VIETNAM VETERANS GET MEDALS FOR HEROIC ACTIONS...

[pinboy3niner]

49. With the VA, the medical care tends to be exceptional, but the admin side can be a real killer

The claims process always has been jammed up, but never so bad as it is now.

And the admin offices can vary in quality. The Los Angeles Regional Office informed me that I "never filed a claim"--some 40 years after my claim had been filed and approved. That office insisted that I wasn't qualified, even though other offices in the VA system were sending me letters verifying my Priority 1 status as a partially disabled combat-wounded vet--and the L.A. VARO even had the IRS dock my disability pay for services they thought I didn't deserve.

In my case, the funny thing was that I'd re-enrolled at a hospital in the L.A. VARO's region, and their own hospital documented my status and specifically entered a "verified" notation in my records. Regional kept telling me that they couldn't find my records, but multiple ofices in their very own jusrisdiction had no trouble finding them with a quick computer check. The only conclusion is that the fuckers at the L.A. VARO never even looked before rejecting me.

The VA's Los Angeles Regional Office has had a history of incompetence and probably shoud be cleaned out from top to bottom. But somehow they manage to keep passing their IG inspections,despite a history of poor treatment of vets and even some financial irreguarities reported in their region. For my money they are the WORST office in the system (and I've dealt with several others with no problem), and I fear for our returning vets who have to deal with the L.A. VARO.