I receive VA disability for a knee injury and back issue incurred over a thirteen year military career. These ailments and VA disability have been fully divulged to the FAA and I currently hold a 1st Class medical. My legacy carrier employer's concern starts and stops with my ability to hold and maintain a 1st Class medical.

I see your point, but i would have to cross that bridge if i ever got there. Don't ask me questions, i will tell no lies.

The FAA gained legal access to VA medical records in 2011.

And when the FAA gained legal access to VA medical records in 2011,
do you know how they got it? They did a 'study' in 2007 and compared VA medical records to FAA medical applications of a small pool of pilots in N. CA and prosecuted every single one of them who did not divulge their VA medical claims issues for falsifying the medical application - few, had real medical issues and most of those were cleared with simple follow-ups and additional information. But they used this study when they went to congress to show their 'need' for access.

To my knowledge, they have not done anything with this access but verify positive responses...yet.

so i will open my big mouth - we (society) are now meting out way too much disability ... we cant have our cake and eat it too. Disability used to mean one thing and it was not partial or varying degrees of same.

I believe that was the social security disability system, not the VA. But there's nothing in principle which prevents them from doing the same for VA when they decide to.

Yep. Talk about entitlements. This has got to be one of the biggest welfare scams out there.

I was at a car show recently when an older gentleman in an Air Force ball cap struck up a conversation about my car. I asked him about his service and told him I did six years of active duty. With that said, his first words were, " do you have a disability?" I was perplexed, didn't know what to say. He said, "it's really a good deal, you should claim hearing loss or something." I was trying to be nice and said, well that was 22 yrs. ago when I got out. He said, oh you should still file a claim, it's worth x amount per month. I can only imagine how many healthy, productive members of society are getting these checks each month.

The high profile ones where guys went to prison was SSDI fraud. This was a smaller one & perhaps my use of 'prosecute' was a bit inflammatory - they suspended certificates and other things within their purview, but I don't think anyone went to prison - it was just a side bar in the study anyway. I'll see if I can dig up the study - I thought I had it bookmarked, but can't seem to find it right now.

The bottom line is the FAA petitioned congress for unfettered access to VA medical records in the interest of air safety and used this study to gain it. They were granted access in the summer of '11.

Obamacare has sort of exacerbated the issue with the requirement for online sharing of all medical records. Still waiting to see how that shakes out, but the one thing we can all count on is we won't be able to go to one doctor for one thing and another doctor for another thing and not have each one know about the other visit anymore...regardless of our reasons.

^^^ This

That's the real issue at hand here. The FAA could care less about whether you are collecting disability, nor how much, either percentage or dollar amount. What they do care about is WHY you are collecting disability.

BL: Regardless of your views on government oversight, if you are collecting disability for a documented medical issue, that same issue had better be documented when you go in for your Class 1. There is a tremendous amount of information out there on what conditions are disqualifying for a Class 1, what the process is to get a Special Issuance or SODA. The FAA will know what you have documented, so to avoid getting caught in the crossfire, document it yourself as required, get the SI or SODA IF REQUIRED, and go on with your career. Even not documenting something minor that doesn't affect your Class 1 eligibility can still get you in a LOT of trouble for failure to report it, even tho the doc would just go "noted."

Droopy

11,000,000 million peeps on disability!!

NJ Spent $23M on Unemployment and Other Benefits for Jailbirds // like i said CANDY