john999

Larry Sure that is a good idea. If the AL guy does not help then he can file the NOD. I am just so used to having to fight for every last thing that I am ready to whip out a NOD and hire an IMO right away. What is really awful is that sometimes even clerical errors require a NOD to make them right. You just can't always communicate with the decision makers except with a formal request.

You get the initial appointment and then you will get a work-up with a rehab counselor to determine what your goals are etc. The VA does want to rehab you because once rehabed and employed at higher level they have a good reason to reduce your compensation. It is a good trade if it works for you. If the VA can rehab you and your compensation goes from 50% to 10% it will save the VA thousands over a lifetime. That is the idea as far as I know. If you fail rehab it is a good reason to ask for a higher rating and maybe IU.

Do the NOD on denial of Chapter 35. If you win the appeal your eligibility will go back to the date you got TDIU. You need a letter from your doctor saying you are permanently and totally disabled. This would be new evidence. That is how I did it. I was just like you. I got TDIU but denied Chapter 35. I appealed the denial. First I got 70% but denied TDIU. Then I got TDIU but denied Chapter 35. I just kept getting more evidence from doctors, and sending it in to rebutt the VA. Just swamp them with evidence. It speaks louder than arguments.

If you have a good claim with plenty of potential retro it will light a fire under a decent vet lawyer. I hired one. I may still lose, but at least I am getting a representative who has major motivation to win for him and me. He will get 20% of about 30 years of retro. People don't hesitate you get lawyers for SSD, so why not for VA claims since it is legal now?

I have DDD and it just gets worse every year. I wake up in the morning and my back is stiff as a board. If I sit too long or ride in a car too long I can hardly get out of the chair or car. What is the cure? I have had all the injections.

But VA funding for medical is still discretionary as opposed to mandatory funding. It is not like medicare or SSA or even welfare. Those have mandatory funding levels. I see this as very small victory indeed. When the USA wants money to keep economy running, or fight war of choice they put it all on a credit card. They always find the money. For vets it takes 30 years to get funding that is probably already short for next year. The VA needs mandatory funding that reaches out 60 years in the future to build hospitals and hire doctors. They need money to secure our medical needs from the youngest vet now just getting out to the oldest guy in a nursing home. That means they need secure funding for the next 60 years since a 22 year old might live another 60 years and is entitled to VA health care until the end of his life.

This may be changing, but many health insurance plans have a lifetime limit on what they will pay, so the VA is reducing your lifetime limit by billing for SC conditions. I don't feel sorry one bit for BC/BS since I pay 2/3 of my federal disability pension to keep their insurance. I just want the VA to pay what they should pay and not fob it off on private insurance which drives up rates for all. I pay enough to keep private coverage for me and my wife as it is. I would not take my goldfish for serious treatment at my local VAMC. When I want to die I will go there for treatment. That will be my sendoff platform to the next world.

You know I think I went through all the stages of rating increases up to the time I got IU. I started at 10% in 1973, and then 30%, and jumped to 70% without IU. Then after about 18 months I got IU. It took 30 years to get from 10% to IU. It was a long, strange trip. I am glad you got 100% on the first try, but I bet you suffered enough already. If you have any sort of emotional/mental disability the VA puts you through the meatgrinder. Usually, you have to suffer years of humiliation and accusations of fraud to get 100%. Only the stongest and most determined get to 100%. What happens to those who are too sick to fight back? I think they are on the street.

I, too, won a claim based on information I got from VBM. I was looking at regs on DMII and it said that cataracts and artery disease are almost presumptive for DMII. I used this informatin to file a claim that ended up 60% CAD. It started with a CT scan on my leg because of a hematoma and showed some problems with arteries being blocked. The VBM helped me put two and two together. The VBM has a great section on protections for IU or 100% vets as to reductions. It helped me decide to file a CUE claim.

You know I believe that Mississippi provided the largest number of wooden legs to confederates of any state. I don't know why. My Great, Great Grandpa was a confederate from Georgia. He went deaf in the war. He got absolutely nothing since Georgia was a basket case for decades after the war. Returning rebs were considered as traitors and treated like that by occupation troops in the deep south. My Grandpa's farm was right in the path of Sherman's march. They were completely impoverished as were blacks. He did not own slaves. He was a poor farmer. He got nothing from that war except permanent deafness. Stone deaf at the age of 20.

Broncovet You know in the face of that kind of massive wrong doing by the VA all claims in the system should be granted. Since they have proven over and over that the VA cannot do their job in a fair and unbiased manner then all claims should just be granted. It may come to that since the VBA is completely broken. Think of the people like ourselves who have fought for years to win our claims. We are the tokens since there is no record of how many claims are denied or approved. The VA does not keep records on this. Can you believe that? How can their performance be judged if the basic statistics are not there to study and take apart to see results. This is no accident. In racial discrimination cases the judge looks at the statistics on hiring to see percentages. Since the VA does not keep records of ratio of approved to denied claims they could be approving just 10% of all claims. If a company only hired 10% of minority applicants then lawyers would be all over them. We have no way of knowing. The VA is like a horse with a broken leg. Put it out of its misery and come up with a new idea. Except for employing vets the VA is an utter failure in its mission. I would not let them operate on my cat if I had a cat.

I have BC/BS and the VA tries to bill my insurance for everything including drugs for my SC conditions. They even billed for a C&P exam. If not for just wanting to stay in the loop I would never darken the VAMC's doors. I complain about it, and I get another EOB from BC stating what they paid for drugs or visit with my PCP. I don't know how they determine my visits with the PCP are for NSC conditions since I have about 7 SC conditions including chronic pain, DMII and CAD. They charge for blood work. How are they supposed to monitor my DMII and do drug screen if they don't do bloodwork and urine tests? How do you fight this crap. My pills are all for SC conditions. I talk to BC and got nowhere. It is there money. I don't pay co-pays, but the VA should be paying for this stuff. I have back trouble and never get to see an orthopod or neurologist. I have CAD and never get to see a cardiologist. What kind of care do I get from VA? When I need to see a specialist I use medicare and my own insurance. I would probably be dead by now if I depended on my VAMC. The pain clinic is the worst joke of all. It is great as long as you don't go for pain treatment. If you want to become addicted to narcotics use the VA pain treatment plan.

Yes, the VA can bill your insurance for treatment of Non service connected treatment. I think in the case of 100% vets it is a disgrace, but they will do it. You have to argue with them to not bill for SC conditions. They do that to me. How do they know you have private insurance? Was your treatment for SC condition or NSC condition? I don't know if you have to sign this release or not.

If you just got IU then you should appeal the denial of Chapter 35, so when you get it it will be retroactive to the date you filed for IU. If you have not worked in two years you are IU. If you have a familiy you have to do what is best for them. That is how I did it. I did not wait for a review of my IU rating. I filed an appeal and provided the VA with evidence that I was P&T.

Broncovet Could what you term "document mishandling" be the basis of a CUE? I ask because if the VA has crucial evidence in their possession that they do not consider in a decision how can the vet get due process? You know in older rating decisions the VA did not even list the evidence they used in a decision. There is no way to know what evidence was considered in a rating. Here, again, how can a vet get due process when the VA could pick and choose what evidence in the record they would use, and what evidence they would ignore? In my original claim (1973) the VA had a medical report from my doctor, and their is no way to know if they considered it or not since they never listed or referred to it in their decision. This seems like a similar and fundamental error. Document mishandling is not new. The VA has been doing it for at least 40 years. They constantly fail to consider, or lose vital evidence. I did not even get appeal rights in my original claim. You talk about your flawed rating decision and process.

You have to be 100% or IU for 20 years for that rating to be protected. I am guessing that includes the ability to keep getting Chapter 35. I don't think I have ever heard of a vet losing P&T status while remaining 100% or IU. I think they usually reduce your rating and as a result you lose Chapter 35. Bob Were you reduced two decades ago from IU or 100% to a lower rating? If you are a young vet it is pretty shattering to be IU P&T because your ability to have a career is ended. This is very expensive in the end. It means no IRA or 401-K. It hurts your SSA payments as far as the amount. However, if you can't work, then you can't work. That is why they have these ratings. If I had gotten IU when I was 22 years old what would I have done with my life? Nothing probably. There should be some other incentivised rating to pay vets at 100% level until they are able to prove that they can work and earn enough to make a decent living. In my day if you lifed a finger to help yourself you would be reduced if the VA found out about it. There is every incentive to remain disabled, and no incentive to strive to be really rehabilitated. Now at my age I would be nuts to even try to work even if I could work. I would be punished severely.

The way vets are treated is the shame of the nation. The question is how do we vets get attention for our plight. Things have only gotton worse. Things are going to get worse in the future. I bet just about every vet coming back for Iraq or Afghanistan is probably filing a claim. They are not like the WWII vets or even Nam vets. They roam the internet getting information from others to battle the VA. I think the word has gotten out that if you have anything wrong with your to file a claim before you are discharged. That is good, but the VA is unprepared and uncaring. Heads need to roll at VA HQ. The Prez and Congress need to make it happen. We need to make them make it happen. I bet the number of 100% vets has remained steady for years. One gets on and one gets off (dies). If the backlog is a million then a million vets need to make their voices heard above the crooks on Wall Street and all the rest who hoot for attention and money. Who deserves the nation's gratitude more than us? Maybe active duty in combat, but no one else. Who gets the attention? The guys who never served a day in their life and have spent years getting rich while teenagers fight their wars.

I signed the petition, but I think they use these things for toilet paper in D.C. People on SSA or SSD need to vote the right way when the time comes. Everyone knows who the friends and enemies of SSA and medicare are in our country. The only things politicians listen to or look at is votes and money. The politician are afraid of the senior lobby that includes most on SSA. The reason is because seniors vote.

Writs are for people who have been waiting years. Jayg, how long exactly has it been since you filed your claim? You had a DRO in March. That is only about 7 months ago.

I think the more requests for hearings and the more you rattle the VA's cage the more excuses you give them to delay. If you were going to get a decision last week you might want to wait until you talk to your VSO about asking for a hearing. This might set back your decision by months if not years. I don't think you should do any more until you get the decision. How long have you been waiting for a decision on your claim?

You know people with DMII are also prone to get blockages in their leg arteries. If your circulation to the legs is poor this can lead to amputations later in life. I had a CT scan done on my legs and I had problems with poor circulation and it showed on the CT scan where arteries were blocked. I have DMII from AO and PN.

Herniations heal? I did not know that herniated discs heal themselves. How do you get the toothpaste back in the tube? When your disc herniates material pushes out and pressures the nerve. How does that heal itself? I have discs that are going bad, but just from wear and tare. Not herniated.

When you do get to retirement your biggest cost is health care. One factar most don't look at is the cost of long term care. If you are at least 70% as a vet you can get the VA to pay for your long term care. Those who don't have this benefit will see everything they ever owned go to pay for the nursing home or home care. I know this from experience. Their spouse or legal significant other will also be impoverished, and have to live on beans while the other slowly rots in a nursing home. This is a hidden booby trap in our golden years. It is much cheaper to die young, but most would not choose that option.

Carlie That is the truth. I worked for the post office and most of the people in my shop were related by either marriage or blood. You had husbands supervising their own wives, and parents surpervising their grown kids. Guess who go promoted? Oh, I forgot the girfriends of the bosses. They always got a promotion. Trouble used to break out between the wives and girlfriends of the supervisors. When your wife and girlfriend work in the same office fireworks break out.

Hey, I am a retired federal employee. I get zero COLA, and my private insurance through the government rose by 12%. I got a pay cut every time my insurance that covers my wife and me goes up. My COLA never covers the increase in my insurance. My insurance premium now takes up 2/3 of my tiny disability pension. Pretty soon I will have to pay the Office of Personnel Management to keep the insurance instead of them paying me. If I had only myself to take care of it would be a breeze. Unfortunately I have a wife who only will get SSA. No pension. My pension and VA compensation has to pay for both of us. How many here get a pension separate from SSA, or VA compensation? Our father's generation got pensions from their jobs. Almost none of us will get one. I have not noticed that food is cheaper. My property insurance is soaring. My house lost 40% of its value. My IRA that I shoved money into for 25 years lost 20%. I worked. I saved. I invested, and yet at age 60 I have less than at age 50. Something wrong with dat! I pity the younger generation because if they do not get professions, and start investing wisely at 25 years old they will be broke at age 65. Most people in the over 40 generation are facing having to work til' they drop. Those with VA compensation may be the lucky ones because if our checks bounce the whole country will bounce. 50% of the population is two weeks away from financial disaster.