News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cumberland County Veterans Services Office now requires appointments Monday through Friday.
Veterans Service Officer James Dignan said the office allowed walk-ins throughout the week on a first come first-serve basis. Dignan said scheduling changes during COVID created a backlog and the PACT act and VA initiatives had greatly increased applications for entitlement. He said the new scheduling has increased veterans served.
“We’ve just increased to 28 appointment slots per week,” Dignan said. “And then also answering a request from community veterans to have a walk-in service. To where some of them can’t schedule things, they just want to be able to swing by and get in and wait in line.”
Dignan said they had made Friday and walk-in day. He said they also have added a case review component to Fridays so when they are not seeing a walk-in they are reviewing cases to stay on track.
Dignan said with the increased demand for appointments, they are still out through October with scheduling. He said when a client reaches out to the office, he immediately puts them in with an intent-to-file.
“Let’s do an example where you reach out to me July 1 and we schedule you for an appointment in October,” Dignan said. “Well everything you were to claim in October would go back to the July 1 date.”
Dignan said there is some other administrative background they have to take care of with the veteran. But he said that once the intent-to-file is submitted with the VA, it is a placeholder.
Dignan also said the Friday walk-in days are really for triage and quick case check-ups. Dignan said if you got a letter from the VA that you want to follow up on, Friday is a good day for that.
“New cases are on a schedule basis,” Dignan said. “So if you’re going to generate a new claim or a new case, then I would ask that you call and we do a scheduled appointment to where we can sit down and give the dedicated time.”
