VA Disability Claims Lawyer explains broken and dysfunctional claims system
I am a lawyer whose practice (The Lawyers of Brown & Roberto, in Knoxville, TN) deals almost exclusively with helping Veterans and their families to obtain VA disability benefits. I am also a retired Air Force military lawyer; I spent 30 years in the AF and retired as a Colonel in 2006. Though recent news reports, and even The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, focused on the two different health record systems run by DoD and VA, as well as VA’s significant number of paper claims and the time it takes to get an initial decision, these issues are actually more symptoms than a real description of the problem. The heart of the issue is the unbelievably complex, non-user friendly system the VA has created over decades to deal with disability issues. VA tasks the people who rate the claims with making legal and medical judgments, when they are neither lawyers nor doctors. VA claims it is “paternalistic” towards Veterans, yet it locks Vets into a system where there are no time requirements for VA to make a decision, the Regional Office decisions are usually wrong at least 75% of the time, and the appeals process is mind-bogglingly complex. Getting the initial decision, even if delayed for a minimum of 270+ days, or extending past 900 days, is just the first hurdle. Since the initial decision is invariably wrong in some way, the constant reviews, re-reviews, multiple medical exams for the same issue, and appeals that are separated into multiple parts that each move up and down independently are where the real delays come into play. Many clients refer to being on the “VA hamster wheel” - constantly moving but never going anyplace. Unfortunately, the description is all too correct. Other clients feel the VA is “waiting for them to die”. Again, unfortunately, the system seems to be set up to make that more likely to happen. Try calling the local VA Regional Office (at least one in each state). One 800 number exists for the entire country. Try getting the name of the rater who is handling your VA claim. Rating decisions are almost always not signed; initials and numbers describe who is supposed to be handling a case. Claim two or more disabilities, and the chances are that somewhere along the way, different people will be handling the claims at the same time, and not talking to each other so inconsistent results are highly likely. Submit evidence that supports your claim and have it dismissed by the VA because their doctors, or raters, or unknown staff members know more than your own doctors, or you, or your spouse. If VA simply approved every claim, this would be cheaper and less costly than the current system. Absent that unlikely event, the entire claims system should be revamped from top to bottom. This is what it will take to really address the backlog. Barry P. Allen www.brownandroberto.com