VA Regional Office - Closed

Was living in the Monterey area for a good 11 years (before moving here), but for the while you'd have to drive nearly 3 hours away (traffic) to Palo Alto for anything VA related until they finished up building Major General Gourley VA hospital out there.

But when it came to MRI's and stuff like that, yep...Palo Alto.

 

Talk to your local American legion or DAV. They should have service officers there to help you file claims.

 

I’ve always been able to go through Community Care for imaging and pick a private provider near me as long as they accepted VA. Was that not an option for you?

 

Have you requested community care? My VA hospitals are 14 and 30 miles away and I qualified for community care about 1 mile from my house. Worth a shot asking!

 

Not for an MRI it wasn't. Everything else yes, but specific things the VA requested had to be done at Palo Alto.

 

No no that was where I used to live.

Read above, I'm category 1 and all covered as well. Always have been.

 

As general information, yep this is good for others to know.

Not applicable for me!

 

Sorry I guess I missed that part

 

You're good.

This whole thing has just been more of a rant about the appointment system for this exam that's all.

Everything was smoother in the Monterey area. Now being in the Central Valley, details seem to be overlooked over and over.

 

That’s BS. Virtually all of the treatment I’ve had, including imaging, has been through community care. The only time I see anyone at the VA is for a six month routine check to ensure I stay current in the system, get med refills, re-up authorizations, etc.

 

I didn't have a say in that matter

They always did reimburse me my mileage though, but the MRI was done out there although I didn't try rescheduling it so maybe it could've been done closer? That was before I was married so I had plenty of off time.

 

Sometimes you don’t know there’s an option until you ask, and sometimes you wouldn’t even think to ask. But the VA policies are nebulous so it’s always hard to know, and they change all the time.

 

Oh I'm sure

This was some years ago though, just brought it up as an example

But my initial post is clearly an example of how fucked up the whole appointment system is in attempting to catering to a veteran

 

Follow up -

So, I looked online to see I "missed my appointment" for the 18th of June seeing as how the latest update was the 19th showing "EMS Contention Cancellation"

An appointment that was supposed to be rescheduled per the last VA rep I spoke to. Seems every time I call I learn something new though because apparently, all those notes per phone call were placed on my account.

The gentleman I spoke to used to work in other parts of the VA/claims and gets benefits himself (as well as having full custody of his daughter) so he stated he is specifically making the notes on my claim itself. Apparently there's a difference (I didn't know of this) and that the department that deals with claims and decisions and the sort would not see my account notes which is why the exam request kept going through a 3rd party.

Claim is set to decision making but says it should revert back to gathering information with the newly rescheduled appointment (pending).

 

I had a very similar thing happen to me with their PT department. I had to cancel 2 appointments due to a family emergency. They counted them as no shows and closed my referral which was all tied into my claim.

Hopefully they get your situation figured out soon! I have a couple claims “pending review and evidence gathering” now.

 

Best of luck to you on yours.

Guy said he too has sciatica, and said it's pretty easy to determine it so it should be no issue for me come exam time. The x-rays they already have is enough proof.

But that it shouldn't close anyway but worst case if it did, decision would be based on evidence they already have (which they do).

 

I'm a Marine and currently receiving 60% disability for knee injuries during my enlistment 1981- 84 . About 3 yrs ago I was diagnosed with Parkinson's and Neuropathy in both my lower legs . I know for a fact that while I was stationed at MCAS El Toro 3rd MAW

I was an Armorer - weapons repair with MWSG-37 and was using Aircraft cleaning solvent which has TCE and PCE solvents . Plus El Toro was shutdown due to ground water contamination just as Camp Lejeune was . So far I've been denied for chemical exposure claim twice

 

That's so fucked.

 

So sorry! Unfortunately this seems to be typical for the VA. When I stated I was concerned about the DU, burn pits and toxic sand storms exposed to, the statement I was given was…”nothing we can do about that now”.

I would suggest contacting an attorney that deals with VA comp or a congressman. I never thought a congressman would help me, he ended up getting the Air Force to cave and allow 52 people remain in the Air Force after being threatened with med boards. I hope this works out for you and you get some movement soon!

 

Hit or miss with the VA. Fair share of highs and lows being serviced there. Having worked there and attaining a high management position, there’s too much red tape. I saw a lot of good workers and saw the worst workers you can ever think of. Wish they did better, with Vets in mind.

by the way, if you ever want anything done from regional offices, all you do is google: Vba leadership Oakland: as an example or Vba leadership Oklahoma. If you live there. It tells you who their leadership is and all you do is e-mail the director or assistant director. So for example: director is John Doe. You e-mail: john.doe@va.gov. I would e-mail everyone on that chain until you hear back from one of them. Good luck!