john999

Fee base should pay for medical bills you incurred while waiting for service connection if the bills are for SC conditions. They paid for my teeth while I waited for TDIU. I had to fight for it but it can be done. I would create a 6 month emergency fund with my retro and use the rest to pay bills with highest interest rate first. If you get a credit card use it just like cash. Pay off the balance every month and don't borrow money with it. I think I could teach a course in personal finance since my wife had to file for bankruptcy while we were still just a couple. I could not pay her bills, and she could not in 20 years. We tried to negotiate with creditors but they said "We don't do business like that", so I told them to expect bankruptcy filing. If they had negotiated in good faith I could have paid even though I did not create these debts. If you earn any amount of money you can start a Roth IRA. This is a gift from Uncle to those who have money to use it. Earned income goes in and comes out tax free after 5 years. Almost all investments are there to favor those with money enough to use them. If you get less than about 80,000 a year in regular income your capital gains are tax free is you are married. Both dividends and capital gains are taxed at either 20% or 15% or 0% rate. So when you get some money pay off immediate debts you can't shuck and start an investment program. Even a few hundred a month can be a great start. I did it when I was able to work and got lucky with investments. Capitalism works for those with capital. John

I have had more than one DRO on the same issue. Once by myself and once with my lawyer. My lawyer wrote a 40 page brief. This completely overwhelmed the DRO who is just some senior claims examiner. I have had good luck with the DRO except for my CUE. This was way over his head, so it was batted up to the BVA and onward to Jupiter.

If you have a lawyer you should trust him or her. If not fire them. Follow their advice as long as they represent you. I have had a lawyer for 8 years on a CUE claim. If you have a decent lawyer they can look objectively at your claim and see things you cannot see. John

You can go for higher rating at the same time you go for retro back to time you were first misdiagnosed. If you are unable to work the first thing is to try and get TDIU or 100%. You could include your claim for retro in your claim for increase. For increase you need an IMO/IME. Are you able to work? This is usually the cutoff between 70%-100% level of disability. If you can't work apply for SSDI as well. I basically agree with Phil's idea that if you don't ask you don't get. I don't think they will reduce you. Are you getting therapy for PTSD at the VA or Vet Centers? I would try and find a private shrink or psychologist who would treat and write letters for me. These guys are not constrained by VA rules and will write and say your PTSD is much worse than 50%. John

When the VA prescribes addictive drugs to a vet for ten years and then suddenly decides this is a mistake this calls into question their entire system of medical care. You simply can't just abruptly stop taking benzos and opiates and many other drugs for anxiety and pain. There needs to be consultation between patient and doctor. The VA told me that I should go to in-patient pain program. However, to do this I must be off all opiates and benzos already. This is not rational or reasonable. I might consider a withdrawal program and then non drug pain program, but first I need real help getting off the pain meds and I need something to help me do it. Now I can go to private pain clinic and they have drugs that blunt effect of opiates. I don't know if the VA has anything like this and I sure don't trust them. I was hospitalized some years ago and the first thing they did was stop my pain meds cold turkey. I did not sleep until I could get my wife to get me out of there. The shrink did threaten me with jail if I acted up on the ward. I was there due to big problem at work where stress drove me into voluntary admission to psychiatric ward. I wanted OUT of there and would never go back as inpatient without serious ground rules.

You should get TDIU from the time you applied for it. I applied when I was 30% because I could not work. I got 70% a year later and got TDIU back to the date I did the paperwork. These people would cheat their own mothers. I got TDIU retro even before I officially filed for it since I had a hospital record that indicated I was unemployable. Also if VA knew your were on SSDI for SC reason you can appeal and ask they post date your TDIU to the date you got SSDI. You have to fight for it, of course. John

Why do we have to use the VA hospital system anyway? I live 20 miles from my VA. The VA schedules me for an appointment at 7 am and this includes testing before the appointment. Of course no way can I make it. I have to try and reschedule this dumb appointment. I am going in to do bloodwork and urine test at the worst possible time of day. The joint is crawling with vets waiting to do these tests. I would never dream of making an appointment this early, and no private doctor would either. Maybe if I was prepping for surgery I would be in that early, but it sure would not be at the VA. I am lucky I have a choice. I have the best doctors in town within 10 minutes of my house. Why do I need to hump out to the VA except I get my meds there. For everything else they are useless to me. I think congress is trying to save the old VA system with a little tinkering. This is a hopeless task. If VA does not decentralized and give us choice about using the hospital system then I am out, but I won't give up trying to change it along with other vets. My VA hospital is a charity hospital as it is because no one with good insurance would use it for anything serious unless they just like to gamble with their life. John

I think the VA even rates all the sleep disorders along with mental health issues. They rate chronic pain as a mental health issue.

I am trying to help a vet win an AO claim based on being exposed in Okinawa. There are news articles with 20 vets from Okinawa saying they dug up or buried barrels of AO in Okinawa. Since Okinawa is not on the list of places the DOD admits that AO was stored or used I don't feel very optimistic. When you won the Thailand exposure case did you use Buddy Statements? That is all this vet has. John

You are still within one year time frame to file a NOD and start appeal process. I would do that and put the NOD right in their hands if possible and get a date stamped copy. You can change your mind since time is still on your side. Don't wait to appeal. The VA is not playing by Obama rules. They are playing by VA rules which is to deny claims or ignore claims and hope the vet gives up. Everyone makes mistakes but I think you can take it back by appealing the fact that you never got a decision, so the claim is still open unless they did deny it. You can still appeal.

I would not give Fox News anything about my claim while it is in the process. I had a C&P exam for mental health issue where the doctor had a clear agenda. Being a young and dumb vet I did not recognize it for what it was at the time. He was asking me leading questions to justify a personality disorder DX. He asked me if I ever argued with my parent? Did I ever skip school? Did I ever get into a fight at school? ETC., ETC. I thought these questions were harmless and I said yes I argued with my parents as a teenager, and yes I did skip school a few times on Friday afternoons. I did get into a few fights when other kids picked on me. You know how teenage boys like to establish pecking order. I smacked a kid who hit me with a wet towel in gym class. Out of these seemingly harmless answers I got a personality disorder diagnosis as anti-social. I had never been arrested or anything like that and I did not drink more than a few beers, or even smoke dope at the time. This quack was clearly on a mission given him by VA in the 1980's to cut the rolls of disabled vets on compensation. They failed, but that exam comes up even today. The VA will zero in on that exam, and ignore all the others that said I had medical mental illness. The rest of my C&P exams for the mental health issue were about 10 minutes long and consisted of : Do you have a plan to kill yourself? Do you have a job, and do your hear voices, or see things that are not there? I said "NO" to all three and my increase request from 10% was denied. The facts that I suffered from anxiety and depression enough to have me on meds and therapy for decades meant nothing to these geeks. The way you fight this is by getting good IMO's/IME's from doctors who will be your advocate.

I don't know of any timeline for an actual percentage rating after success at the BVA. I think that is happens pretty fast in the VA Time/Space world. That means 3 to 6 months but not definite. When you get the actual percentage if it is not what you think you deserve and you have the evidence then appeal it. The VA often starts with the lowest rating and during subsequent appeals and claims for increase it goes up. I say get new evidence and keep the ball rolling right away.

The VA clowns who created all this pain need to burn in hell. We must put them in hell somehow because they won't go willingly. John

If the VA wants you to withdraw they need to provide medical help. It is malpractice to just cut you off, or reduce without medical supervision. To reduce you off benzos or opiates like many of us take for anxiety/pain is dangerous. There must be a way to sue these MF'ers for malpractice when they do these dumb things. If they want to reduce you in serious way tell them you cannot do it on your own. Tell them you will kill yourself and have a letter forwarded to leaders of Vet's in congress upon your death with names and particulars. This is extreme, but so is cutting off vets from meds after years. I have been on opiates for ten years it is the only relief I get from pain. John

You will probably meet your lawyer at your first hearing in front of BVA or even DRO. My lawyer flew from New Jersey to Tampa to represent me at DRO and also BVA hearing. Then we went to CAVC and he does not need me there. Now to federal court and I don't think he needs to see me there. We may not win but I think he has given it his all. Your lawyer will need your entire C-File and any other records you have. The VA stalled on providing him my records, so I sent him my copy of my c-file to get the thing off the ground. I got it back. If the claim is complicated and in appeals I don't blame you for hiring a lawyer. Short of becoming Phil, Berta, Carlie or AskNod that is probably your best bet to hire a lawyer. John

So I went with my wife to SSA office today and was told she won't get increase for spouse benefit. I asked for official decision. They did not want to do this at first. They are just used to telling people that they are not eligible for this or that benefit and they go away. Same with the VA. I saw get the denial of a benefit in writing even if it is a medical benefit they deny you. When my wife's ex-husband was totally disabled due to accident my wife had tried to get some benefits from the state of Florida. She had to quit work to care for the EX. She was told by social services that she could go back to work and hire help to take care of EX. What a joke since she was making minimum wages and EX had no sick leave or disability insurance. Working people in Florida down on their luck get nothing. Professional scammers do OK if they don't mind living in the project.

I have SSD and my wife has SSA. I make much more than her on SSD. She took SSA at age 62. I was told by SSA on the phone that she may be entitled to a increased spousal benefit due to large difference in our pay rates. She gets less than half of what I get. She retired early to stay home with me. She is being punished for being my caretaker. I see this happen all the time. John

If you get proposal to reduce you have to file a NOD and ask for a hearing within 30 days. The VA cannot just reduce you after 17 years unless they show by clear and convincing evidence that you have improved. You have protection from 5 year rule that says after 5 years of being static at Total the VA must show by a complete review of the evidence that you are better. That does not mean one C&P exam.

Yes, you need an IMO that shows a nexus between your depression and back condition. You should also claim chronic pain disorder as co-morbid with the depression. If you have 60% for your back it must be bad. You need to be sure of what you are claiming. If you are claiming PTSD that is not the same as depression and in your case has a different cause if I understand it.

I remember writing a brief I researched via VBM for my CUE. I wrote pages and pages of arguments and citations from case law. I got a one sentence denial. Sometimes if your evidence or argument is beyond one or two pages this overwhelms VARO. Most of these guys are HS graduates who were at the bottom of their class. They don't bother with a lot of what we give them. They list the evidence (now) and just crank out standard denial. Sometimes the Reasons and Basis in no way corresponds to the facts of the case. I don't even understand the decisions when I win and neither did the psychologist who wrote my IME. John

I was waiting on my FDC to happen since June 2013. I finally wrote my congresswoman a letter and within a few weeks I was scheduled for a C&P exam after nothing for almost a year. Maybe a coincidence but I doubt it. Congressmen can get action if they want to just by asking the question. I usually don't bother, but waiting a year on a FDC claim is a joke. I don't even see why I am getting a C&P since all the information was in my VA medical records.

You can get them to give you a make-up exam. I had the same thing happen to me more than once. Once the VA cancelled the exam and then said I was a no show and denied my claim within 30 days. After you get your rating let your congressman know what the VA did to you. They have done this 10,000 times.

The trouble is that he gets SSDI and his wife had to retire early and take SSA at age 62. They make too much for the pension. I talked to them both this afternoon. I was told that if he ends up in assisted living he can get A&A. They are living on the edge of poverty, but for help from friends and relatives. I know they are not getting more than $20,000 a year. This is not enough for two adults to live on and pay rent. They lost their house. She has no medical insurance and he does not even get medicare. Why do people like them have to be reduced to absolute poverty before the VA will help. He is trying now for VA compensation based on exposure to AO, but he was not in Nam or in one of the zones where DOD admits AO was used. He does have 20 other vets who were in Okinawa who swear they dug up drums of AO that had been buried there. He says he was exposed and I believe him, but how can he prove it? Some well known draft dodgers live in splendor, and some who served live in poverty. What a great country.

Burn their toes! If heat is not applied the VA will revert to its old ways as soon as it is out of the headlines. The Discharge Review Boards, and BCMR should be next to be investigated.

Can a vet get SSD and a NSC VA pension. A non Vietnam vet I know has Parkinson's. He is in bad shape. His wife can't work due to his need for help. He gets nothing from the VA. Somebody at the VA told him to file for SC for AO. He was in Okinawa. He has no direct evidence except his eyes that he had contact with AO. I see this case as hopeless almost. However, being that they are now dirt poor can he get a VA pension while collecting SSD. They are at their wits end. I am going to talk to them around 1pm to try and find out what mess has been created by VA helpers. His POA at the VA discouraged him from asking for A&A. I don't know why. John