I have finally made it (mostly) through my Compensation & Pension (or C&P) process with the VA (Veterans Affairs) in order to try to get continuing healthcare coverage through VA hospitals. I just received my ratings letter with any covered, acknowledged, or denied conditions on it yesterday; however, two of my conditions are awaiting clarification from my C&P physician prior to finalizing their ratings, so I am not fully complete. For reference, I sent in my claim's form to the VA on the 2nd of September, 2016. I received this letter on the 9th of February, 2017. That's 160 days. I understand the average time for my area is 130 days for people with about my number of conditions.
The initial process was just fine. Before leaving my final station, I went to the on-post hospital to request my official medical records. I had to request they be mailed to me, because I was leaving the area before they were able to collect it all, due to heavy case load. I received a big box on my doorstep about a month later, including two paper copies and CDs with copies digitized as PDF. For my own records I also requested all of my X-ray, MRI, etc. images on a CD from the radiology office separately, as those do not come in your official medical history. In order to file a C&P claim with the VA you must submit a copy of the official medical records along with your claims form. Don't forget to also include the VA form to claim your dependents if you have any, as that slightly changes the compensation you could receive. I believe the VA has an online portal, called eBenefits, where you can submit the digital copies, but I saw a representative who helped me fill out the paperwork for free and offered to be my point for any issues or complications along the way. These people are basically free lawyers that are part of unofficial veterans organizations that you've probably heard of like the American Legion. Although I do not specifically recommend one over the other, there was one that had an office within the VA hospital where I did my C&P exams, so I used them. They'll ask you to sign a limited power of attorney, filed with the VA, which gives them authorization to check the status of your claim on your behalf and that's basically it. You can change representatives at any time by signing a new form that gets sent to the VA and overrides the previous PoA.
On, I think it was the 18th of September, I received a call to schedule my C&P examinations. I had four separate ones, each with a medical specialist that worked in the area of my conditions, or a good generalist that could handle multiple issues. The VA scheduler worked with me over the phone to schedule times that were good for me, and I did not end up taking any sick time from work in order to go to them, but the scheduler did err on the side of working with me to schedule earlier appointments if possible, probably because of the time hacks they are judged on. By the 18th of October, I had completed all of my medical exams, many of them on Saturdays per my request. Be sure to call your C&P office ahead of time if you have multiple examinations in order to ask what conditions will be evaluated at each appointment. I did not know to do this and showed up to a specialist with the wrong information. The C&P appointments were mostly great, timely and the physicians very helpful and ready to assist you in describing your conditions. None of them took the entire two hours scheduled. One of them was less than an hour. My military medical records were comprehensive enough (I made sure of that before exiting the service), and the only additional test one C&P examiner wanted was a more recent blood test, which I went for immediately after the examination.
After ALL of your C&P exams are over, the medical examiners compile their findings and submit them to a lay-person (non clinical) reviewer deep within the VA bureaucracy. This individual looks over your military medical history, any additional civilian history you've submitted since you've left the service, and the C&P examiners' findings. This is the lengthy process. At the end, you'll find out the results one of multiple ways. You may be able to log in to eBenefits and see the status of your claim (I was not able to because the system was perpetually down/"could not access my records"), one way is that you'll receive a big, 8.5x11" white envelope in the mail from the VA (what happened to me), and finally you may simply wake up one day to find a boat load of money has been deposited into your bank account in arrears for the time since you left service and you wait for an explanation later in the mail. Because the online system was down I finally did call the 1-800 number advertised on the eBenefits website around day 130 to get more information. I think that is what spurred the arrival of the letter giving me my mostly but not entirely completed rating information.
At this point, in order to start getting VA healthcare if you qualify, you have to get the VA healthcare Enrollment Form filled out and submitted. Usually there's an enrollment office within your nearest VA hospital. They may have also included the form in your rating's envelope along with a postage-paid envelope to send it in. If you received a Purple Heart or were in specific locations or events during your service, such as Camp Lejeune or were exposed to radiation somewhere recognized by the VA, then you could have already filled out this enrollment form to be considered for VA coverage prior to the C&P process.
Also a note, most individuals can start the C&P process at their final home station, seen by all the C&P examiners in a VA office on post or nearby, up to 180 days prior to your ETS date. Because I was trying to get out early and I was going to live half way across the country from my home station -- and because if you miss a C&P exam then you won't get rated for the conditions under investigation at that exam -- I chose to delay my C&P process until after I get settled in my new home. I think this may have worked to my favor, because there are no military installations near me, so the C&P examiners were not overly booked and were willing to spend as much time as needed with me. But I have no evidence to support that assertion, and I'm sure your local C&P examiners are all going to do a great job.
If you have any questions about how my process went down, don't hesitate to leave a comment or send me a message.
No comments:
Post a Comment