Imo & Dr Bash

[tmoe]

Hello everyone, just wanted to share something I learn about Dr Bash today i got a call from him about I need an medical

opinion to help establish an early effective date of IU and that he can help with this for a lot less than the what the attorney

is charging if we win about 45 grand different. He even said he & his assistant would represent me at hearing & BVA if necessary no

extra charge. He is really a nice guy my first time speaking with him took about an hour. He says I don't need a lawyer he will help me

with everything the IMO & be at hearing he and his assistant must be an advocate. I have read good and bad but I was impress with

him he also email me some of his opinions he has written looks good. Question? for those who have use him were you satisfied with his

work & do you think he can help me ?. One more can you drop an attorney and will you have to pay him anything? Thanks a lot

[rpowell01]

tonio I am not questioning Dr. Bash's ability on doing the IMOs. I am just wondering why I see different people in this topic who were charged differently than I was or how they were each charged differently. So my question was how does he come up with a fee whenever he hasn't even looked at the claim and records but tells you over the phone the fee? Like somebody said organization is a must when dealing with this much $$$$....Hope you understand what I am asking. Its a simple question.

Edited June 6, 2013 by rpowell01

[Berta]

In my case, I emailed Dr. Bash with a brief rendition of my most probative evidence for my AO DMII death claim.

I did tell him, the VA never diagnosed or treated my husband for DMII but I also had their admission of other malpractice ,due to a FTCA award.

He emailed back..words to the affect.....'.if you have what you say you have,this is a good case.'

I cant recall if I called him or maybe he called me and we discussed further what I had as evidence to prove the DMII. I had taken lots of time to properly word this claim and prepare the evidence.

By then, as well, I also had a pretty good medical background on heart disease and diabetes mellitus, to discuss this claim with him (thanks to the VA...they turn us into lay doctors sometimes.....when we have to medically research the med recs and our claims ourselves.

On the phone I told him also of an email response I had from a former VA doctor who had treated Rod. He loved it as it could corroborate his IMO.

I didnt tell him finding that doctor took a long time, first I had spelled his name wrong when I googled him, and then I finally found him in private Neuro practice in another state., and that the initial blood chem records in my husband's VA recs had been cut off when they copied them, and he had emailed me for a better copy prior to sending me the corroborating email.

I had one heck of a time getting a better copy of one specific blood chem report from the VA.

My point here is he told me right away this IMO would be 2 thousand.

His other IMO was 2 thousand as well.

I had done significant legwork to prepare a DMII AO claim regarding my husband's death, that I felt could have stood on the merits of my evidence alone.

But I also wanted to be sure I had a strong IMO as well.

Also Dr. Bash did not need to address the veteran's SMRs at all. When an IMO Doc needs to gpo through SMRS (and many of them are difficult to read) to establish an inservice nexus....and I used to go through SMRs for local vet's claim....this can be VERY time consuming work, and without the nexus, in some claims situations, the claim will definitely fail.

Why did I need 2 IMOs.....I sure would have handled this claim differently now than I did in those days....

The DRO completely ignored Dr Bash's first IMO.

I asked the VA to CUE itself on the initial denial due to violation of 38 CFR 4.6 ( I forgot until today, I had asked them to CUE themselves in 2005 over this claim). I raised quite a ruckus and within 3 weeks they did CUE that denial and I got another DRO review.

But I got the same DRO and now I think that was a violation of the regs too.

My former vet rep showed up for this review and told me he had presented to her the IMO she had ignored.

She handed it back to him ( so he said) and told him she couldnt read it.

But she did order a C & P from a VA endocrinologist.

When this rep called me back to tell me what had occurred, I asked him how she,the DRO, could read results of a VA C & P exam if she couldnt read an IMO?

He didnt know what to say to me and then assured me he did give her the IMO so I expected the SOC to at least consider it.

Again it was ignored and there was a statement in the SOC to indicated to me the rep had lied to me about this whole DRO review.

I think he might have shit canned my IMO himself.

I asked Dr. Bash to prepare another IMO based on the C & P exam results the DRO ordered. They ignored his second IMO.

Boy was he pissed and he wanted me to call my Congressman and even the IG I think.

However one thing I knew for sure was that the BVA can read.

The BVA award took note of multiple copies of these IMOs I had sent to the VARO ,in my C file, that had never been addressed at all by the VARO.

The USPS Tracking slips for those submissions, I used as evidence for my H VAC testimony during the Shreddergate fiasco.My point was when the VA ignores probative evidence such as costly IMOs, they might as well have shredded them, because the results are the same.....

.the claimant has been denied their basic rights to submit evidence under 38 USC.by the VA itself.

I had no idea at that time what the heck the VA had done with my IMOs, and I could only assume they shredded them.

The BVA award ,years after I had sent testimony to the HVAC, revealed they were in my C file the whole time.

Sorry I got off the track here with your question.........

The fee I got for my cardio opinion that I never needed was 1750, far less than what I expected it to be.

But the man who found the forensic cardio doctor to do it called me up when he got my packet of info requesting the IMO and asked me if I was a doctor or a lawyer or both.

This is a Forensic Consult firm who does IMOs for legal matters.

He said he had never seen anything prepared as well as my stuff was prepared and felt I would have no problem getting the IMO I needed.

Again, legwork and research pays off....and some claims are very complex.I felt mine was not complex due to the evidence I had.

I just think it is a disgrace that disabled veterans have to go through this type of work and get costly IMOs to get a fair shake from the VA.

I believe an IMO doctor can assess fairly quickly what type of research and time it will take him or her to develop a good IMO and determine the price that way.

We had a member here who paid an extraordinary amount of money for an IMO on chemical exposures.

I guess he never gave the expert who opined for him, the IMO criteria I developed here at hadit based solely on how Dr Bash had done my IMOs.

The IMO he ended up getting ,the VA rejected. It contained nothing whatsoever as to how this veteran was exposed to chemicals via his MOS , no specifics on what actual chemicals he used in service, nor how those specific chemicals, in any way, affected his health and how they , as likely as not, had caused his current disabilities.

So one needs to be careful who they request an IMO from and that the IMO doctor is willing to conform their IMO to what information the VA wants.

Edited June 7, 2013 by Berta

[rpowell01]

Okay thanks Berta...

[carlie]

I asked the VA to CUE itself on the initial denial due to violation of 38 CFR 4.6 ( I forgot until today, I had asked them to CUE themselves in 2005 over this claim). I raised quite a ruckus and within 3 weeks they did CUE that denial and I got another DRO review.

But I got the same DRO and now I think that was a violation of the regs too.

Berta,

If the DRO participated in the prior decision - then you are correct - they are supposed

to afford you a different DRO.

I think this is covered in M21-1MR - Part 1 - Chapter 5 - Appeals.

I'm posting a link for newbee's that might be doing some research.

http://www.benefits.va.gov/WARMS/M21_1MR1.asp

[rpowell01]

carlie,

I am throwing two questions out and I can't remember if I asked one of them on here yet. You know somewhat about my stuff. I had all those radiculopathy claims denied back in 2011 and I now have new claims. I also have a Dr. Bash IMO that caused the new claims because he found a few things I didn't even think about filing for and he referred me for IU.

So, I do have a NOD by DRO at Bay Pines and they are about to render a decision on my claims. Actually as of today at this time of this writing my claim is at the PREPARATION FOR NOTIFICATION phase. Of course it closing time and they all went home.

1. Sometime between 2:00pm and 4:00pm they add a new claims and the claim type is called "Predermination" and I found two placed on the net of what this means. It can mean they are going to add my daughter to the claim or find me incompetent because I told both my MH C&P examiner and the Physical C&P Examiner that I lost a lot of my short term memory and had to quit college because of it along with the pain for the other reason why I quit college or they are going to sever a service connection (reduce one which they better not based on that liar of a C&P Examiner in Ft Myers)....

Am I correct on one of the three on its meaning?

2. If I have a NOD by DRO at Bay Pines but I also have these new claims will they COMBINE the two on making a decision since I submitted Dr. Bash's IMO after the NOD by DRO and during the new claims submission? Or will they wait for the NOD by DRO to combine everything since they are actually all related to two things, my service connection lumbar and cervical?

I can't find this one out on the net and I dont' know if they ever done anything like this.

Edited June 7, 2013 by rpowell01

[autumn]

>>@Berta: My point here is I did Plenty of medical legwork in the 2 years prior to my contacting Dr. Bash.

@tmoe, i'll put in a positive vote for Dr Bash and his crew. i did put all records in chronological order, made copies, got all pertinent records, etc. this took me a few years. i didn't think it was inexpensive, but in fairness, no one else could have done what he did as far as go through my mil med records, and VA recordds and civilian records analytically with regards to comparing to what the VA was saying and what my actual condition is along with objective records that prove it.

gee, i tried to find doctors here. didn't happen. just a lot of bs. Dr Bash and his crew have seen me, answered calls and emails. but, there was a delay and i just assumed it was due to so many veterans needing their help. and yeah, i got frustrated with it. my goodness, how many veterans do they get contacted by? i can't imagine.

yeah, he probably needs a secretary but to find one with the right skills and the salary pay out, he'd probably up his fee. ;-)

frankly, he and his crew, from my experience, put in way more effort and expertise to help the veteran up against the VA than just about anyone. IMHO