Unopened claims letters hidden at VA offices

[bottomtheweaver]

Source: Federal Times

Unopened claims letters hidden at VA offices
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Mar 3, 2009 20:56:12 EST

A new report about Veterans Affairs Department employees squirreling away tens of thousands of unopened letters related to benefits claims is sparking fresh concerns that veterans and their survivors are being cheated out of money.

VA officials acknowledge further credibility problems based on a new report of a previously undisclosed 2007 incident in which workers at a Detroit regional office turned in 16,000 pieces of unprocessed mail and 717 documents turned up in New York in December during amnesty periods in which workers were promised no one would be penalized.

“Veterans have lost trust in VA,” Michael Walcoff, VA’s under secretary for benefits, said at a hearing Tuesday. “That loss of trust is understandable, and winning back that trust will not be easy.”

Unprocessed and unopened mail was just one problem in VA claims processing mentioned by Belinda Finn, VA’s assistant inspector general for auditing, in testimony before the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

Auditors also found that the dates recorded for receiving claims, which in many cases determine the effective date for benefits payments, are wrong in many cases because of intentional and unintentional errors, Finn said.

Read more: http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3972715

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I think this is the sanitized version of the story. I heard last night on NPR that somebody discovered that tens of thousands of claims letters had been shredded in several VA offices. I'm guessing it's all just a big misunderstanding...

[ejpoeta]

1. you know.... this makes me sick.

i see the commercials urging parents to let their kids join the military. the kids talk about education and sure that's great. but when they end up missing limbs or brain damaged and then get the bums rush from their government.... wtf. this is just insane.

[bottomtheweaver]

2. George Wayne Gacy strikes again.

“A large section of the veterans community and representatives of the community have long felt that the Veterans Benefits Administration operates in such a way that stalls the claims process until frustrated claimants either give up or die,” Baker said.

Wait til somebody finds all the bodies he buried on his pig farm.

[ConcernedCanuk]

3. SIXTEEN THOUSAND unprocessed letters from the guys that go to war zones for the USA

.
.
.

fucking disgusting

USA doesn't seem to be treating their veterans any better than they did 30 years ago

I lived in the USA for all of 79 and part of 80

So I KNOW!!

I worked as an auto mechanic, trained and licensed here in Canada

Had a few vets as customers and friends

Stories from Vietnam were horrendous

Had one vet customer who lived in a VA hospital in San Diego

I had to go in to the hospital once to find him

Well, let me tell ya - that was the most disgusting, stinking, unruly hospital I'd ever visited in my life.

The way the veterans are treated in the USA is beyond disgusting.

If every recruit had to visit a few of the Veteran's hospitals BEFORE enlisting,

NONE with an IQ over 50 would ever consider enlisting -

"See son - THIS is how we take care of you if you are injured "defending" our nation"

kids would say "fuck that!" and be gone as quick as their feet could take them

[HillWilliam]

4. The saddest thing is

this kind of thing has been going on my entire memory. They way they treated my dad (Korea era) when he was elderly and sick was downright abusive. He had to fight to get in. We both had to fight daily to get any motion on his benefits. I had to quit my job and move in to his house to be able to run paperwork and appear at appointments daily at either the hospital in one city, at Veterans Affairs in another city, at Social Security at one end of town, at the Social Security lawyers' office at the other end of town -- and they all battled one another when they weren't battling us.

The hospital was a stinking disarray. They often lost lab results and sometimes had to repeat painful tests. Very often, I'd arrive to visit him in the morning and there would be a corpse parked in the hallway with a sheet over him. I'd go back that afternoon for an appointment and that same poor corpse would be in the same place, just parked, nobody paying any nevermind. That happened two or three times a week.

The filth. The stink. The incompetence. The abuse and lack of human feeling for the men and women under their (so-termed) care. Ugh. I wouldn't let them treat my dog there. If my dad weren't disabled and indigent, if they didn't OWE him decent care for his service, if we had had any better choice, I would never have allowed it. But once they have you in the system, there is no way out. If you dare to leave the system once you're in it, they WILL blacklist your records and it's almost impossible to get care anywhere else, no matter how much money you have.

Now we hear that things have gotten even worse under B*shCo.

Some "support the troops" notion the repigs have.

They can stick it up their ass sideways and strike a match to it.

[captain jack]

5. If this how America treats its hero's I'm glad I'm not an American hero.

Who needs foreign enemies with friends like these. Perhaps the VA can sell it as a continuation of paying the ultimate sacrifice.

[Tim01]

6. Hopefully President Obama

will fix these wrongs done to our veterans.

[Historic NY]

7. Sad how many of thes case result in deaths?

[DavidDvorkin]

8. A man I knew who worked as a claims processor at the VA

told me that their annual reviews were based in large part on how many claims they had processed. They all dreaded getting the complicated ones, because those took so long and brought their job ratings down. He'd seen coworkers fired because they were too conscientious.

Of course all claims should be processed, and thoroughly. But the system he described surely played a role in creating the backlog.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. We should ask Pres. Obama to pay a visit to a VA hospital.

Unannounced or on very short notice.

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. I just sent this to President Obama via whitehouse.gov/contact/

Would President Obama consider paying a surprise visit to one of our VA hospitals?
I am appalled at the continuing problems of these facilities, and the too long held Government attitude of "disposable soldiers".
When young men ask my opinion of enlisting, I tell them to go see any VA hospital or talk to any vet who is attempting to obtain the promised benefits. It is quite effective advice, I find.
I truly feel a surprise visit ( unannounced or quickly scheduled to avoid hiding the facts by the facility )
by President Obama would send several very postive messages to the military, the bureaucrats, and the voters, all of whom need to be courted to prolong the current wars.
We have no business creating more wounded veterans until we can care for the ones we have now.


Respectfully,

XXXXXXX
sister of 2 veterans
niece and grand niece of 4 veterans

[Toucano]

11. I've been a slacker. Yes it's true.

But 16,000 claims UNOPENED?

I would have at least opened them. :)

[bottomtheweaver]

12. To me it sounds like failure by design.

If they wanted to process the claims, they could hire enough people to get the job done. The article talks about a "paperless" processing system as a solution but my experience with OCR and scanning is that it doesn't save any time at all. Space possibly, but that's not the problem here.

[Supersedeas]

13. responsive government SUPPORTING THE TROOPS??? - Bush League Style

[No Elephants]

14. Yet the majority of the military is Republican. Go figure.

[SpiralHawk]

15. Republicons treat all troops and vets like shit, no matter thier party

The record of the last 8 years shows clearly that the Republicon Chickenhawk 'Leadership' pissed on our vets and troops routinely. This is just the latest outrage.

[No Elephants]

16. I agree. That's why the majority of troops should be Dem. Somehow, we don't do a good enough job

of getting the straight facts into the hands of the military and the Pubs do a good job of bs'ing them. Shame on us for not doing our job and shame on the Pubs for substituting flag pins and slogans for substance.

[SpiralHawk]

17. Alas, our sons and daughters in uniform get routine republicon propaganda blasts

from Rush 'Draft Dodger' Limbaugh, Sean 'Gucci Loafers Deferment' Hannity, Glen 'NeverServedAday' Beck, Billy 'Loofah Sex Kink Deferment' O'Reilly, and other CHICKENHAWK republicon propaganda puppets.

These Chickenhawk Republicon propagandists -- Latter Day Pharisees -- twist the minds of our sons and daughters in uniform.