Cold War Veterans Blog

A married Couple takes a stand against VA Delays

The following is a letter to Senator Chambliss imploring him to reform a broken VA claims system. Chris and his wife like many veterans have had enough.





Dear Senator Chambliss:



On September 25, 2008 I sent your office my letter concerning the grave dissatisfaction of the Veterans Administration’s lack of concern and delays for the Veterans it should be representing. We have given you another chance by electing you back into office. My wife and I are BOTH veterans under the VA’s failing system. We served with honor, dignity and integrity until we could serve no more. We should be treated the same. We have joined the Veterans of Modern Warfare to voice our concern. We are two, but together, we are many. I am urging you to support those who have served their country with loyality and now face a battle to receive the benefits they deserve. Veterans are tired of the delays and hearing of VA regional offices trashing and shredding their claims paperwork to cover-up the backlog, such as the VA center in New York.

The hearing is scheduled December 17th. Below is the article posted on Military.com.
VA Ousts Managers for Claims Deception
November 24, 2008

Newsday
The Department of Veterans Affairs has reassigned the director of its New York regional office after finding that employees there misdated hundreds of claims to make it appear they were being processed on time.

Without referring by name to the New York director, Patricia Amberg-Blyskal, VA spokeswoman Alison Aikele said last week that the director and five other top managers were ousted after investigators discovered a pattern of deception in the handling of claims at the regional headquarters at 245 W. Houston St. in Manhattan.

"It was systematically enough of a problem that we removed the leadership," Aikele said.
The shake-up at the New York regional office, which serves 800,000 vets living in eastern New York State, came as veterans organizations and members of Congress have criticized the federal agency for mishandling, losing or destroying the benefits claims of veterans.
"The reports of date changing and document shredding at the N.Y. regional VA office are unacceptable and insulting to those who served our country," said Rep. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills) in a prepared statement.

A summary of an investigation by the VA obtained by Newsday showed that of 20 claims examined by VA investigators at the New York office during a July visit, 16 had been marked with apparently phony dates to suggest their processing had begun within the required seven days of their arrival.

A wider audit in August showed that 56.4 percent of claims carried incorrect intake dates, according to the summary, which was dated Nov. 10. According to the summary, several employees told VA investigators that their supervisor had instructed them to enter incorrect dates, and that the practice was widely known.

VA investigators also found that the New York office has ignored "significant amounts" of its mail, officials said. An Oct. 6 visit by investigators, for example, turned up 700 pieces of mail that had not been acted upon. Aikele also said investigators recovered at least five documents related to claims that had been improperly placed in shredder bins.
On Friday, Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) wrote to Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peak, asking to be apprised of the situation in the New York Regional Office.
Amberg-Blyskal did not reply to a reporter's requests for an interview.

The summary said "the director and assistant director were initially placed on administrative leave but now have been detailed to other work sites to complete assigned projects." Four other managers were placed on administrative leave, according to the summary.
Last week, two veterans organizations filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., seeking to force the VA to handle benefits claims more quickly, saying veterans often wait a year before their applications are processed, and as long as four years for appeals.

So, I am writing to express my grave concern regarding the 600,000 American veterans who are currently waiting to receive the disability benefits that, due to a service-connected disability suffered, they have earned. I am/was one of them. Sadly, I know that this claims backlog will only increase as more of the 1.7 million troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan become eligible for benefits.

I myself am a veteran, and know, through personal experience, the difficulties associated with securing a timely disability benefits award from the VA. I filed my claim in February of 1993. That claim is unresolved to this day due to misdiagnosis from an injury received while on duty in October 1990. I applied for Veterans Educational Assistance in March 1995 and was denied. I would welcome any assistance that your office could provide in helping me to resolve my claim.

Disability benefits are not only an entitlement – but an essential lifeline – for many veterans like me, and the failure to provide them in a timely way has a terrible impact. While waiting and waiting for benefits, many veterans, particularly in this economy, suffer home foreclosures, bankruptcy, and financial ruin. A retroactive award of disability benefits – months and often years down the road – won’t restore those homes, won’t repair destroyed credit, and won’t undue the other serious consequences of a personal financial meltdown. Moreover, the consequences of these delays extend far beyond the financial. Extreme anxiety, depression, homeless and suicide are but a few of the tragic consequences of the failure to treat our disabled veterans with dignity. The consequences of delay also extend beyond the individual veteran. The impact extends to spouses, children, and other family members who suffer from the stress and economic burden caused by the failure to award their veteran husbands, wives, parents, sons and daughters the benefits that they need to survive.

This must change, and change now. The VA admits to taking at least six months to reach an initial decision on an average benefits claim. According to news reports and, as set forth below, a recent lawsuit, that delay is actually a year or more. While veterans await resolution on their claims, they receive no benefits whatsoever from the VA. We understand that appeals of initial decisions average more than four years, with some stretching 10 years or more. More than half of those appeals, when finally heard, result in reversals of benefits denials.

On November 10, Vietnam Veterans of America and the Veterans of Modern Warfare, in an attempt to Band-Aid a disability claims system that the General Accountability Office and the Congress have deemed broken (but that neither the Executive nor Congress has fixed), filed suit against the VA in Washington, D.C. federal court That Band-Aid would take the form of a court order that requires the VA to provide initial decisions on every veteran’s disability benefits claim within 90 days, and to fully resolve appeals of those initial decisions within 180 days. The organizations have asked the Court to grant interim benefits equal to a 30% disability rating payment to any veteran disability benefits applicant who does not receive a decision within these timeframes. That payment – a mere $356 a month for a veteran with no dependents—is not much, but it’s a lifeline to those awaiting their benefits decisions.

Behind each of the 600,000 claims awaiting response is a veteran who, like me, once proudly wore our nation’s uniform. We served with honor. We simply want the benefits to which we are entitled. We deserve at least that much, and the VA’s failure to fulfill its responsibilities brings great dishonor to our nation. Please make a strong public statement in support this lawsuit, and please do everything in your power to help end the unnecessary and unconscionable delays experienced by our nation’s veterans.

Sincerely,
Christopher M. Williams