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 Vallarta Living | Veteran Affairs | February 2007 
In The Process of Claims
 David Lord - PVNN
| | The process often requires a period of time which ranges from six months to three years depending on the elements within the claim. |
I have great satisfaction in my work by giving a helping hand to those of you that have reason to apply for Veterans Benefits. This process often requires a period of time which ranges from six months to three years depending on the elements within the claim. Those claims that require medical evidence often exceed the three-year mark.
The pain of waiting out this process is diminished by the fact that all claims that do gain monetary reward are retroactive back to the original date of claim. The result is a check that is equal to the monthly award multiplied by the number of months that I have worked the claim and the Veteran has been waiting for the check to come.
A case that had the highest retroactive monetary award ever given by The Military Order of the Purple Heart and was to a Veteran living in Mexico. I have a very high success rate for those Veterans or their survivors living in Mexico that apply through me.
Lately I am spending more time processing claims that are from visiting Veterans or their survivors, so many claims are from the visitors here on vacation or contacts made from the Internet. Within this group are a much higher percentage that have been denied benefits in the past and often feel they have been unjustly treated by the V.A.
Darth Vader is alive and well I am told by the angry victims of mis-adjudicated claims. He lives deep within the murky bowels of V.A. regional offices. I can go on, but I think you get my gist.
The greatest amount of time I spend on the claims process is out of sight of the applicant, far exceeding the time a Veteran will spend during the face-to-face preliminary interview.
Forming and molding your information into the connective issues that can then be presented as a whole picture to the adjudication officer takes time. It requires me to adhere to public laws passed by Congress, which are complicated by each individuals need to prove how they are entitled as a result of some event that happened 30, 40, or 50 years prior.
I am required to do record research to connect the claimed benefit to some service incident which resulted in loss of income to you. It is more than a jigsaw puzzle, it is a chess game where all the pieces move around the board at will, without ones hand directing them, it's like herding cats.
So depending on which law comes from where, which Veteran is having what medical problem, the process can take years and is forever behind because of new changes to old laws. I wear myself out just writing about it...
I now come to this week's point. If you need me, I will help, but understand that when you make a call to me and I sound as if I do not recall your name or some specific item within your claim, it is not that I am out to lunch.
I am able to recall with your assistance, so know the type of claim applied for, the date on which the forms were filled out and sent into the V.A. The fact that we met some time ago does not give me any clues, the fact that we filled out the paperwork together is not enough, the words compensation and pension are not one and the same, so know which benefit was applied for.
If a medical appointment or procedure was to assist in verification of the condition applied for, I need to know that it occurred and you have the doctor's statement in support of it. A testimony by the doctor stating that it was "as likely as not, the condition is the result of Military service" will do.
VIET NAM VETERAN FACTS
For VA benefits, two dates are used for the "Vietnam Era":
• Feb. 28, 1961 to May 7, 1975, for veterans who served in Vietnam
• Aug. 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975, for all other veterans
• 9.2 million served on active duty (Aug. 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975)
• 2,590,000 served in the combat zone
• 109,000 died in service
• 58,184 died in the combat zone or from combat wounds
• 8,113,000 are still alive
Vietnam Vets and VA Health Care
• 125,275 vets were hospitalized 206,763 times in VA facilities last year
• 989,833 vets visited VA clinics 12,704,963 times last year
• 991,672 vets received some VA health care last year
Vietnam Vets and VA benefits
• 737,397 vets received disability compensation in February
• 112,207 family members of dead vets receive survivors benefits
• 102,088 vets received VA pensions for non-service disabilities
Vietnam Veterans and Agent Orange
• 297,194 vets took exams under Agent Orange Registry since March 2000
• 99,226 filed claims alleging Agent Orange affected their health
• 7,520 receive VA disability compensation for Agent Orange-related causes
 David Lord served in Vietnam as combat Marine for 1st Battalion 26th Marines, during which time he was severely wounded. He received the Purple Heart and the Presidential Unit Citation for his actions during the war in Vietnam. In Mexico, David now represents all veterans south of the U.S. border all the way to Panama, before the V.A. and the Board of Veterans Appeals. David Lord provides service to veterans at no fee. Veterans are welcome to drop in and discuss claims/benefits to which they are entitled by law at his office located at Bayside Properties, 160 Francisca Rodriguez, tel.: 223-4424, call him at home 299-5367, on his cell: 044 (322) 205-1323, or email him at mophmx@@yahoo.com or david.lord@yahoo.com.
Click HERE for more Veteran Affairs with David Lord »»» |
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