VA benifits

Anyone here specialize in getting through the Veterans benefits application process?

I don’t have a ton of experience with them but I have dealt with the VA for GI Bill and a few medical issues. I would start with the local County Veterans Service Officer, and maybe someone from the local American Legion or VFW could also help.

X2 start with your local VA office at your court office

https://www.macvso.org/find-a-cvso.html

I would also recommend starting off with an appointment with a county veteran service officer.

Bring your DD-214 and they will get you started.

Running into issues with the aid and assistance program for my dad and takes a month to get a call back

Don Carlisle wrote:

X2 start with your local VA office at your court office

….

Yes local service officer….100% know this for fact they can start paper work to speed it up…I also us The DAV office for appeal process..or legion…. Im 100 % disabled…Good Luck

thats truly pathetic it takes that long to take care of our vets!!!!

Randy Wieland wrote:

Running into issues with the aid and assistance program for my dad and takes a month to get a call back

Who are you working through Randy? In my limited experience the Veterans Service Officers for each county are like lawyers or realtors…you tell them what you’re looking for and they act as your advocate because they know the inside info for a very complicated system.

glenn57 wrote:

thats truly pathetic it takes that long to take care of our vets!!!!

Agreed x100

Randy Wieland wrote:

Running into issues with the aid and assistance program for my dad and takes a month to get a call back

Randy,

If your dealing with one of the VA hospitals and having issues call the Director or Associate Director once a day.

VA has good people but some areas are a complete cluster. Especially when you have a number to call and it goes straight to voicemail with a message they will call you back in a couple weeks.

If your still having issues call Amy Klobuchar’s office. She is awesome at taking care of vets in this state.

Hey wrote:

Especially when you have a number to call and it goes straight to voicemail with a message they will call you back in a couple weeks.

That’s exactly what I go through or on hold until my battery goes dead. I’ve spent 2 hours at a time on hold.

Specificity what I’m running into is my dad’s primary doctor told me I will have to fill out the VA forms, he doesn’t do it. Well for obvious reasons the form must be filled out by a doctor. Can I schedule a doc at a VA hospital and have all his med records transferred? Been at a dead end with this.

Hey wrote:

If your still having issues call Amy Klobuchar’s office. She is awesome at taking care of vets in this state.

Well, Randy’s a Sconnie, so Amy might just tell him to contact his Sconnie senator, but it’s a good idea.

Hey wrote:

VA has good people but some areas are a complete cluster.

I’ve been saying that exact same thing since the first time I dealt with the VA about 15 years ago. GREAT people, so kind and helpful, it’s just a broken system. And a major contributor is that as a country we pumped billions and trillions into wars and didn’t have the foresight to plan for all the veterans that would be coming back.

And for those that have mentioned it, yes a call or e-mail to an elected official can help if they do dig into it for you.

So Randy, I’m guessing it’s a civilian primary care provider your father is seeing, and for it to be covered by the VA the civilian provider needs paperwork from the VA, is that correct?

Yes, and he doesn’t do them.

I think I and the others who have posted on this thread are frustrated because we don’t have any solid advice, and the best course of action is probably what you’re already doing but it’s not working because it’s so hard to speak to someone who might actually solve the problem.

I’m going to try and reach out to some WI co-workers and friends who may have dealt with the WI VA before.

https://www.va.gov/directory/guide/state.asp?dnum=ALL&STATE=WI

Here are all the WI locations. Main hospitals are Milwaukee, Madison, and Tomah. All the outpatient clinics will fall under one of these. Each of the main hospitals has a Director that overseas health care for the entire state of WI to include the main hospitals and the outpatient clinics. And each main hospital has a patient advocate.

If you click on the link to each major hospital you will see a link for a patient advocate. You should also be able to find the Director for each hospital.

I assume your father has a signed document giving you access to make decisions on his behalf.

You can enroll in any VA hospital of your choice and move around anytime you want.

Little secret in the VA is each hospital gets funding based on how many veterans are enrolled to that specific hospital.

I go back and forth between Fargo, St Cloud, and Minneapolis depending on which does what better. I move my dad around between Minneapolis and St. Cloud hospitals. Drives them nuts, but it also drives me nuts talking to answering machines with no call backs.

The system exists for your dad. You gotta exploit it and when you find a road block find another way within the system to make it happen.

Between the directors, patient advocates, and the county veteran service officers you should be able to get issues fixed. If not document everything and call a Senator. I’ve seen them move mountains for veterans when all else has failed

When I first went to the VA to sign up I tryed myself to do this. Was a big mistake. Then Went to local county VA office and let them handle things.