The A - Z Guide: Veterans VA Disability Benefits
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In war, there are no unwounded soldiers.
José Narosky
Decision Review Officer (DRO) Process
As you know, there are a number of complex steps that the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) will follow to adjudicate your claim for disability benefits. Your claim is received, checked to determine your eligibility, evidence is gathered and put in place in your folder, you are given a Compensation and Pension examination, you are notified a number of times of your opportunity to submit more evidence and the folder is perfected by a Veterans Service Representative (VSR). Eventually your claim is ready for adjudication and it marches on to the desk of the Ratings Veterans Service Representative (RSVR).
The RSVR is under tremendous pressure to turn out a given volume of work. This VA employee operates on a quota that doesn't allow the time that would be necessary to do a thorough reading of your entire folder. This is one of the points in the process where serious mistakes often occur. You may receive a denial of your application for a benefit or an extrememly lower rating than you believe you deserve at this stage.
Upon receiving your award letter and discovering that the decision is flawed, you have one year to appeal that decision. This appeals process allows you to have your case sent to the Board of Veterans Appeals (BVA) for a complete review by a higher authority.
There are other divisions of time built into the appeals process. If you respond within 60 days of the date of the award/denial letter, you may ask for a Decision Review Officer (DRO) review and hearing. The DRO process is often much faster than a BVA process as the folder is kept "local" at the Regional Office (RO).
The DRO is a senior employee with greater training and experience and significant authority to make independent decisions. The DRO process is a "de novo" review. This means that the individual who is reviewing your claim has not been previously involved in the review of your file and brings no bias or preconceived ideas to the task.
In my own experience with numerous DRO reviews, I believe that this is the first time that any individual in the system will actually sit down and read your folder completely.