VA attempts to crack down on predatory fees related to filing veterans’ claims

Erica Fernandez joined the Navy In 2019. She eventually became a parachute rigger. The work was physical and demanding.

She ended up on the crew of the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, but a series of ailments began piling up.

“I have melanoma in my right eye, going blind in it,” she said. “I'm also going deaf in my right ear, and I have deteriorating discs in my lower back, and many other medical conditions. So when I didn't pass my last physical, they went ahead and discharged me.”

At 26 years old, she was medically separated from the Navy and applying for disability benefits through the Veteran Benefits Administration.

Fernandez has binders full of medical records that take up her couch in Portsmouth which helped her prove that some of her disabilities were service-connected.

“When I first got out, I immediately went ahead and put in my claim,” she said. “No waiting at all. It was almost instant. And I looked at the claim, I was reading it more and more in fine print, and I realized I didn't have half of my disability on there.”

She lost her appeal to add additional disabilities to her claim. Initial denials are not uncommon in the VA system but the delay put tremendous stress on the limited income of Fernandez and her spouse.

“I gave up. I completely gave up,” she said.”We gave up to the point where we sat here for roughly, I want to say, a year with a $1,500 a month income. We were losing our house, we were losing our car.”

Fernandez said she got a call from a company that said they were run by veterans and they would help with her appeal.