john999

It is like saving 200,000 GM jobs for the obvious political reasons and some good reasons, but it was corporate welfare. The VA employees about 200,000 people and that is welfare as well. How many people would it take to run a Medicare-like system? A few thousand maybe. The senate is trying its best to kill the reform the VA really needs.

The VA can even get IME's mixed up in a VA claim. I had a claim in for TMJ and for increase in mental health condition. The VA used the dentist's statement in my mental health claim and the psychiatrist's statement in my dental claim. Needless to say I lost both cases. I have a CUE going to federal court in which VA tried to use self-reported statements the VA says I made showing I had a personality disorder instead of genuine mental health condition. They will play dirty and will make it up along the way.

This is what I was afraid of even if the VA created a card to let vets choose to get care from civilian doctors. I thought the VA would put so much red tape and restrictions on the card no provide,r or vet would use it. The VA has been a sort of welfare jobs programs for many political appointees and for a host of do-nothing managers. It is also the elephant graveyard for old doctors who retire from their practice and go to the VA and get on the gravy train. I was on federal workers compensation for a number of injuries I got on the job. Federal worker's compensation (OWCP) is so difficult to use and such a headache that almost no providers in my city would accept OWCP patients. The OWCP was always reluctant to pay them. When I would go to the pharmacy to get pill OWCP would deny my scripts. There was always something wrong with the bills the doctors who did accept OWCP sent in for payment. I am afraid that is happening with the VA and their "card". I am not 40 miles from the VA. I am housebound but only 20 miles from the VA. How will the VA monitor who is X numbers of days late for a VA appointment? What about reimbursement rates? Would the VA use medicare rates or some rate they dream up themselves. You know many doctors will not accept medicade because the reimbursement rates are so low. You notice Medicare only pays 80% of allowable charges. You pay the rest or your medigap policy does. The VA can find a hundred ways to sabatoge the "VA Card". So many people have a vested interest in keeping the VA what it is today I think there will have to be many more scandals to come.

This is another example that vets should not discuss childhood problems at a VA C&P exam. I don't know why you only got 50% except the VA tries to low ball us all in hopes we won't appeal. I don't know if the VA blamed part of your disability on childhood ADD. I told the VA about some teenage years skipping school, and they are still trying to use that against me almost 25 years later.

To correct your records you could do it via BCMR as Vync. I would do it just to make sure your records are correct at the source. The VA may have you mixed up with someone else. They may have the wrong records.

I get getting statement from Ebenefits saying they needed 5103 request. The VA never sent me anything to do with VCAA, but they did hold up my claim for increase for a year while I repeatedly wrote to them and talked to the VA. I told them I had no more evidence about ten times. I swore to it. I finally got congressperson involved and got a C&P exam within a few weeks. Now I just wait. All this aggravation has made me consider filing a claim for an EED on my 70% award since it was on appeal from 1997 to 2002 when 70% and TDIU was granted. So my claim was on appeal for five years and I got 2001 as effective date for TDIU P&T. Something is not right, but I was just willing to call it even since 2001 is the date I got SSD. However you file your claim be prepared to appeal the effective date they grant you. They really cheat on this one. John

I sure would have a private doctor do follow-up on these cancers as frequently as he thinks is proper. Regardless of the compensation I would get the second opinions and follow-ups from someone besides the VA. You are probably doing that already.

It is a good thing. Now you just have to get used to being officially totally disabled. When you read it in black and white and realize they are talking about "you" it does hurt a little. All most nobody every comes back from P&T even if they are 22 years old and have 60 years left to live. I am glad it happened to me later in life.

I think I would make an appointment with a private doctor who is a specialist in the area of interest to me. If he won't write something up for you then he probably knows doctors who will. Many doctor's do IME's on the side. I have two doctors who do them. The SSD lawyers know who to use. If you can get a specialist with lots of credentials it is best. For my mental health claim I used three doctors. Two of them had treated me in the past and one was a real IME. When you visit an IME doctor they know where the money is coming from so you can depend on them to do a pretty good job for you. Imagine if every doctor the VA hired to do IME's was very vet friendly. They would stop using those docs. Having a private doctor who is actually treating you and knows you is really the best.

P&T means permanent and TOTALLY disabled. To be totally disabled means 100% either via TDIU or Schedular. If you are 90% and have one rating of at least 40% you should be able to get TDIU. You may need an IMO/IME. I had 70% and SSDI and was denied TDIU. I appealed it and got TDIU P&T via the IME route. If you can't work due to SC then you should get TDIU.

The VARO's are just criminals. They put the F-you in Fraud. I watched 60 Minutes last Sunday and there was a segment about SSDI fraud, and how so many people are getting SSDI via crooked lawyers, and judges possibly on the take. Next it will be veterans getting compensation for Tinnitus and PTSD fraudulently, and nothing about the millions of vets cheated out of just compensation for the last 70 years. The VA is a baby of congress and congress could fix it and make it really work except for possible cost, and all those jobs, research money for local medical schools and construction projects congressmen can use as rewards for their districts. If they just gave us all VA cards we could use like Tricare, Blue Cross or Medicare who would that reward besides the actual veterans? The VA as it is is just an excuse and a sham instead of a solution. However, when asked many vets seem to love the old VA. I think they are only talking about the health side to vets who probably have no other options. Any medical care is better than none. If you go to any big VA hospital you will find many vets living in squalor close to the hospital or VARO just so they can be near it. Many live near the VA hospital in Tampa even though the area is dangerous and apartments are dumps. Maybe there are VA hospitals that are good. I have not been to one. John

Until 1990 the VA did not even have to list any evidence they used in a rating decision. This really hurts old timers trying to get retro via the CUE route. Now they still have weapons like accusing the vet of doctor shopping when they send in an IME. Nobody in the world cheats like the VARO?

As long as the VA health care system remains a hospital system instead of an out patient system it is going to fail in its mission. How many would trade their VA care for Tricare, Medicare with prescription benefits, or ChampVA? Give me Tricare and I will pay the premiums as they are now. I will never go near the VA. I am 100% SC, and I stand in line with guys who have no disability rating. The VA still bills my private insurance for 90% of my care. I am just going half a dozen times a year as it is, but the joint is filled with the poor and destitute. I didn't know it said VA Charity Hospital out front. The homeless can have it with my best wishes. John

OK, I plan on having the surgery. My CPAP/Bipap does not work well for me even under lab conditions.. It leaks off and on all night. I wake up every hour on the hour when I wear the mask due to it drying me out so bad, or noise from leakage. Just as soon as I am able to get seen, and as soon as the doctors say I am a good candidate I will have the surgery unless there is some dire problem I don't know about. To use nasal pillows I would need three hour surgery on my nose and sinus. It just so happens that at the University of South Florida they are doing the procedure. I thought I was going to have to fly to Pittsburg to get it done. It is a new procedure that just got FDA approval after a two year trial. The company Inspire Medical makes the device. John

For those out there who have OSA and hate the CPAP there is a new therapy called Upper Airway Stimulation. If I qualify I am going to get it done at the USF medical school. You can go to www.inspiresleep.com to check it out. It involves putting a device under your skin to stimulate you throat not to close up when you sleep. There is more too it. I can't tolerate the CPAP and it does not work for me anyway. The VA was involved with it to some extent but they are so cheap don't expect it yet. John

I often see exams here where the doctor has not looked at the vets SMR's or his VA medical records. I would bet a thousand bucks the docs that say they reviewed the vets C-File are probably either lying, or they just looked at the last rating. Can you imagine one of these smucks reading a thousand pages of C-File? I think they get a flat fee for doing these exams.

The TDIU regs state that your inability to work must be "solely due to a service connected condition" so if that is what you got SSDI for, and the VA knew about it then you have an inferred claim for TDIU already. That you would have to fight for to get them to admit they should have inferred it. So you should file the official TDIU form, and then argue about EED later. I did that and got some extra TDIU since the VA should have inferred an EED. I think they owe me an EED on my 70% rating that led to the TDIU, but that is another story. John

I do know that lack of a C&P is not a CUE.

If you feel the tears begin to flow just let it happen. Don't be a tough guy because it works against you in a C&P for PTSD. Dress like you normally do on your worst day. I would avoid the firm handshake and steady gaze. The always count eye contact and affect against you if you smile or act cheerful or put on a brave front. John

If your doctor's say your condition is permanent and the VA denies this thus denying Chapter 35 benefits I would appeal it. It takes the VA a year to review your appeal and by that time you can get more evidence to show your condition is static. I did this, but it may not be for everyone. I was tired of waiting on the VA after years of appeals and denials. I am thinking about appealing the date of my P&T since that claim that evolved into TDIU P&T was on appeal since 1997, but the VA effective date was 2003. I may have to CUE it. John

I don't think Navy04 was taking a swipe at all those with hearing problems. I think he was pointing out that mental health issues are not figments of our imaginations. I was at a small airbase in Vietnam. It was also a fire support base with 105 and 155 howitzers firing all night. I do think that anyone who fired the 105's and 155's without hearing protection must have suffered hearing loss. When the artillery guys moved the 155 guns around to fire over our heads it was so loud that when I first got there I thought it had to be incoming. It would wake me up out of a dead sleep. So I don't think everybody who files for tinnitus is faking, but I know there is no objective way to tell if someone has it. However, if someone fired those big howitzers without protection they most probably have real hearing loss, and not just buzzing in the ears. I also think that depression is real and can wipe out a career. I knew a guy from my therapy group who got a Master's Degree via VA Vocational Rehabilitation and his chronic depression put him on permanent disability eventually. He got better for a while on the anti-depressants, but then either he stopped taking them due to side effects or they just stopped working.

Yoshi Where did you get your medical degree?

You know me and a buddy got IME's from the same doctor. The VA totally accepted my IME and totally rejected my buddy's IME. I read his IME. It was perfect. The VA said he was doctor shopping while being so crazy about my IME that they incorporated into my rating decision word for word. It is a coin toss.

One thing is you need diagnosis for all the conditions you mention. "Pain in both hips" is not a diagnosis. If you don't get everything the first time go to doctors of your own and get medical diagnosis for all conditions and appeal. You have one year to put in your Notice of Disagreement after you get your initial ratings. APPEAL!!!!!!

I am going to wear the " I'm with Stupid" shirt I saw on South Park. I got wise by luck and reading Hadit posts from people smarter than me. You know even when I have had claims approved neither me, nor my doctor understands the logic behind the decision. John