I do believe that it has changed a lot, because in the past they wouldn't even let me apply. I do believe they have taken some steps forward.
The best recommendation I have is, why doesn't Veterans Affairs trust the doctors that are in the communities? I submitted doctors' reports on different medical conditions. I reported all the information I could, but they wouldn't accept it because it wasn't under their list of doctors or on their list of recommendations.
We trust providers, but for some reason veteran case managers are allowed to make medical decisions for our veterans. I just don't know how that's legal.
At the same time, I know they're trying to do their jobs, and my case manager is lovely, but at the same time, when a doctor is explaining something and trying to get medical forms, why don't they trust the provider? They went to medical school, so why aren't they worthy of giving an explanation of what kind of treatments are available?
I wasn't even aware that my file was stored somewhere else until the pensions advocate found it for me. At the end of the day, I think that if somebody was to go look at these files and see what kind of information is there, I think we'd see that there is a lot more information there than we even know.