john999

That makes me want to gag! The only bonus these guys deserve is a rifle, a pack on their back and a ticket to Afghanistan one way.

I don't think you should be kicked out just because you are not world wide deployable. There are many things that you could do in countries that have good medical. I think the military has a desire to get your out due to cost liability of treating you. They just want you off the books. I had a friend who was in the AF. He was in his 19th year. He was a little overweight. The AF did everything possible to humiliate and abuse him to get him to get out early, but he stuck it out. Now he makes twice as much as a contractor. I do think the military is ungrateful to enlisted guys. If you were a 3 star general with one eye and one leg they would let you stay for 35 years. You know documenting your conditions is going to be the most important thing. Now you guys can do this before you get out. In my day you were lucky to get an exit physical. I never got one, nor did most ETSing from Vietnam. They told us they would have to hold on to us an extra 45 days to get an exam. Now all these old vets with in-service injuries and no documentation get denied by the VA. The army knew what they were doing.

Berta You know quoting that decision at the top of every claim might be a good idea. Perhaps print it on the outside of every letter to the VA. Lawyers in Florida who are doing insurance claims stamp the law on the envelopes that states the insurance company must make a decision on benefits within X number of days. TestVet What ( I hate to ask) is SCOTUS? You know that anything that is a major decision in favor of vets is going to be appealed by the VA. They get to use taxpayor money to appeal cases in favor of vets. I am sure they curse the day they ever accepted the date to make DMII presumptive for AO.

I don't think someone is interpreting the regulation correctly. If you are 70% for PTSD and you are unemployable due "solely" to the PTSD then you can claim IU. It is not automatic. It should be inferred, but that does not mean the VA will do it until you actually claim IU. Statements that the VA MUST do this or MUST do that are usually not correct.

You have to go through the VARO if QTC does them from what I have heard here. QTC won't give you a copy.

BR I don't think it matters much which VSO you use. You might as well stay with one or the other. You are going to do all the work anyway if you want to win your claim. You can submit the evidence directly to the VA. Evidence and persistence is what wins claims. After you file the NOD you can hire a lawyer. That might really help you. No money up front and the lawyer gets 20% of your retro. Lawyers are available to us now, so why not use them unless you really have a very strong case you can handle on your own. Not every vet needs a lawyer, but sometimes in the appeals I know it helps.

Sqmdae I would get my own doctor outside the VA system. Unless your C&P doctor says you are totally disabled by PTSD you are going to have a ways to go. During this time you probably need your own private doctor to help you. The doctor you pay always writes a better letter and keeps better notes than VA. Tell your doctor what you want and what you are trying to accomplish. If you depend on the VA you have to take what you get. The C&P exam will probably carry more weight than this VA hack you have been seeing.

Can you verify your stressor? Do you have combat awards? Is your PTSD for combat or non combat?

Jim What is your current rating and did you tell the VA you just got SSD? How old are you? Age is a factor in calling you in for reevaluations.

Carlie That is an interesting fact. I think that is a big boost for asking for a DRO Hearing. Meeting with the person that can actually rate you is huge. They get to look you in the eye. I bet most vets don't ask for this and they are just a pile of paper to the rater. The only DRO that I met with who denied me was for my CUE. Too heavy for him.

Your main objective now is to show up for the exam on time. That is all that should be in your mind for now. Then get a copy of the exam later. It usually takes a few weeks. The rater is going to look at you as you are now. She is going to go over your history a bit. She will probably ask you a few questions about your medical history and she may verify that you are a RVN combat vet is she even knows the difference between a grunt and a truck driver. I bet the exam is over in 20 minutes if it lasts that long. They get paid by the patient. Just do as Pete is saying and as Carlie is saying. If the doctor starts to talk about your history before the military just tell her everything was fine before and bad afterwards.

Just tell the C&P doctor what happens on your worst day due to PTSD. The more nervous you are the better. Tell her your worst experience in Nam. Don't leave out any blood or guts if she asks. If you can't sleep the night before so much the better. Drink plenty of coffee and show up on time.

This post should be closed! Inflaming vets and scaring them is a contrary to what is supposed to be going on at Hadit.

You are getting a C&P exam for PTSD, so this is your chance to get a rating. If the exam doctor says you have PTSD and says it is severe you should get a good rating as long as your stressor is verifiable.

You know back in the 90's my VAMC got in trouble for doing too many open heart surgeries. They would do these major surgeries on really old vets in bad shape. They were doing this to help train young doctors from the medical school next door. The VA got money for doing this from the medical school. They did not care if the vet's lived or died soon after.

TestVet $25,000 is not chump change. Your health and peace of mind is the most important thing. John

When I went for the AO Registsry exam it was the most comprehensive exam I ever got at the VA. That exam is what identified my DMII and my PN. If my PCP had given me a decent exam the AO thing would have been pointless. Other than that I think the registry is a long term lab rat study on the effects of dioxin on humans. We vets are the lab rats. Students in toxicology writing their PH.D dissertations will use the data. Demographers in morbidity and mortality will also have fun at our expense. Right now doctors are getting funding for their research by looking at how AO is killing us. Our deaths are just statistics.

I ended up with a 60% rating for heart disease on appeal. I am not sure this is correct. I don't think the VA rater has any idea of what he looked at due to conflicting test results. I went to a private cardiologist. He was skeptical of everything the VA did or said. I had the chemical stress test with an echo. My private doctor said the only way to really tell was to get a heart cath. I don't have symptoms. The cath could kill me.

BR You have won the main battle with the VA. You were granted service connection. Now comes the pick and shovel work of getting your rating increased. You are going to need IMO's to do this. I don't think you will spring from 10% for depression to 100% without a fight, but you can do it because I did it.

Is there any medical record in existence that said you had depression or PTSD before you got the PTSD DX? The VA does the same thing with other diseases as well not SCing secondary conditions that were dx'ed before the primary dx. DmII for instance.

Pete You are right. Why not make it presumptive disorder like AO disorders? If you serve in the military in a combat zone and got combat pay then PTSD should be presumptive. Maybe all vets should be presumptive for PTSD.

Bob According to what I have heard is that if the VA gets information there is an assumption that they have read and evaluated it. That, of course, is BS. In my original claim the VA simply excluded all information that did not agree with their low ball rating. My recent decisions have been favorable to me, but just awful as far as the rational for the decisions. Really, I can't understand how they made these ratings. This is why persistence is what really wins claims. Even if you have great evidence you have to be a bull dog to win. You keep throwing the dice.

VA health care is government health care, and medicare is government health care. I have used medicare for years and I like it just fine. When I first got my SC rating the VA only treated those who were destitute or service connected. Now almost all vets can get treatment at the VA. The difference between the VA in 1970 and now is night and day. In those days if you wanted to see a doctor the only way was to show up at the VA and just wait. You did not get appointments except for service connected conditions. I have medicare, BC and I use the VA. I have never had any problem with billing.

If this couselor is a VA person she might be following orders from above to not push the PTSD thing. Combat PTSD is a definite service connected condition. MDD or bi-polar could be something NSC. I don't know why she would shy away from your going to vet center. With MDD you are probably going to have to show SMR's with evidence of mental disorder in service. With PTSD you don't have to do that. You just have to have the diagnosis and combat medals and you can probably get SC'ed for it pretty quick. I was SC'ed for another emotional condition and the VA was constantly talking about PTSD. I ignored that and just asked for increase based on what was already SC'ed. I got SC'ed years before the PTSD diagnosis even existed. I think you have the reverse problem unless you have in-service diagnosis of a mental disorder.

Kelly I think you can look up the way the VA rates PN to show exactly what is needed for higher levels of disability. There is a guy here named Terry who has 40% for PN. I think you can go to the VA website and eventually get to the rating system for rating neurological disorders. I know others know how to get to that information. Generally speaking you have to be in really bad shape to get 100% for PN. You have to have pain and numbness and loss of use I believe.