Vets with disabilities: Listen Up!!!

From: http://disabilityblogger.blogspot.com :

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Does your government really care?

I just got off the phone, not 3 minutes ago, with a disability claimant. He needs to have his reconsideration filed and I asked him if he had been seen by any doctors recently. He gave the all too common answer: "No, I haven't been able to go. My insurance ran out a long time ago".

This is a very common situation. And I've heard it so much that I've become somewhat desensitived to it. But...if you really think about it, these situations (which ARE extremely common) are horrendous.

Let me put on my examiner/caseworker hat for a moment. The disability system is set up so that the prospect of being approved for disability weighs entirely on a claimants medical records. And not just on medical records, but on recent records (aside from closed periods).

Well, ding ding ding (wake up bureaucrats, politicians, and red-tape functionaries), if the process for eventually---we hope---getting approved for disability benefits can take up to 3 years (I'm not pulling that number out of a rabbit hat either----just call any attorney or non attorney practicing in the raleigh north carolina area and they will sullenly confirm this information), then how the heck can a claimant be expected to have decent medical records by the time they get to a hearing (a destination most cases will arrive at)?

(cont. reading this post by clicking link above)

Wrap...