Last week I did a post about finding the good in the
individuals who are tasked with providing customer service to us, through the
Veterans Administration. This was aimed
at both those in the medical side, as well as the benefits side. A friend and fellow vet posted that she
couldn’t think of anything and to me this was really sad. And for this particular person to say this really
says a lot about our VA services. She is
one of the most kind-hearted people I know and always seeks to find the good in
everyone and every situation.
Well hopefully today I will give her at least a small
glimmer of hope that there are those who really have a heart for serving
veterans. Those who are closes to me,
and some who aren’t, know that I am a writer.
And when I say writer, I’m not talking about blogs, books, poetry, or
anything of that sort. I’m talking about
writing to let someone know that I did not receive the level of service that I
feel that I should have. I have written
to the White House, the Secretary of Veteran Affairs, Robert McDonald, and to
the local VA Director here in Atlanta.
Now one would think that just writing to the Director would
get you some response, but alas that is not so.
The quickest turn around I have received is from writing to the White
House and to Secretary McDonald. And
while this is not a political statement, I do want to share that Secretary
McDonald has made his email public (robert.a.mcdonald@va.gov),
I’m not so sure that this will be the case when a new Secretary is appointed,
so I suggest you send your requests to him immediately. You will usually get a response from someone
within 5-10 business days.
That is an excellent segue into what I want to share with
you today. I wrote to Secretary McDonald
on November 7, 2016 because I was getting some shady, in my opinion, responses
to my disability claims. Shady is code
word for “denied” (lol). Anyway, I
received a call from Kimberly Robinson yesterday and when I say she was a
breath of fresh air, I truly mean it. I
missed her first call and before I could even call her back, after listening to
her message, she was calling me again. Mind
you it was already 4:50pm and she knew that she would be speaking with me for a
while. She was so funny because she told
me that this is what she does best and she just loves talking and helping
people.
We actually stayed on the phone for about 30-minutes. She took time to go through my claims and to
explain to me what I could and should have done better. She gave me all of the options that I had to
get a better rating. She also explained
to me that even though the descriptions for your back are separate, they group
them together when doing the rating.
This kept throwing me off because I didn’t understand that and I knew
that my pain was in my entire back, and not just my lower back, which my
initial rating is for. That doesn’t make
sense to me so my next goal is to try to get some change in how ratings are
done. If anyone is interested in joining
me please let me know.
As always, I tend to drift a little but I’m back now. As I was saying about Ms. Robinson, she
explained many things about the claims process that I didn’t know. She also told me that because it has been
less than a year that I can do a “reconsideration” instead of doing a Notice of
Disagreement” (NOD) and eventually an Appeal.
She is sending me all of the information that I need and she also
advised that I go to a private doctor to have them fill out my DBQ. I will keep you all posted on how that
goes. She’s also sending me all of her
contact information and told me that I can call and email her personally.
While I appreciate all of the help that she is giving me the
one thing about her that stood out the most was when she said to me, “Don’t
worry. There are still some of us who
truly want to help”. This gives me hope
that eventually the good will spread and we will all get those who truly want
to help.
As always, thank you for your support.
TTYL – Be blessed.
Oh yeah, I’m going to write a letter regarding the great
service I received from Ms. Robinson today.
I'm an equal opportunity writer!!!
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