Missing files stretch VA appeals process

Missing files stretch VA appeals process
By RICK MAZE
March 27, 2008
Chauncey Robinson spent six months in the Army — and has spent the past 16 years in a battle for veterans’ disability benefits.
It hardly helps the Albany, N.Y., native that the Veterans Affairs Department has lost all his personnel and medical files.
“I don’t even know where my VA files are today,” Robinson said. “In New York, they say the files are in Washington, D.C. In D.C., they say the files are in New York. I don’t think the VA knows where they are, which means I may have to reconstruct my claim all over again.”
Robinson, 47, said he has files stored in boxes and suitcases throughout his house and with relatives, and that he could reconstruct his personnel and medical records if forced to do so.

“This is not something I want to do, or think I should do, but it might be something I have to do,” he said.
Many veterans who have filed claims with VA have had problems with missing files. Veterans groups and even VA have long talked about the need to establish electronic records and an electronic claims process that would make it easier to track progress of claims and provide instant access to files.
No common system
But progress on this front has been complicated by VA’s problems with trying to make its computer systems compatible or create a new common system.
Robinson, who never rose above the rank of private, served in the Army in 1992, from January to July, according to VA records.
Within months of his discharge, he filed a disability claim for what he said was service-related hypertension related to the incident that seems to have been the beginning of the end of his brief military career — being tossed out of bed by a drill sergeant while assigned to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., where he completed basic training and was attending advanced training to be a heavy machine mechanic.
His initial disability claim was rejected, but Robinson has continued to appeal in a process made longer and more difficult by the fact that his files were lost.
A 2005 ruling by the Board of Veterans Appeals noted the incomplete files, suggesting that they may have gone astray in VA or in the legal system but stating that reconstructing the medical and personnel records was necessary so Robinson could get a fair hearing.
Robinson said he started receiving veterans’ disability compensation in 1995 after being rated as 100 percent disabled with post-traumatic stress disorder.
He’s getting about $2,600 a month in tax-free benefits but continues to appeal the initial denial for hypertension and cardiovascular disease.
“This could be over if the VA didn’t keep losing my records,” Robinson said. “It has happened so often that it is hard for me to believe it isn’t being done intentionally.”
VA officials were unable to comment on Robinson’s case, other than to say his appeal is still under consideration under an order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims to reconstruct missing records.
Lawmakers urge progress
In a Feb. 28 letter that laid out their views on the 2009 veterans’ budget, Democrats on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee said they recognize that building a centralized information technology system takes time. But they said it would be nice to see some progress.
Although it is unlikely to help Robinson, VA is working on an electronic records system called Virtual VA that involves scanning paper files into the computer system.
But the House committee report said that effort “does not begin to realize the advantages that a true electronics benefits system can yield to veterans seeking benefits.”
A symposium held in 2006 to look at issues facing Iraq and Afghanistan veterans included a discussion about lost paperwork.
The final report of the National Symposium on the Needs of Young Veterans, which was sponsored by AmVets, said VA practices for handling paperwork should be audited to determine where documents are most likely to go astray.
The report also recommended that managers be held accountable for lost paperwork.
“The best protocol is worthless if the organization’s staff does not comply with it, and management tolerates the noncompliance,” the report says.
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