Filing Veterans Administration claims data

The Major found out that the VA actually has two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) offices. 

At Bay Pines there is the main FOIA office where veteran's can get copies of C&P progress notes from physicals and also from your VA physicians.

There is also a Privacy Office in the VA Regional Office (VARO) that has a similar information function.

Doctor's enter data directly into the Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS). However, some data has to be scanned into the system using Vista Imaging,

For example, if a Veteran submits a Disability Benefit Questionnaire from to his primary care or VA specialist,  The doctor would manually fill in the form an his/her nurse would take the form to the Veterans Administration Medical Center FOIA office. The FOIA office would then have the document scanned into CPRS.

Most veterans take  medical calims to their Veteran representative. The Major uses The Disabled American Veteran (DAV) and has worked with an assortment of DAV National Service Officers (NSO).

In general, claims are submitted to the VA representative. The Major has submitted medical documentation related to the claims to the Veteran's Center. The VA Regional Office (VARO) rep there will copy your document and stamp it.

Data submitted to the VA rep or the Veterans Center will go into the veteran's claim file (c-file). Data submitted to the VAMC FOIA office goes into CPRS.

Rightardia's advice is that if you have important medical documentation, take it both the FOIO office and the Veterans Center. If you want you VA doctors to be able to see the documentation, take it to the VAMC FOIO office so the document can be scanned into CPRS.

The Major does not give documentation other than the initial claim to the DAV NSO because he knows the typical NSO handles the claims for 300 veterans.

It's better to file the documentation in the Veterans Center which will take the administrative burden off of the NSO. In addition, the Veterans center will return a copy of any documentation you provide it with a date stamp.

In summary, take important claim documentation to both the VAMC FOIA office and the VARO Veterans Center. The FOIO office will scan your document and have it entered into CPRS which doctors and clinicians in the hospital use.

Any data submitted to the Veterans Center will go into the Veterans c-file.

The Major recommends that key documents be entered into both CPRS and the c-file.

http://benefits.va.gov/TRANSFORMATION/dbqs/ListByDBQFormName.asp

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