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hollee newman
2024.03.16
I started my journey to the VA with absolutely no education or knowledge whatsoever so I literally started from scratch. I hooked up with my Insider Coach who was polite, I’ll give her that, but really left me with open ended advice on the majority of my questions and the overall direction I needed to take. I would ask what might the outcome be for such a situation; her response would be that “it might turn out like this, but there’s no guarantee so I can’t really advise you one way or another.” I guess I misinterpreted the basis of this company’s purpose in being a source to advise vets on how to go about filing for disability, & the means of being granted that claim.
I only held 3 actual phone calls with my coach, & a number of emails back & forth. The basis of my direction came from the you tube videos that I was recommended to watch because they consisted the majority of the answers I had for a number of questions.
I submitted my medical documents along with a psychiatrists’ medical advice pertaining to my ptsd claim. I suppose his medical advice statement would be the same as a nexus letter to a certain extent. After submitting my records & my physician’s statements, they were reviewed & responded to with a “yeah, it looks good”. I know what it looks like. I know what evidence I have to support my claim. I was hoping for their professional opinion as to what might prevent me from being granted my claim.
After I gathered my medical records, my nexus letter, & my doctors’ opinions, I submitted my claim online; by my own devices without the VA CI guiding me along the way; which I thought was their whole purpose.
After submitting everything, I went to my C&P exams, without any advice as to what to expect from the physicians & what I might want to study up on ahead of time. I gathered the basis of what I might need to prepare for from Combat Craig’s FREE YouTube videos opposed to Bryan’s VA Claims Insider videos seeing as he tends to ramble in his videos; if that’s what you want to call them.
Once everything was submitted & I lay in wait, I pretty much received silence from VA CI. No follow ups or check ins. I received my claim back with a service connection disability of 70%. Since I started out from nothing and was granted 70%, VA CI accounted my charges as an increase from 0% to 70%, multiplied by their 6 x estimator, which left me with a bill of $10,000.00. I can’t for the life of me see how anything they did to assist me warrants a ten thousand dollar balance.
I repeatedly reached out to VA CI in hopes of speaking to someone who may be able to assist me in resolving this debt I’m in to them, but have repeatedly been met with “your increase was from 0 to 70 so your balance is correct.” I was given the option of either paying it in full, or paying in installments of $300+ a month. I am obviously on a fixed income from the VA and only have enough to pay my bills and am left struggling for food every month from being left with nothing after paying my car note, full coverage, phone, child support, my service animal, rent, gas, and medications: I am literally left with $34 after all my bills are paid. While i still have with my current $18k of credit card debt that I have no means of even attempting to settle at this time, I now have another ten grand to add to it.
After being granted my claim, and given so much each month, I offered to pay payments of $100 a month to VA CI yet they declined my offer for such a resolution. So now I’m in debt of my original $18k from credit cards I was forced to use while being homeless, and this new $10k debt from VA CI now. I am overwhelmed with where I could even start to settle a debt so monumental. I have repeatedly tried to request what all I was charged for and have yet to receive an actual invoice of these specified charges.
Long story short, I’m disgusted with the way I was over charged and taken advantage of when I came to them with pleas of help because I didn’t know how to do it myself. I strongly advise against using VA CI for any assistance whatsoever. I’m so lost.
Thank you for your review, Hollee. Please note that our customer service team completed an account review and determined that you indeed received ELITE service. In addition, our finance team worked with you on November 10, 2023, to provide you with alternate billing solutions.