GatorNavy

Mr Rootbeer, Is the Privacy Act different than the FOIA?

I am glad he came through for you! Many moons ago if you are an old fart like me, your SMRs went into your c-file. No copy of the SMRs was left behind at the DOD archive in St Louis. No SMRs is a denied claim....period

I have an entire filing cabinet full of 3 ring binders. I should only have just one binder....to think one Vet's claim over a lifetime could denude an entire forrest is mind boggling! The best thing I bought was a stackable scanner. Pull the staples out and let 'er rip! I scan at 300 dpi to keep the size of the PDFs down. I have hundreds of folders for VA claims on a secondary hard-drive. Then I back those up on to a portable drive and memory sticks and keep them with my laptop. The VA needs to crap some mo money for me to go out and buy a new ipad! Asknod has some really good argument and info about POR. It can help to keep your claim from being pushed off of a cliff.....

Green card with return receipt....has the mail clerk's name who signed for it. The BVA "lost" one of my faxes with a new IMO. Even though they acknowleged receiving the fax! Once the hearing is over it's over, then it takes years to get your evidence back into the system. Now if it's "negative" evidence, why that is always front and center. They cling to it with superglue! I find the whole process to be disingenuous....

You should have received a SSOC from the DRO review. I've tried to wrap logic around what is labeled as the "FDC" but to no avail. I think they only exist in the minds of the VSOs. The ROs can take about 18 months to certify an appeal (mine did). You are claiming an additional condition as a contention that needs to be ajudicated by the RO. There is only one claim. If they deny the lung cancer contention, the NOD for that goes in and you will get a SOC (if still denied) and you can elect the DRO review or send in the F9 to go to the BVA listing the lung cancer denial. Then the claim will be certifed with all contentions going to the BVA at the same time. There are ways to get your claim expedited at the RO as well as the BVA. Chronic illness, advanced age, or financial difficulties. I think the loudest voice is chronic severe illness though. "Delay, Deny till they Die" is no joke....it's for real. The VA vultures will start to circle if they think you are sick enough. Reads like you have alot going on there and the claim is getting complicated. If you haven't yet, I would suggest getting some legal advice from a VA law attorney. I think you may need some help and sooner than later. Just trying to help there. I am too ill now to handle the stress of wheelin' and dealin' with the VA myself. I certainly hope things go your way soon. You have been at it a long time. Thank you for your service!

Yes, it happens often that a claim is denied because they say a Vet is a no show at the C&P exam. Happened to me but just so happens I had the scheduler's phone number. I called her up and she said not only was it not scheduled, but that she had no request from the RO to schedule one. Whoooops! You need to get into the RO and do a means test and fill out a co-pay waiver. You can also fill out a form to be re-imbursed for your meds as long as it was a VA pharmacy. You will then get complete healthcare and meds without paying anything. No dental though.

Used to be that you had your records from the day you started getting care, no more. Also used to get the C&P exams (non-QTC) and MOs, but not more. Not all current lab results will be in there either. You have to log on update your bluebutton data and then log off and come back in a few hours to get the update. The meds are not updated very well either. Another VA piece of crap system and a big waste of time IMO. It's like we don't get enough frustration from the idiots over at the RO.

I threw my choice card into the trash. Didn't call or go to the website. I read the law as it was signed and there was not much left of the original bill after all of the amendments. The program expires to the day for two years after the President's signature. No private healthcare providers are wasting their time in my state. They told me VA won't pay the emergency bills the way it is. There is a CBOC with 4 chairs and a television 30 miles away. The VAMC is 100 miles away. Six months to a year is the standard wait times for specialty care. No change on the horizon for this VAMC.

Bob is in a position to accomplish his short term strategies as he has mentioned he has the funding to do so. Amending Title 38 is typically a large stone wheel before Congress. However, since President Obama is coming toward the end of his term, his cabinet members can request executive orders that the Secretaries can work with. I'm sure Bob will have a flurry of EO requests so he can execute his programs within the legal framework. EOs are never challenged and cannot be rescinded. So the bottom line is yes, I agree with you. I think with Bob at the helm, it is going to be a good year for us.

Bob is an extremely driven person. He has received the highest awards for achievement from every place he has been. He is a Veteran, having graduated from West Point and served as Captain with the 82nd Airborne. He was the best of the best CEOs. He expects the best from his managers and surrounds himself with the best program developers and project managers that he can find. I'm sure the director was left with wobbling knees and a spot in her skirt!

Congrats Phil! I know you had to climb the hills at Pendleton all over again dragging this 100lb ruck of a claim along. Sounds like that Law firm "chickened out" in the malestrom. Well you did it Marine! You took the iniative. Didn't give ground and kicked some proverbial VA ass!

Bob came through again! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear Mr. Secretary McDonald, I have part of a emergency room bill that remains unpaid. The VA non-care fee coordinator has in fact paid part of the bill, however a good portion of the bill remains unpaid. My only income is disability and I cannot afford to pay this nor should I have to. I sent in all of the necessary paperwork. I have tried to contact the VA non-care fee coordinator at the XXXXXX VA Medical Center in order to resolve this issue to no avail. At first She would not return my phone calls when I left voice mail and now has changed her voice mail box to not accept voice mail at all (xxx-xxx-xxxx). I feel this issue has fallen into a "black hole" from which I cannot find a resolution. I live 100 miles from the VAMC in XXXXXXX and it is difficult for me to make the drive. Please feel free to contact me via email or by phone: (xxx-xxx-xxxx). Please see the attachment for the billing correspondence. Thank you for being open and approachable for us Veterans! Sincerely, GatorNavy -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I received a call yesterday and she stated that my claim was "overturned" and they paid the entire bill!

That's the standard notice...Sounds like you are on track. Just another hurdle the VA can use to further delay the claim.

Just for the sake of conversation: Those forms will only be sent to the employers you worked for within the last 5 years. They will send them out....wait 30 days and if no reply....will send them out again and wait 30 days. Unless a Vet was let go because of a service connected disability, those forms really don't lend much to the TDIU claim. However your IU claim cannot be denied soley because an employer fails to fill out the form and return it. Some large corporate employers won't return them. If you worked for a small firm and left on good terms, you might want to walk the forms over there and submit them yourself, to save time. Good luck!

The good things about large SSDI advocate firms like Binder&Binder are basically three fold: 1) They process hundreds of thousands of cases and have a game plan for just about anything we can claim 2) Their primary concern is the shortest time to win and collect their fee so they can move to another case 3) They know who to contact at the regional level when the local state yocals are sitting around playing with themselves.

No, if denied upon receipt of the N/M evidence; the appeal date will still expire June 2015. Only a NOD submitted by June 2015 will keep the claim in appeal and preserve the effective date.

I am not convinced that the evidence intake centers are anything other than circular files placed under the mail slots....Once I asked a VLJ if he saw my evidence and all I got was a Gomer Pyle look. As long as you deal with the VA you will be pissed off. it's a process.

I hate to see this happen to people, but it does all too often. The RO has their "tome of evil" in hand now (C&P exam) and may not budge. Granted, I don't have much experience other than my own. IMO, I don't think the "reconsideration" is of much use here. I don't see where a DRO hearing would work out either. The way I would proceed is to put in a NOD, grab the denial (appeal) for the Kidney disease and any other denied contentions, throw in TDIU and head for a BVA hearing. I am not giving this as advice; just a possible path that one could think about. All the RO knows is the M21-1R and any fast letters that come down the pike. I have never had a valid VCAA letter yet. They either list evidence they don't have or don't list the positive evidence that I give them. I don't think much of VSOs since I have been screwed by a couple which cost me years of pain and frustration. When you are in your sixties you want to enjoy life and shed the shackles of a stressful life. Throw in a chronic illness and there is enough pain and suffering to go around the whole family. I am just too old, sick and tired to deal with the VA so for me the answer is an attorney. They have the impetus to win since they are getting paid out of your back pay. Eighty percent of somethin' is better than 100% of nuthin'. You may find a good attorney that will go into the case pro bono because it is a Camp Lejuene case. Anyway they know which path to take, since it is their bread and butter to know. Just some food for thought is all. Happy holidays!

That makes IMOs just more important....The VSOs think the FDCs are the new rage....well, when a Vet is denied or low-balled it still takes the 5-7 years to get through an appeal. The BVA website keeps flaunting that only 11-12% of Vets appeal and that has been the same for many years. I don't think the RO is any different than any other RO because the VSCMs shuffle around soon enough. They are friendly and approachable though. I've always been able to walk-in and take care of an issue. SSDI is another matter. South Dakota has a "reconsideration" stage in the process. Basically if denied on initial filing they just throw the file over one desk and sit on it for 6 months before denying again. Having an out of state attorney with a big outfit got me approved for SSDI at the Reconsideration stage.

I've been filing claims (my own) with the Sioux Falls RO for about 5 years now. The County VSOs are only trained to assist vets with state benefits. They are usually at the Court house 2 days a week. The state VSOs are in Sioux Falls and Rapid City. They are trained to handle compensation and pension claims. I don't know how much training the state VSOs have, but the few I've talked to seemed somewhat knowledgeable. I don't think I would want one that brings state politics into it though. It's up to the Federal Government to honor it's contract with military Veterans. They haven't had E-benefits for very long there. A few years ago I went into the office and asked them when they were going to get E-benefits as I had no VSO rep. Before the FDC claims, the RO used to be rather quick about the decisions....albeit sometimes too quick. C&P exams take a while because they don't have a large contractor but try to get the local VA doctors to do it. If you don't have DBQs in, they may want a C&P exam. Sometimes if you are willing to travel you can get an exam sooner. As such, they probably don't hire the sharpest tools in the shed, or maybe not even a doctor for that matter. Most of the C&P exams I have had there haven't been very good at all. This is from the remand of my last BVA decision: “Return the claims file to a VA examiner of appropriate knowledge and expertise, other than the previous VA examiner.”

"such evidence shall be subject to initial review by the Board unless the claimant or the claimant’s representative, as the case may be, requests in writing that the agency of original jurisdiction initially review such evidence." I think we are getting bogged down with semantics. If evidence is automatically subject to initial review (who sees it first) by the board then a waiver of initial review by the board authorizes the AOJ to adjudicate the newly submitted evidence. In one of my claims I obtained an airtight well written IMO to counter the lousy, inexperienced C&P exam for service connection and submitted that to the AOJ in the hopes that they would see the light and grant. It would have been at least in equipoise and the AOJ knew that, so they had the prior C&P examiner do an IMO to counter mine. That's a CUE in itself because the AOJ can't go out and get a negative opinion against a Vet that has positive evidence. The AOJ had their chance with the negative C&P exam. So I obtained another IMO from a different source and waived it for initial review before the board. That is before the NSOs had this part of the law changed. There can be advantages to go either way.

The statute still allows an appellant or his/her representative to obtain initial AOJ review if a written request is submitted with the evidence. which is (drumroll please) a waiver of initial BVA consideration. No Ebennies has not been updated yet....which is a worthless piece of garbage anyway in my book. Personally I like the way it was and of all of the needed changes to speed things up this falls to the bottom. But if yawl are wonderin' why you never received a response after you sent in that shiny new IMO, it's because it wasn't reviewed by the AOJ and is just sitting in the the C-file waiting for BVA adjudication. Unless of course, the waiver was submitted with your IMO.

No NOD at this point. You don't wanted to appeal it yet. You just want the most recent diagnosis to be rated properly. So write a statement on the form I supplied in your prior post and ask that the ratings be reconsidered based on the most recent medical records. I would take a copy of the kidney disease DBQ with you when you see the kidney doc and ask him/her to fill it out best they can. If you have a DBQ you won't need another C&P exam. Shouldn't need one anyway but we all know that tricks are for kids.

You could make copies of your diagnosis of stage 3 kidney disease private records and/or VA vista records. Look at the DBQ for kidney disease and if a private doctor ask them to fill it out and send that too. Find more evidence of your GERD and send that in as well. In a statement ask that they reconsider those two conditions based on the evidence you have submitted. I would do this pronto. The year is ticking away to put in a NOD for an appeal. You need to rack up those percentages to get SMC housebound and a caregiver, aid and attendance, if you should need ever need those things. There are other SMCs that you may consider, but I don't know much about the subject. Asknod has it down to a T. I submitted records of my medical board from 1984 that the VA had somehow lost. A rater called me up and said those conditions were "caught" and I would be SC for them. Like Berta stated, most of the time you have to rub their nose in it before they see it. Congrats! way to hang in there!

"(b) In the case of any veteran who engaged in combat with the enemy in active service with a military, naval, or air organization of the United States during a period of war, campaign, or expedition, the Secretary shall accept as sufficient proof of service-connection of any disease or injury alleged to have been incurred in or aggravated by such service satisfactory lay or other evidence of service incurrence" This was designed for combat Vets who were injured or wounded and obviously couldn't report to the sickbay that had their SMRs at the time. Then lay testimony will suffice in lieu of entry in a service medical record.