Supplies And Tips For Working Your Claim

[Tbird]

Supplies

Our thanks to HadIt.com member Berta for the suggestions below. We will add more as they come to us.

Keeping track of your claims and research can be a daunting task. We've put together some items we think you will find helpful. If you have a suggestion on how to file, organize, or track your claim please do pass it along.

Phone log - Click Here http://www.hadit.com/vaclaimsphonelog.pdf for a Phone Log you can use Keep track of your calls with the VA, Veterans Service Officers, doctors etc.

Never hesitate to get someone else to call for you, if you are unable to do it yourself. Stay by the phone to the give your representative your permission and clearly write down your questions. Make sure the person making the call has a pen and paper handy also. If you call yourself don't be afraid to ask the person to repeat if you have trouble hearing or understanding what is being said.

If you are not getting the information you need or you haven't gotten any confirmation that they received information that you have mailed. Ask the veteran representative you are speaking with for an inquiry. State that you prefer an email or postal mail response, rather than a phone call. Don't be to embarrassed to let them know it's hard for you to process verbal information or you have memory problems, if this is the case.

Folders - manila folders work fine. If you are feeling particularly organized you can purchase a two hole punch and folders that have the two prong fasteners in them so things don't go spilling out of your folder, be careful not to punch holes over anything important on the letter. Accordion folders are also good for keeping many papers together. Bright labels for each folder or different color folders also work, example bright red all correspondence received from the VA and your follow up action.

Folder organization example

Award Letters include your DD214, Social Security Award letter, VA award Letters

Statement of the Case - Prepared by the AOJ, this is a summary of the evidence considered, as well as a listing of the laws and regulations used in deciding a benefit claim. It also provides information on the right to appeal an RO's decision to BVA.

Service Medical Records

Supporting Statements - buddy, family, doctor, or employer statements that support your claim.

VA Phone Log - keep your phone logs here you can also attach any receipts from priority or certified mail you send. On the cover of this folder it's helpful to write all the numbers you call regarding your claim, service officers, VA regional office, county service representative, VA medical center, etc. You may also want to write any web addresses you found helpful in case disaster strikes your computer.

VA medical records - if your records are to large for folders you can put them in binders and separate with color tabs by year.

Important Papers include papers that you or family might need someday - birth certificates, another copy of your dd 214, marriage license, divorce decree's, Social Security Award letter, VA award letters etc. If you have a safe deposit box put this folder there it's the safest.

Master Phone List you can write this directly on your phone log folder.

Master prescription drug list name, prescription number you may also find it useful to look up your prescriptions on the web, click here http://www.rx.com/rx.asp?n=0&i=zx to go a database of prescription drugs print out what it says make a point of reading the side effects, report any side effects to your doctor. If the side effects are from prescriptions for your service connected disability, talk with your service officer about filling an additional claim due to the side effects, if warranted.

[Tbird]

Also check out this article

5 Ways Google is Your Friend - Google can be your friend, at least when it comes to researching disability compensation claims.

[Tbird]

Nice form

thank you i am working on some others for next year.

[Berta]

At Office Depot I bought little yard sale stickers in flourescent colors- as well as matching labels.

On my evidence submissions, I listed -at the end , enclosed:Exhibit A, B, C etc (as they were referred to in the text of the submission) with a flouescent yard sale sticker with the Exhibit A, B C etc

and then on the copies of the meds recs, VA document, or abstract etc- I used corresponding larger flouescent stickers in the same colors so that it could all easily be associated quickly when it was read.

I do this for vet org claims as well as my own.

(Unfortunately I never listed or sent -as evidence on my claims- "Reading For Dummies")

Also pictures are worth a thousand words-

I made a template for one of my local vets to have a letterhead when dealing with the VA.

On the upper right hand corner there is a picture of him nude to the waist showing the gruesome job they did regarding some surgery he had at the VA.(sec 1151 claim)

For other claims I attached maps of Vietnam,and or coastal regions for Brown Water vets.

or any scanned pictures the vet had from service that would support the claim.

I also used scanned color photographed autopsied organs to explain my husband's specific autopsy results.

(heart and brain) This was critical to parts of my AO claim.

On abstracts I use a highlighter to show VA the specific part they need to consider.

And I have highlighted copies of med recs too-

I have even blown SMR entries up on scanners to make sure they get it all.This tactic was also critical to one of my local vets-

once the SMRs were blown up they revealed what he needed.

If you refer to medical symbols or abbreviations,crucial to your claim, attach a MediconLexis printout to prove what they say.

Edited December 10, 2006 by Berta

[betrayed]

If you refer to medical symbols or abbreviations,crucial to your claim, attach a MediconLexis printout to prove what they say.

what is this?

[Billyboy]

Berta you said, If you refer to medical symbols or abbreviations,crucial to your claim, attach a MediconLexis printout to prove what they say.

I to would like to ask what this is? bill

[Berta]

I mean this link:

http://www.pharma-lexicon.com/medicalabbreviations.php

Example : VA said RO/CAD in a med entry for my husband -but gave him sudafed and sent him home

(he had collapsed at the VA)

I looked up RO , then CAD- and found it meant rule out cardiovascular disease.

I sent a xerox of this type of info to VA to prove my FTCA claim prior to the days of the internet-numerous entries and abbreviations- which I had to spend much time to study-revealed malpractice and also a VA cover up of that malpractice.

Also another example- the VA doctor in 2005 stated that my husband was "certainly a risk for diabetes, based on his weight and his exposure to Agent Orange" but she did not expand-on this nor consider his other conditions at death in the autopsy nor did she use more than 3-4 medical records to opine on the claim or provide any rationale as to how this supported the claim.

I looked up "Risk" in Wikipedia- an excellent online dictionary:

Risk -"in professional risk assessment, Risk combines the probability of a negative event occurring with how harmful that event would be."

I put this in my I-9 and attached the Wikipedia printput and stated that the VA doctor, in essense supported my AO death claim with her statement as to risk -because the probability of a negative event had occurred when the veteran died due to VA care (section 1151/FTCA claim findings) as the VA could not diagnose his CAD, CVAs, and DMII as well as administer proper medication.

Since he had been a "risk" based on he VA "expert",why did the VA therefore not treat him for diabetes or try to prevent it.

My point is the VA will play a war of words game. We have to do it too.

Every single point of a denial has to be carefully studied as to how to combat those statements and also find support in VA medical reports.

What seems negative on the surface can often be manipulated into something positive.

The VA itself taught me that during the many years I have been a claimant.