htforjc

Disturbing trend in going after vets the last few years

Congratulations!

Thanks for the kind words but I'm just doing what Coasties have always done, tired or not, as you know. Let the sun not rise on the day when one Coastie will turn his back on a shipmate who needs help.

Welcome aboard, shipmate!

Couple quick points:

* eBenefits almost never correctly tracks what you submit. Can't believe that portion of the site for anything. If in doubt, contact the 800# or better, send an IRIS request for information. In the three claims I've had processed, only the last one actually acknowledged on eBenefits that they received anything....the other two just stated that the requested information was not received.

* The expected dates of completion within eBenefits are completely spurious. Can't trust them for anything.

What you do get out of eBenefits is a good idea of where your claim stands in the rating process. You also get a good look at the overall rating change when the change occurs. I have to tell you, having been there, that if your AB8 didn't change, there's a strong possibility that it means your rating didn't change, especially if the expected change in rating for an individual condition would have changed your overall combined rating. The AB8 pretty much gets updated right away in my experience. If you started from a combined rating of 0% or 10%, then you're probably denied. However, if your combined rating was higher, there is VA math involved and at some point, 10% won't round out enough to push you to the next higher combined rating. That happened to me once during the Christmas holidays and I went bananas waiting for the package, only to find that tinnitis was approved at 10% and nothing else. Hadit's calculator is really good if you need to test some numbers - http://www.hadit.com/service_connected_disabilities_rating_calculator.php

A quick look at 38 CFR 4.104 shows that your C&P should have brought your initial 0% for hypertension up to 10% since your diastolic pressure was over 100 and requiring medication for control.

Diseases of the Arteries and Veins
7101 Hypertensive vascular disease (hypertension and isolated systolic hypertension):

Diastolic pressure predominantly 130 or more - 60

Diastolic pressure predominantly 120 or more - 40

Diastolic pressure predominantly 110 or more, or; systolic pressure predominantly 200 or more - 20

Diastolic pressure predominantly 100 or more, or; systolic pressure predominantly 160 or more, or; minimum evaluation for an individual with a history of diastolic pressure predominantly 100 or more who requires continuous medication for control - 10

Might be time to start considering a NOD if you're certain this condition's rating increase was denied based on your overall rating not changing. Of course, you'll need the big envelope to arrive first so you can understand what the decision was and how the RO came to that conclusion.

Oh, in checking your original post, looks like the American Legion is your VSO. I'd contact your NSO and ask what happened; he/she should know.

Happy Easter!

Thanks bud. Calm as a cucumber over here. Like I said, believe what you choose. Jon has been provided printouts from the eBenefits site from vets who have access. Not sure why you continue to vigorously try to discredit the story. From the very first piece he ran, he was sitting down with a vet at his computer and pages of such documents were even displayed for viewers to see! But to really investigate the problem, the FBI has been contacted as was other federal & state govt agencies. They have been granted a judge's permission to delve into this in ways a news reporter can't. Access is not a problem, nor is it even an issue.

Let's just let the investigation run it's course. If the site comes back up then it's up to each user to determine if it's woth the risk to log in. Appreciate your comments. Nobody "squirting" here...only the guilty who are responsible should be worrying right now.
LC