Question:

Good day Jim. Myself and several other 80 year old or older Vietnam veterans would like your opinion on something. We have filed Fully developed VA disability claims for Agent Orange Presumptives. The claims have been sitting and not moving in the system for about 10 months. C & P exams and all appointments have been attended months ago. A lot of the test that they did on me had nothing to do with the new presumptive condition that I claimed but had to do with an Agent Orange condition that I am already rated for(Ischemic Heart Disease). I have personally called the 800 number every month for the past 5 months and have been told the same thing every time I called. I am told “The Veterans Service Representative has recommended a decision, and is preparing required documents detailing that decision”. According to VA.gov the average time for completing a claim, as of this morning, is 117.6 days. That is less than 4 months. We know some Gulf War Veterans who tell us that their claims are taking about 4 months from filing until notification. We are getting very discouraged. Most of us are in bad health due to Agent Orange illnesses and don't have that much time left. The consensus among us is that the Top Brass at the VA have ordered all old Vietnam veterans claims decisions to be held back in hopes that we will die shortly and the claim will die thus saving the VA a lot of money. Is our reasoning wrong? Should we just give up and forget about the whole thing? We value your opinion. Thanks much.

Jim's Reply:

The pace that VA ordinarily moves at is slow...slow as molasses, as the old folk say. The pandemic hit all businesses hard and VA was at the top of that list. You know the rest...if you take a dysfunctional organization and throw a wrench into the works, what we see today is what you get.
 

It sounds to me like your claims are processing at just about the right speed for the SNAFU we live in today. I understand how frustrating it is to think you should have seen results and nobody has a clue what's going on. I'm sympathetic right now at this moment! My smartphone bricked Tuesday a week ago. It was old so not unexpected that it would fail. I ordered a new phone that was to be delivered the next day. Last night, a week later, I got my new phone around 10PM. The moral of the story is that America is a mess right now and your VA is a the top of the heap.
 

A bit of advice...the toll free number is worthless. It's a call center with very limited access to your file. They go by scripts and have 3 minutes to get you off the phone. The info you get is likely wrong and they have no input to make your claim move faster. Their only function is to distract you while you wait for your claim to move along. It works, doesn't it?
 

Your claim doesn't have to die with you. If you have a dependent, they can keep your claim alive and if they prevail, they get the money. It's called a substitution of claimant and is usually the spouse.
 

Finally...if you want an answer to what's up with your claim, email the boss at Denis.McDonough@va.gov​. This is legit and it's OK to do...it works
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Keep your message brief and don't ramble or rant. This is Secretary McDonough you're writing to and although it's not likely he'll see the message, you never know, so strict military courtesy is required.
 

Be brief. Give contact numbers that you can be reached at during the week. Give your full name, address, DOB, last 4, etc. You know the drill.
 

The email will be picked up by executive staff who will source it from the Secretary's office to the appropriate senior management who will respond to you directly. You will get a response although it may not be what you hoped for.
 

It is acceptable to tell the Secretary, "Sir, I'm old and fear I'll die before my claim is resolved." There's not a thing wrong with the truth.
 

For what it's worth, I've never witnessed any sort of favoritism from generation to generation. Nobody is ordering that older vets should be set aside, those rumors are older than I am. VA is budgeted for the living veterans on the roster so keeping you breathing is important.
 

What I have seen is that WWII and Korea vets don't have much in the way of records to work with and that bogs the process down. Old guy illnesses are harder to sort out than young guy illnesses.
 

My Vietnam era brothers and sisters don't fare much better because of the records center fire and other lost files. The more modern generations of vets have accumulated computerized medical records even when a medic is tending to them in the field so their claims are often easier to process. As they age like we have, their claims will become more complex.
 

Try my suggestion, write to the Secretary and let me know what happens. I'll look forward to hearing from you in a couple weeks. Good luck sir.