VA Benefits News

On numerous occasions, veterans have expressed frustration to me concerning discrepancies between their VA-conducted Compensation and Pension Examination (C&P) and private audiologist-conducted hearing evaluation. Normally, disputes between level of disabilities can be resolved with the private physician completing a VA-published Disability Benefits Questionnaire (DBQ) for the condition in...

Recently, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ own blog posted an article regarding the VA appeals process.  The article provides a good overview of the VA appeals process (after submission of the VA Form 21-0958) and offers a well-constructed diagram that is easy to understand and succinctly explains the timelines involved.  Link to the VA article can be found at the following link: The...

Recently, the RAND Corporation released three reports regarding the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).  These reports were previously submitted to the VA and House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees as mandated by the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 (Public Law 113-146).  The summary of all three reports can be found at RAND Reports – Summary. The report...

Previously, I had blogged about an April 23, 2015 decision from the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claim (CAVC)  in Gray v. McDonald.  In Gray, the CAVC had remanded because the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) interpretation of “inland waterways” for the purposes of the presumption of exposure to Agent Orange (TCDD) was found arbitrary.  Link to that blog post (to include...

Countless news organizations have published articles concerning the Merit Systems Protection Board’s (MSPB) decisions reversing the demotions of Department of Veterans Affairs’ Senior Executive Service (SES) employees, Kimberly Graves and Diana Rubens.  While the decisions were covered by the press ad nauseam, no one has seen fit to provide link to the actual decisions. Remedy...

On January 29, 2016, recently appointed VA Under Secretary for Health, Dr. David Shulkin, held a conference between VHA leaders and finalists in a competition to present pitches for improvement to the Veterans Health Administration.  As identified in the link below , each finalist (I believe all VHA employees) presented “rapid-fire virtual pitches . . . similar to the television show...

On January 27, 2016, VA Secretary McDonald released a statement regarding the need to reform the appeals process for benefits under Title 38.  His statement can be downloaded at the following link: Statement from VA Secretary Robert McDonald On the Need to Reform the Veterans Appeals Process_January 27 2016 My takeaway: (1) this is the closest the VA has come to acknowledging that the agency...

On Wednesday, February 3, 2016, at 6 pm, Rutgers Law School (Camden Campus) is holding a panel discussion on military veterans in the legal profession.  More information about location/time can be found at Rutgers Law Veterans Panel. Every now and then I get a call from a law student interested the JAG Corps/military, so this would be a terrific time to get a frame of reference for how...

On January 21, 2016, the Senate’s Committee on Veterans’ Affairs held a hearing entitled, “VA’s Transformation Strategy: Examining the Plan to Modernize VA.”  You can listen to the hearing at Senate Hearings. For those not snowed in and need of a CliffNotes version, my recommendation is to review pages 9-18 of Secretary McDonald’s twelve points of priority...

Social media sites have become a ubiquitous part of daily life (though I’ve resisted the siren’s call to the best of my ability).  RallyPoint is a social media site specifically oriented towards military/veteran professionals.  I Wiki’d it and apparently Forbes magazine called it “LinkedIn on steroids for members of the military.”  Worth a look for service members...