Filing for VA benefits
Well bravo for the federal government.
First, you have to have the information for the veteran - SSN, military id numbers, discharge forms with dates of service, etc., date of birth, and discharge paperwork (which you have to apply to the government for, and wait 60 - 90 days for). Also, the death certificate, for deceased veterans.
Second, you have to have the form from the VA to apply for the benefits - one form for the veteran and a different form for the surviving spouse. As this is for my mother, and my father was the veteran, I need the surviving spouse form.
Third, you need to collect and categorize all the medical information; what doctors have been seen for the last 12 months, their diagnosis, and treatments, etc., then, what the prognosis is and what services are needed in order to determine the treatment schedule. My mother is going to have a physical therapist, visiting nurse, and RN visiting the house, and these are covered.
For the information needed from the government, there is a time delay and a bit of run a round to get the proper forms and such, but most of the documentation for my father was already here. My mother has receipts from Medicare and her secondary medical carrier which lists her doctors, which will help, because she is in no condition to answer the questions about it and neither is my brother right now.
So, I'm on my own to figure this crap out right now, but I'm muddling through. My father was a Sargeant in the Marine Corps during World War II, and went into the Navy afterwards. During WWII he was a rifleman. He never talked about the war much, but I do know that at one point he was in the Pacific, and his stint in the Navy wasn't as long as his sting in the Marine Corps.
Knowing my father, and knowing my mother, I would not have pegged him as a Marine Corp Sargeant. I would more have pegged that on my mother, actually. My father was a quiet, gentle kind of man while my mother was an overbearing, controlling, "detail oriented" sort of woman, who was in total control of everything the entire time I was growing up.
It is kind of tough to see my mother now, not in control of anything at all, even herself. But my mother was always directing other people to do things, rather than doing them herself, so I kind of understand how she got here.
Hopefully, I can find someone in the government to help out with the forms, because I am running blind here. I was in Maine for most of this and was not witness to the doctors appointments, so I am doing catch up on the past year, but I can only hope that I don't have to get statements from all of them.
Good luck to me...
First, you have to have the information for the veteran - SSN, military id numbers, discharge forms with dates of service, etc., date of birth, and discharge paperwork (which you have to apply to the government for, and wait 60 - 90 days for). Also, the death certificate, for deceased veterans.
Second, you have to have the form from the VA to apply for the benefits - one form for the veteran and a different form for the surviving spouse. As this is for my mother, and my father was the veteran, I need the surviving spouse form.
Third, you need to collect and categorize all the medical information; what doctors have been seen for the last 12 months, their diagnosis, and treatments, etc., then, what the prognosis is and what services are needed in order to determine the treatment schedule. My mother is going to have a physical therapist, visiting nurse, and RN visiting the house, and these are covered.
For the information needed from the government, there is a time delay and a bit of run a round to get the proper forms and such, but most of the documentation for my father was already here. My mother has receipts from Medicare and her secondary medical carrier which lists her doctors, which will help, because she is in no condition to answer the questions about it and neither is my brother right now.
So, I'm on my own to figure this crap out right now, but I'm muddling through. My father was a Sargeant in the Marine Corps during World War II, and went into the Navy afterwards. During WWII he was a rifleman. He never talked about the war much, but I do know that at one point he was in the Pacific, and his stint in the Navy wasn't as long as his sting in the Marine Corps.
Knowing my father, and knowing my mother, I would not have pegged him as a Marine Corp Sargeant. I would more have pegged that on my mother, actually. My father was a quiet, gentle kind of man while my mother was an overbearing, controlling, "detail oriented" sort of woman, who was in total control of everything the entire time I was growing up.
It is kind of tough to see my mother now, not in control of anything at all, even herself. But my mother was always directing other people to do things, rather than doing them herself, so I kind of understand how she got here.
Hopefully, I can find someone in the government to help out with the forms, because I am running blind here. I was in Maine for most of this and was not witness to the doctors appointments, so I am doing catch up on the past year, but I can only hope that I don't have to get statements from all of them.
Good luck to me...
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