john999

I wanted to file a claim for HBP presumptive to AO, but the process on Ebenefits asks many weird questions such as "Are you applying for TDIU"? I already have TDIU . I don't know how to answer that question. They it popped up with "you don't need to apply for PTSD since you already have it". According to the VA I am not being treated for PTSD but for depression and anxiety which is SC. I feel like I am walking through a minefield so I have avoided Ebenefits. I know how the VA can really screw up a claim and send me to a proctologists for a PTSD exam and cut my rating. They once sent my TMJ claim to a psychiatrist and he did not know what to do.

Yes, and if the spouse is married for at least 8 years before the vet croaks she/he is entitled to an extra couple of hundred dollars in DIC. All told it is about $1400 a month. This is not much money and I can't quite understand why the spouse is not entitled to the full amount of the vet's compensation. With SSA the surviving spouse is entitled to all of the dead spouse's SSA. Let us say the surviving spouse is 70 years old. Now she/he must survive on half the money they were getting before the death of the vet. If they have rent, mortgage, loan or car payment you can't pay that on less than 50% of vet's pay. I don't have a scanner but I could mail my copy of AO Letter to Hadit or your address Gastone. One question I have is after 20 years of being P&T TDIU will that rating become permanent? I am 90% now and need a new 50% rating to get to scheduler 100%. I don't see this in my future unless I get a lot sicker.

My disability cost me the most productive years of my life work-wise. I was maxing out my IRA and 401-K contributions and that was almost 16 years ago. I lost out on SSA, OPM Pension, and personal savings and investment opportunities. This is why I think TDIU should be a permanent rating. Once you are TDIU almost no one ever goes back to work and the VA knows it.

I have been P&T since 2001 and am almost 68 years old , so I am not too concerned about reductions. I worry that HBP could cause a stroke or even more severe heart disease. I have been taking blood pressure from the VA for about 7 years. My BP is still high on occasion and they just upped my medication for it. I have always believed that it is wise to file for anything that might kill you even if you only get 10%. If I can make it a few more years I will have 20 years with a rating of P&T TDIU. I hope after this point according to the regulations that I will be home free from any reductions.

Medicare pays only about half of allowable amount for mental health care. This is a pitiful amount unless you have a Medicare Advantage plan that pays more. The private shrink I use won't even accept medical insurance anymore due to paperwork nightmare. He does accept Medicare put you must pay a significant copay. I get his care via OWCP so I pay nothing. The reason I still see him is because he knows how to write a report that the VA will accept.

I saw stats that show Vietnam vets are 1.26 times as likely as non-Vietnam vets to have high blood. Vietnam vets who actually sprayed or handled AO are 1.70 times as likely to have HBP as vets who did not serve in Nam. The current AO Registry letter says there is a link between AO and HBP, but how significant is the link I don't know because I am not a statistician. The VA also says there is evidence of a link between AO and bladder cancer. It is absurd to quibble about AO conditions while the Vietnam generation is probably age 70 on average and will not survive to wait for the VA to make up it's mind. We know that AO causes cancer, DMII, Parkinson's and IHD. What is left that usually kills people? All the cancers and other potentially fatal diseases that plague Vietnam vets should be made presumptive. 90% of us will be dead in the next 15 years, so the only people the VA are really screwing are the aging spouses of Nam vets who might be able to claim DIC. I do think that the VA does want to delay any more presumptive SC conditions because every day they wait a 300 Nam vets die. In my local newspaper I see Nam vet obits every day.

Buck I got the AO Registry letter today and it said the VA had made a link between AO and HBP. However, it did not actually say HBP would be service connected to AO. They were also making some kind of link between AO and bladder cancer. I might just go ahead and file a claim for HBP and when and if they SC it I would have a retro date back to my claim. The VA knows the dioxins cause cancer, but they use these half ass statistics to compare Vietnam vet populations and non-Vietnam vet populations to see if there is significant link between AO and any disease they choose to study. This is crap really because the Vietnam "Boots on the Ground" population is shrinking by the day. Less than one million Vietnam vets survive. By the time they do all these studies we will all be dead. I think the average age of a Vietnam vet is probably 70 now. How much time do we have? 2 out of 3 RVN vets have already died.

Has the VA made a service connected and compensable link between exposure to AO and high blood pressure. I got the AO Registry letter today and I can't decide what they are saying except it sounds like a time delaying hedge.

If I were you I would stay in treatment at the VA for your SC conditions. You need to stay in treatment even if it is private care and keep records of your treatments. This is what the VA will use to deny or accept a claim. If you are not getting treatment or taking meds for mental health issues they seem to believe you are better and need to be reduced. I get tons of meds and have been seeing VA shrinks for 20 years. They don't do me much good but I will keep going until I get 20 years on my claim and it becomes really permanent. I advise you to do the same.

I am not so keen on the c&p doctor's "remarks" section. He also says you don't have any other MH conditions. What about depression, panic disorder, social phobia? These are all co-morbid conditions IMO. What I don't like is his statement that you can follow complex demands, no suicidal ideation, and no impulse control difficulties and that you can complete all tasks of daily living. These screwy contradictory exams baffle me. You have all the symptoms of severe PTSD and yet he mentions your good hygiene and being on time and it sounds like a job interview where you got the job. Have you ever gotten a private IMO on your PTSD since you already have the VA's DX of PTSD. Your own doctor can comment on the severity. You should be getting "S".

I think you need and want medical evidence to support every contention you make. The VA will say any secondary conditions or new conditions not presumptive or supported by medical evidence is just speculation which is something the VA is great at doing to the Vet, but not when the shoe is on the other foot. I had medical evidence for my AO conditions to have a strong DX with no doubt especially regarding DMII and secondary conditions. You just have to lock it up so they is no wiggle room . I had a IME/IMO from my old psychologist for bipolar condition and in the IMO my doctor mentioned I had chronic pain and was treated with opiates from the VA and my claim for higher percentage was denied. The VA blamed my MH symptoms on the opiates ignoring the accepted Bipolar DX. I overcame it but it meant another IMO to explain what the first IMO said. Time.......!!!!!!

I think you should have gotten TDIU for the years before your current date. I think you would have a good case for TDIU as the same date you got SSDI? The VA should have known you were getting SSDI for the same condition you were getting VA compensation for if you informed them. That should have triggered a implied TDIU claim. I say "should have" but with the VA you usually have to claim it, but on an appeal that reveals your unemployability that should have been an informal and implied claim for TDIU. To some extent I am throwing it at the wall to see what might stick for you just the way the VA throws you at the wall to see if you stick. I don't mean this in a nasty way except for the VA part. They are just SOB's IMO. If all the vets who deserve 100% or TDIU were added on the rolls would triple.

Between the date you first filed a claim and the date you got TDIU how did you support yourself? This is what the VA would want to know? Charity is not gainful employment. I think your old lawyer wants a slam/dunk. I don't think she knows what she is doing either regarding the definition of "unemployability". If there is a big pot of potential TDIU retro money at stake you should be able to get a lawyer to go for it. What I have found is that many or most lawyers want to get paid in a reasonable amount of time. With the VA you never know since they can just keep rejecting your claim for a decade and not many lawyers will hang in there that long especially if they are spending money to get a shot at a jackpot. When you get to exact definitions of "gainful employment", sheltered work, part time vs full time work, and how close to the poverty level you income is from work these are all questions that have been debated. There must be case law on all this stuff. You want to cite decisions that set the rules for that set of claims.

You should get an IMO that asks and answers all the questions you have for the VA. IMO the VA will stick to just the exact things you ask for in your claim. Have you read the VA's schedule for rating your disability. They are looking for certain things to rate your claim. One thing is "bedrest" that you are required to take as mandatory for your condition. If I am not mistaken 40% is the maximum for many cervical and lumbar conditions. However, having constant back or neck pain can lead to other psychological conditions and might also have other secondary conditions than are non-psychological. Any vet who has chronic pain due to SC condition should also see a VA psychiatrist and think about making a depression claim. If being in pain 24/7 does not depress you then you may be too depressed to realize it. I went to the VA with neck pain and back pain issues and they started me on Morphine. That involved a whole new list of problems that I did not ask for then.

It has been so long since I filed a claim (2010) that the idea of making a claim and then having a c&p exam before the VA has your SMR's sounds crazy to me. How in the world can the VA even think about making a decision before they have your SMR's especially if you are claiming PTSD or anything that needs records to prove? This all seems assbackwards to me. The way they used to do it was the last step in your claim was the C&P exam and you could count days before you got a decision. Has all this changed? Using Ebenefits to file a claim makes me nervous. Just because something seems faster may be much longer in the end if you lose your original claim and have to go into appeals. I never want to go to the BVA/CAVC again. I want my claims decided at the VARO. Every time I filed a claim or for an increase the VA always lost my evidence at least once. I got to the point where I would drive to the VARO and put the papers right into their hands and got signed copies. I like to do it step by step and get receipts for everything. The one time you don't have proof the VA got something is the time they use it to screw you to the wall.

Many of these VSO's have been declining since the end of WWII. I know as a Vietnam vet I did not get a warm welcome from the DAV or VFW. They have their political uses. They can squawk when the VA tries to get rid of VA programs or tries to reduce compensation rates.

I got TDIU on a 70% rating. Some years later I got an extra 60% and I got "S", but I had to file a CUE to get it. I don't see how the VA can take away your TDIU unless you go back to work. Bradly V Peake is the case that was granted SMC S for a TDIU case where the vet had TDIU plus 60%. You get statutory S based on that rating.

I think there is some benefit in getting a face-to-face meeting with a DRO. They may connect your face with a claim and remember how you presented yourself and your evidence and be able to tap the tiny compassion gland where their heart used to be and give you benefit of doubt. I always tried for personal hearings on my claims. The fastest way may not always be best, and if you don't actually need the money top live slow and sure is better IMO. In some claims like CUE claims with lots of retro behind them I don't think it matters what they tell you in person, because their boss may scream that they cannot grant such a claim. I don't thing the VA is overjoyed at employees that grant huge claims without getting many sign offs from above. I don't even think it is possible for a DRO to give a vet over $25,000 in retro without a sign off from a bean counter. Since many vets don't even appeal their rating decisions I think the VA cheats vets every day. The way you win in the end is by evidence and persistence. I fought with the VA for 30 years on my original claim going from 10% to 30% and then 70% TDIU. I should have had 100% from my first claim but I did not appeal the lowball rating. When I filed my first claim back in 1973 I was in bad shape and deserved 100%. I got 10% which was a joke but the joke was on me since I did not yet realize what bastards they were at the VA.

PAR: The time limit for filing a NOD for the 2014 claim has run out on you. So you have never been rated for MST/PTSD? I don't know if you can get a CUE claim out of this due to CUE rules. The earlier effective date for MST/PTSD may be possible. Like Bronco says 80% of something is better than 100% of nothing if you are able to get a lawyer to represent you. He/she would get 20% of any retro. You don't pay them up front. You may have a chance since you did file the MST/PTSD claim and you had evidence to support that claim. I got an EED for a depression claim I filed because I had been an inpatient for a few days a year before my original effective date. The VA went back to my hospital admission because that constitutes a presumptive claim in the eyes of the VA. I was given the GAF score and it definitely was low enough for a 70%-100% rating. So the VA did grant me an EED back to the date of the VA admission. I also had a much earlier effective date for SSDI. I had originally asked that since the VA knew I was on SSDI they should use that date for my effective date. Somehow they did use the hospital admission to grant me the same date as my SSDI. There are many ways to skin a cat. Don't give up since if you had been rated 100% in 2014 that is a lot of money and the effective date would be the day you claim it, or even in my case the date the VA treated you as an inpatient or maybe even as an outpatient. They used the GAF I think then and if your doctors gave you a GAF of 50 or below there is no question that you were suffering severe symptoms. I would run it by a lawyer and if he/she did not want to take it I would do it myself just like you are doing. You should realize the VA has screwed tens of thousands of vets out of compensation so what happened to you is just SOP. By fighting and filing you learn the system. Just ask Berta Simmons and Bronco. John

"Legacy Program" sounds like something you get when you are dead.

OK, that's good that you did not give the first exam doctor rope to hang you. The problem is that you did not file an appeal. I probably lost a couple of hundred grand because I did not file an appeal on my first claim in 1973. I did attempt to fix the situation by filing what is called a CUE. This is when the VA makes an error that is very obvious to any reasonable mind. I had a lawyer and fought for six years and I lost just because I did not file a Notice of Disagreement and an appeal. In my case there was evidence the VA just ignored and both me and my lawyer thought it was a clear error that nobody could deny. Well, the VA denied it all the way to the CAVC and federal court would not hear it. That is the bad news, but you could still try and run it by a VA lawyer to see if the VA did make a serious error in your claim. I was just 21 years old and trusted the VA had considered all the evidence in my case. Years later when I really looked at my rating and how they got there I knew they did not consider my private doctor's opinion. I could not prove it because the rules were different back then and they follow the letter of the law when they jam you up when you get beyond the BVA. Find a lawyer or even a good VSO and see what they say about it. You have a hard row to hoe but give it a try. You have nothing to lose.

PAR When a C&P exam doctor focuses on your childhood and upbringing that is a glaring red light that means the VA is searching for a non service connected cause for your disability. If you did not file a NOD on your first denial it may be tough to get an EED for your PTSD. However, if the VA made the exam you got the total reason for denying your first claim and ignored your evidence you might have a chance. I think you may need some professional claims help. Please never discuss your upbringing with the VA again since this is the oldest trick in the book to deny a claim. I know because many years ago it happened to me. Stick to what happened in the military. Don't mention any other things that happened before or since military. You might try and find a lawyer to help you with this or at least to tell you if you have a chance. When you speak to the VA just imagine you have been charged with murder and you are being questioned by the police. Would you just blab and answer leading questions or would you get a lawyer? All this stuff happened to me with the VA, so I understand you trusted them a little and they showed you their true face. I would definitely try and get the EED back to 2014, but realize you may be in for a fight. A reasonable mind would grant you the 2014 date but we are dealing with the VA and with money they don't want to spend. When it protects them they stick to the letter of the law.

It has been over 45 years since I was discharged, but I filed a claim during the first year after getting out. This may be why most of my army records survive. The fact that most of my stateside records disappeared makes me wonder. The army put a whammy on me as well that I found out much later when I filed a claim for TMJ. The dentist who did the exam failed to make a DX or any other records of my exam. My stateside psychiatric outpatient records were not available on orders of my military shrink. He did not want to testify at a trumped up special courts martial the army had for me because I was demanding care and was insistent about it. I took a plea and got out of the army which was not a big deal at that point since I only had a few months left and had already been to Vietnam. I found this out when I requested all my personnel records. The army chose which SMR's to keep and which to throw away. I did not get a copy of my records. All I got was a ride to the gate there in Ft. Stewart. I had just enough money to get home. I was so screwed over it just took me years to really get over it. The army and VA were only interested in writing me off and not having to spend any more money on me. This is what has driven me to file for everything I think I can get the way they just threw me on the garbage heap. I did get a discharge upgrade to full honorable within a couple of years of my general discharge. I was lucky since I did not get a LTH discharge. They don't call the army and military the green machine for nothing. It is a giant grinding machine that lives on human flesh and blood.

If a lawyer looks at your claim and realizes that even if he wins it will take years to get a paycheck he/she may back off real quick. On my old CUE I went through a number of lawyers before I found one that was willing to take the case. 6 years later I lost, so maybe the jerks who turned me down knew something.

You could write to the individual bases where you served and ask for any records they still have. I tried to get records of my father's military disability from the VA and they just ran me around and around for years. His records were burned in St. Louis Fire 1973. I know that all my basic and AIT records from the Army are lost. Most records from stateside duty have gone missing except those the army wanted to make sure got into the records. I might go to my congressman and try to get them to help. That may be all they are good for us vets.