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.

IVDS is not only rated on limitation in range of motion you can also get evaluation based on incapacitating episodes under DC 5243: Formula for Rating Intervertebral Disc Syndrome Based on Incapacitating Episodes With incapacitating episodes having a total duration of at least 6 weeks during the past 12 months 60 With incapacitating episodes having a total duration of at least 4 weeks but less than 6 weeks during the past 12 months 40 With incapacitating episodes having a total duration of at least 2 weeks but less than 4 weeks during the past 12 months 20 With incapacitating episodes having a total duration of at least one week but less than 2 weeks during the past 12 months 10 Note(1): For purposes of evaluations under diagnostic code 5243, an incapacitating episode is a period of acute signs and symptoms due to intervertebral disc syndrome that requires bed rest prescribed by a physician and treatment by a physician. Note(2): If intervertebral disc syndrome is present in more than one spinal segment, provided that the effects in each spinal segment are clearly distinct, evaluate each segment on the basis of incapacitating episodes or under the General Rating Formula for Diseases and Injuries of the Spine, whichever method results in a higher evaluation for that segment. In addition, to above VA by law should also consider an extra-schedular criteria if your back condition is bad enough but do not fall within the VA diagnostic codes.

5003 is rated based on limitation of motion of a specific joint involves. VA should be checking the limitation of motion in your cervical spine separate from thoracolumbar spine. The middle and lower back (thoracolumbar spine) are rated together. Again, VA should be checking you for limitation of motion in this part of your spine. If the limitation of motion in your cervical spine is non-compensable and the limitation in your thoracolumbar spine is also non-compensation (meaning 0%) then VA would have to assign one evaluation for your cervical spine and thoracolumbar spine based on X-ray evidence of arthritis. The reason is that cervical spine, thoracic spine, and lumbar spine are considered a group of minor joints. If they resort to 5003 then it is either 10% for group of minor joints (cervical spine, thoracic spine, and lumbar spine) or 20% for group of minor joints with evidence of occassional exacerbations. If your medical evidence can show it you should be rated separately for if you have nerve dysfunction in each extremity (depending on the degree of severity of the affected nerves). If there is no identifiable affected nerves it is considered a wholly sensory dysfunction and moderate degree (usually 20%) is the most you will receive. And so you may be able to receive additional separate compensation for right upper extremity, left upper extremity, right lower extremity, and left lower extremity if it is warranted based on the evidence of record. In short, your spine is either rated based on limitation of motion or group of minor joints with X-ray evidence of arthritis. Pain is a cardinal symptom associated with arthritis and so you are not going to get a separate evaluation for pain alone. Hope this helps.

It seems you need more than just a blood pressure monitor you should try to get a full medical check-up either with your private provider or your assigned VA provider. You may very well have inter current medical conditions aggravating your anxiety and putting your blood pressure and pulse out of normal range. I agree with the rest of the folks in here it takes a medical doctors to really start ruling out what could be going on with you. It could be the medication you are taking that causing everything out of control, who knows only docs can answer that. As far as your curiosity whether anxiety will stick with you... you are service connected for anxiety forever as far as VA is concerned and according to you that your chronic pain and anxiety caused you to medical retire then you should consider applying for individual unemployability if you can in fact prove that your service connected condition caused you to prematurely retire or apply for increased evaluation for your anxiety, which avenue you choose to take you should take it as soon as you can.

VA does not focus solely of GAF when they are rating or evaluating you for mental health disability because GAF is very subjective and it is dependent on person evaluating you. GAF also changes from week to week. You may have GAF score of 45 this week but 68 the following week. In fact, the use of GAF Scale has been abandoned in the 5th edition of the DSM of Mental Disorders because of, among other reasons, "its conceptual lack of clarity" and questionable psychometrics in routine practice. So I would not bank on the fact that you have low or high GAF score. VA focuses more on how your mental health condition impact both your social and occupational areas of functioning as opposed to GAF score.

A diagnosis of PTSD with agoraphobia at 100% fate entitles a Veteran to SMC S? under what provision of the law? SMC S1 is called statutory housebound and to get this additional entitlement Veteran must have 100% single disability with additional disability or disabilities of 60% or more. If you are thinking SMC S-2 Housebound in fact or SMC L1 aka Aid and Attendance that may be apply to PTSD with agoraphobia, but the requirements needed to get this additional entitlement is much higher that statutory housebound. But generally 100% PTSD does not translate to an automatic SMC grant, Veteran must demonstrate that he needs additional entitlement under SMC provisions.

Pete, again doctor statement whether it came from a treating physician or counselor or during VA examination is a good evidence to include in the claim for IU, but as I stated ealier it is not the only determining factor. I guess, the cautionary statement that I want to emphasize is that we do not want to send the wrong message that - oh yeah just get a statement from your treating physician that you cannot work due to your service connected disabilities VA should grant you the individual unemployability. Entitlement to IU is never that simple I wish it is, but like I said earlier medical evidence is one thing but legal is another - and VA has a different and totally set of rules that must abide with when it comes to determining entitlement to individual unemployability.

Doc medical statement and progress reports are helpful evidence in support for a claim for Individual Unemployability, but Individual unemployability is not a medical determination it is a legal determination. Veteran may have a medical statement that he or she is unemployable due to IU, but all other evidence in the file must also conform with that statement, and if not VA rating board are legally bound to deny individual unemployability. There is a lot more to individual unemployability claim than a simple medical statement or progress notes. Veteran must legally and medically demonstrated that it is impossible for him to sustain or maintain gainful employment solely due to his service connected disability(ies), if there are other intercurrent condition in play (i.e. drug use, alcohol abuse, got hurt on the job, legal trouble, collecting workers comp, etc.) it gets harder and harder to overcome the threshold for IU.

Veteran does not have legal right to record an examination or be accompanied by counsel during an examination... that is actually stated in VA's own policy in their Manual Regulation of M21-1MR.III.iv.3.a

Based on the evidence you provided. You are not going to get 40 percent for your back. 45 degrees forward flexion is only 20 percent. Femoral nerve and sciatic nerves are not separately rated they considered one disability in one extremity. You will get a separate evaluation for each extremity. Again, based on your exam results. Right lower extremity radiculopathy is 10 percent being it is mild and left lower extremity is 20 percent being that is it at moderate degree. Based on your data above your disabilities would be: 20% for the back, 10% for the right lower extremity, and 20% for the left lower extremity. Your combined disability then will be 40 percent and not 50% because VA do not add each disability (as regular math would) VA uses their own math based on diminishing effect.

It is by law that you return the VA Form 4140, serves a certification that you have not maintained or sustained gainful employment. If VA does not receive this form they are required by law to give you a due process and propose to take away your entitlement to individual unemployability, and if you do not respond in 60 days they will go ahead and revert you back to your original combined evaluation, in your case 60 percent. It is possible that they have sent you the due process letter and awaiting your response to it, and since they have not heard from you that is why your claim has been put in ready for decision status. The best thing for you to do is call the Regional Office directly and certify over the phone that you have not sustained or maintained gainful employment, and will go ahead send in the VA Form 4140 as soon as possible. Or you can call the same Regional Office over the phone and ask for a personal hearing for their decision on your IU. Once you initiate a request for a hearing VA cannot take away your IU until they give you the opportunity to be heard, hence provide you the personal hearing.