WomensHealth.VA.gov website revamped

As a highly experienced veterans advocate I want to inform you all and you VA folks should know that neither the womens call center not chat function actually provide questions or answers to disability benefits claims questions. Many of my clients have attempted to use bot the call center or chat at various times and each one has been repeat told that no assistance or answers can be provided regarding claims because those employees don’t have access to the necessary VA systems to do such. I have seen multiple, repeated previous and current VA social medical and va.gov content at various times which falsely indicates that assistance with VBA issues is/can be provided through the VA Women Veterans Call Center and/or online chat option. This problem likely boils down to either the requisite VA content creators receiving /assuming the bad info or either a lack of communication by those VA content creators with the VA leadership and employees who actually run/work the current women veterans call center and online chat systems.

Now that you VA folks have been publicly made aware of the false advertisements and mischaracterization of the actual services being provided by the VA’s current women veterans call center and online chat systems here please proceed to promptly fix these issues for women As a highly experienced veterans advocate I want to inform you all and you VA folks should know that neither the womens call center not chat function actually provide questions or answers to disability benefits claims questions. Many of my clients have attempted to use bot the call center or chat at various times and each one has been repeat told that no assistance or answers can be provided regarding claims because those employees don’t have access to the necessary VA systems to do such. I have seen multiple, repeated previous and current VA social medical and va.gov content at various times which falsely indicates that assistance with VBA issues is/can be provided through the VA Womens Call Center and/or online chat option. This likely boils down to either the content creators receiving /assuming bad info or a lack of communication with those who actually run and work these VA communication systems.

Now that you have been publically made aware of these issues please proceed to promptly fix these issues for women vets so these VA communication options actually do provide the advertised benefits assistance or immediately cease and remove all advertising that the call center and online chat communication methods serve as a guide to the *entire * VA. In actuality, the woman veterans call center and online chat are currently only a guide through or for the VHA and not the VBA or VCA.

What’s true here is that the options, in their current, form are not effective tools to guide women veterans through the VHA by itself. This is in large part due to inadequate staffing and inadequate training of those folks running these systems. Fix this. If it’s going to be and so much money so going to be spent on this then do it right VA. Any communications through these systems should be immediately added to the veterans claims file or VHA records to make the systems most effective. VA need to collect regular feedback on these systems so they are actually use dual and can be improved. Walk the talk VA.

.. and while I’m at it here, whatever happened to the online chat function that used to be available for all veterans until circa 2018-2019. If the VA can serve women veterans(as you certainly should) then the VA surely can fully serve men and all others too. A sufficiently staffed online chat system with well trained employees would be absolutely huge for veterans to have their concerns and questions actually documented instead of calling where lots of requests fall through the cracks. This would be a leap forward in modernizing the VA’s communication systems with veterans.

Additionally, the documented communications received from veterans through the VA online chat option recommended here should and could be then added to the veterans VBA claims file so the record is both fully complete and accurate. From my experience, most of the time the 1800-827-1000 VA National Call Center employees do NOT adequately and/or fully document ALL of a veterans concerns, questions, requests and/or information that is received from the veteran when he or she does calls the current 1-800-827-1000 VA National Call Center phone line.

Heck, I’m full disclosure, I personally get half a**ed, inaccurate and/or incorrect information from the VA National Call Canter employees 95% of the times I do call the current VA VSO hotline. These 1-800-827-1000 national call center employees for the VSO hotline for the VBA either don’t know the actual answer or proper response to the issue, concern, question or request I present to them. These national Call center folks can’t even timely find the right answer or they just end up giving me a BS absolutely incorrect answer/response. What’s also alarming is that the national Call center employees then don’t even properly document the full nature of my call and concerns for my veteran clients. I’m so glad I know better and have learned that it’s imperative and smarter to leave a paper trail by communicating with the VA in writing. Most of the time the inadequate record that does get produced from my calls to the National Call Center as an accredited representative/POA on the behalf of my veteran clients then don’t even properly get added to the veterans claims file or aren’t even forwarded to the necessary/correct VA regional office employee/leadership by the national call center employee I spoke with. I frequently see notations lacking the real substance of my conversation with the call center employee in the notes section of VBMS. This malarkey literally happens to me at least on a monthly basis so I can only imagine how much incorrect crap is regularly being spewed to veterans or the volume of incorrect answers/responses given to a veteran by VA National Call Center employees who does call the 1-800-827-1000 VA National Call center. This is just not right, just or fair to our veterans. The concerns I’ve expressed here are highly frustrating for competent veterans advocates and most definitely remain ongoing pain points for the VA.

As a result of the aforementioned VA National call center employee deficiencies of not fully notating all issues relied to them in their true and full nature plus not properly handling/receiving verbal evidence/testimony from a veteran the veterans issues or requests for VA action do not get resolved promptly or adequately, if they ever get acted upon at all. To alleviate these issues/concerns an VA online chat option for all veterans should be immediately be re-established by the VA. This proposed VA online chat option would be a far better communication method all around for a veteran as opposed to calling the the current VA 1-800-827-1000 National Call Center for so many more reasons than I have time to provide here. A well-run VA online chat option would also allow for enhanced and increase quality assurance/ control in that what’s actually being currently communicated to these veterans from VA National call center employees along with the issues and requests made by these veterans would be documented. As it stands, an overwhelming majority of veterans who call the 1-800-827-1000 VA National Call Center line are being provided incorrect, inadequate or misleading information and answers from under-trained, scripted VA National Call center employees. The referenced scripts provided to the VA National Call Center employees are in and of themselves insufficient plus sometimes inaccurate by not being updated in a timely fashion or unreal time when the VA laws or policies change or get updated.

Even further, while the new AskVA located at ask.va.gov finally implemented by the VA on October 18, 2021 to replace the old IRIS inquiry system is a step in the right direction by the VA in terms of an actual communication option that can fully document what the veteran actually communicates to the VA it is still a major problem that these AskVA documented communication records from a veteran don’t even get added to either that particular veterans VBA claims file nor their VHA record. Adding a veterans communications with the VA to their requisite file/record should automatically already be occurring but it isn’t. The VA is currently improperly and secretly keeping all and any veterans records received through the AskVA electronic inquiry system in a undisclosed, unidentifiable space, file or electronic system. This is a very big deal and VA problem in and of itself. How this critical and major accurate record-keeping deficiency is being overlooked by VA leadership s warrants an investigation by the VA OIG.

I’m screaming about these problems and requesting that the VA promptly fix these issues for women vets so these VA communication methods actually provide the advertised benefits assistance because it could be so beneficial for these veterans. If this isn’t fixed the. The VA must immediately cease + remove all advertising and content that implies that the women veterans call center and online chat communication methods currently serve as a guide to the *entire * VA when in actuality and alternatively the woman veterans call center and online chat systems currently only provide guidance through the VHA and not the VBA or VCA.

What’s true here is that the options, in their current, form are not effective tools to guide women veterans through the VHA by itself. This is in large part due to inadequate staffing and inadequate training of those folks running these systems. Fix this. If it’s going to be and so much money so going to be spent on this then do it right VA. Any communications through these systems should be immediately added to the veterans claims file or VHA records to make the systems most effective. VA need to collect regular feedback on these systems so they are actually use dual and can be improved. Walk the talk VA.

That being said, a VBA online chat option for *all* veterans as recommend here would provide a far more robust and accessible communication method for all veterans to actually get their concerns, requests and issues addressed sufficiently by the VBA. A VA online chat option would provide both increased legal protections for the veterans and increased quality control options for the VA. This isn’t rocket science by any means. Plus we shouldn’t forget that when the previous VA online chat function went down/away for maintenance the VA promised a better one would be implemented in the future.

This is a beacon call to VA folks to do better i these areas because veterans are surely due so much better on those matters from the VA.

Sincerely,
Carmella N. George, Accredited Claims Agent

Yes, it nice that women finally welcome at the Va. There have been so many issues never addressed for the female soldier. The lack of health care when oversea!! Women had different issues that the doctors could not address or chose not to address, or just didn’t know. The thing with the VA is records and records were never kept well oversea. I am happy that things are going better for the Women Vets, but it was hell for us back in the 80’s especially medical care in Germany!

Linda, I’m not sure I understand your question about an invitation. But if you are looking for information on eligibility and enrollment for women Veterans, please see this link: https://www.womenshealth.va.gov/WOMENSHEALTH/eligibility.asp or the “eligibility and enrollment” drop-down on the left navigation on the website.