Veterans Beware!

[Gimpy]

Looks like our old friends (yeah RIGHT!)The Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission (VDBC) are up to no good again! They are conducting a nationwide poll of disabled veterans and surviving spouses.


BE WARY!................BE VERY, VERY WARY!----AND CAREFUL, FOLKS!


VETERANS DISABILITY BENEFITS COMMISSION SURVEY: WHY ARE THEY ASKING ALL OF THESE PERSONAL QUESTIONS? -- The Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission survey is supposed to quiz vets about their "VA views and experiences."

However, it appears to be more of a probe for personal information. The VA Watchdog now advises all veterans NOT to co-operate with this survey.

Background on that survey can be found here... http://www.vawatchdog.org/nfNOV06/nf111806-1.htm

Documents being sent to veterans here... http://www.vawatchdog.org/nfNOV06/nf112106-3.htm

Initially, I felt that this survey would not delve into extremely personal information. I was wrong!

VA Watchdog.org has received feedback from a regular VA Watchdog reader who took the survey.

Now, they advise all veterans NOT to take part in this survey.

There is no reason for the VDBC to be probing veterans for highly-personal information.

It should be noted that the VDBC says the survey will take 30 minutes. The reader who forwarded the survey information tells VA watchdog that it took over 80 minutes, the surveyor had a difficult time reading the questions and entering the responses. This can only lead to errors in the information gathered.

Again, do NOT take part in this survey. The VDBC should not be data-mining veterans!

And, we have no verifiable guarantees about how this information might be used in the future.

Also, this survey is being conducted by a third-party contractor, ORC Macro. This company advertises itself with this statement: "We are recognized as one of the top companies providing research to the Federal Government." Information on ORC Macro here...
http://www.orcmacro.com/06_MobisBrochure.pdf

You will notice some of the services ORC Macro provides to the Federal Government: Data Mining, Behavioral Interviewing, Cognitive Interviewing Techniques, Disease Registries, Emotional Intelligence, Income Verification, Knowledge Acquisition and Record Matching.

Not a company I'd be letting get into my personal and medical information!

Below are excerpts from the email VA Watchdog received from the veteran who took the survey.

I, most certainly, would not answer these questions!

---------------
Here is the info sent by the veteran to VA Watchdog.org.


"The questions were tricky ones, they repeated the questions in a different way to see if you were telling the truth."

"They kept asking me about my disabilities and work."

"They also asked me about my volunteer work."

"Can I work without the VA pension? was one question."

"If I did not have the VA would I look for work?"

"How badly am I hurting right now? Can I at least vacuum as a daily chore. Can I take care of my yard? Can I do yard work?"

"Do I get along with my family? Do I get along with my spouse? No questions about my relationship with my son."

"How injured was I?"

"They wanted to know what I can do as far as my injuries related to the service. Asked about was there a difference between when I left for the service and when I got home? How I was treated?"

"They asked about my hearing."

"They were interested in last week's activities. They asked if I have hobbies but not what kind."

"They asked who told you you cannot work? I said doctors and they wanted to know which doctors as far as VA and regular doctors."

"How do I feel about working? Would I ever want to work again? Could you ever work again?"

"They did ask if I was getting enough compensation for my injuries."

"They asked me about when I have energy, what do I do? Also where do I sleep? And where do I sleep the most?" ------END------

Like I said,....... the shit is fixin to hit the fan when this so-called "Commission" reports back to the President and Congress next October 07......

[Arrow]

Thanks Steve, hope they call me, although I can't really afford given' away pieces of my mind at this stage of life I'd gladly do it. See link below as to some ways your health information in the wrong hands can be used against you.

Patient Privacy Rights

[1CAVCCO15MED]

Even if it doesn't come back on the individual, they are trying to say all these people could work if they didn't get compensation. The questions are loaded that way.

[Robert Ryan]

Typical governemnt BS.

[Gimpy]

VETERANS' ADVOCATE JIM STRICKLAND SOUNDS ALARM ON VETS' SURVEY -- "The Veteran who responds openly and honestly to this survey is more likely than not going to find that the information".

Jim Strickland responds to the VA Watchdog article about the Vets' Survey being conducted by the Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission that was posted earlier ...that article here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/nfDEC06/nf120106-1.htm

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Veterans' Advocate Jim Strickland provides regular columns for VA Watchdog dot Org.


------START---------

VETS' COMMISSION SURVEY: WHY ARE THEY ASKING ALL OF THESE PERSONAL QUESTIONS?

"They also asked me about my volunteer work."


Many Veterans Administration Voluntary Services (VAVS) volunteers are disabled Veterans. Some are severely disabled, some not so much. Quite a few volunteers log 20 to 40 hours each week at their VA facility.


VA volunteers are already acutely aware of those who say that if a Vet is able to volunteer, he should be able to work. There is always an ongoing quiet discussion amongst volunteers who are rated as disabled; "What if?"


What if there is an official accounting of disabled volunteers and subsequently a review of those documented to be logging in for more than, say, 10 hours each week? Currently VA volunteers, like so many other volunteer organizations, have "bragging rights" that are predicated on how many hours they are signed in as volunteers. At volunteer services celebrations awards are given and applause is offered to those volunteers who log in the most hours.


The Vets Commission questionnaire has nothing whatever to do with improving the quality or efficient delivery of health care to Veterans in desperate need of that care. It has even less to do with improving the current inefficient (and usually wrong) process of adjudicating a Veteran's claim for disability. In the list of questions your reader sent to you as an example of what he was asked, over 50% are directly related to the Veteran's ability to work.


This questionnaire is a hard-core scientific instrument. Those friendly questions concerning his ability to work, perform household chores, participate in hobbies or interact with family members are aimed toward determining his "Functional Capacity". The determination of Residual Functional Capacity after a claimed injury or illness is SOP in the disability industry. Each question on this survey will have been debated and refined by a panel of experts that includes psychologists, physicians, lawyers and social workers. Functional capacity reporting will provide information to determine an individuals work abilities as well as the status of their disability.


Why are they conducting this survey? On May 30, 2006 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report regarding disabled Veterans harshly criticizing the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) for not enforcing stricter requirements for Veterans receiving 100% IU benefits.


In his excellent article published in June on the military.com web site Tom Philpott reports that:


"The number of disabled veterans rated IU and the cost of their benefits have risen sharply in recent years. From fiscal 1996 through 2005, veterans rated unemployable tripled from 71,000 to 220,000. In the same period, IU payments jumped from $857 million a year to $3.1 billion.


The 'marked increase' is troublesome, GAO suggests, because it has occurred 'at a time when advances in medicine and technology, along with labor market changes, have provided greater opportunity for people with disabilities to seek and maintain employment.'


The 54-page report has been much anticipated by members of the Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission which is conducting the first major review of veterans' disability benefits in 50 years."


Reading through Tom's article, then the GAO report and later Googling up a few more references leaves us with a clear understanding of the intent of this survey: This questionnaire is a wolf in sheep's clothing. The Veteran who responds openly and honestly to this survey is more likely than not going to find that the information he provides will be used as evidence against him.


Can a Veteran's compensation be reduced? Of course it can.


Reading 38 CFR ?3.343, "Reduction of Service-Connected Total Disability", you'll find that as they are attempting to lower your benefit rating, VA instructs ratings specialists to; "Cite clear and convincing evidence of actual employability when reducing a rating based on individual unemployability. Examination reports showing material improvement must be evaluated in conjunction with all the facts of record. Consideration must be given particularly to whether the veteran attained improvement under the ordinary conditions of life, i.e., while working or actively seeking work or whether the symptoms have been brought under control by prolonged rest, or generally, by following a regimen which precludes work."


A Vet's honest answers to the survey may demonstrate "material improvement" and become "the facts of record". You'll hand over incriminating evidence that your "symptoms have been brought under control by prolonged rest" and that you've been "following a regimen which precludes work".


During this intense interrogation if you break and confess that you are a VA volunteer a few hours each week and that you're minimally able to do some of your own laundry and rake a few leaves or drive a car, you have just provided your accusers with, "clear and convincing evidence of actual employability" and they will lower your rating to satisfy the bean counters at GAO.


I opened this rant with some comments about volunteers....now back to that.


I'm a disabled Veteran. I volunteer a few hours each week at my local VA Primary Care Clinic. I'm proud to be able to give back to my doctor and the other professional staff who have helped me. I always feel good when I can help a brother or sister in arms. The younger ones are particularly rewarding...those just returning from the battle really need an experienced hand to guide them.


Most of the volunteers I work with have disability ratings. Maybe 1/2 are 100% disabled. If this is to be a witch hunt by The Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission (VDBC) to uncover our dirty little secret...that we're able sometimes to answer a phone or file some papers...we'll have to give that up. As it stands today it would seem that each time we sign in to our VA facility to do a bit of volunteer work, we've just raised a red flag and officially documented to VBA on a VA computer system (Searchable by the Commission?) that we should have our personal disability rating reviewed.


The message from VDBC is pretty straightforward. Don't try to improve your life by working, volunteering or interacting with those around you. And if you insist on carrying on like that, for God's sake, don't get caught. A few hours of volunteer work or making your bed each day will be seen as proof that you enjoy good health and employability. And as long as you're doing so well, your rating will be reduced.

------END------

Like I said before folks, we need to keep a close eye on this commission!------They are up to NO GOOD!



##################

[Packo]

Is there something about a STRESS DISORDER! these people can't understand. Of course the patient is going to feel better without the stressor of having to be on a full time job. It's the old Catch 22. "Well, how do you feel after leaving your stressful job?" "Better!" the patient replies. "Well then, if your better, you have to go back to work!"

I was at a VA Regional Office hearing with one of my vets who was trying to raise his rating to 100%. He was 70% PTSD, Marine, Recon, VN. He had a huge construction business he had lost due to his PTSD. At the time, I think 100% paid about 1600-1700 a month. He made that easily a week. He had been in treatment with me for a couple of years and it was everything I could do to just get him to maintain. Think I still have the picture of me and the Police Officer escorting him out of his house when he was barricaded one time. (Took 3 pairs of handcuffs he was so huge.) Anyway, the hearing officer said to me...."I don't get it Mr. Lane. You've been working with him for a couple of years and he isn't any better?" I said, "Well, in one aspect he is a little better." "Oh, the officer says. and in what way is he better?" I told him, "Well, he hasn't killed anybody in this buliding, yet." He was awarded his 100%. I asked him if he felt better about it and he basically said, "Oh, Hell yeah. I've lost my business, will probably lose my home, but I'll be collecting that easy 100% money, won't I." It made sense. The money's not that big...infact it will be a pay cut for me. Just will have to not volunteer with the VA like I planned. Disgusting.

Pack

[Gimpy]

is starting to create serious trouble at many VA hospital locations around the country.

Here at my local VA hospital in Tampa, FL we have already had two (2) out of our 8 volunteer patient escort electric cart drivers who pick up and drive disabled patients to and from the parking lots to the clinics turn in their resignations.

Both of them are 100% IU (unemployable) and say that until this crap started by the Veterans Disability Benefits Commission is finalized or completed, they can't afford to 'volunteer' their services for fear of losing their benefits!

Before long they won't be able to get ANY retired, disabled veteran to volunteer for ANYTHING for fear of losing their disability rating status!

These SOBs' who started this VDBC should all be run out of town on a freakin rail!