focused on
another issue. He told me that the 'filing for it all' approach, “was
the one that drove us nuts. VSO's and vets who claimed things like
'upper respiratory infections', 'high cholesterol', etc. caused an
enormous amount of busy work.”
I wanted to know if the quality of that initial filing made a
significant difference. Would a tightly focused and well prepared first
application earn a smoother trip through the system than one that was
cluttered with smaller and relatively unimportant claims? His response
didn't surprise me, “Right now at [my] RO, most of my rater friends are
not impressed with the VSO's. They find that the current crop is
submitting frivolous claims, failing to get the necessary medical
information, and failing to keep the vet informed on the need to attend
C&P exams, etc. All of us put complicated, contentious, and
uncooperative claimants aside when we had to 'make our numbers' - like
at the end of the month. I also worked for [a manager] in the 1990's who
clearly encouraged this. [There was] no reason why a well-presented,
thoroughly-documented claim had to sit in Limbo while we wrestled with
messy claims. [This manager] often used the analogy of the 'exact
change' lane on a toll-road. Why should the well-prepared driver have to
wait while the bozo in front of him searched the console for spare
change?”
As he explained all this to me, I began to try to look at it from the
desk of the Rater...the person who is responsible for making that all
important decision on the claim you submitted. I'll accept that he's
conscientious, well trained and wants to get the job done. I also know
that like the rest of VA, his office is probably understaffed and it's
impossible for him to dream of the day he' ll catch up.
So, how do I get my application in that fast lane? “If the vet supplies
the necessary info, attends the exams, pushes his private doc to submit
records etc., then the RO can complete his claim in a relatively short
time. If a VSO gets a reputation of doing that, then his clients will
get good service. The average vet helps himself when he or she has the
resources to present a good claim and follow up with whatever the VA
needs. If a VSO does it - cool. If the vet has the wherewithal to do it
alone, then they should.”
OK, there's one answer. Last question; Should I always use a VSO to file
a claim or should I just do it myself?
“The RO doesn't care who makes the claim; Veteran or VSO. The RO will
work with anybody who submits a reasonable claim. The pressure to get
the work done is so intense at the RO level that they look for
efficiency above all else. I find that most of the smarter vets I
encounter have figured out long ago that their VSO's were failing them.
That is why these vets went to the effort to find other resources like
you and me. The RO wants to work on a real claim with good evidence and
a cooperative (if occasionally upset) client. The RO understands that
customers of every type of service have occasional complaints and that
they are sometimes valid. VSO's can have an enormous impact (both
positive and negative) on the process. VSO's also get reputations that
inevitably color a rater's view of the claims they present.”
If you're a Veteran who has a claim pending or if you're thinking of
filing your first claim or maybe seeking an increase to an existing
award, you have a decision to make. Should you ask a VSO to act for you
or do you want to do it yourself?
In my own experience, my claim only got properly adjudicated when I took
the responsibility for it myself. Before I would advise anyone else to
do that I'd want them to ask themselves some questions. Do you have the
computer skills necessary to use a search engine to seek references,
copy, file and print them? Can you comprehend technical, medical and
legal jargon well enough to understand the meanings and intent of the
references you find? Do you have the time and the patience to find and
retrieve the necessary documents and medical records required? Is your
home office well organized? Do you own or have ready access to a copier,
fax machine and scanner? Are you willing to cope with the level of
frustration you'll feel when things don't go as well or quickly as you
had hoped?
If you answered “Yes” to all of those questions, you're probably well
prepared to get the job done yourself. If you responded “No” to even one
of them, you should seek the help of a County Veterans Service Officer
and ask them to guide you through the process. Interview a couple of
VSO's as if you were choosing a surgeon who would perform a delicate
operation on you. Only sign up when you're certain that your VSO will
communicate with you and advocate for you. If that VSO only helps you to
complete a few forms and later won't return your calls, you aren't going
to be happy.
Whether you choose the services of a VSO or you want to do it yourself,
remember the expert insider advice we heard from our friend and always
practice the basics of filing a good claim. The quality of that initial
contact with VBA will set the pace for the rest of the claims process.
Don't pile it on. Make a choice as to what your chief complaint or
physical malady is and file that claim. Don't allow minor issues to
distract from the most important one. Once you've established your
service connection for your “big gun” you can then begin to file for
other conditions that are either separate from or secondary to the
primary disability. Don't even think about filing a frivolous
application for benefits. Your credibility is required to have any
benefit awarded to you. Lose that credibility and you've done lasting
damage to your case.
Give that Rater what is necessary to make the decision in your favor.
It'll always be easier for you to collect and copy your own medical
records from civilian (and sometimes even VA) doctors than it will for
the VA to do it for you. That will hold true for other things too;
employment records come to mind. If VA writes and tells you they need
it, don't wait, get it done yourself.
Neatness counts. I didn't address this earlier but we've each seen
applications done by some VSO's that were embarrassing. These documents
were poorly spelled and punctuated, evidential documents were folded and
crammed into the envelope without any thought to order or sequence and
required signatures were missing. You don't need the skills of an
English professor for this task but you should put yourself in the shoes
of that person who will be responsible for reading your paperwork. If
you make their job a little easier by presenting evidence to them that
is legible and in good order, you'll be the better for the effort.
Always use registered mail. This is part of being organized. You need
copies of it all and you need them easily accessible.
And be patient. In the last year the biggest single error I've seen is a
loss of patience. Your communication with VA should be like a tennis
match. You hit one to them, they hit one back to you. If you file a form
with VA and don't hear back when you think you should, wait another
month. Don't go into a letter writing frenzy, don't write your Senator
or Representative and don't panic. Writing a letter to an elected
official seeking help with your claim may be the worst move you can
make. Your file can be pulled out of the process to be reviewed so a
letter can be written to the official justifying what VBA is doing and
explaining the delay. You'll get a form letter from your Senator's staff
telling you to chill and your file then has to get back in line...often
at Start. There is no amount of angry letter writing and critiquing of
the VBA that will speed up your application. Don't do it.
Remember, you hit one their way, they hit it back. Knock 5 or 6 balls to
them all at once and the game gets confused. This isn't the way the
system should work but it's the way it does work and that's how it is.
Anything you do other than filing a clean original application and then
waiting for your reply will slow the process down.
(1)
http://www.time.com/time/
magazine/article/0,9171,792674-2,00.html
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Larry Scott
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