timetowinarace

carlie, You found it. The regs are very complicated. the first part you posted is more of an explaination of how it works. Evaluation of Cognitive Impairment and Subjective Symptoms The table titled “Evaluation of Cognitive Impairment and Other Residuals of TBI Not Otherwise Classified” contains 10 important facets of TBI related to cognitive impairment and subjective symptoms. It provides criteria for levels of impairment for each facet, as appropriate, ranging from 0 to 3, and a 5th level, the highest level of impairment, labeled “total.” However, not every facet has every level of severity. The Consciousness facet, for example, does not provide for an impairment level other than “total,” since any level of impaired consciousness would be totally disabling. Assign a 100-percent evaluation if “total” is the level of evaluation for one or more facets. If no facet is evaluated as “total,” assign the overall percentage evaluation based on the level of the highest facet as follows: 0 = 0 percent; 1 = 10 percent; 2 = 40 percent; and 3 = 70 percent. For example, assign a 70 percent evaluation if 3 is the highest level of evaluation for any facet. The table is farther down but on the same page: Evaluation of Cognitive Impairment and Other Residuals of TBI Not Otherwise Classified Facets of cognitive impairment and other residuals of TBI not otherwise classified Level of impairment Criteria Memory, attention, concentration, executive functions 0 No complaints of impairment of memory, attention, concentration, or executive functions. 1 A complaint of mild loss of memory (such as having difficulty following a conversation, recalling recent conversations, remembering names of new acquaintances, or finding words, or often misplacing items), attention, concentration, or executive functions, but without objective evidence on testing. 2 Objective evidence on testing of mild impairment of memory, attention, concentration, or executive functions resulting in mild functional impairment. 3 Objective evidence on testing of moderate impairment of memory, attention, concentration, or executive functions resulting in moderate functional impairment. Total Objective evidence on testing of severe impairment of memory, attention, concentration, or executive functions resulting in severe functional impairment. Judgment 0 Normal. 1 Mildly impaired judgment. For complex or unfamiliar decisions, occasionally unable to identify, understand, and weigh the alternatives, understand the consequences of choices, and make a reasonable decision. 2 Moderately impaired judgment. For complex or unfamiliar decisions, usually unable to identify, understand, and weigh the alternatives, understand the consequences of choices, and make a reasonable decision, although has little difficulty with simple decisions. 3 Moderately severely impaired judgment. For even routine and familiar decisions, occasionally unable to identify, understand, and weigh the alternatives, understand the consequences of choices, and make a reasonable decision. Total Severely impaired judgment. For even routine and familiar decisions, usually unable to identify, understand, and weigh the alternatives, understand the consequences of choices, and make a reasonable decision. For example, unable to determine appropriate clothing for current weather conditions or judge when to avoid dangerous situations or activities. Social interaction 0 Social interaction is routinely appropriate. 1 Social interaction is occasionally inappropriate. 2 Social interaction is frequently inappropriate. 3 Social interaction is inappropriate most or all of the time. Orientation 0 Always oriented to person, time, place, and situation. 1 Occasionally disoriented to one of the four aspects (person, time, place, situation) of orientation. 2 Occasionally disoriented to two of the four aspects (person, time, place, situation) of orientation or often disoriented to one aspect of orientation. 3 Often disoriented to two or more of the four aspects (person, time, place, situation) of orientation. Total Consistently disoriented to two or more of the four aspects (person, time, place, situation) of orientation. Motor activity (with intact motor and sensory system) 0 Motor activity normal. 1 Motor activity normal most of the time, but mildly slowed at times due to apraxia (inability to perform previously learned motor activities, despite normal motor function). 2 Motor activity mildly decreased or with moderate slowing due to apraxia. 3 Motor activity moderately decreased due to apraxia. Total Motor activity severely decreased due to apraxia. Visual spatial orientation 0 Normal. 1 Mildly impaired. Occasionally gets lost in unfamiliar surroundings, has difficulty reading maps or following directions. Is able to use assistive devices such as GPS (global positioning system). 2 Moderately impaired. Usually gets lost in unfamiliar surroundings, has difficulty reading maps, following directions, and judging distance. Has difficulty using assistive devices such as GPS (global positioning system). 3 Moderately severely impaired. Gets lost even in familiar surroundings, unable to use assistive devices such as GPS (global positioning system). Total Severely impaired. May be unable to touch or name own body parts when asked by the examiner, identify the relative position in space of two different objects, or find the way from one room to another in a familiar environment. Subjective symptoms 0 Subjective symptoms that do not interfere with work; instrumental activities of daily living; or work, family, or other close relationships. Examples are: mild or occasional headaches, mild anxiety. 1 Three or more subjective symptoms that mildly interfere with work; instrumental activities of daily living; or work, family, or other close relationships. Examples of findings that might be seen at this level of impairment are: intermittent dizziness, daily mild to moderate headaches, tinnitus, frequent insomnia, hypersensitivity to sound, hypersensitivity to light. 2 Three or more subjective symptoms that moderately interfere with work; instrumental activities of daily living; or work, family, or other close relationships. Examples of findings that might be seen at this level of impairment are: marked fatigability, blurred or double vision, headaches requiring rest periods during most days. Neurobehavioral effects 0 One or more neurobehavioral effects that do not interfere with workplace interaction or social interaction. Examples of neurobehavioral effects are: Irritability, impulsivity, unpredictability, lack of motivation, verbal aggression, physical aggression, belligerence, apathy, lack of empathy, moodiness, lack of cooperation, inflexibility, and impaired awareness of disability. Any of these effects may range from slight to severe, although verbal and physical aggression are likely to have a more serious impact on workplace interaction and social interaction than some of the other effects. 1 One or more neurobehavioral effects that occasionally interfere with workplace interaction, social interaction, or both but do not preclude them. 2 One or more neurobehavioral effects that frequently interfere with workplace interaction, social interaction, or both but do not preclude them. 3 One or more neurobehavioral effects that interfere with or preclude workplace interaction, social interaction, or both on most days or that occasionally require supervision for safety of self or others. Communication 0 Able to communicate by spoken and written language (expressive communication), and to comprehend spoken and written language. 1 Comprehension or expression, or both, of either spoken language or written language is only occasionally impaired. Can communicate complex ideas. 2 Inability to communicate either by spoken language, written language, or both, more than occasionally but less than half of the time, or to comprehend spoken language, written language, or both, more than occasionally but less than half of the time. Can generally communicate complex ideas. 3 Inability to communicate either by spoken language, written language, or both, at least half of the time but not all of the time, or to comprehend spoken language, written language, or both, at least half of the time but not all of the time. May rely on gestures or other alternative modes of communication. Able to communicate basic needs. Total Complete inability to communicate either by spoken language, written language, or both, or to comprehend spoken language, written language, or both. Unable to communicate basic needs. Consciousness Total Persistently altered state of consciousness, such as vegetative state, minimally responsive state, coma.

I think the letter is good. Stating the percentage you think is appropriate is a good idea and listing the diagnostic code is important. The new C&P for tbi is specialized and only supposed to be done by someone trained for the exam. It should be done by a neurologist, psychologist or psychiatrist. Hope for a psychiatrist. I can say that a C&P examiner(psychiatrist for a depresion C&P) changed my life for the better by linking my symptoms to my head injury. It only took 13 years for someone to do it. I'm at 100% with the same symptoms you have but I can't compare the degree of cognative disorder and the code I'm rated under is 9304-cognative disorder due to trauma. I have no seperate rating for residuals.(old rating criteria)

I'm also surprized they are sending the letter out. I havn't gotten one and I'm leaning towards not being re-evaluated even though my interpretation of the regs would put me at 100% plus. I asked about it on the forum but no one replied. Old rating are not supposed to be reduced if the new rating is lower. Does a P&T vet gamble on that for a possible 100+70% rating? Tough to decide untill I see how ratings under the new schedual are handed down. Most vets should be re-evaluated though.

Sorry Signal6, I saw your post yesterday but didn't have my wits about me to reply. These look like neuro-psych test results and not a C&P report. I agree with you that the testing would put you in the moderate to severe range. Unfortunatly I can't guess how a C&P examiner and rater will interpret it with the new guidlines. "2 standard deviations below the WTAR Standard Score" I'm not familuar with this scoring or I could help more. Neuro-psych evaluations do not seem to have a standard as a whole. All of my scores reflected IQ scores and comparisons made in percentiles. Such as my verbal fluency tested in the third percentile, meaning 97% of the population has better fluency. The 70 percentile range is average. In short, I'm not sure how the new rating scheduale will work out. You definatly have a SC-able tbi but I havn't seen a rating under the new scheduale to judge if and how bad veterans can get screwed by it.

Insurance lobbyists won't allow this. It is very difficult to get an insurance company to pay on a pre-existing health condition as it is. Vertually no active duty soldiers will have private health insurance and many guard and reserve will not. Thus the majority of combat related injuries will be a pre-existing condition to most veterans private health insurance. It's business.

I'll write my story for Belle. I've posted this on hadit before and I know Hadit recomends not to do this but I've nothing to hide. I am John C. Price of Pocatello, Idaho. The VA broke the law several times over to deny my claims. I have my paperwork and anyone is welcome to question me. No active claims pending.

ummmmmm...........yeah,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,uhhhhhhhhhhh........................ Oh sh^t. I can't even think straight now. Guess I'll just use Rentals phrase: "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I'm at a loss of words.

The examiner can state in the C&P report that you are unemployable. Of course, whether you qualify for tdiu is a rater decision. To get a statement like that from a C&P examiner is big though.

I really think you need to look at your c-file. Request a copy. Your SMR's, C&P's, the paperwork done by your first VSO will all be in there. Then you should know much more about where the claims came from, what evidence they already have, ect. Take some of the guesswork out of it. An infered claim can come from ANY information the VARO recieves that mentions a possible ratable condition. Could be from a letter they recieved. I once wrote my Senator and listed my symptoms. This was forwarded to the VARO with the Senator's inquiry. VARO opened claims on every symptom.

I think the story is good. There is no slander involved. Slander would be if I said so & so is a child molester with no evidence to back it up. Evidence would be a conviction. But it is not slander if I say it seams that so & so is a child molester. Sorry for the analogy. Lou Dobbs and most other member of the media often voice opinions of government policy and use names such as idiots to describe the policy makers. We should not sugar coat veterans opinion of the VA system. I see nothing wrong with the wording in the script. However, I do think there should be an addition. I'll explain in my own words and you can use the idea of it or the entire thing if you wish or leave it out as desired. It is the paragraph that follows. Though I am very upset with the VA claims proccess I am very gratefull for the benifits awarded to me by this country and it's people. I believe the VA claims proccess to be very anti-veteran but at the same time consider myself lucky to be a veteran of this country. I feel the people of this country truley want to take care of their veterans. I think the VA should be accountable for the mishandling of veterans claims and should treat this countries veterans as Congress and the people of of this country intended.

The more the better. I agree with that. Mainly because with some of the veterans stories that come out in main stream media that are verified and obviously disgracefull for the VA, some Congressman or VA official says, 'Yes, it's a shame THIS veteran fell through the cracks and we are working to correct it', as if it is an isolated or rare occurance. However, many individual veteran stories posted on youtube would bring more attention and get more veiwers and would show that a bad VA decision is not an isolated or rare event. Just think, you click on a youtube video, watch and hear about what has happened to this vet, and to the side is a list of more videos and more stories on the same subject. 'Gee, that's awfull what happened to THAT vet, let's see what this vet has to say', click. And the ball begins to roll. Veterans sitting at home searching the net see them and realize, 'I should tell my story too'. The ball rolls faster. I'm afraid one video to youtube or CNN will not be enough. It won't hurt. I just don't see it having any more effect than a mainstream media story. Even with facts and figures of VA backlogs, remands, suicide rates, homeless vets wich have been reported already it will be an isolated story. Just my thoughts. A thousand faces with a thousand stories would be far more effective that one face with knowledge of a thousand stories.

Yep, it was your post the got me awondering. The 'guns' were used on me in '87. two in one arm, one in the other, then another needle. Four shots total if my memory can be relied on. Thanks for all the replies.

I was reminded from a post in another thread that Gulf War Veterans are not allowed to donate blood. I remember being told by the Army when we came back from the desert that we could not donate but was/am unsure if this ban was still active. I have not officially verified that it is still active. The question is, Are veterans from other conflicts banned from donating blood, especially this curent conflict?

probly should get back to the original question. Can VA comp be garnished for child support? The question of if it SHOULD, or who should have custody, or anything else is off subject. As near as I can tell, the answer is, by federal law, no it cannot as child support is not a federal debt. However, many states and often the federal government ignores this law when it comes to child support. In the end the answer is yes it can, depending on the state. Personally, I feel the federal law should stand as stated for the protection of veterans compensation. There are other avenues to collect child support such as property liens. This is how a creditor can collect from a person with no garnishable income. Simply put a lien on such persons home, auto or whatever. I have a home, auto, ect and if I am sued for some reason, just because I have no garnishable income does not mean I don't have to pay if I do not want to. A story to lighten things up a little. Locally, a man went in the child support services and payed $500 cash toward his past due amount. The next day he called and payed the remainder of around $20,000 by credit card. A month later the ex wife called very, very upset. She had been happy for the lump sum payment, took an expensive vacation, spent it all. The payment was made with HER credit card. Apparently, this was a card that was left her from the divorce. Despite urging from the ex husband to remove him from the card she failed to do so. She ended up responsible for the debt and had paid child support to herself. I bet she wishes she had kept the money for the kids. True story.

Not sure. Normally registry information does not get to VARO. I'm not clear as to the full scope of IRIS, I've never used it but it appears that your requests through there may have alerted VARO to possible infered claims. Again, I don't know. I do know VARO can open infered claims on your behalf if they have information of a possible SC condition.

Could be the natural progresion of awards. SC granted at X percentage= small backpay increase later granted on NOD= another backpayment another increase= another backpayment EED= another backpayment.

I also agree with the payment of child support and back support. I have allways done so when able. I do not agree with the 'one size fits all' attitude some exibhit towards this subject. That a person has circumstance that make him/her unable or unwilling to be placed in a single catagory does not necissarily mean they are irresponsible. Some are irresponsible and should be dealt with accordingly and individually. It is wrong to assume that anyone with child support concerns be automaticly deemed a 'deadbeat' or any other such stereotype. That a father would want to treated fairly and equally to his ex-spouce should not be considered as making this country go "to hell in a handbasket" or shirking their responsibility. Though it is often heated, I see this as a veterans issue because of the laws involved and the trend of taking a disabled persons meager money to give to an ablebodied EX. This is wrong on many levels.

Narrow points of view come from narrow minds.

wrong again. My SSD backpay was not garnished. My SSD monthly benifit is. Again, this is a state issue and each state handles it somewhat different.

Wrong. My back support is going to the mother. My daughter is in college (21) and has had to get money from me to help her. Her mother isn't helping her with the money I give her.

This is an age old debate. For the present time it depends on the state. While the federal law dictates that veterans disability comp cannot be garnished by anyone except the federal government(child support & spouce support is a state issue) it is often ignored by many states. The VA will usually allow garinishment for child support but not spouce support. I believe the supreme court ruled it is legal for states to garnish VA comp for child support despite the law. This is all off the top of my head at the moment, but I have researched it in the past. I am in the same situation and no, my VA benifits have not been garnished. My SS has. chances are, the state will not be aware of the award untill after backpay has been paid and if it is a state that attemps garnishment of VA comp, they will go after monthly comp. My state was slow to act on my SS award even though I informed them when I got it. They did not garnish the lump sum backpay. It is allways a good idea for those recieving VA or SS comp to inform their bank that their account contains no garnishable income. Often times, a creditor will illegaly lock an account and retrieve a debt and the bank automaticly allows this unless notified by the account holder. The retrieved money can be returned and the account opened back up but bounced checks and unpaid bills due the the frozen account are a costly nightmare. FYI

could be that dad has to have a fidiciary. Not usually the case with physical disabilities, but would explain it.

Yep, a C&P examiner will use the test results. They won't re-test you. You should obtain a copy of the evaluations you've had from this doctor and whomever previously diagnosed tbi. Don't rely on VARO to do this. Send it with your claim. Include any other difficulties you may be having no matter how small they may seem. Are you already SC for migrains?

Another "had no choice" here. Well..........it was either fight for VA comp or file for death benifits. I would have died in this house had I lost it. And I told my senator just that.

Sorry Berta, didn't mean to re-word your post. Your reply was quicker than mine. This is from the link you posted a few days ago; On December 27, 2001, President Clinton signed into law the "Veterans Education and Benefits Expansion Act of 2001." This legislation amended various provisions of 38 U.S.C.A. §§ 1117 and 1118, including a complete revision of Section 1117(a), which now provides as follows: (1) The Secretary may pay compensation under this subchapter to a Persian Gulf veteran with a qualifying chronic disability that became manifest- (A) during service on active duty in the Armed Forces in the Southwest Asia theater of operations during the Persian Gulf War; or (:P to a degree of 10 percent or more during the presumptive period prescribed under subsection (B). (2) For purposes of this subsection, the term 'qualifying chronic disability' means a chronic disability resulting from any of the following (or any combination of any of the following): (A) An undiagnosed illness. (B) A medically unexplained chronic multisymptom illness (such as chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and irritable bowel syndrome) that is defined by a cluster of signs or symptoms. © Any diagnosed illness that the Secretary determines in regulations prescribed under subsection (d) warrants a presumption of service-connection. Section ©(1) of 1117 was amended to change some language specific to undiagnosed illness, without substantively changing the provision. A whole new subsection (g) was added to Section 1117, as follows: (g) For purposes of this section, signs or symptoms that may be a manifestation of an undiagnosed illness or a chronic multisymptom illness include the following: (1) Fatigue. (2) Unexplained rashes or other dermatological signs or symptoms. (3) Headache. (4) Muscle pain. (5) Joint pain. (6) Neurological signs and symptoms. (7) Neuropsychological signs or symptoms. (8) Signs or symptoms involving the upper or lower respiratory system. (9) Sleep disturbances. (10) Gastrointestinal signs or symptoms. (11) Cardiovascular signs or symptoms. (12) Abnormal weight loss. (13) Menstrual disorders. In addition, 38 U.S.C.A. Section 1118(a) was amended to add a paragraph including the signs and symptoms of Section 1117(g) as manifestation of an undiagnosed illness. The effective dates of all of the cited amendments is March 1, 2002. See also 66 Fed. Reg. 56,614, 56,615 (Nov. 9, 2001) (to be codified at 38 C.F.R. § 3.317(a)(1)(i)). A medically unexplained chronic multisymptom illness means a diagnosed illness without conclusive pathophysiology or etiology, that is characterized by overlapping symptoms and signs and has features such as fatigue, pain, and disability out of proportion to physical findings. Chronic multisymptom illnesses of partially understood etiology and pathophysiology will not be considered medically unexplained. See 38 C.F.R. § 3.317(a)(1)(ii). Furthermore, for the purposes of 38 C.F.R. § 3.317(a)(1), signs or symptoms which may be manifestations of undiagnosed illness or medically unexplained chronic multisymptom illness include, but are not limited to: (1) fatigue, (2) signs or symptoms involving skin, (3) headache, (4) muscle pain, (5) joint pain, (6) neurologic signs or symptoms, (7) neuropsychological signs or symptoms, (8) signs or symptoms involving the respiratory system (upper or lower), (9) sleep disturbances, (10) gastrointestinal signs or symptoms, (11) cardiovascular signs or symptoms, (12) abnormal weight loss, (13) menstrual disorders. See 38 C.F.R. § 3.317(B).