Study shows veterans must navigate hundreds of forms

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The character of a nation is defined by how they treat their veterans.

Study shows veterans must navigate hundreds of forms, more than a dozen agencies for services

Study shows veterans must navigate hundreds of forms, more than a dozen agencies for services | Fox News

A new study released ahead of the Fourth of July holiday sheds more light on the tangle of paperwork facing America's veterans -- showing they're up against as many as 613 forms across 18 agencies as they seek services.

The study by the American Action Forum also found the paperwork -- in part the result of roughly 31 million Veterans Affairs claims alone each year -- takes federal employees roughly 43.3 million hours to process.

“Navigating 18 agencies and more than 600 forms has produced absurd results and unnecessary delays,” the self-described “center-right” leaning nonprofit said.

To be sure, the massive backlog at the Veterans Affairs has been well-documented and has resulted in demands for change from the White House, Capitol Hill and the public.

In March, the agency had 600,000, roughly 70 percent, of its claims pending longer than 125 days.

The problem in large part has been a roughly 2,000 percent increase in Veterans Affairs claims over the past four years while the agency races to streamline efforts by moving to a paperless online system.

The agency has made some headway toward its goal of eliminating backlog claims, defined as 125 days or older, by 2015. Officials said a few weeks ago that they cut the number of claims by 15 percent in recent weeks.

President Obama issued an executive order in 2011 urging federal agencies to reduce burdensome regulations. But Congress last month called for the president to be more aggressive, with Democrats and Republicans from both chambers sending him a letter asking that he “take direct action.”

Sam Batkins, American Action’s director of regulatory policy, outlined a hypothetical situation in which a veteran seeking health and education benefits could encounter as many as 49 different forms and more than four hours of paperwork, costing them about $125.

“VA, the Government Accounting Office and other agencies have already diagnosed the problem of overlap and duplication, but Veterans Affairs continues to struggle," American Action wrote. “If Congress cannot fashion a legislative remedy, veterans will have to rely on the same system that has failed them repeatedly in the past.”
 

dude...I spent two weeks filling out 29 pages/both sides..to gain housing from the va...only to find I had to fill out another set of 30 pagers, and wait two years for HUD to put me on the list...

no wonder there are so many homeless veterans...harass you to insanity with documents that honestly, they already have that information in the files.

I spent three hours yesterday at the va clinic here...answering the same questions I have answered the same since 1971...
when I told the doctor to read the file in front of her, she threw a pissie fit an started yelling at me...
when I heard," i'm not married to you, who do you think you are yelling at?" come out of my mouth...I knew the interview was over.
 

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I hear this from a lot of the veteran's I treat. This why a lot of them choose to get treatment outside of the VA.
 

It's called "bureaucracy". It is the means by which, they can set up useless panels and companies, give friends and relatives meaningless jobs, waste everyone's time and money, and accomplish nothing.

I just watched my neighbors 5 and 6 yr old kids, set up a better roadside rubber band bracelet sale yesterday, than I have ever seen in MANY veterans affairs, that was run by the government. Sorry to say, and so terribly sorry for those of you, that have to get through these kind of messes!

I so cracked up at what you told her! :laughing7: I have been known to tell condescending caseworkers, that "I did NOT HAVE to be subject to their attitude, cause I was NOT their spouse, child, or parent. Who is your supervisor and go get them NOW"! (my patients loved me, I always stood up for them! I am MORE than aware, of how some ppl "feel" they can treat others, NOT!)
 

when it comes to veterans issues pat, they call it ranting...when we know they just don't listen, and we scream in frustration.

wish you were my doc crispin...even if our politics are opposite...at least you are a compassionate human...
 

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You know secretcanyon, it's about ppl helping ppl, not business, not government, PPL!
We do live in a sad state, that churches show up to help in disasters, with the news media close behind, before our government does.
That if you feed homeless ppl in a park, you can be arrested, but the gment gives millions in food stamps to those, who would be ideal candidates for gastric bypass surgery.

That they (g'ment) can ask you for your LIFE, and then after you give it to them, they turn their back on you, like you were pariah!
But most will push their head further in to the sand, cause they feel ineffective in being able to substantiate any type of legitimate change.
Something to be said for the one, that can take care of themselves and not need to rely on..........
I better get of this horse before I fall off........ sorry
 

I would have gladly given my life...now why doesn't the va give us what they promised in those training films we were made to watch at fort ord in basic...
180 days good time, life long, quality health care...no one said a thing about who's but do you kiss...ratings..ect.


geeze pat..i pushed the like button...but I don't like it one little bit...
 

I know sweety! We've been conditioned, I pushed it, too! :laughing7: And, it's not funny haha!

SC, my dad and his best friend, a retired Colonel, purchased an old bus, painted it red, white, and blue (oh, about 20 years ago or more). Every Thurdsday (even still today), that bus roles through all the little towns in south Georgia, and picks up vets at it's stops, and takes them down to the V.A. in Gainseville Fl. The McDonalds donates breakfast for the bus folks. They all see their doc's, get their meds, get back on the bus, and go back home.
NO GOVERNMENT DID THIS, PEOPLE DID THIS! It is up to ppl, imho, to bypass the gment and their bureaucratic bs, and do the jobs that have to be done. People do these things, not business's.

Companies only extend their hands out to TAKE from you. Usually, when good ppl stick their hand out, it is to try and help lift another, without thought of reward or monetary gain.
God Bless all the ppl, that take those roles to heart! We need more of them!
 

A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United States of America ' for an amount of 'up to and including my life.' That is Honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it."

a quote...
 

when it comes to veterans issues pat, they call it ranting...when we know they just don't listen, and we scream in frustration.

wish you were my doc crispin...even if our politics are opposite...at least you are a compassionate human...

Thank you for the compliment. I very rarely, if ever, talk about politics with my patients. One, I'm more concerned about their health problems and getting all the information I need. Two, my only goal is to be helpful to my patients, my political views are irrelevant to that.

Occasionally, I have patient's push the issue on religion and politics..."I need to know who is treating me. If you're not a Christian I can't trust you." or "If you voted for Obama then I'm finding a new doctor." This is rare, but when it happens I give them the answer. Oddly enough, the most discriminating thing I hear is, "You are too young to be a doctor. I am finding a new one." Funny thing about that is I look a lot younger then I am, lol. Can't win em all.

Point is, politics and discrimination have no place in doctor to patient interaction.

Crispin
 

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