john999

If you let the claim die you lose your effective date. File your NOD and ask for a DRO Hearing. You can gather new evidence while waiting. When you file for reconsideration you have to have new evidence. You still have to wait, and the clock is running. I think the rule is 60 days after a SOC or a year after a decision to file a NOD. If you are confused join the club. The NOD will start the appeals process, but most claims of any substance are won in appeals. The VA threw you 10% in initial rating and to get more you need to appeal one way or the other. No speedy magic bullet. There is a healthy debate over reconsideration VS NOD/Appeal. There is no "one way" to do this.

Apply for IU. If you can't work now that is what the rating is for. If you get SSDI you won't be able to do any real work anyway. I know it is hard pill to swollow but you should think ahead. What if you get worse? You don't want to wait until you are a basket case to file for IU. The sicker and older you get the harder these things are on you.

Shark I see where you are coming from and I understand about keeping the mind occupied. Since you have a lawyer for your appeal I think you are probably in good hands. You pay the lawyer out of your retro. Hey, if he wins it is worth it. I think you will win this thing. You just don't want to hand the VA a club to bash you with if it is not necessary.

It is so frustrating when you are pursuing a claim I think you should be concerned with the money. The money is all you will ever get from the VA or the military. That is remedy to the injustice....money in the form of compensation. Justice is just a word. Money you can take to the bank. These people are never going to give you back your health and career. That is lost so get the money. If you are able to get the best professionals to help you get them. If you have to pay a lawyer it comes out of your retro. 80% of something is better than 100% of nothing. You must understand how the VA can jerk you around for years and years on some techical mistake that only a BVA judge understands. I wish TestVEt were here to chime in on his non combat PTSD claim and what he went through. He is a real expert on this topic I think. Just remember the VA will go over your claim with a microscope to blow you out of the water. Your claim needs to be tigher than a duck's ass.

I think your VSO is going to think you are trying to do his job for him. You should just tell him what you are trying to accomplish and supply the evidence. Better yet, get a lawyer to do this. Non combat PTSD is hard enough without having some VSO do it. He/she will probably make a mess of it. Ask TestVet what he thinks. He won non combat PTSD claim. Not tryin to offend you, but help you clip a few years off this claim.

Mmm....the points Clownman raises are valid. Talk of age as a factor and the vet being able to complete a PH.D program muddy the water. Like Clownman says, since the vet is 80% with 50% PTSD he should just have a letter saying he cannot work due to SC disability. It would be better to get it from a psychiatrist. The Vet is going to complete a PH.D program and then what? That indicates some intention to go to work at the end of all this education. That won't help a P&T claim. The thing is you want to give the VA just enough to serve your purpose without adding information they can turn against you. When I fist saw the letter from the psychologist I did not consider the things Clownman has brought up, but they are valid. Is the vet unable to work now and will be able to work once he completes a PH.D? I wonder what exactly the vets wants. You know once a vet gets IU they usually stay on it. It tends to kill the ambition to give up the compensation check. It might be better to just keep the 80%, complete school and then get a job. If I had gotten IU back when I was in college I probably would never have worked in my life. It is a disincentive to work if you are able. If you are truly IU it is a blessing. The last part of this is just my opinion.

The doctor saying he has made a careful and complete review of the Vet's SMR's and current medical records is language you need in the IMO. Then it helps to have the "at least as likely as not" statement in there too. I don't think I want to trust the VA to connect the dots. My claim is 38 years old and these guys have pulled every stunt on me in the book. Just not reading your records is one of their favorites, or misinterpreting what your doctor states. You send the VA a letter supporting IU and it comes back that your doctor says you have a rare disease that is not SC.....huh?

What a great letter! I wonder how long this PH.D. will last at the VA? When I was first rated the VA ignored my psychologist's letter.

Frank The VA will bill for anything they can get away with be is SC or NSC. If you are over 50% they figure you won't comlain too much since you don't pay anything in terms of co-pays. I think it is a crime to charge vets a co-pay on anything.

Yes, the BVA,Remand,BVA cycle can go on for 20 years. You get the remand exam and the VA does another inadequate or biased exam and you are right back to the appeals again unless you get an IMO to tilt the balance.

If I as a vet with medicare were stuck with the VA I would drop medicare. The VA is not worth what I pay in Part B. That would be the opposite of health care reform. I don't want my medicare dollars supporting those idiots at the VA.

When I think about my claim and how haphazard were my efforts I wonder I ever got a decent rating. It took me years. Once I got up to speed on IU then I got that pretty quickly, and overcame a PD diagnosis and an alternative NSC reason for being IU. With my VARO I had to fight for every single benefit. It was like the Battle of Stalingrad. I fought for inches it seemed. I think St Petersbugr VARO is the dirtest in the nation. You have to use a sledge hammer and a 2x4 to get anywhere with them. You have to prove your claim and then shove it up their ZZZ. My VSO's, the DAV, were lazy slobs. They were part of the problem. They were like an extra arm of the VA with the same attitude towards the veteran treating me like a begger.

Your main problem will be getting a verifiable stressor for the PTSD. That is what is going to hold you up if you don't have it. Send the Iris to get the status of your claim. That is all you are going to get. It can't hurt, but it will not speed up the process. The more stuff you have in the system the slower it will go. If the MDD is enough to get you 100% then just concentrate on that if you can prove it through your SMR's. The VA can screw up a very simple claim. Just think what they can do with a claim with multiple issues. Non combat PTSD has to be proved from the gound up! Not easy as guys like TestVet can tell you. It took him years and he had a lawyer if I remember. PTSD is one of the hardest claims to prove. The VA is ready for people who are claiming it. They are well prepared to deny if all your ducks are not in a row.

I like what Wholesale is saying about getting copies of what you submit. If you have some degenerating condition I would say to stay in treatment at the VA for the rest of your life. You can go to other doctors, but keep going for treatment to the VA. Everytime you are seen at the VAMC you add more documentation to your file to show the decline in your condition. The VA is good at one thing and that is producing paperwork for your file. You want a mountain of documentation and they will provide it.

Pete992 If your VA doctor has the guts to write the kind of medical report you really need to get SC'ed then that is a very good way to get servic connection. However, getting your VA doctor to do this can be hard. Therefore, having a IMO doctor or private treating doctor is the best way in my opinin. You are paying this guy and if he knows how to write a report you have a good shot at winning. The main thing is to have evidence in the form that Wholesale stated. If you have that you may have to wait but you will most likely win in the end. I don't know what the best way for every vet, but having a good private doctor was my salvation.

Veteran for Life You proved that a vet who is persistent and does not take "NO" for an answer can beat the so-called experts. I guess your case proves that the veteran is the best advocate of their own claim. Probably, the lawyer just did not want to take on a case he thought would not ring up cash in the register with little effort on his part. Of coures, he could be just another ignorant person claiming to be an expert just to get a payday. It is going to probably take a long time to get a really good groups of vet lawyers up to speed. Most medicare lawyers know exactly what they are doing, but the same can not be said about lawyers claiming to be advocates for vets. I agree that IMO and documentation are prime factors in getting a claim approved for many of us. If I did not have an IMO I never would have gotten IU.

I don't think the concept of "informal appeal" exists. You can file an informal claim, but not an informal appeal. I disagree with the statement that a vet does not need to get their own medical opinion. The C&P exam you get under VCAA is the very minimum you need to try and get service connected or an increase. I would still be at 10% if I depended on C&P exams provided by the VA.

If you can't prove the MST with evidence you will have a hard time winning after 23 years. You need evidence of some kind that this happened and not just a doctor's report 23 years later. This stressor must be verified. That is exactly what the VA will say "Vet's record silent on MST".

Does your PTSD diagnosis have a verified stressor? If you are 70% and unable to work why do you need to pursue a PTSD claim? If you are 70% for physical injury you should be able to get IU based on that without the PTSD hunt. What was the basis for denial of your original IU claim?

I am in the process of waiting for my CUE claim to be certified to the BVA. The VARO says they got our form 9 in April and are reviewing my file to certify it to the traveling board when that is set up. I am using a lawyer. I advise those with tough claims to get a lawyer if you are eligible. The Claim sits at the VARO until it is certified to the BVA. This could take a long time, but my lawyer says we will win. If we win I get money. If we lose I get a case of the ass. Forget these VSO's if you are in your appeals. See if you can get a lawyer to help you unless you are really up to the fight and know what you are doing. The VA is going to bust your &^%%$ no matter what happens.

Every time I see one of those jive DOW advertisements on TV about how they are saving the world I wish an astroid would hit them. I think those in DOW and those who knew about the effects are war criminals because they sprayed that stuff on civilians. AO was sprayed on people we were supposed to be saving from communism. "We are here from the USA and we are going to kill you "

Did your decision say you were awarded Chapter 35 benefits? That means ChampVA and means if you have insurance you can get a waiver of the premium. Also educational benefits for dependents. The way things are now ChampVA is solid gold.

Yes, indeed, file for any new claims or a NOD on old ratings before your one year post ETS date. This is most important. Get your appeals or new claims into the hands of the VARO by hook or by crook before your ETS anniversary. If you get a higher rating it will go back to the day after your ETS if you do it within one year discharge (ets). That is what happened in my case. I filed within one year but it took three years to get a rating but it did go back to day after discharge, so three years of retro (small money in those days)

I do think Carlie is right that you need new evidence for a reconsideration. Otherwise you are filing an appeal starting with the NOD. Just keep your eye on the clock. One year to file the NOD or you lose the EED. I hope that VSO knows what he is doing. I would keep a close eye on my claim. Reconsiderations are not a magic bullet to a fast new decision.

You need something besides a voc rehab person saying you are not really suited for employment. You need a doctors statement saying you are unemployable due to your service connected disabilities. It probably will take a while to get this done, but start now. If you file a claim for an increase in your disability the VA should schedule you for a C&P exam if you can't afford a doctor's report. Won't your VA shrink write you a letter saying you are unemployabled? Don't tell anyone you filed because you could not find work. You are filing for IU because you can't work. Be careful of what you say to the VA because your words will haunt you.