February 13, 2025 • 44 mins
We discuss Tennessee's House Bill 342 which would allow unaccredited individuals to process veterans' disability claims in exchange for up to five months of back pay. This legislation poses serious risks to veterans seeking benefits they rightfully deserve through their service.
• House Bill 342 allows anyone to help veterans with claims regardless of qualifications or training
• Claim sharks could receive five months of a veteran's back pay even if the veteran wins through other means
• Working with accredited claims agents gives veterans access to the Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS)
• Accredited representatives can communicate directly with VA personnel about specific cases
• Veterans should check insurance EOBs to ensure they're not being improperly billed for service-connected conditions
• Using VA.gov's direct messaging system creates a valuable paper trail for all communications
• VA Secretary Doug Collins has stated there will be no cuts to veterans' benefits
• The VA dental care system continues to present challenges for many veterans
If you need help with your VA claim, seek assistance from accredited Veterans Service Officers, VA-accredited claims agents, or accredited attorneys who have the training and access to properly handle your case.
Tune in live every Thursday at 7 PM EST and join the conversation! Click here to listen and chat with us.
Visit J Basser's Exposed Vet Productions (Formerly Exposed Vet Radioshow) YouTube page by clicking here.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
J Basser (00:09):
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another edition of
the Exposed Vet Production Show.
This is the Exposed Vet Show.
Today is the 13th day ofFebruary, tomorrow is
Valentine's Day, so all youveterans out there make sure you
get your wife or yourgirlfriend some flowers.
If not, you might be in trouble.
Coming to co-host today the oneand only Mr Ray Cobb Ray's out
(00:32):
of Winchester, tennessee.
He has a show on WZOX radio onTuesday mornings and he
discusses a lot of veterans'issues and helps a lot of
veterans.
How are you doing, ray?
Ray Cobb (00:45):
I'm doing great.
How are you doing this coldwintry weather we're having?
J Basser (00:51):
I'm about beat to death man.
This is too cold for me.
I've had it.
I'm just about fed up with it.
Ray Cobb (00:55):
When the cold weather and doctor's appointments.
J Basser (00:56):
I don't know if I'm going to make it or not.
Yeah, but we're going todiscuss some crazy stuff today.
I call it crazy and everybodyelse will understand what's
crazy when we get intodiscussing.
But there's an issue thatreally brought to my attention
that the legislature inTennessee, the great state of
(01:16):
Tennessee I just love Tennesseethey have introduced a bill in
their House of Representativesthat allows these claim sharks
to start processing and doingveterans' claims at a cost.
Is that correct, ray?
Ray Cobb (01:33):
Yeah, it's House Bill 342, and that's exactly what it
does.
It's actually giving the rightof veterans the choice of being
able to sign on with one ofthese claim sharks to do or to
anyone.
(01:53):
Now we're calling them claimsharks, but the way this is
written, anybody can do this.
You can do it, I can do it.
Joe Blow down the street whodoesn't know his head from
holding the ground.
There's no written thing inhere that says this individual
has to in any way be a veteranor doesn't have to take any
(02:16):
educational classes or anything.
It just says he, he wants tohelp a veteran, then he can.
He can do this, and I kind ofwrote up some things that I
didn't like about it and sent itto my American Legion
representative and I sent it tomy house, my state
(02:37):
representative, and talked withher about it.
It's not good, guys.
I mean there's no other way tosay it.
What it does, it gives a person, an individual like myself, who
is a veteran, to apply forbenefits and it allows anyone to
(02:59):
participate in preparing thosebenefits.
Participate in preparing thosebenefits.
And it states in here that ifhe does this, if you sign on
with it, it has to be a writtenagreement signed by both parties
.
And then here comes a cletcher.
(03:20):
They can receive up to fivemonths back pay if the veteran
wins his claim.
If the veteran appeals on hisown and goes somewhere else and
he wins his claim, they stillget 5% of his back pay.
I mean five months, excuse me,five months, so that's five
(03:40):
months of back pay.
J Basser (03:42):
Now this five months of how much he'd get every month
.
Yeah, five months of whateverhe gets every month.
Ray Cobb (03:49):
So if he gets $4,000 a month, they get $20,000.
J Basser (03:52):
That's $20,000.
Do they touch his back?
Pay too His retro check.
Ray Cobb (03:59):
That all has to come out of his back pay.
That is what he pays theattorney with.
Whether he pays them, it's upto him.
It's up to the veteran to paythe guy who helps him.
The VA is not going to collectthe money and give it to the guy
.
The veteran has to do it.
This guy also states in herewhat this is.
(04:21):
It's actually a consultantpermission for a guy to hire a
consultant to consult on thematters of his veterans benefits
, disabilities, and he canassist in whatever way needed to
get those benefits.
(04:42):
In other words, what it'ssaying is you go to a guy, you
tell him what you think yourdisability is.
He figures out what you need towin your claim.
He fills out the claim or hefills out an intent to file
whichever and he gets thepaperwork, helps you get the
paperwork together, gives it toyou.
(05:03):
Then you go to the countyservice office or the regional
veterans affairs office or yougo online.
However you choose to do it andsubmit it Right.
So this guy is not submittingit to the VA.
He's not responsible for the VAand he never talks to the VA
responsible for the VA and henever talks to the VA.
J Basser (05:30):
So what do you think?
Personally, I don't see howthey get the information like
that.
To do it, They've got to beable to check the status and
things like that, becausethey're not going to get no from
the VA.
The veteran won.
The veteran's going to have totell them they won.
In order to do that, they needaccess to the veteran's file.
They get access to theveteran's file.
(05:51):
They're not allowed to look atthe veteran's file because any
medical information they look atthe veteran's file would be a
HIPAA violation.
Ray Cobb (05:59):
Well, the only way they can get around that is that
it states in there that theycan't do that, but only if the
veteran gives it to him.
In other words, I can go andget a copy of my medical records
and give it to this guy and saylook through here and see what
I need.
J Basser (06:19):
You can, but you've got to realize too that if a
veteran does something,regardless of what Tennessee
state law says, if they givethem something like a password
or passcode to a federalcomputer system, that's a felony
.
Ray Cobb (06:35):
Yeah, the state's in there.
They cannot do that.
J Basser (06:39):
It's very clearly about that.
Ray Cobb (06:43):
There's a lot of roadblocks too clearly about
that, huh.
So there's a lot of roadblockstoo, yeah, there's a lot of
roadblocks in here, but butbasically what it's saying.
And let's take your youyourself and myself we're
talking to a veteran on thephone and he's telling us what's
wrong and what he, what hewants to apply for and all these
things.
Now he, I, I turn to him and Isay do you have a doctor's
(07:07):
diagnosis?
Oh yeah, my VA doctor said thisand this Okay, would you go
into your VA notes under ID meand would you print off your
doctor's notes and give them tome Now he can do that and it
states in here that basically hecan do that.
(07:30):
And then the guy can look at thenotes and say, oh okay, here
let's highlight this you need tosend this in with a 4138 that
says your doctor said on thisday that you have this medical
condition according to your VAmedical records, because a
veteran gave him those medicalrecords.
J Basser (07:55):
It's kind of.
Ray Cobb (08:02):
Yeah, it's kind of crazy.
J Basser (08:05):
It goes to prove that anytime there's money to be had,
free money kind of crazy itgoes to prove that anytime
there's money to be had, freemoney to these idiots, we're
going to do whatever they haveto do to cheat, lie, cheat, you
know, to get it.
And I'm sure there's somepeople that are humble in ways
like that, and I think the VA initself has actually brought a
lot of this on the VA.
Because of the way they've beendoing things over the years,
(08:28):
Vets have become reallyfrustrated and fed up.
They don't feel that theyshould have to pay a claims aid.
They're like you have to finishyour claims up, which basically
, when push comes to shove, youcan get your county service
officer.
You can get the SO through thestate certain states you can get
the SO through the state.
In certain states you can getassistance to file your initial
claim.
Ray Cobb (08:50):
Your original service office, your original veteran
service office, has agents inthere, usually anywhere between
three at all times, sometimes asmany, as in Nashville, as many
as five or six are sitting attheir cubicles on any given day
or any given time.
J Basser (09:14):
It's one of those folks represent a whole
different genre of people too,you know.
Well, that's true.
Ray Cobb (09:22):
As a regional office.
You can go there seven days aweek.
They have two people onSaturday and one person on
Sunday.
That's good, so you can gothere.
J Basser (09:35):
Those are probably the busiest people in the world,
you reckon.
Ray Cobb (09:39):
They don't have much time to take a breath.
J Basser (09:41):
Okay, folks, if you have an appeal going on, you
need help.
These guys can help you do yourinitial claim but all of a
sudden say you get denied.
Well, let's say, if you're withthe 94% of the people, you're
going to get denied, and it'sall based on interpretation of
the regulations, what the M-21says and how they look at the
(10:03):
M-21 and how the computer putsit in there.
So you're going to need help.
That's the problem Getting thegood, qualified help to
adjudicate the remainder of yourclaim in the appeal process.
In the scope of things I candevout and rake in too, I can
(10:27):
confirm that my 20-some years ofexperience in doing this that
I've seen more veterans wintheir appeals and their
processes even though they haveto wait, unless they're a
certain age that more veteranswin by getting an accredited VA
claims agent who knows whatthey're doing, for example, alex
(10:51):
Grant.
Ray Cobb (10:53):
Yeah, they usually get it in a shorter period of time.
J Basser (10:57):
Yeah, it depends on what your age is.
We're all bound by the mud holethat it's the VA, because there
are times in processing anddoing things like that.
Then all of a sudden Congressjumps in the middle of the mix
and adds something new, like thePACT Act or the Mission Act or
the Step on your Foot Act or theShoot Yourself in the Foot to
(11:20):
Get Up for Hard Act, things likethat.
All of a sudden they get put inthe hands of the lines so
everybody else goes back a step.
You know what I mean.
Ray Cobb (11:28):
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.
That's happened.
J Basser (11:31):
That's happened.
So what I'm saying is, ifyou're 75 years old and you're
at the appeal process, you canget an advancement on the docket
to get a judge to look at yourclaim quicker, because I know a
guy that did it just there a fewdays ago, a few months ago, and
you're looking at it.
Well, yeah, you're looking athim.
I started to say you couldn'tsee, but I guess you can now.
Ray Cobb (11:52):
Yeah, I think we both got advanced on that Dr.
J Basser (11:54):
Yeah, here's the deal.
If you're going to spend money,you need to find one of these
claims agents.
There's over 300 of them nowand there's people who pass the
test.
Every time they give it theyhave to take a very stringent
test with several hundredquestions.
In order to pass, they have togo through a background check
(12:19):
for their abilities and makesure that they're good people.
It's like getting a securityclearance.
You've got to go through thechecks, make sure you're not a
felon and things like that.
Make sure you know what to dowith the money and information.
You cannot be giving people'sinformation out and things like
that.
You've got to cover your bases.
But you go to one of theseagents Clark Sharks and you sign
(12:40):
up with them.
They want to know what statusyour claim is.
Then they're going to say well,here, let me see, here Can you
get into e-benefits?
Let me take a look at it, seewhat you got.
Guess what they're saying thesame stuff we are.
But the most important thing isthe accreditation process.
You become an agent in a systemcalled Veterans Benefit
(13:01):
Management System, or VBMS.
Called Veterans BenefitManagement System or VBMS, the
claims agents and the accreditedattorneys or non-practitioner
attorney agents like Alex Grahamor Wes McCauley.
People like that.
They look at this and they popin the screen.
They see the whole thing inreal time.
(13:22):
They know where you're at.
And the problem is if you get itthat far in appeal.
If you're at the BBA, they cansee where it's at.
If you're at a high-levelreview, they can see where it's
at.
If they're at the supplementallane, it's a little bit harder
to see that one.
They kind of keep that away.
Because I'm a veteran, raised aveteran.
(13:44):
We cannot look on the computer.
It'll show us the claim in asupplemental lane.
That's all it's going to showus.
It's not going to show you anymovement.
It's kind of like constipationnation.
You ever seen that Ray?
Yeah, absolutely.
So my best advice, guys, isfind you an agent or something
like that.
Do not Don't ever give fivemonths of your back pay away of
(14:08):
your e-mail.
Now, if you go from 40% to 100%, that's a lot of money you're
paying.
Go somewhere where, if you win,it comes out of your retro.
Okay, one good thing about thatsay you make it all the way to
the BVA and the judge doesn't goin your favor, then you can
pick on Alex or you can pick onWesley or Macaulay or any
(14:31):
attorney that can practice forthe VA court.
All of a sudden you want to goto the court, so you look for
your paperwork off and as soonas you file that paper, man,
look out, your mailbox is goingto be flat full I mean flat full
of offers from attorney'soffices from all over the
country wanting your claim orwanting to look at it.
I had seven attorneys officesturn my claim down.
(14:52):
You believe that?
Yeah, seven of them.
One guy took it and it worked.
Now, if you are at the court,you sign a paper and you give to
your attorney and that paper iscalled Equal Act for Justice
Amendment, which means that ifyou win your case, the winning
(15:17):
is you get a decision on award,or the counsel for the VA or
your attorneys get together,they butt heads in a room and
they decide let's send this backto the regional office and have
them do it like this.
That's called remand and sincethey decided together, it's
called a joint motion remand.
That's considered a win at thecourt because they've got to
(15:41):
re-look at it and re-do it.
So that happens, the EHA moneypays your attorney's fees and
you're sitting back going to getyour claim processed.
Next thing you know, you getyour check in the bank and
there's no deduction.
You see what I'm saying.
So if you want to waste a lotof money, go ahead and do that,
(16:02):
because a lot of these peopledon't know.
Duck crap from apple butter.
Ray Cobb (16:10):
Great, lost your volume, ray and kind of get you
go, get down that hamster wheeland start rolling around and
running and running and runningand you're staying in the same
place.
Now the thing that's changed Iguess it was a couple of years
(16:36):
ago.
Now you're in the state ofTennessee I'm sure it's all over
the country.
You're in state tennessee I'msure it's all over the country.
But your county serviceofficers and your regional
service officers can now look atthat vmbs and they can see
where that claim is.
They can see what's going on.
Now.
What they are not allowed to do,if I understand it correctly,
(16:59):
what an agent's allowed to do ispick up the phone and call that
guy and says oh, I would liketo talk with you, if you don't
mind, about such and such a casenumber.
Now the guy can either send himup to his supervisor or he can
say well, what's on your mind?
And then your agent canactually tell him what he thinks
(17:19):
the mistake was made or why itshould be granted, or whatever,
and perhaps the two of them cancome to an agreement.
Yeah, that's exactly what myagent did for me and got it
taken care of in a matter ofabout 45 days.
J Basser (17:39):
Otherwise it could have taken four to five years
where otherwise it could havetaken four to five years.
Didn't you get some kind ofinformation from?
Were you at the board already?
I guess you got a piece ofinformation from the VA that had
the wrong information on it andthere was an exam that had the
wrong exam stuff on it and youwere at your wit's end.
(18:00):
You were fixing to blow a topand well, yeah, I went to.
Ray Cobb (18:04):
Uh, I went to a cmp exam.
I was going for our level r2and they sent the documentation
and the questionnaire that isused for r1 right which is
totally different, and yeah,that's the one that my agent
(18:25):
found was wrong.
Told him what was wrong aboutit.
They sent me that next week foranother CMP, where the right
information was filled out andit was granted in no time like
this.
J Basser (18:41):
You know we've done this for a long time, guys.
Uh, we were in blog talk foryears.
This blog talk, I guess they,uh, I guess they got choked on a
watermelon seed and lost their,lost something.
They're out of business.
So we've had alex scram on theshow many, many times and me and
ray were talking after thatissue and uh, ray's like what do
I do?
And I said alex grant nextthing.
(19:01):
You know, he calls Alex up andboom, he took the football and
ran with it, didn't he Ray?
Ray Cobb (19:08):
he did, and that's going to be the way it is with
most agents.
They're going to ask you tofirst.
They're going to ask you to.
They probably have to ask youto after they talk with you.
J Basser (19:22):
They're going to have to ask you to sign on with them.
Ray Cobb (19:24):
You've got to sign them up.
They've got to turn that indoing away with your previous
representation.
In my case it was the AmericanLegion, so they took the
American Legion off and put AlexGraham in as my contact, and
he's still in there today.
J Basser (19:42):
Well, alex is amazing as far as when it comes to best
monthly compensation.
I want to say Alex Graham isprobably the Bo Jackson of SMC.
Bo knew baseball and Alex knowsSMC.
You know, I mean you had a goodpoint.
If you're stuck in the mud it'slike a football, like Super
(20:03):
Bowl last week.
I mean that poor quarterbackfor the Chiefs.
I mean he got sacked so much.
By the time the game was almostover before they sacked him
they started asking if he wantedpaper or plastic.
Ray Cobb (20:15):
Yeah, so that was the Super Bowls.
J Basser (20:22):
That wasn't one of our best Super Bowls, was it?
Oh my goodness.
Well, I kind of predicted it.
So, you know, I knew thatnobody was giving Philadelphia
any chance.
But you know, and I figured Iknew they had a better team
because of the record.
So, but don't ever play Russianroulette with this stuff, guys,
(20:44):
because you get denied thesepeople, you know they're going
to drop you like a rock thatcan't hold nothing.
You know, get somebodyaccredited to do your stuff.
That way they can put you rightin the appeal process and help
you go to court.
If they don't know, you knowthe situation.
They can recommend, which is agood thing.
But I want to tell you somethingabout a claims agent.
(21:04):
Most people don't reallyunderstand.
If a veteran's got access tothe information and he's got a
good agent, that good agentactually goes through his file
and then he interviews a veteranin order to determine if he's
going to take them on as aclient or not.
And some of these people arevery, very, very thorough, which
(21:26):
the majority of them are,because it's their bread and
butter.
All of a sudden they'restarting to look into your
record and they start seeing A,b, c, d.
You're talking to the guy andhe starts to ask you a bunch of
questions.
All of a sudden you've gotseven more claims you can file
and didn't know about.
Ray Cobb (21:44):
I'm having a hard time hearing you here.
J Basser (21:47):
Turn your volume up.
Ray Cobb (21:47):
Yeah.
J Basser (22:05):
There you go.
Can you hear me now?
Ray Cobb (22:09):
I don't hear you can you hear me now?
J Basser (22:19):
yeah, there you go.
Yeah, yeah, you got bloodlugged.
Ray Cobb (22:23):
Yeah, I'm not sure what happened there.
J Basser (22:27):
But you know, I mean that's the point.
Let's touch on something else.
I mean you guys, I mean, do notunder any circumstances let one
of these claim sharks do yourclaim.
You'll get accredited help.
You know You're protected bylaw and don't sign any contracts
.
The only contract you sign isthe fee agreement and things
(22:50):
like that with your attorney oryour agent and say, for example,
you've got an agent or a VSOthat is not doing their job or
they're too busy and you needmore service than what you're
getting, especially an appeal.
You can switch.
You can go ahead and pick up anagent.
They can do the paperwork foryou and do the change.
It's like changing an insurancecompany.
(23:12):
It's kind of a painless process.
You can do it.
You know VSOs are the same waytoo.
You know there's good VSOs thatknow what they're doing, but if
they're good they usually got aline out the door right around
the building for you to get inRight the busier the restroom,
the better the food is.
You heard that statement.
Ray Cobb (23:31):
I have.
J Basser (23:33):
It's basically the same thing in agents.
Now I want to touch base onmilitarycom.
I got up this morning gettingready to go to the VA.
I started looking at my phone,and I do it every morning.
I got a ritual, a little bit ofcoffee and look at the phone,
look at last night's news.
This thing pops up militarycom,va wants to cut.
(23:55):
I said, oh, I got this article,started reading it.
Of course, militarycom, youknow I always respected it.
Here comes this crazy stuffabout the VA wanting to cut
disabilities that are notdirectly related to service.
That tells me that they want tostart chopping presumptives,
(24:19):
which has a whole lot ofpresumptives and a whole lot of
benefits to service forpresumptives, which has a whole
lot of presumptives and a wholelot of better service.
Next, for presumptiveconditions.
I was going to go into it indetail on the show but after
reading this and spending a dayat the VA and coming home and
talking to a couple of folks anddoing a few things, I went back
to it and looked at it and it'sjust like Houdini it's gone,
(24:41):
g-a-w-n Gone.
Ray Cobb (24:48):
Took it down huh.
J Basser (24:50):
Yes, I don't know if it took it down or what.
Be careful what you read, folks.
If you read something about themilitary star and stripes,
things like that, read that.
You can see the bottom line andthings like that.
You've got to make your ownmind up.
Don't let these people coerceyou either way.
Just pay attention to what'sgoing on in the world and what's
happening.
You know people talking aboutDOACH, which is the Department
(25:15):
of Government Efficiency.
They're going into the VA,right.
What are they doing Right now?
They're doing contracts.
It's like looking atcontractuals and things like
that to make sure the A's notgetting ripped off, which is
something that they've beentalking about.
How they do it is pretty cool.
Mr Muth has got some very, veryintelligent young men.
(25:38):
I don't mean to say veryintelligent.
He's got some stinking geniuses.
One or two of them kind of saygeniuses are autistic.
They know numbers like you'venever seen before Put it in the
present terms and they canfigure stuff up.
They can write some computercode.
They can do some mining datamining which is probably over
(26:00):
everybody's head.
I know it's way over mine and Iknow somebody does it.
They get the information offthere and they can pull it out
and they can find fraud.
So one thing I asked them to dowas to go ahead and look at
veterans and see if a veteran'spaying co-pays or money you know
if he's 100% vet, say, all of asudden your insurance company
(26:20):
sends you EOB, which isexplanation of benefits.
You start seeing a bunch ofcharges from the VA on there on
your insurance company and yousee it for diabetes.
Your service connects fordiabetes.
What's wrong with that, ray?
Ray Cobb (26:34):
Well, if you're service connected, that's what
in 100%, they're not supposed tocharge your insurance companies
.
You know that's against the lawfor service-connected condition.
Now, that's pretty interesting.
You say that because yesterdayI think it was yesterday, let me
(26:54):
think no, it was Monday.
Yeah, no, monday Monday I wentdown to my diabetic clinic and
I'm checking in and of coursewe're a number.
Now, right, they say what'syour last name and your last
form?
So all of a sudden we're anumber.
And then the next question asshe goes down through there, she
says the first thing she asksis you have an updated uh va
(27:19):
medical card?
I handed it to her.
She looked at it, said okay,handed it back to me, which is
states only that are 100% totaland permanent disavailable.
And then she turns.
Then the next thing she says isdo you have your insurance card
?
I said what insurance card?
Well, don't you have SocialSecurity insurance?
And I said no, why not?
(27:39):
I said I don't need itinsurance and I said no, why not
?
I said I don't need it.
I have VA and that's all I need.
So in my case they can't, butthey're wanting to get that
insurance card for that veryreason, so they can bill it.
J Basser (27:54):
VA has not been able to bill Social Security for
years, folks, because that'sagainst the law.
If you've got private insurance, they're going to hammer you
like a nail.
But remember something ifyou've got private insurance,
they're going to hammer you likea nail, but remember something
if you've got insurance and saythe doctor at the VA says you
need a certain medication, andnext thing, you know, your
insurance pays your meds andyou're jumping through hoops.
(28:15):
But the VA comes out with theirlittle pharmacy thing and says
well, we can't approve thismedication, and they do it based
on cost.
I don't care what they say.
Pharmacy thinks is well, wecan't approve this medication,
you know, and they do it basedon cost.
I don't care what they say.
What is your reply back to them?
You better relook at that,folks.
My insurance is paying for thismedication.
It's not a service to thatcondition, right?
(28:37):
So how can they deny you ifthey're getting paid?
for it that's a good questionyeah so, but don't get me wrong,
folks.
I mean I don't have anyanimosity that way.
I'm just, uh, basically upsetthat, uh, every year, insurance
keeps going up and up and up.
I mean to the point where thisfederal blue cross and blue
shield is outrageous and I thinkevery year is going up is
(29:00):
because they're beingovercharged by certain groups
individuals.
That's why it keeps going upand up.
And're being overcharged bycertain groups of individuals.
That's why it keeps going upand up and up.
It needs to be level and theyneed to stop doing that.
You know information and we'retalking I'm just one veteran and
there's other veterans outthere too that have the same
issue and don't even know it.
You know, because they getthose EOBs and they don't know
what they did, they throw themaway or whatever.
(29:21):
You start reading it and I goand look at it every week.
You know it's amazing how muchpharmacy charges for surrogacy
medications and, of course, theinsurance company's hands are
tied, you know.
So they want to save moneyunder this Dole stuff.
It's going to cost them moneyin this situation, but I told
(29:44):
them it needs to work both ways.
Do you agree with that?
Ray Cobb (29:47):
I agree with it 100%.
Yeah, and you probably.
There's probably a lot ofveterans out there that are 60%
or 70% that may still be workingand they'll have insurance
through their company and theyalso go to va because of
(30:09):
military connection andtherefore the va is building
building their insurance company.
Um, and you know, you got toput a little on the insurance
company too.
They look at this and they saywait, wait a minute, this is a
VA, we shouldn't have to pay VA.
J Basser (30:31):
Well, if it's private insurance, they have to, because
the VA doesn't put the codingon there, because the insurance
company doesn't know whatservice connection is, and
that's a problem.
So there should be a codingsystem on there for your
disability and they should havethe coding system in the file.
It should be automatic.
You issue medicine, it goes tothe guy.
Here's the code can't bill.
No code go ahead, all it is ispaperwork in a computer
(30:53):
Keystroke.
It should be automatic and so Imean it's simple to fix.
Only problem is is how manybillions of dollars is out the
window?
Ray Cobb (31:06):
Yeah, how many insurance companies are
overpaying because of thegovernment doing this?
J Basser (31:13):
Yeah, I mean, I'm just you know, I mean it's it hurts.
It only hurts when they raiseyour insurance rates.
Every year you get a 2.5% raiseor whatever it was, and the
insurance goes up 5%.
You know you've lost that 2.5%raise you know what I'm saying
yeah, mm-hmm, that's what it is.
(31:34):
I mean, it's just betweeneating bologna or chopped steak.
Ray Cobb (31:41):
Or maybe a hot dog.
Maybe, a hot dog.
Maybe I should send for anysausage.
J Basser (31:48):
Any sausage.
Well, if you go to Gold StarChili and buy a hot dog, that's
what you're getting, one aboutthe size of one.
No, that's one thing I want toput out there, ray.
I mean you know this claimshark stuff and that stuff and
Doge.
I mean pay attention to what'sgoing on.
A couple words about the VAsecretary, mr Doug Collins.
(32:10):
He seems to be a reasonable guy.
He came out and didn't do adirect response to militarycom
but he said there will be nocuts to veterans and I believe
him.
Oh yeah, and hopefully he fixesthis mess up now inside the v
hospitals the health care partof it, the medical side of it I
(32:33):
have no problem.
That's one of the besttreatment I've ever got, a lot
of good people.
But you get in other avenues,the clerical and or the
administrative part.
Situations like that, likepeople dealing with the
Caregiver Act or the regionaloffice where they do the claims
it doesn't give me that kind ofa comfort feeling.
(32:56):
You know what I mean, ray.
Ray Cobb (32:57):
Well, I do and that's like another area that you and I
have discussed before.
Offline we're just talkingabout things and I know you're
kind of going through it now andI went through it this week
with a couple of dentalappointments.
When I reached into my pocketand spent $55 for a dental
(33:23):
appointment to look at thedentures that the VA gave me and
see if she could adjust them.
She tried to give her thatcredit but she just kind of
shook her head like I don'tthink these can be adjusted.
Then she said but with the onewe could bring it up to date and
(33:50):
add a tooth there where the VAhad it pulled, and then it would
still fit loose.
But if you have some you knowyour denture cream, it'll
probably hold up and work fine.
She said now I don't like theway or the type of dentures they
(34:12):
got for you, because this oneover here that's not fitting and
not doing well is a flexibletype and this other one is a
that you have here is aporcelain and it has no metal in
it.
She says well, if I was going todo your denture, I would do a
(34:36):
combination and I would do put ametal plate from where my eye
tooth is back to the end of myjaw because that's going to help
you chew your food better, tohave a metal plate in there, so
it's not plastic or or porcelaingoing up and down on your gum.
(34:56):
It'd be covered in a softmaterial but it'd have the
stability of metal.
And she said it's a little moreexpensive, but it'd have the
stability of metal.
And she said it's a little moreexpensive but it would serve
you better.
So I'm thinking about that andwe'll just have to wait and see
what I'm going to do.
(35:16):
But I'll probably allow her toadd another tooth to the one I
have and use denture cream.
And one reason is I'm losing alot of weight and I know when
you lose weight your denturesget loose and things like that.
So I think I'm going to waitand see how much weight I
continue to lose before I haveany more teeth.
J Basser (35:38):
If you keep on erasing it, you're going to lose a
whole lot.
I lost almost 100 pounds toraise me.
You're going to lose a wholelot.
I lost close to 100 pounds.
Ray Cobb (35:48):
I started out at 321 and I'm down to 234.
Now I'm getting near close tothat 100 pound mark.
I'm not sure how much I'm goingto continue losing, because I
just don't need as much you're abig dude anyways, man well yeah
(36:10):
, what do you mean big, I meanin high school I was 198 pounds,
a senior and I didn't have asingle ounce of fat on me being
a running back.
J Basser (36:20):
You know how that is how tall are you?
Ray Cobb (36:22):
foot.
I'm right at six foot yeah.
J Basser (36:25):
Okay, You're about the same size as my son big boy.
Ray Cobb (36:30):
You're a big bone man too.
Right, I have a big bone andwhat they call your playing
weight.
My playing weight in collegeshould be between 205 and 225.
Well, if I'm down now to 236,I'm almost down to my playing
weight.
Don't have the muscles makingit up.
(36:51):
I still have too much fatmaking it up, but in any case,
that's going to affect a lot ofmy medical conditions and what I
need over the next upcoming sixmonths.
J Basser (37:05):
Anytime you lose weight like that in situations
you don't really realize it, butevery 50 pounds you take off
it's like taking off a bag ofdog food on your back and it's
easier for you.
But the biggest thing ismobility, and things like that
Say you need to move body partslike that or you do something
(37:26):
else.
Of course you're like me.
You know we've gotten her offthe inner feet, so you know
we're like a couple of drunkmonkeys walking around.
Ray Cobb (37:34):
If we don't have a cane or something to lean on,
we're on the floor but movementand things like that.
J Basser (37:45):
And just I tell you one way that you really notice
it is you go to a restaurant andyou know, say you get out of
your chair and you get in thebooth and sit down.
Usually the table is right onyour stomach and now I know the
table six inches away from thestomach that's exactly correct.
Ray Cobb (37:59):
You're 100 correct.
I noticed that today uh used tothere was this little
restaurant we've been going tofor years if you go on the left
side, the booths are closertogether and was tight.
It was uncomfortable for me tosit there and eat.
Today.
I walked in there and I satdown.
I thought, wow, have theychanged?
(38:20):
No, I've changed, you know.
So I was able to sit therecomfortably and even had my
jacket on when I first went inand sat down.
It's like a wiper.
J Basser (38:33):
You have to have the wiper scoot up, yeah.
Ray Cobb (38:37):
But yeah, and when you get into changes like that, you
see a lot of things.
You know, I am verydisappointed in our dental staff
.
Uh, here at the va I called twodays ago and asked a return
(38:57):
call to schedule an appointmentto have his dentures looked at.
They hadn't called me back yet,that's what you do.
J Basser (39:08):
Go ahead and send them a direct message.
Go ahead and go through.
Guys, you can call the VA ifyou want, but the best way to
contact your VA is go ahead andget on the VAgov and contact
your people through directmessenger.
That way any response you get,or any reply you get, is in
(39:30):
writing.
You know you got to print itoff, you can.
You know you can keep the filesin your records.
You know if you make a phonecall and it's not recorded,
guess what?
Ray Cobb (39:43):
Yeah, they say we never got that call, you never
contacted us.
J Basser (39:49):
It's like the mailman you get the stuff in the mail
from the VA and you neverreceive something.
We sent it to the VA, we sentit to the mail.
Well, the court has held that.
The mail rules.
They say they sent it, you'reout of luck.
Only problem is if they say yousent something to them and they
didn.
They sent it.
You're out of luck.
Only problem is if they say yousent something to them and they
didn't receive it.
You better have a returnreceipt on it, a little green
(40:09):
tag in the mail.
But VAgov does make it a loteasier.
You can upload stuff to the VA.
If you're doing claims andthings like that yourself, you
can upload everything on thewebsite and it tells you when
they get it.
And if you're doing an Appleproduct, like an iPhone or a Mac
, you can pull that up, do ascreenshot of it that says we
(40:30):
received it and print it out.
You might be able to do that onsome of these Windows-based
computers now, but I'd have toget Einstein Jr to show me how
to do it.
Ray Cobb (40:42):
Well, yeah, it's not that hard.
You can pull it off and just goright, click and go down and
hit print, and I did that withthis house resolution bill.
Yeah, so I was able to do that.
It's maybe another step inthere, but it's not that hard.
J Basser (41:01):
Folks, we'll keep you posted on this stuff.
You know Ray's going to followthis pretty hard.
I'll follow some other stuff.
We'll do a show once a monthand just get some updates on
some of this stuff.
We're going to start bringingour agents back on next week.
I think we've pretty much gotit worked out now.
It's the Jay Baxter Exposed,that YouTube channel Exposed.
(41:22):
That's actually the owner ofthe channel and of course Basser
is a name that I used for years.
I used to be part of theHaddock Group and so a lot of
people know who I am.
But now you'll see the face towho's who and we're going to try
to get James Cripps on heremaybe next week and see how
James has been doing, becauseJames has had a rough time here
(41:43):
lately and want to get him backand see, because I think, is he
in town next weekend or is heout?
Ray Cobb (41:49):
He's out.
Matter of fact, I think the USNesters Alliance is having their
winter conference up in PigeonForge up in the Gatlinburg area
this coming weekend.
I think they go in on Sundayand finish it up on Wednesday or
check out on Wednesday.
So he's going to be up in thatarea.
(42:10):
He should be back in town byshowtime on Thursday If you
reach out to him before heleaves and get that scheduled.
That's a good group that guysare.
You know that's a good groupthat guys are.
You can follow his Web page viathe Redneck way and see how that
goes, and you can.
(42:30):
He gives you a lot of goodinstructions on how to file your
own claim and how to work it.
But then also, I think, if Iremember correctly, a three year
membership into into hisorganization is only like $40 or
$42.
And your spouse and you bothcan belong to that.
(42:52):
It doesn't matter where youlive in the country, and you can
send him messages and getresponse.
And if you happen to be downtowards Ashland City Tennessee
area I think they meet on aMonday night, the second Monday
night of each month.
Stop in and say hi to them.
They'd love to have you.
(43:13):
They usually have around 120people at their meetings A good
group, good organization andthey do an awful lot and they do
not charge for any of theirassistance in helping a veteran
win his claim.
J Basser (43:29):
That and all kinds of others have to.
James is actually a remarkableperson To beat the boogers up.
As bad as he is, he gets a lotdone.
He does.
That's it, Guys.
We're going to go ahead andshut her down.
I want to thank everybody forlistening, for watching Ray.
I'll be back next Thursdaynight, 7 o'clock Eastern, 6
o'clock Central time.
This is John, on behalf of theExposed Net Productions, in
(43:54):
cooperation with the Battle forVet Bethany Spangenberg.
We'll be signing off for now.
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another edition of
the Exposed Vet Production Show.
This is the Exposed Vet Show.
Today is the 13th day ofFebruary, tomorrow is
Valentine's Day, so all youveterans out there make sure you
get your wife or yourgirlfriend some flowers.
If not, you might be in trouble.
Coming to co-host today the oneand only Mr Ray Cobb Ray's out
(00:32):
of Winchester, tennessee.
He has a show on WZOX radio onTuesday mornings and he
discusses a lot of veterans'issues and helps a lot of
veterans.
How are you doing, ray?
Ray Cobb (00:45):
I'm doing great.
How are you doing this coldwintry weather we're having?
J Basser (00:51):
I'm about beat to death man.
This is too cold for me.
I've had it.
I'm just about fed up with it.
Ray Cobb (00:55):
When the cold weather and doctor's appointments.
J Basser (00:56):
I don't know if I'm going to make it or not.
Yeah, but we're going todiscuss some crazy stuff today.
I call it crazy and everybodyelse will understand what's
crazy when we get intodiscussing.
But there's an issue thatreally brought to my attention
that the legislature inTennessee, the great state of
(01:16):
Tennessee I just love Tennesseethey have introduced a bill in
their House of Representativesthat allows these claim sharks
to start processing and doingveterans' claims at a cost.
Is that correct, ray?
Ray Cobb (01:33):
Yeah, it's House Bill 342, and that's exactly what it
does.
It's actually giving the rightof veterans the choice of being
able to sign on with one ofthese claim sharks to do or to
anyone.
(01:53):
Now we're calling them claimsharks, but the way this is
written, anybody can do this.
You can do it, I can do it.
Joe Blow down the street whodoesn't know his head from
holding the ground.
There's no written thing inhere that says this individual
has to in any way be a veteranor doesn't have to take any
(02:16):
educational classes or anything.
It just says he, he wants tohelp a veteran, then he can.
He can do this, and I kind ofwrote up some things that I
didn't like about it and sent itto my American Legion
representative and I sent it tomy house, my state
(02:37):
representative, and talked withher about it.
It's not good, guys.
I mean there's no other way tosay it.
What it does, it gives a person, an individual like myself, who
is a veteran, to apply forbenefits and it allows anyone to
(02:59):
participate in preparing thosebenefits.
Participate in preparing thosebenefits.
And it states in here that ifhe does this, if you sign on
with it, it has to be a writtenagreement signed by both parties
.
And then here comes a cletcher.
(03:20):
They can receive up to fivemonths back pay if the veteran
wins his claim.
If the veteran appeals on hisown and goes somewhere else and
he wins his claim, they stillget 5% of his back pay.
I mean five months, excuse me,five months, so that's five
(03:40):
months of back pay.
J Basser (03:42):
Now this five months of how much he'd get every month
.
Yeah, five months of whateverhe gets every month.
Ray Cobb (03:49):
So if he gets $4,000 a month, they get $20,000.
J Basser (03:52):
That's $20,000.
Do they touch his back?
Pay too His retro check.
Ray Cobb (03:59):
That all has to come out of his back pay.
That is what he pays theattorney with.
Whether he pays them, it's upto him.
It's up to the veteran to paythe guy who helps him.
The VA is not going to collectthe money and give it to the guy
.
The veteran has to do it.
This guy also states in herewhat this is.
(04:21):
It's actually a consultantpermission for a guy to hire a
consultant to consult on thematters of his veterans benefits
, disabilities, and he canassist in whatever way needed to
get those benefits.
(04:42):
In other words, what it'ssaying is you go to a guy, you
tell him what you think yourdisability is.
He figures out what you need towin your claim.
He fills out the claim or hefills out an intent to file
whichever and he gets thepaperwork, helps you get the
paperwork together, gives it toyou.
(05:03):
Then you go to the countyservice office or the regional
veterans affairs office or yougo online.
However you choose to do it andsubmit it Right.
So this guy is not submittingit to the VA.
He's not responsible for the VAand he never talks to the VA
responsible for the VA and henever talks to the VA.
J Basser (05:30):
So what do you think?
Personally, I don't see howthey get the information like
that.
To do it, They've got to beable to check the status and
things like that, becausethey're not going to get no from
the VA.
The veteran won.
The veteran's going to have totell them they won.
In order to do that, they needaccess to the veteran's file.
They get access to theveteran's file.
(05:51):
They're not allowed to look atthe veteran's file because any
medical information they look atthe veteran's file would be a
HIPAA violation.
Ray Cobb (05:59):
Well, the only way they can get around that is that
it states in there that theycan't do that, but only if the
veteran gives it to him.
In other words, I can go andget a copy of my medical records
and give it to this guy and saylook through here and see what
I need.
J Basser (06:19):
You can, but you've got to realize too that if a
veteran does something,regardless of what Tennessee
state law says, if they givethem something like a password
or passcode to a federalcomputer system, that's a felony
.
Ray Cobb (06:35):
Yeah, the state's in there.
They cannot do that.
J Basser (06:39):
It's very clearly about that.
Ray Cobb (06:43):
There's a lot of roadblocks too clearly about
that, huh.
So there's a lot of roadblockstoo, yeah, there's a lot of
roadblocks in here, but butbasically what it's saying.
And let's take your youyourself and myself we're
talking to a veteran on thephone and he's telling us what's
wrong and what he, what hewants to apply for and all these
things.
Now he, I, I turn to him and Isay do you have a doctor's
(07:07):
diagnosis?
Oh yeah, my VA doctor said thisand this Okay, would you go
into your VA notes under ID meand would you print off your
doctor's notes and give them tome Now he can do that and it
states in here that basically hecan do that.
(07:30):
And then the guy can look at thenotes and say, oh okay, here
let's highlight this you need tosend this in with a 4138 that
says your doctor said on thisday that you have this medical
condition according to your VAmedical records, because a
veteran gave him those medicalrecords.
J Basser (07:55):
It's kind of.
Ray Cobb (08:02):
Yeah, it's kind of crazy.
J Basser (08:05):
It goes to prove that anytime there's money to be had,
free money kind of crazy itgoes to prove that anytime
there's money to be had, freemoney to these idiots, we're
going to do whatever they haveto do to cheat, lie, cheat, you
know, to get it.
And I'm sure there's somepeople that are humble in ways
like that, and I think the VA initself has actually brought a
lot of this on the VA.
Because of the way they've beendoing things over the years,
(08:28):
Vets have become reallyfrustrated and fed up.
They don't feel that theyshould have to pay a claims aid.
They're like you have to finishyour claims up, which basically
, when push comes to shove, youcan get your county service
officer.
You can get the SO through thestate certain states you can get
the SO through the state.
In certain states you can getassistance to file your initial
claim.
Ray Cobb (08:50):
Your original service office, your original veteran
service office, has agents inthere, usually anywhere between
three at all times, sometimes asmany, as in Nashville, as many
as five or six are sitting attheir cubicles on any given day
or any given time.
J Basser (09:14):
It's one of those folks represent a whole
different genre of people too,you know.
Well, that's true.
Ray Cobb (09:22):
As a regional office.
You can go there seven days aweek.
They have two people onSaturday and one person on
Sunday.
That's good, so you can gothere.
J Basser (09:35):
Those are probably the busiest people in the world,
you reckon.
Ray Cobb (09:39):
They don't have much time to take a breath.
J Basser (09:41):
Okay, folks, if you have an appeal going on, you
need help.
These guys can help you do yourinitial claim but all of a
sudden say you get denied.
Well, let's say, if you're withthe 94% of the people, you're
going to get denied, and it'sall based on interpretation of
the regulations, what the M-21says and how they look at the
(10:03):
M-21 and how the computer putsit in there.
So you're going to need help.
That's the problem Getting thegood, qualified help to
adjudicate the remainder of yourclaim in the appeal process.
In the scope of things I candevout and rake in too, I can
(10:27):
confirm that my 20-some years ofexperience in doing this that
I've seen more veterans wintheir appeals and their
processes even though they haveto wait, unless they're a
certain age that more veteranswin by getting an accredited VA
claims agent who knows whatthey're doing, for example, alex
(10:51):
Grant.
Ray Cobb (10:53):
Yeah, they usually get it in a shorter period of time.
J Basser (10:57):
Yeah, it depends on what your age is.
We're all bound by the mud holethat it's the VA, because there
are times in processing anddoing things like that.
Then all of a sudden Congressjumps in the middle of the mix
and adds something new, like thePACT Act or the Mission Act or
the Step on your Foot Act or theShoot Yourself in the Foot to
(11:20):
Get Up for Hard Act, things likethat.
All of a sudden they get put inthe hands of the lines so
everybody else goes back a step.
You know what I mean.
Ray Cobb (11:28):
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.
That's happened.
J Basser (11:31):
That's happened.
So what I'm saying is, ifyou're 75 years old and you're
at the appeal process, you canget an advancement on the docket
to get a judge to look at yourclaim quicker, because I know a
guy that did it just there a fewdays ago, a few months ago, and
you're looking at it.
Well, yeah, you're looking athim.
I started to say you couldn'tsee, but I guess you can now.
Ray Cobb (11:52):
Yeah, I think we both got advanced on that Dr.
J Basser (11:54):
Yeah, here's the deal.
If you're going to spend money,you need to find one of these
claims agents.
There's over 300 of them nowand there's people who pass the
test.
Every time they give it theyhave to take a very stringent
test with several hundredquestions.
In order to pass, they have togo through a background check
(12:19):
for their abilities and makesure that they're good people.
It's like getting a securityclearance.
You've got to go through thechecks, make sure you're not a
felon and things like that.
Make sure you know what to dowith the money and information.
You cannot be giving people'sinformation out and things like
that.
You've got to cover your bases.
But you go to one of theseagents Clark Sharks and you sign
(12:40):
up with them.
They want to know what statusyour claim is.
Then they're going to say well,here, let me see, here Can you
get into e-benefits?
Let me take a look at it, seewhat you got.
Guess what they're saying thesame stuff we are.
But the most important thing isthe accreditation process.
You become an agent in a systemcalled Veterans Benefit
(13:01):
Management System, or VBMS.
Called Veterans BenefitManagement System or VBMS, the
claims agents and the accreditedattorneys or non-practitioner
attorney agents like Alex Grahamor Wes McCauley.
People like that.
They look at this and they popin the screen.
They see the whole thing inreal time.
(13:22):
They know where you're at.
And the problem is if you get itthat far in appeal.
If you're at the BBA, they cansee where it's at.
If you're at a high-levelreview, they can see where it's
at.
If they're at the supplementallane, it's a little bit harder
to see that one.
They kind of keep that away.
Because I'm a veteran, raised aveteran.
(13:44):
We cannot look on the computer.
It'll show us the claim in asupplemental lane.
That's all it's going to showus.
It's not going to show you anymovement.
It's kind of like constipationnation.
You ever seen that Ray?
Yeah, absolutely.
So my best advice, guys, isfind you an agent or something
like that.
Do not Don't ever give fivemonths of your back pay away of
(14:08):
your e-mail.
Now, if you go from 40% to 100%, that's a lot of money you're
paying.
Go somewhere where, if you win,it comes out of your retro.
Okay, one good thing about thatsay you make it all the way to
the BVA and the judge doesn't goin your favor, then you can
pick on Alex or you can pick onWesley or Macaulay or any
(14:31):
attorney that can practice forthe VA court.
All of a sudden you want to goto the court, so you look for
your paperwork off and as soonas you file that paper, man,
look out, your mailbox is goingto be flat full I mean flat full
of offers from attorney'soffices from all over the
country wanting your claim orwanting to look at it.
I had seven attorneys officesturn my claim down.
(14:52):
You believe that?
Yeah, seven of them.
One guy took it and it worked.
Now, if you are at the court,you sign a paper and you give to
your attorney and that paper iscalled Equal Act for Justice
Amendment, which means that ifyou win your case, the winning
(15:17):
is you get a decision on award,or the counsel for the VA or
your attorneys get together,they butt heads in a room and
they decide let's send this backto the regional office and have
them do it like this.
That's called remand and sincethey decided together, it's
called a joint motion remand.
That's considered a win at thecourt because they've got to
(15:41):
re-look at it and re-do it.
So that happens, the EHA moneypays your attorney's fees and
you're sitting back going to getyour claim processed.
Next thing you know, you getyour check in the bank and
there's no deduction.
You see what I'm saying.
So if you want to waste a lotof money, go ahead and do that,
(16:02):
because a lot of these peopledon't know.
Duck crap from apple butter.
Ray Cobb (16:10):
Great, lost your volume, ray and kind of get you
go, get down that hamster wheeland start rolling around and
running and running and runningand you're staying in the same
place.
Now the thing that's changed Iguess it was a couple of years
(16:36):
ago.
Now you're in the state ofTennessee I'm sure it's all over
the country.
You're in state tennessee I'msure it's all over the country.
But your county serviceofficers and your regional
service officers can now look atthat vmbs and they can see
where that claim is.
They can see what's going on.
Now.
What they are not allowed to do,if I understand it correctly,
(16:59):
what an agent's allowed to do ispick up the phone and call that
guy and says oh, I would liketo talk with you, if you don't
mind, about such and such a casenumber.
Now the guy can either send himup to his supervisor or he can
say well, what's on your mind?
And then your agent canactually tell him what he thinks
(17:19):
the mistake was made or why itshould be granted, or whatever,
and perhaps the two of them cancome to an agreement.
Yeah, that's exactly what myagent did for me and got it
taken care of in a matter ofabout 45 days.
J Basser (17:39):
Otherwise it could have taken four to five years
where otherwise it could havetaken four to five years.
Didn't you get some kind ofinformation from?
Were you at the board already?
I guess you got a piece ofinformation from the VA that had
the wrong information on it andthere was an exam that had the
wrong exam stuff on it and youwere at your wit's end.
(18:00):
You were fixing to blow a topand well, yeah, I went to.
Ray Cobb (18:04):
Uh, I went to a cmp exam.
I was going for our level r2and they sent the documentation
and the questionnaire that isused for r1 right which is
totally different, and yeah,that's the one that my agent
(18:25):
found was wrong.
Told him what was wrong aboutit.
They sent me that next week foranother CMP, where the right
information was filled out andit was granted in no time like
this.
J Basser (18:41):
You know we've done this for a long time, guys.
Uh, we were in blog talk foryears.
This blog talk, I guess they,uh, I guess they got choked on a
watermelon seed and lost their,lost something.
They're out of business.
So we've had alex scram on theshow many, many times and me and
ray were talking after thatissue and uh, ray's like what do
I do?
And I said alex grant nextthing.
(19:01):
You know, he calls Alex up andboom, he took the football and
ran with it, didn't he Ray?
Ray Cobb (19:08):
he did, and that's going to be the way it is with
most agents.
They're going to ask you tofirst.
They're going to ask you to.
They probably have to ask youto after they talk with you.
J Basser (19:22):
They're going to have to ask you to sign on with them.
Ray Cobb (19:24):
You've got to sign them up.
They've got to turn that indoing away with your previous
representation.
In my case it was the AmericanLegion, so they took the
American Legion off and put AlexGraham in as my contact, and
he's still in there today.
J Basser (19:42):
Well, alex is amazing as far as when it comes to best
monthly compensation.
I want to say Alex Graham isprobably the Bo Jackson of SMC.
Bo knew baseball and Alex knowsSMC.
You know, I mean you had a goodpoint.
If you're stuck in the mud it'slike a football, like Super
(20:03):
Bowl last week.
I mean that poor quarterbackfor the Chiefs.
I mean he got sacked so much.
By the time the game was almostover before they sacked him
they started asking if he wantedpaper or plastic.
Ray Cobb (20:15):
Yeah, so that was the Super Bowls.
J Basser (20:22):
That wasn't one of our best Super Bowls, was it?
Oh my goodness.
Well, I kind of predicted it.
So, you know, I knew thatnobody was giving Philadelphia
any chance.
But you know, and I figured Iknew they had a better team
because of the record.
So, but don't ever play Russianroulette with this stuff, guys,
(20:44):
because you get denied thesepeople, you know they're going
to drop you like a rock thatcan't hold nothing.
You know, get somebodyaccredited to do your stuff.
That way they can put you rightin the appeal process and help
you go to court.
If they don't know, you knowthe situation.
They can recommend, which is agood thing.
But I want to tell you somethingabout a claims agent.
(21:04):
Most people don't reallyunderstand.
If a veteran's got access tothe information and he's got a
good agent, that good agentactually goes through his file
and then he interviews a veteranin order to determine if he's
going to take them on as aclient or not.
And some of these people arevery, very, very thorough, which
(21:26):
the majority of them are,because it's their bread and
butter.
All of a sudden they'restarting to look into your
record and they start seeing A,b, c, d.
You're talking to the guy andhe starts to ask you a bunch of
questions.
All of a sudden you've gotseven more claims you can file
and didn't know about.
Ray Cobb (21:44):
I'm having a hard time hearing you here.
J Basser (21:47):
Turn your volume up.
Ray Cobb (21:47):
Yeah.
J Basser (22:05):
There you go.
Can you hear me now?
Ray Cobb (22:09):
I don't hear you can you hear me now?
J Basser (22:19):
yeah, there you go.
Yeah, yeah, you got bloodlugged.
Ray Cobb (22:23):
Yeah, I'm not sure what happened there.
J Basser (22:27):
But you know, I mean that's the point.
Let's touch on something else.
I mean you guys, I mean, do notunder any circumstances let one
of these claim sharks do yourclaim.
You'll get accredited help.
You know You're protected bylaw and don't sign any contracts
.
The only contract you sign isthe fee agreement and things
(22:50):
like that with your attorney oryour agent and say, for example,
you've got an agent or a VSOthat is not doing their job or
they're too busy and you needmore service than what you're
getting, especially an appeal.
You can switch.
You can go ahead and pick up anagent.
They can do the paperwork foryou and do the change.
It's like changing an insurancecompany.
(23:12):
It's kind of a painless process.
You can do it.
You know VSOs are the same waytoo.
You know there's good VSOs thatknow what they're doing, but if
they're good they usually got aline out the door right around
the building for you to get inRight the busier the restroom,
the better the food is.
You heard that statement.
Ray Cobb (23:31):
I have.
J Basser (23:33):
It's basically the same thing in agents.
Now I want to touch base onmilitarycom.
I got up this morning gettingready to go to the VA.
I started looking at my phone,and I do it every morning.
I got a ritual, a little bit ofcoffee and look at the phone,
look at last night's news.
This thing pops up militarycom,va wants to cut.
(23:55):
I said, oh, I got this article,started reading it.
Of course, militarycom, youknow I always respected it.
Here comes this crazy stuffabout the VA wanting to cut
disabilities that are notdirectly related to service.
That tells me that they want tostart chopping presumptives,
(24:19):
which has a whole lot ofpresumptives and a whole lot of
benefits to service forpresumptives, which has a whole
lot of presumptives and a wholelot of better service.
Next, for presumptiveconditions.
I was going to go into it indetail on the show but after
reading this and spending a dayat the VA and coming home and
talking to a couple of folks anddoing a few things, I went back
to it and looked at it and it'sjust like Houdini it's gone,
(24:41):
g-a-w-n Gone.
Ray Cobb (24:48):
Took it down huh.
J Basser (24:50):
Yes, I don't know if it took it down or what.
Be careful what you read, folks.
If you read something about themilitary star and stripes,
things like that, read that.
You can see the bottom line andthings like that.
You've got to make your ownmind up.
Don't let these people coerceyou either way.
Just pay attention to what'sgoing on in the world and what's
happening.
You know people talking aboutDOACH, which is the Department
(25:15):
of Government Efficiency.
They're going into the VA,right.
What are they doing Right now?
They're doing contracts.
It's like looking atcontractuals and things like
that to make sure the A's notgetting ripped off, which is
something that they've beentalking about.
How they do it is pretty cool.
Mr Muth has got some very, veryintelligent young men.
(25:38):
I don't mean to say veryintelligent.
He's got some stinking geniuses.
One or two of them kind of saygeniuses are autistic.
They know numbers like you'venever seen before Put it in the
present terms and they canfigure stuff up.
They can write some computercode.
They can do some mining datamining which is probably over
(26:00):
everybody's head.
I know it's way over mine and Iknow somebody does it.
They get the information offthere and they can pull it out
and they can find fraud.
So one thing I asked them to dowas to go ahead and look at
veterans and see if a veteran'spaying co-pays or money you know
if he's 100% vet, say, all of asudden your insurance company
(26:20):
sends you EOB, which isexplanation of benefits.
You start seeing a bunch ofcharges from the VA on there on
your insurance company and yousee it for diabetes.
Your service connects fordiabetes.
What's wrong with that, ray?
Ray Cobb (26:34):
Well, if you're service connected, that's what
in 100%, they're not supposed tocharge your insurance companies
.
You know that's against the lawfor service-connected condition.
Now, that's pretty interesting.
You say that because yesterdayI think it was yesterday, let me
(26:54):
think no, it was Monday.
Yeah, no, monday Monday I wentdown to my diabetic clinic and
I'm checking in and of coursewe're a number.
Now, right, they say what'syour last name and your last
form?
So all of a sudden we're anumber.
And then the next question asshe goes down through there, she
says the first thing she asksis you have an updated uh va
(27:19):
medical card?
I handed it to her.
She looked at it, said okay,handed it back to me, which is
states only that are 100% totaland permanent disavailable.
And then she turns.
Then the next thing she says isdo you have your insurance card
?
I said what insurance card?
Well, don't you have SocialSecurity insurance?
And I said no, why not?
(27:39):
I said I don't need itinsurance and I said no, why not
?
I said I don't need it.
I have VA and that's all I need.
So in my case they can't, butthey're wanting to get that
insurance card for that veryreason, so they can bill it.
J Basser (27:54):
VA has not been able to bill Social Security for
years, folks, because that'sagainst the law.
If you've got private insurance, they're going to hammer you
like a nail.
But remember something ifyou've got private insurance,
they're going to hammer you likea nail, but remember something
if you've got insurance and saythe doctor at the VA says you
need a certain medication, andnext thing, you know, your
insurance pays your meds andyou're jumping through hoops.
(28:15):
But the VA comes out with theirlittle pharmacy thing and says
well, we can't approve thismedication, and they do it based
on cost.
I don't care what they say.
Pharmacy thinks is well, wecan't approve this medication,
you know, and they do it basedon cost.
I don't care what they say.
What is your reply back to them?
You better relook at that,folks.
My insurance is paying for thismedication.
It's not a service to thatcondition, right?
(28:37):
So how can they deny you ifthey're getting paid?
for it that's a good questionyeah so, but don't get me wrong,
folks.
I mean I don't have anyanimosity that way.
I'm just, uh, basically upsetthat, uh, every year, insurance
keeps going up and up and up.
I mean to the point where thisfederal blue cross and blue
shield is outrageous and I thinkevery year is going up is
(29:00):
because they're beingovercharged by certain groups
individuals.
That's why it keeps going upand up.
And're being overcharged bycertain groups of individuals.
That's why it keeps going upand up and up.
It needs to be level and theyneed to stop doing that.
You know information and we'retalking I'm just one veteran and
there's other veterans outthere too that have the same
issue and don't even know it.
You know, because they getthose EOBs and they don't know
what they did, they throw themaway or whatever.
(29:21):
You start reading it and I goand look at it every week.
You know it's amazing how muchpharmacy charges for surrogacy
medications and, of course, theinsurance company's hands are
tied, you know.
So they want to save moneyunder this Dole stuff.
It's going to cost them moneyin this situation, but I told
(29:44):
them it needs to work both ways.
Do you agree with that?
Ray Cobb (29:47):
I agree with it 100%.
Yeah, and you probably.
There's probably a lot ofveterans out there that are 60%
or 70% that may still be workingand they'll have insurance
through their company and theyalso go to va because of
(30:09):
military connection andtherefore the va is building
building their insurance company.
Um, and you know, you got toput a little on the insurance
company too.
They look at this and they saywait, wait a minute, this is a
VA, we shouldn't have to pay VA.
J Basser (30:31):
Well, if it's private insurance, they have to, because
the VA doesn't put the codingon there, because the insurance
company doesn't know whatservice connection is, and
that's a problem.
So there should be a codingsystem on there for your
disability and they should havethe coding system in the file.
It should be automatic.
You issue medicine, it goes tothe guy.
Here's the code can't bill.
No code go ahead, all it is ispaperwork in a computer
(30:53):
Keystroke.
It should be automatic and so Imean it's simple to fix.
Only problem is is how manybillions of dollars is out the
window?
Ray Cobb (31:06):
Yeah, how many insurance companies are
overpaying because of thegovernment doing this?
J Basser (31:13):
Yeah, I mean, I'm just you know, I mean it's it hurts.
It only hurts when they raiseyour insurance rates.
Every year you get a 2.5% raiseor whatever it was, and the
insurance goes up 5%.
You know you've lost that 2.5%raise you know what I'm saying
yeah, mm-hmm, that's what it is.
(31:34):
I mean, it's just betweeneating bologna or chopped steak.
Ray Cobb (31:41):
Or maybe a hot dog.
Maybe, a hot dog.
Maybe I should send for anysausage.
J Basser (31:48):
Any sausage.
Well, if you go to Gold StarChili and buy a hot dog, that's
what you're getting, one aboutthe size of one.
No, that's one thing I want toput out there, ray.
I mean you know this claimshark stuff and that stuff and
Doge.
I mean pay attention to what'sgoing on.
A couple words about the VAsecretary, mr Doug Collins.
(32:10):
He seems to be a reasonable guy.
He came out and didn't do adirect response to militarycom
but he said there will be nocuts to veterans and I believe
him.
Oh yeah, and hopefully he fixesthis mess up now inside the v
hospitals the health care partof it, the medical side of it I
(32:33):
have no problem.
That's one of the besttreatment I've ever got, a lot
of good people.
But you get in other avenues,the clerical and or the
administrative part.
Situations like that, likepeople dealing with the
Caregiver Act or the regionaloffice where they do the claims
it doesn't give me that kind ofa comfort feeling.
(32:56):
You know what I mean, ray.
Ray Cobb (32:57):
Well, I do and that's like another area that you and I
have discussed before.
Offline we're just talkingabout things and I know you're
kind of going through it now andI went through it this week
with a couple of dentalappointments.
When I reached into my pocketand spent $55 for a dental
(33:23):
appointment to look at thedentures that the VA gave me and
see if she could adjust them.
She tried to give her thatcredit but she just kind of
shook her head like I don'tthink these can be adjusted.
Then she said but with the onewe could bring it up to date and
(33:50):
add a tooth there where the VAhad it pulled, and then it would
still fit loose.
But if you have some you knowyour denture cream, it'll
probably hold up and work fine.
She said now I don't like theway or the type of dentures they
(34:12):
got for you, because this oneover here that's not fitting and
not doing well is a flexibletype and this other one is a
that you have here is aporcelain and it has no metal in
it.
She says well, if I was going todo your denture, I would do a
(34:36):
combination and I would do put ametal plate from where my eye
tooth is back to the end of myjaw because that's going to help
you chew your food better, tohave a metal plate in there, so
it's not plastic or or porcelaingoing up and down on your gum.
(34:56):
It'd be covered in a softmaterial but it'd have the
stability of metal.
And she said it's a little moreexpensive, but it'd have the
stability of metal.
And she said it's a little moreexpensive but it would serve
you better.
So I'm thinking about that andwe'll just have to wait and see
what I'm going to do.
(35:16):
But I'll probably allow her toadd another tooth to the one I
have and use denture cream.
And one reason is I'm losing alot of weight and I know when
you lose weight your denturesget loose and things like that.
So I think I'm going to waitand see how much weight I
continue to lose before I haveany more teeth.
J Basser (35:38):
If you keep on erasing it, you're going to lose a
whole lot.
I lost almost 100 pounds toraise me.
You're going to lose a wholelot.
I lost close to 100 pounds.
Ray Cobb (35:48):
I started out at 321 and I'm down to 234.
Now I'm getting near close tothat 100 pound mark.
I'm not sure how much I'm goingto continue losing, because I
just don't need as much you're abig dude anyways, man well yeah
(36:10):
, what do you mean big, I meanin high school I was 198 pounds,
a senior and I didn't have asingle ounce of fat on me being
a running back.
J Basser (36:20):
You know how that is how tall are you?
Ray Cobb (36:22):
foot.
I'm right at six foot yeah.
J Basser (36:25):
Okay, You're about the same size as my son big boy.
Ray Cobb (36:30):
You're a big bone man too.
Right, I have a big bone andwhat they call your playing
weight.
My playing weight in collegeshould be between 205 and 225.
Well, if I'm down now to 236,I'm almost down to my playing
weight.
Don't have the muscles makingit up.
(36:51):
I still have too much fatmaking it up, but in any case,
that's going to affect a lot ofmy medical conditions and what I
need over the next upcoming sixmonths.
J Basser (37:05):
Anytime you lose weight like that in situations
you don't really realize it, butevery 50 pounds you take off
it's like taking off a bag ofdog food on your back and it's
easier for you.
But the biggest thing ismobility, and things like that
Say you need to move body partslike that or you do something
(37:26):
else.
Of course you're like me.
You know we've gotten her offthe inner feet, so you know
we're like a couple of drunkmonkeys walking around.
Ray Cobb (37:34):
If we don't have a cane or something to lean on,
we're on the floor but movementand things like that.
J Basser (37:45):
And just I tell you one way that you really notice
it is you go to a restaurant andyou know, say you get out of
your chair and you get in thebooth and sit down.
Usually the table is right onyour stomach and now I know the
table six inches away from thestomach that's exactly correct.
Ray Cobb (37:59):
You're 100 correct.
I noticed that today uh used tothere was this little
restaurant we've been going tofor years if you go on the left
side, the booths are closertogether and was tight.
It was uncomfortable for me tosit there and eat.
Today.
I walked in there and I satdown.
I thought, wow, have theychanged?
(38:20):
No, I've changed, you know.
So I was able to sit therecomfortably and even had my
jacket on when I first went inand sat down.
It's like a wiper.
J Basser (38:33):
You have to have the wiper scoot up, yeah.
Ray Cobb (38:37):
But yeah, and when you get into changes like that, you
see a lot of things.
You know, I am verydisappointed in our dental staff
.
Uh, here at the va I called twodays ago and asked a return
(38:57):
call to schedule an appointmentto have his dentures looked at.
They hadn't called me back yet,that's what you do.
J Basser (39:08):
Go ahead and send them a direct message.
Go ahead and go through.
Guys, you can call the VA ifyou want, but the best way to
contact your VA is go ahead andget on the VAgov and contact
your people through directmessenger.
That way any response you get,or any reply you get, is in
(39:30):
writing.
You know you got to print itoff, you can.
You know you can keep the filesin your records.
You know if you make a phonecall and it's not recorded,
guess what?
Ray Cobb (39:43):
Yeah, they say we never got that call, you never
contacted us.
J Basser (39:49):
It's like the mailman you get the stuff in the mail
from the VA and you neverreceive something.
We sent it to the VA, we sentit to the mail.
Well, the court has held that.
The mail rules.
They say they sent it, you'reout of luck.
Only problem is if they say yousent something to them and they
didn.
They sent it.
You're out of luck.
Only problem is if they say yousent something to them and they
didn't receive it.
You better have a returnreceipt on it, a little green
(40:09):
tag in the mail.
But VAgov does make it a loteasier.
You can upload stuff to the VA.
If you're doing claims andthings like that yourself, you
can upload everything on thewebsite and it tells you when
they get it.
And if you're doing an Appleproduct, like an iPhone or a Mac
, you can pull that up, do ascreenshot of it that says we
(40:30):
received it and print it out.
You might be able to do that onsome of these Windows-based
computers now, but I'd have toget Einstein Jr to show me how
to do it.
Ray Cobb (40:42):
Well, yeah, it's not that hard.
You can pull it off and just goright, click and go down and
hit print, and I did that withthis house resolution bill.
Yeah, so I was able to do that.
It's maybe another step inthere, but it's not that hard.
J Basser (41:01):
Folks, we'll keep you posted on this stuff.
You know Ray's going to followthis pretty hard.
I'll follow some other stuff.
We'll do a show once a monthand just get some updates on
some of this stuff.
We're going to start bringingour agents back on next week.
I think we've pretty much gotit worked out now.
It's the Jay Baxter Exposed,that YouTube channel Exposed.
(41:22):
That's actually the owner ofthe channel and of course Basser
is a name that I used for years.
I used to be part of theHaddock Group and so a lot of
people know who I am.
But now you'll see the face towho's who and we're going to try
to get James Cripps on heremaybe next week and see how
James has been doing, becauseJames has had a rough time here
(41:43):
lately and want to get him backand see, because I think, is he
in town next weekend or is heout?
Ray Cobb (41:49):
He's out.
Matter of fact, I think the USNesters Alliance is having their
winter conference up in PigeonForge up in the Gatlinburg area
this coming weekend.
I think they go in on Sundayand finish it up on Wednesday or
check out on Wednesday.
So he's going to be up in thatarea.
(42:10):
He should be back in town byshowtime on Thursday If you
reach out to him before heleaves and get that scheduled.
That's a good group that guysare.
You know that's a good groupthat guys are.
You can follow his Web page viathe Redneck way and see how that
goes, and you can.
(42:30):
He gives you a lot of goodinstructions on how to file your
own claim and how to work it.
But then also, I think, if Iremember correctly, a three year
membership into into hisorganization is only like $40 or
$42.
And your spouse and you bothcan belong to that.
(42:52):
It doesn't matter where youlive in the country, and you can
send him messages and getresponse.
And if you happen to be downtowards Ashland City Tennessee
area I think they meet on aMonday night, the second Monday
night of each month.
Stop in and say hi to them.
They'd love to have you.
(43:13):
They usually have around 120people at their meetings A good
group, good organization andthey do an awful lot and they do
not charge for any of theirassistance in helping a veteran
win his claim.
J Basser (43:29):
That and all kinds of others have to.
James is actually a remarkableperson To beat the boogers up.
As bad as he is, he gets a lotdone.
He does.
That's it, Guys.
We're going to go ahead andshut her down.
I want to thank everybody forlistening, for watching Ray.
I'll be back next Thursdaynight, 7 o'clock Eastern, 6
o'clock Central time.
This is John, on behalf of theExposed Net Productions, in
(43:54):
cooperation with the Battle forVet Bethany Spangenberg.
We'll be signing off for now.
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