Disabled Vets wait, and wait, and wait, and wait.........

[Gimpy]

Chicago Tribune:


Disabled vets wait and wait for rulings on claims

By Jennifer Skalka Tribune staff reporter

Published May 16, 2005---

When his seaplane went down over the Philippines on a training flight in 1962, Joseph "Bernie" Daugherty suffered burns across his body, two broken arms and a broken jaw. Daugherty, who served in the Navy from 1959 to 1969, still struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The 63-year-old Granite City, Ill., man has received some compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs--as little as 10 percent for diminished "work capacity" and 100 percent the last few years.


He wants full compensation back to 1969, which could total $500,000 or more, but Daugherty says, "The horrors that I've gone through over the years are unbelievable." His request for retroactive disability was sent back to the Chicago office in 1998, the first of several times it has been remanded for further review, and he is still waiting for an answer.


Remands, as the VA calls them, are claims that have been appealed by veterans and, because of the validity of some portion, require additional evaluation. The VA's backlog of remands is vast, hobbling an already slow-moving system. A claim can take months or years before it gets remanded, and then those cases sent back to the VA's Chicago regional office sit an average of 20 months.


The Chicago office, which ranked near the bottom of the nation in disability reimbursements, is being investigated by the VA's inspector general's office. The inspector general is expected to issue a report this month explaining why Illinois veterans routinely get less compensation, as reported in the Chicago Sun-Times.


In addition to compensation rates, Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) recently discussed the remand quagmire with VA Secretary Jim Nicholson. Obama said he expects the inspector general's report will address the issue. "We have a problem at the front end in which claims aren't processed quickly enough," Obama said. "We have a problem with the results of claims after they're processed. ... And then we have a problem in which the backlog for remands is worse than the national average and an unacceptable number of days."


Nationally, there were 30,188 remands pending as of September 2004, 676 of those from the Chicago region, according to VA data. "It's so slow because the VA is unwilling to deal with its quality problems," said Ron Abrams, joint executive director of the National Veterans Legal Services Program in Washington. "Its leaders are unwilling to say they're underfunded. [They're] unwilling to say the people they have aren't doing the job."


Even VA officials, who contend that processing appeals can be exceptionally complicated and time-consuming, agree that the buildup is far greater than it should be. "I do think that's high," said Mike Walcoff, associate deputy undersecretary of field operations. "I'll tell you, certainly we want it to be lower. But it's not like you're ever going to get to zero."


The caseload has a particular impact on Illinois veterans. While the Chicago regional office falls in the middle of the pack nationally in the number of pending remands, the majority of Illinois claims that were appealed were eventually remanded in fiscal 2004.


Of the Chicago claims sent to the Board of Veterans' Appeals in Washington, 56 percent were remanded for further evaluation. That's higher than the national average of 50 percent. In 2004, 21 percent of Chicago appeals were denied, and 16 percent were allowed.

Allen Lynch, chief of the Veterans Rights Bureau of the Illinois attorney general's office, said VA raters, who use complicated guidelines to decide what percent of a veteran's earning capacity has been diminished by service-related injury or illness, aren't rewarded for the competence of their decisions.


"It comes down to individual accountability for the claims that are processed, and they don't want to go there," he said. Michael Olson, director of the Chicago regional office, said the rate of cases coming back is too high. "Any time 50 percent of the cases that go to the next higher level of appellate review are sent back nationally, there is something wrong with the system ," Olson said. "I believe the system is broken."

He noted, though, that the number of cases appealed and ultimately sent back is small compared with the total number decided. In 2004, his office decided 13,680 cases. Of those, Olson said, 437 were appealed to the Board of Veterans' Appeals.

A claim can be sent back for a number of reasons: a need for information, a change in statute or the ratings schedule while an appeal is pending, or a veteran submits additional evidence.


For Stephen Herres of Chicago, a former Marine Corps sergeant, the remand order complicated the processing of his claim. Herres' fingers are pinched together like claws and tremble visibly even when he places them gently on a coffee shop table. His hands were crushed between an aircraft tow tractor and lift in Beaufort, S.C., in 1974.

Herres hasn't received a dime of compensation for his hands. After years of being told by VA doctors that his injuries did not merit payment, he finally filed a disability claim.


He appealed a January 2003 VA decision to deny payment for his injury, and that appeal was sent back to the Chicago regional office last summer. The order required he see a doctor about his hands. Despite the order's specification, the VA scheduled Herres to see a physician's assistant. He eventually had to rebook with a doctor, adding months to the process. Lynch said the system is hobbled by a pervasive belief that veterans are "trying to scam the government."


But most veterans, he said, are simply looking for compensation for injuries suffered in service. The VA's Walcoff said lowering the remand rate is a priority. He explained that rating specialists are reviewed each month for quality purposes.

Walcoff said that so far in fiscal 2005, the national rate has dropped to 45 percent. (WHOOP-DE-PHUCKIN-DO!---GIMP)


Daugherty and Herres still wait to learn the fate of their claims. Daugherty said he will take his case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims if it is denied. He can appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Still, he said he's already exhausted by the process. "They act like I'm asking for a handout," he said. ----------

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Lemme see now????????? Didn't GEE-Double-U promise he was gonna FIX THIS CRAP OVER FIVE YEARS AGO????

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm? :cd: :cd: :cd: :cd: :cd: