r/VeteransAffairs

Im being treated at the VA for a few conditions. This whole thing has been a painful and frustrating experience.

Fortunately, I’ve been able to see specialist out in the community who are doing a great job helping me. I’m still working on getting some of my records over to them, even though the VA says they have a system that makes them visible to outside providers.

I went to myhealthevet to print off what I could and I noticed that none of the records have the same diagnosis information anymore. None except the follow up from my pcm after the hospital admission.

I know they diagnosed me on paper because I had extensive testing done to validate the diagnosis. I had a lumbar puncture done twice during my stay and the most I see is a chart with numbers. Before, there was a whole copy and pasted type work up with reasoning and results. I also have the discharge paperwork that states what I was discharged for very clearly. The digital note says, “Discharged for headache”. The paperwork that I have in hand says that I was discharged for psudotumor on my brain.

Are they changing the notes?? The wording and notes are really important because they affect the paper trail to service connection.

Let’s get straight to the facts on how your medical evidence is actually gathered. There is a lot of confusion regarding how the VA views your files, so here is the reality from the rating floor.
When you claim VAMC treatment, we don't just wait for a file to be sent to us. We actively pull your records, and how we do it depends on where your local hospital is in the VA's current software transition. We rely heavily on CAPRI and JLV to get the job done.

CAPRI (Compensation and Pension Record Interchange) Dinosaurs VAMC Database
This is our direct portal into VistA/CPRS, the legacy VA medical record system. It is an older, text-heavy system, but it is highly effective. If your VAMC has not transitioned to the new EHR yet, this is where we find your progress notes, surgical reports, lab results, and VA-completed DBQss. We aren't just looking for a diagnosis here; we are reading your provider’s notes to determine the functional impact of your condition. If your doctor documents your specific physical limitations, CAPRI is where we see it.

The New Federal EHR (Oracle Cerner)
The VA is in the middle of a massive rollout of a new Electronic Health Record (EHR) to replace the old VistA system. Right now, only a handful of VAMCs and clinics are live on this new Oracle Cerner system. The problem? The old system (CAPRI) and the new EHR don't speak to each other perfectly. If you are treated at a facility using the new EHR, we cannot easily pull those specific notes through our standard CAPRI interface. That is where JLV comes in. 

JLV (Joint Longitudinal Viewer)
JLV is the critical bridge. Because some hospitals are on the old system and some are on the new EHR, we need JLV to pull everything into one unified view. It grabs your DoD service records, your standard VistA records, the new Oracle EHR data, and community care records (if that hospital shares data with the VA network). We use JLV to run queries and filter through years of data, tracking your treatment over time regardless of which software your hospital is using. 
How to bulletproof your claim:
We want to find the evidence to grant your claim. But when you just write "treated at the VA," it triggers a manual search through thousands of pages across CAPRI, JLV, and the new EHR.
When an RVSR has to filter through a massive, unorganized data dump from multiple databases, the risk of a crucial doctor's note getting buried or overlooked by the system goes up. The software is clunky, and data sometimes doesn't cross over perfectly.
Don't leave your evidence to chance. Give us the map.
If you give us the exact facility, clinic, and timeframe"Treated at Chicago VAMC, Physical Therapy, Jan-March 2025"we can bypass the data dump. We go straight to the target, pull those exact notes, verify the evidence, and rate your claim accurately. The more precise you are, the less room there is for the system to fail you.

This is not a post coming from an addict, rather from someone in constant pain which sometimes flairs so badly I can’t function.

Is there something in the VHA handbook which restricts VA Physicians from prescribing opiates? Before you fly off the handle, hear me out.

I have a service connected head injury which makes me wake up in pain daily. I suffer from migraines almost daily but can control it with the help of caffeinated drinks. If it gets bad, I’ll take OTC pain relief or my prescribed migraine meds. I also receive Botox every quarter and have been managing this pain for decades. When it gets really, really bad, to the point I’m unable to function and have to lay down, sometimes this works, but usually not. I’ve asked my VA Neurologist, Pain, and Mental Health providers to prescribe me a pain killer; one pill; because it has worked for me before I was in the VA system. When I took it before, just one time; it was like it reset my body. They all refused. Is there a policy which restricts these Physicians to help with these type of prescriptions? I don’t have a history of drug abuse, especially opiates, nor have I ever asked any VA providers before. I work, I’m visibly not addicted nor appear under the influence. I get the hesitancy with opiates based on the national crisis but it seems like my VA docs, instead of being selective, have opted to not prescribe anything which can get them flagged. Am I reading this right? I understand the addiction issue, I’ve seen it with my own eyes on family. But there has been zero history for me, anywhere. One pill. Just one. And I’ve never asked before.

Can anyone point me to a regulation or reason why my VA Docs are refusing this? They all say they don’t prescribe opiates. And my VA PCP tells me to ask them, so it doesn’t seem as if they’re being restricted or he would have told me the VA doesn’t prescribe those meds.

Can anyone help me understand the logic? I thought they were supposed to help us.

What is the general opinion of psychiatry jobs at the VA? I know feds in general seem to be feeling stressed. Are the psychiatrists fairing any better? Any remote work authorized?

I am needing advice on what steps to take in order to receive the name brand Adderall, or generic form TEVA instead of the generic form I am currently taking which is mallinckrodt. I am having side effects from it which are: headaches, irritability, some anxiousness, sweating, went back to excessively chewing and peeling skin off the inside of my cheek, and have bad brain fog. I gave it 3 weeks to see if it just needed time to work, but this is not fun. My psychiatrist placed a non formulary drug request form in for it, and stated on there that this medication wasn't working for me and that my focus wasn't improving while being on it. The pharmacy denied it with the reply of, "name brand is not available since generic form is." or something along those lines.

I then spoke to my drs nurse and he let me know that their hands were tied and that I would have to keep taking this one generic form, or go through my civ side provider to get TEVA or name brand. My civ side insurance is $300 per month, and i'd really like to cancel it due to being a single mom so every dollar saved when possible is the best outcome right now. I called the pharmacy number yesterday to see what I could do on my end, and they stated that the pharmacist that denied the med change would call me to discuss reason for denial. No call from them, so I called just now and the woman said they'd send another message back but also sent it to my Dr. Dr. called me to let me know that again, his hands were tied and he was sorry that he couldn't help more. I feel horrible that they contacted him AGAIN for this issue since he's a great psychiatrist who genuinely seems like he cares, and I don't want him thinking I'm being difficult. (maybe I am, and if so.. then I am deeply sorry!)

I am at a loss now. At this point I'm guessing I need to speak to a patient advocate? Or keep attempting to speak to the person who denied it, and show them proof that the VA diagnosed me with ADHD on top of other mental diagnoses? I hate being this person, but I genuinely need Adderall to properly function day to day, and these past two weeks have not been great at work, at home with doing tasks, or being an attentive and calm mom that my child deserves.

I'm so sorry for the rant on here, but i feel like I have nowhere else to turn other than to other veterans who use the VA system for their controlled meds. Hopefully someone on here will have advice on this topic. Thanks for taking the time to read!

The VBA may be processing claims at a record pace, but they are struggling to get it right. Since January 3 of the claims I’ve submitted have been bungled.

1. Claim denied for lack of diagnosis even though it was the VA that diagnosed the condition. That diagnosis was submitted as evidence. HLR initiated

2. Claim was just not adjudicated and “lost”. HLR initiated.

3. Evidence that should have been considered just ignored and not mentioned in decision letter. HLR initiated.

The moral of the story. Raters are overloaded and more than likely being assessed on number of cases processed, and not how accurate the rating is.

Steel yourself for multiple rounds of jack assery. It’s going to be a long haul.

So I call my local VA to refill a med and without promting am transfers to veterans pharmacy customer care, they ask full name, full social, date of birth, mailing adress, phone number, and what VA i go to, that last part comes up later. I thought I made a mistake so I tried calling again, same thing. I tell them I want to be connected to my pharmacy, they said they take the info and submit it to the the pharmacy and then the pharmacy will call me back? Seems redundant. So I say I dont want to give any information that the VA wouldn't normally ask for, the lady said thats fine and pulled up my local VA. I asked how she new what VA I went to if I hadnt given her any information yet, she says from caller ID, but my area code is from my last duty station, not even in the same state, there are also several VA's in my state. I ask about who she works for and she says its a government agency with the VA but I tried googling the name and nothing comes up. Anybody know whats going on here, or am I just being paranoid?

I am a veteran. I am also a physician at a VA. I have been here for approx 4 years. I have been tempted to use the veteran's crisis line, but I am afraid. I AM NOT SUICIDAL, and I have no thoughts of harming myself or others. I just feel alone.

There have been staffing issues for the entire time i have been here. I have worked hundreds of extra hours to the point that it has hurt my marriage and made me a worse dad. Whenever I have a predictable schedule, it gets changed. A couple of months ago, I was approved for FMLA, and I take a day or two at a time every couple of weeks, mainly for marriage counseling or mental health. Now my schedule has been changed again, and I think it is in retaliation for taking FMLA days. It is starting to feel like being stop lossed again. Every time there is a light at the end of the tunnel, the light moves further away. I can't plan family events, vacations, or reliably show up to my children's sports games. They are young, and they just see that their dad goes to work instead of spending time with them. It crushes me to hear them cry that I broke a promise of spending time with them when I have been called in for short notice coverage.

I am an OIF/OEF veteran. My wife is a veteran, too. I love taking care of veterans. Vietnam veterans helped me use my GI bill and pushed me to go to medical school. I am a doctor because of Veterans. I love my family and my kids, too. I work to provide for them and accept my role as the primary provider and the obligations with that and I am grateful I have a good paying job.

But I feel like all I do is accommodate the VA and an unpredictable schedule over and over to the point it has hurt my family. This has gone on for years. I have brought my concerns to hospital admin, and they don't care. That is one of the worst parts...not even an acknowledgement that I have made the VA and personally filling staffing shortages a higher priority than my family, and when I stop doing that with FMLA, they change my schedule again and act like I am being problematic.

There is no point going to HR. HR exists to help the VA, not employees. I appreciate the thought, but please don't waste your energy suggesting that. One particular administrator brags about how many times they have been investigated for complaints, and despite investigations, they have climbed the administration ladder to deputy chief of staff.

I feel I have no one to talk to. No one at work, no real friendships, and I don't want to burden my wife with this. My best friend from the army passed away 2 years ago, and he was the only person i served with that i kept in touch with. I have never felt so alone.

I want to call the veterans crisis line. I know it is not anonymous and that either the chief of social work and/or chief of mental health will be notified, and reports go to the MCD, and I worry about retaliation.

My question is how much of my discussion would make its way back to my hospital admin? Can I ask the crisis line operator to not include most of our discussion?

Thank you for your time in reading all of this.

RN care manager here. Asking because I've seen 3 providers start and quit in my less than two years at a VA medical center. most of the docs are only a few years out of residency. Float mid levels are filling in for vacant positions like long-term substitutes. We have no F2F appointments until September, video and phone are booking out 2-3 months typically, if not more. One of our providers has 1400 patients on their panel. Mine has 1300. All of them are maxed out.

We have hemorrhaged nurses this past year. 7 have left my clinic in the time since I started. More than half to non-VA jobs.
I come in early, stay late every day. I work Mon-Fri 9-10 hours a day, no overtime since it's not "direct patient care." I get lectured for "poor time management" when I am working through lunch daily because I'm getting 15-20 alerts a day and 10-20 secure messages a day, mostly very complex and lengthy needs. My scheduled appointments are 100% booked daily, I usually have a minimum of 3-4 overbooks a day. We do not get credit for overbooks. On top of all that. I get messages in Teams from pharmacists, social workers, mental health, etc. Patients "stop by to ask a question" multiple times a day. Have to call post - discharge parents within 48 hours. Have to see walk-ins. Have to call patients to give results if doc says to. Have to request records bc AMSAs mess it up a lot, by the way no system for tracking those requests and actually seeing if we're getting records back. Have to keep on top of FMLA, DMV, disability, dental clearance, school physical paperwork. Have to precept students and new nurses. Have to do extra work on TMS, clinical skills, councils, projects.

Everything has to go through the AMSAs and RTCs for scheduling. The turnover is insanely high in that dept. The good ones get burned out carrying the weight of the lazy and incompetent ones. They have an impossible job of juggling the windows while doing scheduling calls and paperwork requests.

I love the patient population (my family is full of veterans and active duty). I've built lots of relationships. I've had veterans & caregivers cry and thank me, been nominated for Daisy and ICARE awards, all that jazz. However evaluations are now solely based on metrics. If I spend 2 hours helping a patient with a bunch of messed up and neglected issues, that counts against me. If I help a coworker who's drowning, that counts against me. no option for compressed or flexible schedule or ad hoc telework, even with RA.

I like this job in theory, but it feels completely unsustainable. how are things elsewhere? Better than this or is this the norm? Thanks for reading

Spoke to a veteran trying to pursue adaptive sports for his health, was a competetive road cyclist pre military service, serious limits on what he can do now due to injuries/disabilities but has been to a few adaptive sports clinics for cycling and has had a lot of success with a recumbent trike/bike. Was told several times at these clinics that the VA can provide him access to a decent recumbent trike style cycle and he needed to speak to his primary care team to get a referel to the Recreation & Rehabilitation program where they could help him access this. Veteran contacted primary care doctor who said "I dont know anything about that program" but instead of trying to help find out if this is a thing or how to get veteran involvdd offered "a fitness coach" knowing the veteran has serious limits to traditional exercise due to injuries. Is there any other direction the veteran can turn for these programs as the primary care doctor seems sort of indifferent to his request?

I am a vietnam vet receiving benefits via direct deposit. I want to switch to a different financial institution because the one I have now declines purchases made with my debit card eventhough I have more than enough to cover it. I know that I can change the informastion online via the VA. My question is once I have done this how long will it be before the funds go to the other institution instead of the one I have now?

anyone out there successfully move to part time recently? im ready to reduce my load-and previously it was promised to me-and now they are saying they cant because they are “counting bodies and fte.” just wondering if i can wait it out, or if it will never be a thing.

I submitted all my documents for my EDRP in February. Everything was approved although I still didn’t get my reimbursement. I contacted my EDRP coordinators several times and no one has answered. Any advice on what I should do?