sambo808

Any day now could mean another 6 months as I speak. VA is working on claims with date of claim 10/01/2012.

Dependency is not considered an ancillary benefit. Dependency can be raised by the Veteran or inferred by the evidence of record. Ancillary benefits are DEA/Chapter 35, statutory housebound, Vehicle allowance, SAH/SHA, etc., but not dependency.

Compensation claim is more extensive and in most cases takes longer than dependency claim because VA needs to make sure that they have dotted their i's and crosses their T's before they make a decision on your comp claim. Dependency is pretty straight up, and unless there are inconsistencies in your file pertaining to your dependency this type of claim realistically can be done in a few days once your Regional Office receives the necessary form. But in your case, you are only currently at 10% evaluation. So, most likely you would be denied additional monetary benefits for your dependents. 30% and above is the prerequisite for additional benefits on dependency claims.

There are no known fast track forms that you can submit to expedite your claim unless you are 70 or older, homeless, in dire financial needs, or dying. FDC does not expedite claims it just means less development on the VA. You can submit a claim using a napkin or FDC form, or whatever VA form but at the end of the day you are still at the mercy of Regional Offfice's workload.

Clean diet, light exercise, and minimize stress in your life... that is better than any medications available on the market today... diet, exercise, minimizing stress have no known bad side effects to date...

Hearing loss and tinnitus can be a symptom associated with schizophrenia as these condition do occur in the head. It does take a medical opinion to determine the nexus. Any physical or emotional ailments can trigger or exacerbate or directly cause depression. And so the examiner in your case rendered a positive opinion by medically resorting to plausibility. So it looks like you will be granted depression on a secondary basis.

The examiner says there is no evidence but, why would the VA send you to an exam without evidence in the first place? because STRs is one element in service connection that does not always have to be medical evidence. A Veteran's lay statement can establish an event or incurrence in service. See 38 CFR 3.303(a). There are many factors that might have contributed to the examiner's negative opinion in this case. It was possible that the RO did not send the STRs for the examiner to review. It was possible that Veteran's lay statement was inconsistent against the evidence shown in his STRs. It was possible that the examiner mistakenly cut and paste from one report to the other...this is not unusual as they examine tons of Veterans for C&P purposes. It was also possible that the Veteran did not submit his complete STRs or the RO received only partial STRs from the Service Department when they requested for this Veteran's STRs. The point is there are tons of possibilities and it is hard to pinpoint exactly the reason for the negative opinion by the examining C&P doctor without actually looking at this claimant's file. We can only speculate at this point. What this Veteran's needs to do is to request for a copy of his examination report and/or call the RO and ask whether they have complete and full STRs covering all his entire service.

1) it is likely that the first exam was insufficient or they are seeking a medical opinion 2) When they examine a Veteran for hearing loss they also examine for tinnitus both conditions are on the same DBQ because they are interwined. 3) You do not need to file a claim for tinnitus as I said in number 2, they are intertwined if you have hearing loss audiologist is also required to determine whether your tinnitus is a symptom associated with hearing loss and/or whether your tinnitus has the same etiology as the hearing loss (i.e. due to military noise exposure or acoustic trauma) 4. Having a VSO is good to have because they have easier access to VA than you do. They can initiate the review of your decision and determine whether there is error in the decision before the decision gets to you. If you have VSO VA sends them a copy of the rating decision and reviews the decision. They have a couple of days to look through the decision and if they agree then VA goes ahead and sends you the decision. Another reason that it is good to have a VSO is that VSOs are trained with the same laws and regulations that VA adjudicators have been trained on so they know exactly what to look for in the decisions.

You can be granted radiculopathy of the upper or lower extremities separate from your cervical spine or lumbar spine condition. If you have nerve conditions showing in your medical evidence you do not need to claim it because VA will consider it as an inferred issue. Meaning, if your cervical disability is also causing you to have radiculopathy in one or both of the upper extremity VA will automatically grant you for those without you having to claim it because radiculopathy is a well know complications of cervical or lumbar spine condition. But that is not to say you can not raise the issue yourself. If you do claim radiculopathy VA would have to set you up for medical examination for your cervical spine or lumbar spine to determine if you do have in fact radiculopathy.

Your combined disability since 2002 is 80%. It seems that your IU is based on the combined effect of all your disabilities. But if you were granted IU based on a single disability (let say PTSD) then you would have been qualified for statutory housebound based on one single rated as if 100% (PTSD) plus 60% (combining all the rest of your disabilities). Although you have total disability based on individual unemployability your IU entitlment is never a permanent benefit because every year you have to keep re-certifying that you have not sustained or maintained gainful employment for consecutive 12 months. Both statutory housebound and housebound in-fact are decided locally if the evidence warrants them. It is not true that the grant of housebound in fact will have to be sent to Washington DC to be granted. The only time that a claim for entitlement would have to go outside the RO is when they are considering for you extra-schedular, special opinion or review for some very unusual cases, or when you are appealing the decision of RO.

GAF score was never a bedrock of VA's system of rating mental health. That is a myth. As a matter of fact VA often times put very little weight on person's GAF score because GAF score is a very unreliable indicator. One, GAF score is totally dependent on the person who is evaluating you, and so it is very subjective. Second, GAF score is very inconsistent, and can change from week to week. A person may have a GAF score of 30 this week given by one examiner and goes to seek treatment for mental health the following week and given a GAF score of 68 by another. VA focuses more on the impact of Veteran's mental health condition on their social and occupational functioning. Some examples of social functioning are: do they have friends or a loner, do attend social functions or avoid them, to they have hobbies, do they hangout with their friends and go hunting or tend to isolate themselves, do they have a good relationships with their siblings, spouse, children, relatives, do they get involved in legal issues, do they beat up their wives or children, do they have road rage, do they take illegal drugs, or engage in illegal activiites. And for occupational functioning some examples are: do they get along with their co-coworkers, do they get along with their supervisors, do they often receive disciplinary actions, have they been terminated due to bad behavior, do they have fight with their coworkers, do they yell or rude to customers or coworkers, are they often tardy or absent, can they finish the task on time or often behind schedule, do they move from jobs to jobs consistently. Again, these are just some of the examples and indicators that they look for in assigning the correct evaluation to any mental health disability.

As it stands today and until September 30, 2013, VA will still be using DSM-IV when evaluating a mental health condition. The reason for this is that VA will have to change many of their regulations to reflect the new DSM-V, and that takes a lot of man hours to do.

VA will use either 5242 for your DDD. Diagnostic Code 5243 is for intervetebral disc syndrome rated based on incapacitating episodes.

Yes, numerous precedents cases have repeatedly stated that a diagnosis is a diagnosis regardless whether by VA or a non-VA doctor based on the idea that doctors, whether it is VA or non-VA has presumption of competence. In fact the whole point of VA's Disability Benefit Questionnaire Program is to allow your private doctor to examine you and diagnose you so that you do not have to be examine and get diagnosed by VA Compensation and Pension examiner. Once complete, you should be able to take the completed DBQ and submit to VA and VA then must rate your claim based on that evidence. The caveat is that VA can still ask for medical opinion if VA is basically rebutting the findings by your private doctor or if they see some inconsistencies in the records and need clarification. But generally VA can decide on claims without VA examination, and based the evidence of record if the records are sufficient to decide on your claim. When you filed your NOD you should have asked for DRO review of your case. Meaning, local review of your entire claim by a decision review officer. If you are not satisfied with the DRO review you can always take it up a notch and go all the way to the Board of Veterans Appeals. The reason I am recommending a DRO review is because it is much faster to go this route than the traditional appeal route. In many cases, appeals can be resolve by the DRO review. As far as the lordosis in your spine. Limitation of motion of joints is never waived, at least that is not how VA views it. The most recent VA rating schedule for spine does contemplate lordosis of the spine but the most you are going to get for that is 20 percent. And you cannot get a separate evaluation for limited range of motion of the spine and lordosis of the spine. What VA does is they determine which route is going to get you the highest evaluation (whether it may be based on limited range of motion, or lordosis, or guarding of movement, or incapacitation). So the idea that ROM gets waived in the presence of lordosis is not entirely accurate, because every single one of them are considered at their own merit during the evaluation determination. VA will take the highest evaluation (limited ROM or lordosis, kyphosis, or guarding of movement...) and that is what they will assigned to you but not both. Thanks for your service.. hope this information helps... take care bud

Any claim whether it is orginal or re-evaluation is at the mercy of current workload. Unless you are one of the priorities such seriously disabled Vet, homeless, 70 or older, or financial hardship a rater will get to your claim when they get to it just like everyoneelse.