ssbov78, there is one place that may be of some help and that is your local service officer, DAV and or the VFW SERVICE OFFICER, woulld check with all three and see what they say, i am appealling some stuff also and am waiting for a hearing to see if we can settle with them c utting my disablity pay that was cut from 20% to 10 % because of my hearing. Am going to get a hold of my VETERAN SERVICE OFFICER this next week and see if he can find out where i stand and how soon i might get that hearing.

ssbov78 wrote:

Hello peglegjack;

Thank you for your response, and I am with the DAV and have a rep. but it takes months for him to get back to me. He will not take a message so I leave my name and the receptionist gives him the info.
I hope to receive an exam letter in the mail soon. At this point all I can do is wait for the letter or for the DAV to call me back.
I got some advice from someone else to contact my Congressmen and inform him to my situation and see if he can get involved. I believe that will be my next move.

IMO  Contacting your Congressman would be the absolute last resort. A Congressional inquiry might require a decision from the VA, before they have all the information that they would like.  Often times, that would not be in your best interests.

Remember that in an appeal, the VA process is to try and prove your case in your benefit.  They will do whatever research they can to accomplish this end.  That's a good thing!

It takes a very long time for appeals to go through.  This is because they must make sure they get it right and don't mess up.  The research takes time as they must give each inquiry at least 30 days to respond to them.  If they don't respond they will often time re-request the info and again, must wait for the answers.

All of this is is controlled by the Regs and not just some detective doing arbitrary things.

Anyway, please be patient.  If your DAV rep seems that he is not taking care of business, it is probably because he knows how long it generally takes and doesn't want to slow things down even further by interrupting the process.

We all know how frustrating this waiting can be and understand it.  That's why most of us will try to give you as much help in being patient as we can.

That's all we can do.

Last edited by USN-G-Man (2009-11-04 09:51:43)

Well, sounds like maybe this is your last resort! 

Hope it turns out all good for you.

BTW:  Just in case there's still a little confusion. 
The VA Hospital System is in the VHA (Veterans Health Administration) and the Claims process including appeals is handled by the VBA (Veterans Benefits Administration).

So it doesn't surprise me, when you say that the Hospital doesn't know anything about your exam.  They wouldn't know until the VBA requests the exam from the appropriate Hospital (just prior to the exam date). 

Even though the records are in the same Computer system within the Hospital.   Hospital Clinic Doctors can't access the C & P Exams, but C & P Exam Doctors can access the Doctors notes.

This allows the C & P Doctors freedom to contradict or support the Hospital Doctors opinions, with any repercussions or politics getting involved.

Remember, that the C & P Doctors only see you for an hour or two and the Clinic Doctors get to know their patients (some quite well).

Just some "fun facts".

ssbov78 wrote:

USN-G-Man:

HAHAHA I wish I talked to you before all of this. And thank you for the fun facts… You wouldn’t happen to know the average wait time for a C&P exam?

Again thank you for all your attention.

Check out this posting I think you might under stand a litle more on how long some things take. I posted it to day


http://www.allmilitary.com/board/viewtopic.php?id=26360

Congrats Dai Wi!

I think it was long overdue!

pegleg jack wrote:

Hey Capt, what took them so long to figure that one out?????????????????

It only took less than two week  lol