Veterans forum to address VA health care, benefits, questions from Veterans

I am really disturbed to read the concerns regarding the VA medical system. My husband at the age of 57 was diagnosed having kidney problems and has gotten such amazing treatment at the VA. We merely determined after a time that he needed substantial care and took him to silvergaterr. You had fantastic employees that are very compassionate and inspiring. Phenomenal doctors engage and are always transparent. No troubles at all acquiring prescriptions via mail. Thank you to the VA staff for their dedication to our warriors!

The VA has a very frustrating and broken process in trying to apply for A&A (Aide & Attendance), that no Veteran deserves to go through. “Aide and Attendance” in which supposedly supplemental Pension Income is available to help with the cost of long-term senior care, for qualified Veterans and/or their surviving spouses. Qualification requirements include that the Veteran served during a time period of war, was honorably discharged, fits minimal income requirements, and have special health care needs.

First of all, the required forms to fill out are very confusing, and was told that most Veterans don’t get the forms filled out correctly the first time, and get rejected. I even saw businesses, advertising on the web, who will help the Veterans fill out the forms properly the first time, but charge up to $1000 for the assistance! After making several referral calls, my Father was finally able to get a local VA representative to assist him. When the forms are submitted, (even before the Covid outbreak), the normal turn-around time was 6 months before you would hear back, if your request was accepted or rejected. When people have to pay for special health care needs, waiting 6 months can eat up a lot of money! For my Father, it ate up a lot of his valuable remaining lifetime, considering he was 88 years old when he first applied, which was just after my Mother passed away.

If you are rejected, you can submit an appeal, which takes another 3 to 4 months before hearing anything back. On the initial application request, my Father received a rejection, stating that the reviewer could not actually prove that my Father served both in the Army and Air Force, which he did during the Korean War Years. In 1973, a devastating fire destroyed 17 million military service records, at a military record storage facility in St. Louis. Instead of asking the Veterans to provide proof of papers, the reviewer just automatically rejects the request, which is nothing but an absolute insult to the Veteran, who put their lives on the line in the protection of our country! The worst (and biggest) problem is that the VA does not allow the Veteran to speak to a reviewer, which can easily and quickly resolve the issue.

Until my Father passed away at 90 years old, from Covid, he had issued 4 appeals, each one rejected for a different reason, which any of them could have been easily and quickly been resolved by a simple phone call with the reviewer! For the last appeal response, they said that his income was too high, but did not include any numbers with the denial. He had to issue another appeal, just to obtain the numbers that should have been included with the denial letter. The mail with the numbers finally arrived 3 months later, 2 days after my Father passed-away!! Looking through the numbers, based on his monthly home health-care costs adding up, he would have qualified at least two months prior!

While it is now too late for my Father, I strongly feel the need to do what I can so than other Veterans do not have to go through all this pain for VA support. It seems like the VA purposely makes this process difficult so people will stop trying, or pass away before they get approved (as in the case of my Father). The solution to this broken process is quite simple – while it would be nice if the application paperwork is made easier, at least allow the Veteran to speak to a reviewer! This would save a lot of extra unnecessary paperwork not only for just the Veteran, but also for the VA as well.

After my Father’s passing, the local VA representative suggested that I should apply for VA funeral benefits, which I did. Two months later, I received word back that my request was denied, since my Father was not approved for A&A or currently had an active appeal in process. Considering I did not receive the numeric details from the last A&A appeal until 2 days after my Father passed away, they would not take this into consideration. It made no sense issuing another appeal, until he had the numbers to see how far his income was off from the financial requirements. Another big slap in the face for honoring/memorializing our Veterans! The VA told me that I could request going through a Review Board to appeal, which I did, but it has been almost 2 years since submitting this request was made and no communications has been received back from the VA about when this review will be held! No matter the eventual results of this appeal (if it even happens) the root of the overall problem needs to be addressed!

The great VA approved dental work over ten years ago, for reasons having NOTHING to do with Service Connection. Three Doctors signed off to pull all my teeth for three separate legally allowable reason that have nothing to do with Service Connection. I found these alternatives for dental work in the VAs own Policy and Procedure Manuals. NO VA REP EVER SAID ONCE IN ALL MY YEARS AT THE VA THERE WERE ANY OTHER OPTIONS AVAILABLE. I heard from here to Washington one excuse for never doing the work described in an actual VA Medical Record. I have tried to get them to do it for at least ten years now and the answer is still no, no matter it was lawfully agreed to under your own guidelines, not mine. How do you expect me to believe ANYTHING the VA states as factually the truth. I left mental health because of that departments awful Policies that allow the further mental abuse to be caused by your own Doctors. Fix the dental work I was promised and maybe a tiny bit of faith will be restored to me. Unless the VA does what they promise, and DELIVER on the VAs promises, then the VA is full of I do not care doctors who deserve to lose their jobs. But that will not happen either because you are the VA. Call me about this only if YOU REALLY CARE.
Thanks for nothing still VA. I have been a VA patient since the end of 1975. I have lived in all the horrible choices the VA makes on purpose. You should be cursed, especially those in charge in Memphis Tn. VA Medical Center. No one there cares about ME. That is obvious, and I have bank boxes full of VA correspondence to prove every word of this. Someone prove I am wrong about any of this.

Why doesn’t this VA website remember my name? Other sites which I regularly use don’t ask me to sign in every time I visit.