Gotta love how slow the government moves...

So today Pete had an appointment at Stratton VA Medical Center in Albany. This was his exam for his VA Comp & Pension application.

The good news - his MS has been service connected (as expected) and is currently showing 0% disability BUT that was what today was about.

The bad news? - The doctor who examined him was a specialist in internal medicine and the regional office had not sent Pete's file so he had only the briefest of information to pull from. But being prepared for government ineptitude I had all his medical records with me and was able to show him the most recent neurologists report and the neuro-psych evaluation. He said that since these were so recent he did not have to actually examine Pete - just asked us some questions and made some notes in the file.

All told we were there for 20 minutes with the doctor? Then we started running through the maze - first to travel to get a voucher to be paid for mileage. Then to the cashier to get cash for the voucher. Then to registration to get an ID card - but it turns out that based on last years income he is not eligible for VA Healthcare now - but once his % rating is changed from 0 to hopefully something more like 90-100% he will get all his healthcare for free.

So now waiting - sending in the last few doctor's reports to the regional office so they have this for his file since his file wasn't there today and they couldn't add it. They did offer to take the reports and send them in for me BUT I feel much more confident doing it myself.

So keeping fingers crossed for the highest possible % disability rating as higher numbers mean more $$$$ - and really with that neuro-psych evaluation added to the physical disability there should be no question of employability.