john999

The VA will cancel prescriptions for all sorts of reasons. I have been told that we must call pharmacy each time we get new pill or when we have refills. Any change in prescriptons must be called into pharmacy. So my shrink told me! I use HealthyVet and have not had too much trouble except if you don't refill on time they cancel prescriptions. Now for opiates it is a different story. That I must renew every month and then guess when they will arrive. John

10,000 bucks will just about bury you if you go for viewing, embalming, nice coffin etc., and you are buried in VA National Cemetary. I don't want people to view my body after I am pumped up with embalming juice. I think I will cut out the viewing and just go for quick service and into the ground. Florida insists on metal vault into which coffin goes due to wet conditions. This is pollution and waste of space. The graveyard where my relatives are buried is now too dangerous to visit without armed guard or cops overhead. What is cheapest way to go? The only who will show up for my service are just a few friends. I am not worried about making an impression once I am cold. I want the wife to hold onto as much insurance money as possible. John

You won't get an IMO from a VA doctor most likely. You need private doctor for that. VA did do opinions for a while but too many vets were getting over so they stopped that fast. My VA doctor did two for me and I won both claims and then the brakes went on hard.

What email or phone do you call to get Bob?

These C&P docs almost never look at C-File. Too much work and time for their paycheck. They look at VA records and private records if they are concise. These doctors do many exams to make a buck. Maybe five claims a day and maybe more they do exams. No time to read c-file and hardly time to look at VA records. I had exams where doctor hardly knew what I was being examined for unless I told him. Looking and understanding DBQ is important. You don't want to quote right off the DBQ. You must make the doctor think it is his idea. You need to know when to agree and when to disagree. If he gets into time before service they watch out. John

As an aside probably 50,000 Vietnam vets had some sort of TBI from blasts and have never gotten a penny. I know a marine who got blown off an APC and had severe headaches back in the 80's. I don't know what happened in the long run, but this was common event when APC, Truck, jeep or even tank hit a mine. Guys riding on top were thrown off and those inside probably died. i sure would not give up on this claim. Getting denied first time is almost SOP for VA for any invisible injury. However, the cyst is visible. If you doctor will say it is due 50/50 to the head injury that is good proof. You simply have to keep getting medical evidence to support the severity of your injury even if it takes a few years. John

If he can't work file for TDIU anyway even if he is 50%. If he qualifies for TDIU the VA will find a way to bump him up to 70%. He should file for SSDI. I was 30% when I filed for TDIU. I had filed for SSDI and disability retirement from my job. It took some time( about a year) but I got TDIU back to the date I originally filed the claim. The rules say if you cannot work solely due to SC condition you are entitled to TDIU. The 70% rating thing is an addition to the general rule. If he were to get turned down by Vocational Rehab and got SSDI it would be hard for VA to deny TDIU. If he got Vocational Rehabilitation and failed in his attempts that is also good evidence of IU. How old is he?

I understand your fear of losing all future coverage for your spouse under OPM. I will call NARFE and ask them about this rule. I thought that if you suspended family coverage you could get it back during open season. Hey, the self plus one coverage sounds good to me. I can't understand why we who have medicare as primary must pay as much as those who have BC as primary. We are being screwed on behalf of all those employees who have cheap FEHB. You know 40% of my pension goes to pay for BC family plan. This is totally unfair and an injustice. NARFE needs to get onto this problem. Since FERS federal employment begins to suck. If my wife kept insurance from OPM after I croaked most of her survivor benefit would go to pay just insurance. She only would get 50% as it is of my pension and we are all paying for this out of our pensions by the 10% reduction to have survivor benefits. Accurate facts are better than false good news. Thanks for your responses to this issue which affects many of us. You never know what will happen with FEHB either since it is re-negotiated in congress every few years. ChampVA is probably a better bet than FEHB. The public and congress hate federal employees thinking we were or are all overpaid and useless.

I think you got bad info from OPM about suspending coverage on your wife but not on yourself. If you change to "Self Only" coverage how can OPM stop you? This does not make sense. They are telling you all or nothing. I would call NARFE and ask about this business. NARFE is advocate group for retired federal employees. I am a member and pay the dues. This just does not jive with what I have read in NARFE. These OPM, SSA, VA people will tell you anything. This is what frightens me about my wife and survivor benefits. They will tell your survivor you are not entitled to DIC or survivor benefit just out of ignorance.

There is a new treatment for OSA from Inspire Medical. I had it done and am still healing, but will soon be able to give feedback on success or failure. I have three implanted devices in my body to treat the OSA with hand held device I turn on and off at will. This is the new direction for OSA to be done with the mask and Cpap which has only 50% success rate over time.

When the VA says they can fire people they must realize that most VA employees are vets and they all have rights under MSPB. When the USPS fired me for misconduct etc. and tried to take away my pension I hired a lawyer under the MSPB. I not only got my full pension , but I had it written into the deal that nothing would prevent me from filing for worker's compensation. So as I settled with the USPS I filed for worker's compensation (75% of my wages tax free) and got that in lieu of the retirement until I got TDIU. They threw me right into the briar patch. I could not work anymore any way but I was not going to take getting fired for being medically unfit due to work related injuries. The way 99% of federal employees get fired is for excessive absences from work. There is a whole big process where they must counsel you blah, blah. and then suspend you and finally fire you. At USPS most got their jobs back except those like me who did not want it back. John

Yes, I get Blue Cross from OPM and my wife is included in the family plan. I have Medicare now so that is primary for me. Blue Cross is still primary for my wife and ChampVA is secondary. When she gets Medicare I think I will suspend Blue Cross for her because it is expensive. For me as an individual I will keep it as my medigap. However, if you or me die while Blue Cross is suspended the spouse can't get it back. This is a dirty deal from OPM. The survivor benefit I pay for out of my pathetic pension, and yet my spouse wil lose the right to BC if I die while it is suspended! The money I get from VA is three times my OPM pension for 30 years under FERS. I get more from SSA than my pension. Most don't even have pensions. You are expected now to save for 40 years and make wise investment decisions so you can retire with a 401-K. 75% of citizens won't do this and will depend on SSA and foodstamps in their old age. I bought annuities for my wife and myself with investment money, but I think I am one in 10,000 workers who can do this and generate significant income down the road. You have to start planning when you are 18 years old for retirement. John

I got my discharge upgraded shortly after discharge in 1971 after Vietnam. There was a short period of time when people were feeling bad about Vietnam and about the way our troops were treated. I was upgraded from General under Honorable to Honorable. I had been in the Army for almost 30 months on my enlistment when I was kicked out. I had been to Vietnam. The thing was that I was a pest. This is why I got tossed out. I complained about the crummy psychological treatment I was getting (no treatment). Then after I was out I was angry and depressed. Then I filed for disability and for discharge upgrade. For vets with emotional disorders unless you were psychotic you would get maybe 10% for what they called a "nervous condition". I knew quite a few vets with obvious TBI's and PTSD. They got nothing for many years. I also knew vets who got bad conduct discharges and undesireable discharges for being caught with a few pills or a bag of pot. This was the 1960's-70's and soldiers were being discharged from Vietnam with bad conduct discharge because they failed an urine test which I remember they started in 1970. Everyone knew the war was winding down and what better way to cut costs than to kick out soldiers and cut off their G.I. Bill bennies. John

Yes, ChampVA will pay the copays for what Medicare won't pay. ChampVA is a complete medical insurance with drug coverage and all the rest. My wife has it and when she gets Medicare I will drop the Family Blue Cross plan I am paying out the ying yang for now. I would not go one day without full medical coverage for you or your wife. One fall, one car wreck, or illness can blow away all your savings, and you end up with a lien on your house. John

If you can't work file for TDIU. If you are 34 you also want to file for SSDI. Once you get these things that is usually the end of the line. If your physial condition is permanent and is going to keep you from working this is the best direction I see for you. The idea of trying to get to 100% one disability rating at a time will take years if ever. Like Berta says you want to see what kind of discharge the military gives you. You and your family won't be living high on the hog on TDIU but you will be living. John

I was told off by some nurse when I used secure messaging to tell my PCP that I had been in the hospital for an operation. She said the messaging system is not for complaints. I told her to bugger herself. Back on the S***List. Actually my PCP is the only good doctor I have seen at the VA and he is helpless. John

I see the VA claims and health care system as just planned failure. It is meant to fail. If they replace this jerk or that jerk no matter. The claims process has been an ongoing nightmare for 60 years. Many of the WWII vets who were discharged with serious disability ratings were cut a few years later and most just accepted it. This generation won't accept it because we will be at war forever now that we are an empire. You go into the service and you come out with a disability. That is the way it is going to be since there is no draft army of slaves like for WWII, Korea and Vietnam. John

Amen!

Just try and get honorable changed to medical discharge with pension rights! Then BCMR gets nasty. Back in the day the military discharged thousands of PTSD and TBI cases as just honorable. Then you need to work for years with the VA to get what military should have identified before discharge. I got no discharge physical.

VA needs a complete do over. The concept of a concentrated hospital system just for vets is great if the VA had the resources to make it really work, but they don't and never will. Just hand it over to private health care system already in place. I have been dealing with VA over getting appointments outside the VA. Disaster! Nobody wants to treat patients under fee base or any such system if they have to deal with the VA. Now all I will do is just go to the VA for pills as infrequently as possible. I will pay for my own health care. I do anyway. I will be dead for 50 years and the VA will still be a mess. Out of the blue I was told I have a vision appointment Wednesday way across town. I hav an appointment at the same time with a private doctor 2 miles from my home. Now they will report back I refused care for my eyes. They make this impossible for me. I don't need their help since I am not a charity case yet. John

If you are over 40 years old and in bad shape take the 100% from the VA and get P&T when you can. If you have a 401-K you can borrow from it until you get your P&T to buy insurance for your family. What you don't want is to be fired and out on the curb with no plan. It happened to me and it was great weight loss program. I worried off 30 lbs in no time. My wife was working and had insurance. It took about 18 months to get P&T and then ChampVA. I was 51 years old and pretty washed up due to pain and anxiety.

I I have pain disorder but have not checked recently to see it has been changed to somatic disorder. Somatic disorder means it is in your head. My pain is not in my head. it is in my feet, spine, shoulder, neck and hands. I have PN. I am not dreaming up my pain. It really put me out of work. John

Your SSA exam doctor must give you an actual DX. It can't just be "has anger issues" or some such rot. "Stress" is not a medical DX. PTSD or GAD or Major Depression is a medical DX that the VA will accept. When I worked for the postal service employees were always going out of work on "Stress" and filing for worker's compensation. They lost the case because "stress" is not a medical mental illness.

S is about $300 bucks a month extra.

You must be a vet since 9/11 and you must be severely disabled this I know. How do you know you are SMC "S". Are you 160% on your rating?