john999

Here is one thing: If a 100% schedular vet is reduced he/she should be considered for TDIU. This is what the VBM says. So if they were to reduce you from 100% to 70% the VA should consider you for TDIU as part of that decision.

My CUE was remanded back to the BVA because the BVA used the rating chart for neurotic conditions when they should have used the criteria for psychotic conditions that was in use in 1972. There is no distinction now, but there was back in 1972. The rating codes were different as well. I don't know if this is good for me or bad for me. This is what happens when you go way back in time with the VA. There have been rule changes even between the time I filed in 1972 and got the decision in 1973. So BVA used the wrong law to deny my CUE. The thing is they still excluded my evidence from my doctor no matter what rating chart they used to rate me. This is why I say get a lawyer. No mere vet who does not know "inside baseball" is going to get this. The BVA fouled up and most claims end there. Most claims don't even get there.

Sit on the money like a mother hen! Put it some place where you can't easily get at it. You work for money and then some day it will work for you.

What about remands from CAVC? My claim was remaned back to BVA from CAVC. It has already been 5 years. You know you can end up going to federal court if you fail at CAVC. It happens in many important cases. It happened in Cushman vs VA which is a very important case. This guy has been waiting for years if not decades. If you have a CUE everyone should look up Cushman 2009. This is a case where VA forged/altered medical records after the fact to defeat a veteran's TDIU claim. This goes to all cases where the VA did not use all the evidence in a claim since the court decided the vet's due process rights were violated. So if the VA shredded/lost/ignored your evidence they violated your due process rights. You have to prove it, of course. If you consider that you start a claim at RO and it ends up in federal court and then is remanded all the way back to CAVC/BVA and even RO this could be ten years.

In "VA Lingo" congestive heart failure is not the same as IHD. They make that distinction as far as I know. If congestive heart failure is some how related to CLL then it could be secondary. I know they define IHD in certain terms which are more restrictive than just heart disease.

What it is is when you file a new claim for an increase while your original claim is on appeal you will lose your earlier effective date if they grant the new claim for increase. You want to file and then keep your claim on appeal. You can submit new evidence, but don't file a new claim for an increase. When you file for TDIU if the VA grants TDIU they will use the date you filed for TDIU. With TDIU you want to file if you can't work regardless of rating percentage. I filed when I was 30% because I could not work. When I got granted 70% which was a year later the VA went back to the date I filed for TDIU and granted that date. Many VSO's say not to bother filing an appeal because it is faster to start a new claim when you have new evidence. This is a great way to lose EED.

I think most 100% schedular vets and TDIU vets get SSD. This limits what they can do as far as work anyway. By the time you get 100% or TDIU you are sure a broken down veteran. Of course, there are about a million guys on SSD and VA who work in underground economy doing this or that and not reporting the income. Probably half the guys at the local flea market are on SSD or medically retired from somewhere. Unless you collect worker's compensation or advertise your disability payments nobody is watching you. However, it is not worth losing VA and SSD just to make $200 a week.

My VAMC got in trouble for using very sick, old vets for medical students to help gut like fish to do heart surgery. That was 25 years ago. I go to the VAMC and have to dodge medical students and residents from the medical school next door. They look at us and turn up their noses knowing they will soon be away from us earning that big house and boat. Our guts and blood help them get rich.

I would settle for a plan equal to medicare that included dental and vision benefits. Let the troops who need hospital beds use the VAMC. The centralized VA system is just dumb. It is true that government medical programs like the one for federal workers compensation is hated by most doctors since they have so much trouble getting paid. This is what I fear the VA would do for us vets. I would accept ChampVA. My wife has it also and it has worked well with our BC/BS for her. Now my VAMC has different buildings for pharmacy, vision, mental health, and clinics. You have to catch shuttle bus for all these things rain or shin. To get my pain script filled would take me five hours including doctor visit. This is crazy. After all this the VA charges my BC/BS for almost everything. Why bother?

VA refused to do my cataract surgery, so I paid myself via my medicare and BC. The VA did supply me with a pair of glasses that were about a half inch thick which did not even fit. I threw them out and went to best eye doctor and had it done because I was able. The jerks pulled a good tooth and then would not replace it via an implant. I paid for that myself. I will go to my own private dentist for a crown because the VA won't do it. I do have a low opinion of the VA medical system. They made me some orthtics that my regular civilian podiatrist said were cheap junk. Now I just use them for pills and to make sure they know I have one foot in the grave, so they don't try and reduce me one fine day. I guess if you know you are going to die you could go there just to save a buck for your family. I bet they turn off life support in a hurry if they think you are on the way out of this world. The bed is probably still warm and they just change the sheets and put another dying vet in place.

I would not lie on the application if asked if I am a disabled vet. The whole thing with a disability is "can you do the job with or without accommdation". If nothing about your disability makes it impossible for you to do the main functions of the job they can't legally discriminate. The way it usually works in government and elsewhere is that they will never tell you that they did not hire you because of your disability unless it is obvious like being blind and wanting to drive a truck. Employers are wise to the ADA.

I don't want to trust my health to a system whose goal is to save money for the taxpayers at my expense. The bean counters are in charge.

What might happen is the that if VA thinks you can't work due to PTSD they will kick your rating up to 70% and grant IU at the same time. They might even grant 100% for the PTSD and make IU moot. It depends on your evidence.

I think the GERD should be SC'ed if the hernia is SC'ed. You need to do something about this condition. You can get cancer from severe GERD.

Yes, when you get the C-File you can see exactly what evidence they had in their possession when they denied your claims. They may have had the evidence you need right there in your file, but just ignored it. I think this is quite common in older claims. In my original claim they based the entire rational for the award on notes from a VA doctor. They ignored the SMR's and my doctor's report. Before VCAA the VA just did what they felt like doing.

Unless the VA listed or referred to the FPEB transcript in the original 1985 rating then they excluded it. I have much the same situation where the VA had information that they excluded in a decision. That is part of the process of winning a CUE. You have to show that the evidence excluded would have changed the outcome of the rating decision. That is not so easy since the VA depends on what "reasonable minds" would have concluded. The "reasonable minds" are the VA. I have not found them reasonable. If they are saying they considered the FPEB, but there is no proof they did consider it then I think you have a CUE, but you will have to fight about it. When the VA gets in a tight spot they just lie. This is why I got a lawyer. They are sort of asking you to prove a negative. You have to show that the VA did not consider your FPEB. Your local VARO won't buck this decision because of 25 years of retro at stake. Their posistion is that they considered it, so you don't have a CUE. I think you do have a CUE.

I would file the NOD and then start getting your medical evidence from a psychiatrist to back up a higher rating. You will have plenty of time to do this since the NOD is just the beginning of the appeals process. I would ask for a DRO Hearing in the body of my NOD. You should try and get what is called an IMO or IME.

I used the date of a hospital admission as an EED for TDIU. I had to file an appeal to get it. It just so happened that the hospital admission date and my SSDI date are one and the same.

I got the same thing ten years ago and I got my own IMO to rebutt it as Pete says. This is the best way to fight them.

Hire a lawyer! I have never heard of a vet getting SC'ed for PTSD without a C&P exam. Maybe the DRO will order an exam. I hate to think you are going to go to the DRO and get denied again because the VA says you don't have a DX of PTSD from the VA. How is the VA supposed to get an idea of degree of disability without an exam?

When did you have your last C&P exam where the VA said you had current DX of PTSD?

Pete I bet for every vet who is correctly compensated there are ten vets who get nothing. For every 100% SC vet there are ten vets who get by on a pension or SSD or who are homeless. Has the VA ever sent out a letter to all vets saying something like "You may be entitled to VA compensation and other benefits. Contact your local VA hospital or regional office to find out"? Hell, no, they don't. To me not communicating the benefits due to vets is gaming the the vet population. Almost every veteran has a benefit be it a VA mortgage or medical care that they could use, but I don't see the VA doing outreach. They do outreach to certain small populations such as suicidal vets, but that is just because of bad publicity when a vet kills themselves.

No, what did your patch look like? Did they operate down south in III Corp? I have heard of them. Where did you spend your time in Vietnam? Did you go all over or stay in one area? The main infantry units in my area were 25th Infantry and 9th Infantry.

I had a back doctor say he could look at a x-ray or MRI and tell if a person smokes. I am going to see a neurosurgeon next week.

According to VA thinking the only vet who is not gaming the system is a dead vet. Then they accuse the survivor of trying to game the system. A vet in a nursing home is taking too long to die and is very inconsiderate of the tax payers. You have the medical side and you have the bean counters on both the medical side and the benefit side. They have the final say most of the time. Active military is both a asset and a liability. Vets are a liability on the government books.