C&P exams requested, how long of a wait?

S

Shay's Red

PEB Forum Regular Member
Registered Member
MSC finally contacted spouse and apologized for his packet sitting on a desk (but not the MSC's desk) and the deadline being missed. MSC requested the C&P exams from the local VAMC; he stated spouse should get hear something by the end of the week to schedule the approximately 14 appts.

That was about two weeks ago.

In the meantime, spouse did follow up with the PEBLO and MSC looking for a phone number for the VAMC, and both the PEBLO and the MSC said once the exams are requested, they do nothing but wait.

Spouse is still scheduled to be out of state for most of the month of July, and the ebenefits deadline for the stuff requested from the VAMC is shortly after he is supposed to return (but it is a very tight window).

After contacting the VAMC, the C&P department can't help him because he is in the IDES system. The online extension for appointments is wrong and rings at a doctor's desk (who was very nice, and pulled up his file only to say that it looked all jacked up, and he was going to email someone about it). There appears to be no way of getting in contact via phone for the folks scheduling for IDES/C&P. More than one person has stated that they don't believe they do those types of appointments, because Fort Bragg is "right there".

Ebenefits shows the pending request. The VAMC staff can see it in their system, and they acknowledge those requests are "supposed to be started scheduling within 72 hours of receipt". But nobody knows who is supposed to schedule them it appears.

Is there any department we could try or any question we can ask to get them to straighten this out? Spouse has regular doctors' appointments scheduled between now and when he is supposed to leave, and he is worried that the shorter the window gets the more likely he is to have to miss a regular doctor appointment (which are hard enough to get on their own).

It is starting to wear on us, because the process has taken four years to get to this point, and even the lady is C&P was commenting, "damn honey, they have really let you slip through the cracks." And that is starting to scare the spouse, because you never want to hear that.

Any help/advice/phone number to try to call would be appreciated.
 
I'm sorry but this is your spouse's PEBLO's and MSC's responsibility. They need to be getting to the bottom of it. So with that being said, I'd be putting more pressure on them to get the appointments scheduled.

What is your spouse going out of town for--IDES/C&P appointments takes precedent.

Is your spouse Active Duty?
 
He is going to be out of state for annual training with the Reserves. He is a drilling reservist, former active duty. The location that he is going to is not close enough to drive to, nor is it close to another VAMC. The annual training dates he has been told are set in stone, and that he can not miss it even for these appointments. He has asked his unit for reconsideration, and he was told no, troop movements take precedence over everything else. He has asked for an AT assignment at Fort Bragg (he drills out of Fort Jackson) in hopes that if he had a local AT he could get to any appointments and make up the time, and that was a no go as well. He has notified his MSC and PEBLO of the concern, and they keep telling him that they aren't sure of the protocol in this particular situation.

He has been putting pressure on them, while still maintaining a professional demeanor (respectful and kind, not leaving 15 voicemails, giving them a chance to respond before contacting them again), but his patience is worn through with answers of, "Well I sent an email, that's all I can do. You worry too much about deadlines soldier."
 
Shay's Red said:
MSC finally contacted spouse and apologized for his packet sitting on a desk (but not the MSC's desk) and the deadline being missed. MSC requested the C&P exams from the local VAMC; he stated spouse should get hear something by the end of the week to schedule the approximately 14 appts.

That was about two weeks ago.

In the meantime, spouse did follow up with the PEBLO and MSC looking for a phone number for the VAMC, and both the PEBLO and the MSC said once the exams are requested, they do nothing but wait.

Spouse is still scheduled to be out of state for most of the month of July, and the ebenefits deadline for the stuff requested from the VAMC is shortly after he is supposed to return (but it is a very tight window).

After contacting the VAMC, the C&P department can't help him because he is in the IDES system. The online extension for appointments is wrong and rings at a doctor's desk (who was very nice, and pulled up his file only to say that it looked all jacked up, and he was going to email someone about it). There appears to be no way of getting in contact via phone for the folks scheduling for IDES/C&P. More than one person has stated that they don't believe they do those types of appointments, because Fort Bragg is "right there".

Ebenefits shows the pending request. The VAMC staff can see it in their system, and they acknowledge those requests are "supposed to be started scheduling within 72 hours of receipt". But nobody knows who is supposed to schedule them it appears.

Is there any department we could try or any question we can ask to get them to straighten this out? Spouse has regular doctors' appointments scheduled between now and when he is supposed to leave, and he is worried that the shorter the window gets the more likely he is to have to miss a regular doctor appointment (which are hard enough to get on their own).

It is starting to wear on us, because the process has taken four years to get to this point, and even the lady is C&P was commenting, "damn honey, they have really let you slip through the cracks." And that is starting to scare the spouse, because you never want to hear that.

Any help/advice/phone number to try to call would be appreciated.
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From my experiences within the DoD IDES MEB/PEB process via an U.S. Army perspective, upon completion of my appointment with the MSC, I waited approximately 30 days for the notification e-mail from my PEBLO stating that the DoVA C&P Examinations were scheduled and it's vital that I attend each appointment as annotated.

In my opinion, the MSC (mostly) with the PEBLO should be able to follow-up with the local VAMC for status inquiries when their established deadline threshold has expired for receiving feedback to the DoVA C&P Examination(s) request. It seems like your spouse is well past the 30 day duration period which I was informed was the approximate wait-time threshold for DoVA C&P Examination(s) request with DoD IDES cases.

To that extent, we continue to pray that you and your husband are remaining positively proactive throughout the entire DoD IDES MEB/PEB process. I believe that positive thinking potentially yields positive results; therefore, you all shall definitely overcome this temporary inconvenience! ;)

Thus, I quite often comment that "possessing well-informed knowledge is truly a powerful equalizer."

Best Wishes!
 
Medical always takes precedent. Your husband is being medically separated from the military...he doesn't need to be leaving town for a month for training. His PEBLO and/or MEB Legal needs to speak with his unit.

So is his PEBLO at Ft. Bragg?
 
just a heads up, in most states I believe VA contracts the bulk of exmas out, Here int he SW it is QTC a division of lockhead. may vary by region do not know.
 
His PEBLO and MSC are at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.So it's not like he can pop into their office and ask to talk to them. It has been a problem on previously missed deadlines as well.
 
The PEBLO and MSC at JBLM are quite swamped right now. Most likley the apointments will take place with QTC (contractor) and they are coordinating everything. It may be possible since your husband is not in a WTU-CBWTU that his appointments may have a lower priority, or they may just be trying to find openings to get them all scheduled close together.

If your husband misses the C&P appointments it could be an issue, make sure he communicates with the PEBLO that we will be TDY and what the priod will be.

Use email to protect him. It is ok for JBLM to miss deadlines however as a service member you must make your appointments.
 
This is a good thread as I am awaiting the first phone call from my PEBLO. I got a call today in which they scheduled me a telephonic appointment with a doc out of JBLM in regards to my referred conditions. So, I think you are still a step ahead of me.

I hope that your hubby gets his stuff completed. I was told several times by a few people so far that I have to inform them every time I take leave due to the possibility of missing a phone call or the C&P appointments with the VA. I agree with the others that stated that the appointments should take priority and you should probably let the PEBLO or legal advisor know that they are sending him out on training for such a long period of time right in the early stages of the MEB process.

I hope everything works out for you both and keep us posted!
 
In regards to the training and letting the PEBLO and MSC know, he sent copies of the orders to the PEBLO in April (when his original PEBLO got promoted and replaced) and the MSC in June (when he received the first contact from him). In addition to the orders we sent emails regarding upcoming appointments with specialists, and his school schedule (there is no excused absences and missing two classes in the summer would cause him to be dropped).

On the appointment front, we had some movement yesterday, partially due to persistence with the MSC. And I would like to give the MSC credit, he is trying, but he even acknowledges that the problems with spouse's file aren't getting resolved. Unfortunately, the scheduler did not read the emails closely and managed to schedule every appointment at a time that the spouse could not attend. They even had scheduled two appointments at the same time on different floors of the Soldier Support Center. (I told spouse that he was going to have to saw himself in half).

He called the scheduler, and she said she would fix it, but because it sat untouched for so long, every appointment required a supervisor override, because they were extending out past another deadline.

Apparently the rule is on reserves and MEBs that annual training dates (the two-four week block) take precedence except in cases of emergencies if the annual training is to take place out of state and within 30 days of when the appointment was originally scheduled.

Broken down this means, because he is to leave for training within 30 days, and these appointments are not emergencies, his training is deemed more important.

I don't know if this is policy or one person's interpretation, but it is very frustrating, that if the original deadline had been met this would likely not be an issue.

They have only been able to schedule 3 of the requested 14 appointments at this time, and two of the specialists will not be scheduled until August or September due to when there is availability.One of these yet to be scheduled appointments is for his hearing loss, and he asked if he could go to the same person, just in their private practice (he is a patient with the office for something else) and was told no. . . I'm baffled.

Just a point of irritation: the scheduler told him he is low priority because his reserve unit is in a different state and his PEBLO and MSC aren't local, so she doesn't work with them often. Also, since he is seen by civilian doctors for all of his medical issues it's not like he is at risk if the appointments don't happen rapidly. The whole mindset bothered me. I am glad he didn't get rude with her for saying it, but no one ever wants to be told they aren't a priority when they have been dealing with medical issues for years.

I am hoping by some miracle some appointment times are found.
 
Shay's Red said:
In regards to the training and letting the PEBLO and MSC know, he sent copies of the orders to the PEBLO in April (when his original PEBLO got promoted and replaced) and the MSC in June (when he received the first contact from him). In addition to the orders we sent emails regarding upcoming appointments with specialists, and his school schedule (there is no excused absences and missing two classes in the summer would cause him to be dropped).

On the appointment front, we had some movement yesterday, partially due to persistence with the MSC. And I would like to give the MSC credit, he is trying, but he even acknowledges that the problems with spouse's file aren't getting resolved. Unfortunately, the scheduler did not read the emails closely and managed to schedule every appointment at a time that the spouse could not attend. They even had scheduled two appointments at the same time on different floors of the Soldier Support Center. (I told spouse that he was going to have to saw himself in half).

He called the scheduler, and she said she would fix it, but because it sat untouched for so long, every appointment required a supervisor override, because they were extending out past another deadline.

Apparently the rule is on reserves and MEBs that annual training dates (the two-four week block) take precedence except in cases of emergencies if the annual training is to take place out of state and within 30 days of when the appointment was originally scheduled.

Broken down this means, because he is to leave for training within 30 days, and these appointments are not emergencies, his training is deemed more important.

I don't know if this is policy or one person's interpretation, but it is very frustrating, that if the original deadline had been met this would likely not be an issue.

They have only been able to schedule 3 of the requested 14 appointments at this time, and two of the specialists will not be scheduled until August or September due to when there is availability.One of these yet to be scheduled appointments is for his hearing loss, and he asked if he could go to the same person, just in their private practice (he is a patient with the office for something else) and was told no. . . I'm baffled.

Just a point of irritation: the scheduler told him he is low priority because his reserve unit is in a different state and his PEBLO and MSC aren't local, so she doesn't work with them often. Also, since he is seen by civilian doctors for all of his medical issues it's not like he is at risk if the appointments don't happen rapidly. The whole mindset bothered me. I am glad he didn't get rude with her for saying it, but no one ever wants to be told they aren't a priority when they have been dealing with medical issues for years.

I am hoping by some miracle some appointment times are found.
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Is this your spouse which you are discussing? What is/are the condition(s) this person is being boarded for?
 
I had the same issues I started my meb in January and my C&P exams fell past deadline before my MSC scheduled them. They had to reschedule them twice because for some reason time was going by with no dates. I just completed all of my exams except for one which is schedule for July 1st. And it seems as if the furlough is affecting peblo's job schedule because I recently got the email about their furlough starting in July. I think they are the last ones that need to be furloughed right now with all the backlogs.
 
Update: The spouse finished his appointments in Mid July. He has not heard from his PEBLO since May, even though he has contacted him. His MSC has really been going to bat for him to get the appointments, which is appreciated. His unit has failed to file the paperwork to get him properly paid for these appointments, and it would appear that there is no rush on their end to fix that problem.

Somewhere along the lines the spouse's unit got ripped a new one for the annual training issue. He apparently should have been told by his unit that he can't leave the state without notifying his PEBLO and/or MSC. So his unit rescheduled his AT to be held at their facility. Which actually is out of state since we are near Ft. Bragg and he drills at Ft. Jackson. He has been told he needs to extend his contract again as his process will "more likely than not" be complete by January 1, 2013. Unfortunately no one knows who he talks to in order to extend.

Because of the rescheduling of Annual Training, and the short notice of the new dates, rescheduling his regular doctor appointments fell to me. It has been a beastly task as he had to have two new civilian exams for items discussed in his C&P exams (with a third we just haven't been able to schedule), and the follow ups were supposed to be while he is gone. Specialist appointments are rough to reschedule, and thankfully I got copies of his orders to fax to them to avoid the cancellation fees.

I am genuinely getting concerned about the lack of communication from his PEBLO, and the affect this process is having on the spouse's "regular life". He is very frustrated with being told that mistakes have been made with file throughout the process, and that's why it is taking so long.

His long time mental health counselor has transferred to a different city, and he was told until the VA ratings were in, or he had something stating acceptance or service connection (beyond an LOD), the VA was not able to provide him with mental health services. The VA system near where we live is very bogged down, and as a result they enforce eligibility rules more strictly.

As a result of that denial, we are now awaiting approval for a provider that works for a Tricare approved facility, the provider is not Tricare approved. (Many of the counselors in our area are very overbooked or the wait time to get in extends into November).

I don't know when is an appropriate time to request Congressional assistance. And we do recognize the extreme workload on those conducting medical boards, but is there any way to encourage adherence to deadlines without coming off ugly? Also, what should we do about an unresponsive PEBLO?
 
Wow, I'm sorry to hear how things are going for you. Have you and your spouse sat through the IDES manditory briefs? You can request a new PEBLO at any time, for no reason. I would start with that, as for the unit not supporting his appt's I would have to ask did his commander send his packet forward to the board process? If so he has responsibility to do his part in the process. I would be requesting a new PEBLO TODAY... So you can get the ball rolling smoothly.

Good Luck
 
We had a telephone brief that occurred more than 5 months ago with his first PEBLO, and we also had the telephone JAG briefing about 3.5 months ago. According to the briefing, after his final C&P appointment it should be approximately 35 days at the longest to receive his NARSUM. Well we've reached that point. No NARSUM, no updates, no contact.

His PEBLO is military, and he has tried to speak to a superior about the conduct, because honestly over the phone the guy is somewhat dismissing of anything that is said. He tried to request a new PEBLO after the current one blew off the VA appointment scheduling deadlines, and he was told they had no other PEBLOs to assign him to, because of the adjustment disorder backlog. I know that the backlog was significant, but all he really wants is someone to respond to emails or voicemails occasionally.

The PEBLO office on Ft. Jackson and Ft. Bragg have given him no advice other than he doesn't want his file transferred to them, because it will tack at least 6 months onto the process regardless of where it is at.

According to a friend of mine who works in the JAG office on Fort Bragg, the IDES process is effectively the military workers' compensation system. She made this analogy because I have worked in workers' comp, and I know the effort each file takes. It really can take a week to schedule an appointment with any sort of specialist, and then each level of request takes additional time. I get that. And a lot of times, people are just angry about their body not working, and they don't mean to be hateful, but they want the process done and over with and they think. I think that is probably why I've tried so hard to give people the benefit of the doubt. I want to believe that they are working on the file, and not just blowing it off. But in this case, I am starting to question if the spouse is being blown off.
 
I read thew whole thread, and I wasn't sure if you have contacteded the ombusman and patient advocate. I apologize if I missed that. If you haven't, that woiuld be another place to start - asking for the JBLM patient advicate, and checking with his reserve branch about a reserve ombudsman. From what you have presented, it appears that there are real concerns and problems involved with your spouse's case. I wouldn't be hostile, but I wouldn't worry about hurting anyone's feelings at this point. Facts are facts.
Best of luck. Bob
 
I wasn't able to get anyone on the phone with the patient advocate at any of the bases, and with the ombudsman, there seems to be according to them some disagreement on which office I should use (where we live, where he's assigned, where his file is etc). Some guidance on the rules of how the ombudsman's office works would be much appreciated.

He tried calling the PEBLO's office again Friday only to get a full voicemail box. When he tried to call back to talk to a superior the phone rang and rang and rang and then it hung up. I actually tried just to see, and it was exactly as he said.

I've contemplated sending a certified letter to the PEBLO's office, if only because that is standard operating procedure in my experience when a vital part of a case has become unreachable. I consider the PEBLO vital.

Should his command get involved with this or is that going the wrong direction?
 
Heads up most peblos are civilians and friday would of been a furlough day.
 
Update on spouse: Thank you for the suggestion of calling the ombudsman. It wasn’t something I thought would work as quickly as it did. The ombudsman at JBLM was awesome, and even though he was somewhat limited in his options (and was having to work a furlough schedule), he was able to get in touch with the PEBLO.

This is what we have found out via the ombudsman: the phone number we had for the PEBLO was no longer valid; the spouse’s file is in the special group being worked by a group of soldiers brought in for the backlog, and so the PEBLO is not technically a civilian. We were provided with the new phone number, and if the PEBLO didn’t call within a certain time frame, we were to call back.

The PEBLO did call. His statements are he is not inclined to make phone calls if he has no information, and he had been waiting on information from the MSC who had been on vacation (sadly enough we had the information he needed available, and had he been in regular contact he would have known that).

That was all two weeks ago. On Monday, PEBLO called spouse and stated spouse should receive something in his email in a couple of days that will need to be reviewed, signed, and returned. When spouse asked for clarification, he was told it was a “form that needed a signature, so the packet can go out for ratings. Ratings will take 4-6 months”. The form apparently did not have a name that the PEBLO was willing to volunteer. Spouse has not yet received it.

Would this likely be the NARSUM? And would that quote be indicative of unfitting determinations? Isn’t there a time limit on how long spouse has to review the NARSUM and rebut it? If there is a time limit is it calculated by business days or calendar days? (My concern is we will receive it Friday afternoon, and the long weekend will hinder our ability to have it gone over in a timely manner.)

Yes these are questions the PEBLO should answer, but his reluctance to be in contact, and his hemming and hawing over every question have us very concerned about the accuracy of his answers.
 
It does indeed sound like the NARSUM, and if it is, the PEBLO should go over it and explain. You also want to run it by the MEB attorney - do not skip this, insist on it. You have a time limit on signing the NARSUM - someone will tell you exactly, I want to sayeither 7 or 10 days. They can extend the timeframe if legal is not able to look at it in a timely manner. I would call the PEBLO now to ask who the MEB attorney is - it may well be someone at JBLM. The NARSUM should summarize all medical conditions, and list hose that are determined to not meet retention standards and those that do. The next step - the PEB decides fit or unfit. best of luck...Bob
 
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