john999

I would think BVA would remand back to VARO because they are the ones that made the bad decision. I could be wrong on this. I also think you could go to Vet Court on this but then you probably should hire lawyer who will get some of your retro if you get any on remanded issues. You don't want your TDIU claim to languish some place in VA system. Did you submit evidence that you could not work solely due to SC conditions? I have heard that AMC is a black hole where claims go to remain in limbo for years. I have never had a claim at AMC. These are all diversions dreamed up by the VA to stall your claim. What rating did you get?

Send NOD by express mail with return receipt. If you do not file NOD you will lose your EED and have to start from scratch. If you let NOD deadline pass you are lost. You must be willing to play by VA deadlines and get your own medical evidence. How much time do you have left to file NOD? If you have to file generic NOD to meet deadline then do it. If the only evidence you have is VA evidence expect to be low balled or denied about 80% of the time. You need to develop your claims on appeal. This will take time but you have lost years already by not appealing via NOD. Not scolding you but stating facts. I failed to file a NOD and it cost me tens of thousands of dollars over 25 years. John

I heard great things about Ellis Clinic from Federal Worker's Compensation people. The thing is you have to go to them which means getting all your records and going to Oklahoma City. If I wanted an opinion from Ellis Clinic would I have to pack up all my SMR's, VA and private medical records to see them? I never used them because I had very good doctors I had been seeing here in Tampa and they referred me to other doctors for friendly IME. This was because I was in treatment for MH stuff for years by private doctor. I am being treated for DMII and OSA by the VA and by private doctor. However, none of them will go out on a limb and say the DMII or MH issues was secondary cause of OSA. This is what I need for my OSA potential claim. I also have High Blood but VA will not opine that it is cause or effect of DMII or CAD due to AO. I have not worried about it because I have TDIU and HB. I would like to get the High Blood and the OSA SC'ed but am not willing to pay $5000. I would fly out to Ellis Clinic I think. I first heard of Ellis Clinic from OWCP claimant who got what they call Schedule Award (cash) for injuries to his hands and feet. Much more than I got because my doctor would not stick his neck out one inch but did say some injuries I have were work-related when I worked for USPS. This did create problems for me later with conflicts between VA and OWCP. That would fill a book. When you get benefits from various programs it always has potential for problems as causes get intertwined and programs point finger at other programs to pay for the damage. The thing is most of us need at least SSD and VA to pay 100% to actually survive. $3000 a month from VA is not enough to support a family where I live. $5000 will do it if you have no debts.

Ham Are you a Vietnam vet? Do you have DMII? DMII makes getting SC for foot problems pretty easy. You have military records of foot problems? I did but the army lost them all including knee problems in basic and 3 weeks stay in hospital for some kind of lung infection just about 30 days after I got back from Nam. The army lost most of my SMR's including months of outpatient MH records. Anything that showed I had suffered injury or illness disappeared along the way.

When I talked to Bash I negotiated with him over the cost of his help. It is inexcusable for him to take 6 months to deliver IMO. He is always ready to take the money. I know he used to be good and would write opinions for federal worker's compensation as well. If BBB gives him an "F" I would worry.

If you don't like the C&P report get your own medical opinion. The VA has access to all our VA medial records. You just have to point them in the right direction to get them. I cannot stress how important getting your own opinions is to combat any VA medical opinions you disagree with for your rating. The C&P exam does make up the major evidence the VA uses in their decisions but not the only thing. I have gotten many second opinions over the years and this is how I got to where I am now from a initial 10% rating. It took me years to learn something about the system because I trusted worthless VSO's. People need coaching on how to proceed with these claims or they will have to learn the hard and very slow way like I did and possibly lose thousands of dollars in compensation along the way. Medical evidence is what you need and you can create your own via IMO/IME and using your own private records if they say what you need for them to say.

I would get a lawyer when and if you feel that you are in deep water and don't feel competent to handle your appeals etc. I think for your claim you need more evidence via an IMO and you need to appeal the rating decision. Brother, do I know about military dental care. I, too, had a couple of teeth pulled including a wisdom tooth in the Army. The dentist made a mess of it. I went to army dentist with clear case of TMJ (1969) and the dentist was careful not to document my condition while doing nothing to treat it. I remember claiming TMJ and finding out the dentist did not document the DX. For the VA to ignore your evidence is nothing new. This is why you must appeal via NOD to start. I would get the IMO/IME type exams to bolster your claim and attack the exact points where VA has gone off the rails to low ball you. I would see a VA shrink also. If this injury is causing you to feel depressed or socially isolated due to disfiguring mess they made of simple tooth extraction you could even file a claim for depression or social phobia. I feel for you since I also had the VA maim me with totally incompetent dentist. They made no attempt to save my back tooth. They just pulled it so I would not miss my trip to Vietnam.

I would like to get that doctor to opine on my DMII and Sleep Apnea. I had the SC DMII before the OSA. I did not have the OSA until I gained some weight which may be cause and effect of my DMII.

I did not even know the VA still required a confirmed stressor for PTSD? I thought if your stressor sounded viable to your shrink and you got the PTSD DX from the VA then you were good to go. If they are going back to the confirming stressors via unit records then a lot of vets are going to be crying. I though that if you were in a combat zone and your VA shrink believes your story of fear and stress brought on by fear of hostile action that was enough these days. For RVN vets they required proof of a stressor as in direct combat with the enemy or indirect fire hitting your position. I thought that all changed.

Jim You are right about the taxpayers not wanting to pay the butcher's bill after Vietnam. I remember how hostile the VA was to me when I claimed disability in 1972. This is why many vets get the attitude that if VA can screw me to the wall then this is total war and anything goes. Grossly faking symptoms is counter productive because it will be obvious to VA exam doctors that you are faking. Most believe we all are faking anyway. Now I must say it is much easier to get rated for mental health issues now than in 1972. At the same time it is harder because the VA has made themselves the only entity that can identify PTSD and make an initial DX. When I go to VAMC to be treated for non mental health issues I see VA staff and doctors breaking their necks to rule out PTSD in my case. They will say "appears depressed" or "is anxious" etc. but will not use the PTSD word. I assume they have been told not to put that DX in print. I am already rated for PTSD but it is combined with other things under heading of "MDD". In order to pay 5 Trillion for OIF/OEF the taxpayers will be asked to cut SSA and Medicare and maybe they will find a way to treat only SC vets at VAMC's. Haliburton and other corporations did rape the taxpayer as did entire administrations that supported invasion of Iraq and invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. I have often thought that USA let Osama escape from Tora Bora so they could have bogyman to justify War on Terror and stupid moves in the middle east. Osama and Taliban should and were dealt with but why complete destruction of Iraq? Our grandchildren will pay for these wars. They will eventually turn on us older people for putting them into debt. Then they won't want to fund SSA or Medicare.

VA does not do investigations like this for a 40% disability. Now Worker's Compensation does investigate people claiming total disability sometimes. Usually, you have to do something gross to get them to look at you like claiming you cannot walk and be jogging for fun. If a vet or SSD claimant is getting paid for working and they are, indeed, working full time then you will get heat, but this is natural. I am TDIU. If I send in employment questionnaire swearing under oath that I am not working and unable to work and I am working 40 hours a week full time and getting TDIU then I might have a problem eventually. That would be fraud, but there are many things you can do to make money that do not involve a salary and paying into SSA or getting IRS 1099's etc. for actual work. I make some small money off stocks but this is passive income. John

Oral cancers are curable if it turns out to be cancer. Since you are non-smoker and non-chewer it seems odd that you got potential DX of oral cancer based just on exam. I will be sending up smoke signals to any God's available to send healing vibes your way. I hope it is not cancer at all. If VA drags their heels on this at all seek private care.

I agree, Berta. But for a NOD I may have gotten a 100% rating as early as 1973. It is confusing now that you must use a standard NOD form etc. Back a few years ago vets were being told to file generic NOD so that nothing could be left out of your disagreement with the VA. The reliance on formal claims and more formal methods to file claims for increase clash with my idea of EED for a claim. Just like with PTSD diagnosis the VA is making it harder to get the DX while pretending to make it easier. New language regarding NOD's and Claims and Appeals is just making it harder for vets. I don't like the concept of the FDC. I don't believe many vets start with a FDC, but must build the claim as they go and learn. If I can use new evidence along with a NOD to bolster my argument then that is ideal. I have always found the C&P exam to be the thing to attack with an IME/IMO right off the bat. Since most C&P exams I have had at the VA were of very poor quality with the bias towards low balling and denial dripping off the exam doctors lips I have usually resorted to an IME at some point. If you can add it with your NOD then you are giving the VA something to look at that might sway their feeble minds. In the last few NOD's I filed I included a request for a DRO Hearing as a matter of course. This is philosophy of getting a second bite at the apple before you go to the BVA. I hate trips to the BVA because I do not trust those jokers. Last time I went to BVA I had a lawyer and I still got shafted. The judge did not read my lawyers brief. He just accepted all our facts and evidence and a year later we got a denial.

SSD will often send a person for what they call a Second Opinion exam and what we call a C&P exam. They are just as tricky as the VA. The key phrase in a SSD claim is " claimant is totally disabled from all work for at least one year". SSD only cares that you can't do any work and that you have enough quarters paying SSA to meet the requirements. They are not concerned with service connection vs non service connection like the VA. It is routine to have to hire a lawyer to win your SSD claim. Some of us get lucky and get it the first time around but are in a minority. If you can win a SSD claim based entirely on your military service then you should be able to get at least TDIU from the VA.

SSDI records are good if they show your disability and inability to work is due solely to service connected disability. If you get SSDI for things besides VA disability it is bad because the VA will blame all your ills on those documented non-service connected things.

Yes, I have been trying to get my father's army records from VA since he was disabled vet. His records at St. Louis were destroyed in 1973 fire. The VA is not cooperating with me. I sent letter to Janesville. The VA turned my simple request for my father's records into a claim for benefits. The only benefit I want is to gather evidence for him to get Presidential Unit Citation. I am dealing with BCMR so I expect no help there unless I can resurrect FDR. It has been six months.

When I was filing claims you did not have to have new and material evidence to submit NOD. All you are saying is that you do not agree with the VA's rating at some level. Now it is good to point out exactly where and how you disagree and present new evidence to bolster your claim, but why do would you need new evidence just to appeal your claim. I think what used to be true is that if you wanted to ''Reopen" your claim they VA demanded you have new and material evidence. I don't know if that is still true or not, but consider if you reopen the same claim with same evidence you will probably lose because the VA will look at the prior decision and look for new evidence. If they don't find any then they probably just rubber stamp the old denial. I do not believe you need new evidence to appeal your denial or low ball rating. I don't even think you need it to reopen a claim. If someone can quote me the regulation that says you need New Evidence to appeal your claim I would really be grateful. I don't want to give out bad advice.

I take hard copies and put them in the hand of people at VARO and get date stamped copies. When you file a claim for an increase which means any claim after your initial rating the VA will work on this claim and never even look at your C-File. Since I live close to the VARO I usually file things by hand. They lose everything over and over and it does not get better. If you trust them to do their jobs you will be sadly mistaken. If there is a way to screw up your claim they will do out of them being FUBAR. They don't care what happens to you or your claim so get insurance that they get your evidence.

I really got tripped up on the "undebatable" language in my CUE. The VA maintained that my truly awful rating decision was debatable. It was not like "you are or are not missing a leg due to military service" . A missing leg that got blown off in combat and was witnessed by a few dozen officers and you spent a year in a military hospital recovering and then the VA says you , in fact, have both legs and rate you ten percent for arthritis in the leg you don't have is what I call a CUE. If the rating you got can be debated as to severity or anything else then it is probably not a CUE unless specific regulations guide the rating you should get for gunshot to a certain group of muscles and you don't get that rating. Even in such a case their might be room for debate as to degree of disability. After my own experience I would not spend five years chasing a CUE unless I absolutely knew it was an undebatable error that rises to the level of CUE. When VA did not grant me Housebound I suspected it was an error but not a CUE. I knew the VA was wrong not to have awarded me statutory "S" according to their own regs. but they are so slippery I was not sure so I filed anyway.

Sometimes the VA will call a CUE on themselves when they see that they are clearly wrong. I claimed SMC "S" based on Bradley VS Peake. I did not know I was filing a CUE, but the VA said they had made a CUE. I got this very quickly. On the other hand, I filed a CUE claim due to defective decision in my original claim. I spent 8 years on that and lost. When you file a CUE claim it is a claim like other claims except you don't have protections like "benefit of doubt". The VA must make a decision on the CUE and you can appeal that decision. Asknod says a CUE should be visible from the moon. The error must be so clear and undebatable that it flashes like a neon sign. I really found out the hard way. Reason, logic , right or wrong have little to do with it. When I got "S" I got a decision that stated the VA had declared a CUE and I got my SMC and 2 years retro. There is no secret CUE. It is a decision like any other except it has strong powers and many problems getting there.

When I go for C&P exam I gird my loins (David in the Bible) and prepare for war. "There will be blood" usually mine. These guys are not your friends and can smile in your face and be killing you. The VBA is just an uncaring organization whose only reason for being is to see how little they can hand out to disabled vets IMO. What Buck is saying is true. You act nice and they act nice, but it means nothing. Evidence is all. You should not have to submit IMO's but it is the easiest way to get a claim moving.

If you are rated as totally disabled and are over 55 it is harder for them to reduce you but they can do it. It takes more sneaky steps on their part. They need to set it up as if they looked at you over a long period and noticed a definite improvement over time. So let's say you were 100% for PTSD. They might say that after careful review of your records over past two years you are much better and no longer have such severe symptoms as when you were rated 100%. Your records show marked improvement in last couple of years. Your shrink agrees with this and has discussed your improvements with you and you are much happier than you were blah, blah, blah. Then they might propose reduction. If you don't respond vigorously with evidence of your continuing severe disability they may call you in for exam. They cannot just reduce you on one exam but that is the beginning so you must fight them. They will use your own words to lynch you.

I would get an IMO that says your disability does make you unemployable at least. When you say it the VA's eyes glaze over but when board certified expert says it they tend to listen. This is new evidence that you are creating for yourself. I had IMO that said I was totally and permanently disabled. The VA ate it up because the person who wrote knew exactly how to word it. The VA accepted "word for word" my IME's opinion. They should have since she was a senior psychiatrist at the VA here in Tampa. The IME cost me nothing.

Yes, I would wait for the letter and see exactly why they combined TBI and PTSD ratings. If I disagreed I would then seek a medical opinion from a neurologist and a shrink to set these two conditions apart and rate them separately. Plus they only gave you 70% when with your problems you should be 100%. Are you able to work? If not then you should be either TDIU or 100%. They are just pissing around hoping you won't claim either TDIU or 100%. Something rotten in State of Denmark. This is my opinion and nothing more. It does not make logical sense to put both these things together. I think Berta and ARNG are both right on this.