Jim,
It's time to follow up with you. You suggested if I did not hear from the VA within about two weeks, I should let you know.
On November 30th I mailed a claim (VA Form 21-526b) to the local VA office as a certified letter with a Return Receipt Requested. On December 1st, someone (the signature is indecipherable) at the VA office signed the receipt and I received it on December 2nd. So, I know the claim was delivered to that office.
It is now December 18th and I have yet to receive any correspondence from the VA. I would have thought, based on your comments and those of others, I would have received a reply by now. There are only 6 more workdays between now and the first of January. Therefore, I am concerned nothing will be done for an entire month. This is not acceptable.
Mr. Strickland, I would like to get things moving so I can find what type of disability I will be awarded based on my Ischemic Heart Disease, my resulting quintuple by-pass surgery and the loss of work (already at over five weeks) with several more weeks to go assuming I am able to return to work at all.
I am not sure what you can do but I certainly will appreciate your assistance.
Reply:
That you have the receipt returned from your certified mailing is very good news.
I'm closely tracking the progress of all claims similar to yours. I'm confident that I can tell you that your claim is in a line-up of others like it. The new presumptive claims are being diverted out of the usual process and are being expedited by teams who are dealing with only these claims.
Having said that, the reality is that there are tens of thousands of these claims and yours just got into that line at your Regional Office. To make it worse, it's the holiday season and as we all know, everything will slow down now because of vacations and so on. I can't say I like that idea but it is a fact we must face.
I'm going to guess that your own time line will be something like this...
In January you'll receive an acknowledging letter that VA is working on your case. They may ask you for some evidence like outside records even if they already have them. Don't let such trouble you, these are computer generated letters and don't usually make much sense.
By February you will receive notice that a C & P exam is being scheduled for you. You may just get a phone call asking that you come in for C & P. Please try to do that as asked even if the notice is short. Getting this step out of the way is important. The C & P examiner may ask that an echocardiogram be scheduled for you. The echo study helps to determine how well your heart is functioning now, after the surgery and so on. Much of the rating % is determined by the results of the echo...known as the Ejection Fraction (EF) of your heart.
Once that's done those result will go over to the Regional Office where they will be incorporated into your claims file. That will then go to the Ratings Veterans Service Representative (RVSR) who is the individual that will adjudicate the claim you've made for IHD.
He or she will use all the data in your folder to determine what that % will be and then notify you by letter.
To my knowledge VA is moving most of the more routine IHD claims along in about 4 to 6 months from start to finish. Some of the more complex claims (Nehmer class or those with multiple disabling conditions claims) are taking much longer.
I advise that as you may be confident that your claim is in process (the certified mail receipt) that you should now wait and do nothing. I understand that you have a legitimate need to know what is happening but any attempt to track your case or to speed it along will usually backfire and slow it down. It is in line and anything you do that may take it out of that line can result in a long delay.
For the next 60 days or so, focus your energy on your recovery and let the process work for you.
If you have no notice at all by the first week of February 2011 please reply to this email to let me know. At that point we'll take action and determine why there may be the delay. If you do get notice of any action from VA, reply to this email to alert me. I'll be happy to walk through the process with you like this.
Patience and perseverance will win the day for you now.
(Follow-up from the veteran: "Once again, thank you for the speedy reply to my inquiry. You have cleared up a lot of questions in terms of what to expect and when. Admittedly, I had hoped to have something "rolling" in a more timely manner but I do realize we are dealing with a government entity, a rush of new claims and the holidays and I should not expect things to happen too quickly. So, as you advise, I will hold off until I get the acknowledgment in January and see what happens by February. In any case, I will notifiy you around the first of that month what has or has not occured.)