seminoles

Jason did you ever find your answer? My husband is going to have to have surgery as well on his knee, they are going to take a bone graft from his other knee to fix it and I am wondering if he will get temp 100% and for how long......

This is exactly why I don't listen to VSO's when they told me over and over not to file any more claims when I got my IU PT, I was 70%, I didn't quit and filed for other crap I hadn't filed for that was in my medical records that I was being treated for as well as an increase on things that had gotten worse and ended up with 100% PT schedular with some SMCs as well. I don't trust the VA at all, nor our government to do right by any of us, and IU veterans are some of the most vulnerable of us all as we cannot work. I still cannot, the schedular didn't mean squat as far as me being able to work, I will never be able to work..........and I think it is beyond reprehensible that any politician would go after any IU veteran's extra schedular income.. disgraceful.

I was awarded IU PT while two children were in college they were awarded retro back to the date of eligibility of IU PT for Chapter 35.

I had a proposal for reduction on a sc rating I had held for over 8 years (which had substantial va records to hold that rating the entire time up to the proposal to reduce to include my husband being trained to give me injections by the VA for my migraines because they are so severe) after filing for housebound/aid and attendance (which was filled out by my neuro and my pcp) when I was IU PT. The VA doesn't follow their own rules. I had it stopped but the stress and bs it caused me was beyond ridiculous. A GP doctor from QTC gave me a 90 second exam and said my migraines were so much better the VA proposed to reduce them from 50 to 0, the RO didn't even bother looking at my VA records. Incompetence abounds within the VA ROs.

Don't be surprised even though you are IU PT that applying for SMC S or L will probably open up and have every single one of your rated service connections sent for a new CP exam. I don't say this to scare you, only from experience. It happened to me, I was then sent a proposal to reduce one of my ratings from 50 to 0, which was actually hilarious because it was the item which was the aid and attendance and had been filled out very specifically by my neuro. I had a cp exam by a quack doctor from qtc that lasted 90 seconds. Not only that, I had held my 50% (that is the maximum migraines can be rated) rating for that sc issue for over 8 years with very well documented proof of zero improvement in all of my va records, my neuro had recently had my husband trained to give me injections at home etc. As soon as I received this "award" letter I sent off a few emails to higher ups in the Va and all of a sudden within two weeks not only did I have a new award letter but an apology and my items were deferred. I am now 100% PT and still waiting on them to get their heads out of their a$$ about my SMC's which are still deferred. I have 3 kids currently using Chapter 35 and if I hadn't shot off that email and let my shady RO get away with that crap they would have been screwed. My family would have no health insurance and I am pre 9/11 so there is no caregiver money. My husband had to quit a very good job to be self employed to work at home to care for me. I really thought I had nothing to worry about.........all my ratings were older than 8 or 9 years and I had shown zero improvement. But my family nearly lost their health insurance, all our added benefits of being IU PT.........not to mention the loss of $$$. I never believed anyone when they told me not to file anything mostly because of this site. Now, I know better. I will never file another claim again. The va doesn't follow any rules and I am not going to gamble for 500 extra bucks a month. At this point, my husband wouldn't even apply to the caregiver program if they ever opened it up. The last thing he wants is those bastards in our home. Some things just aren't worth any amount of money.

I am trying understand, you filed a claim, you received the final award and it gave you a rating and also stated they found you incompetent and they were going to appoint you a fiduciary which you then filed a NOD?

If your doctors that your have been seeing are saying your are competent and the cp examiner is who said you aren't, is that what happened? Then you filed a NOD? What has been the chain of events that occurred stating you were incompetent, who and then what happened? That letter was over a year ago! This is bs. Post a timeline of what occurred to have them make this decision and what you did afterwards.........hopefully someone can then give you advice. I have a few ideas that have helped me.

I completely agree with Gastone, I had an attorney at my ALJ hearing. There will be a person there who specializes in vocational employment with various disabilities and the judge will go through each of your disabilities and ask if there is ANY job you could perform, and they do mean ANY, my attorney was paramount in my success. He knew exactly what questions to ask me, as my disabilities are invisible. SS never sent me to any ss doctors only used my VA records which were extensive but ultimately awarded me AT the hearing full favorable with a date of disability so far back that I was given the maximum period of backpay. I never would have been successful without my attorney, he knew which little things to bring up in my mental health records, the physical issues as well that I would not have been able to articulate nearly as well and may have come across as a bit of a liar but him, pulling them out of my mh notes as bringing up situations that clearly were upsetting to me, which he never discussed doing prior to us going in was definitely a huge deal. He didn't blind side me or talk about my ptsd trigger sort of stuff but things that keep me from functioning often in normal work place settings. My physical disabilities weren't as hard to explain but again, when the judge questioned the employment specialist about me even having the ability to say clean houses alone, of course I wouldn't be able to do that or do medical coding at home because of my severe chronic migraines and shoulder issues, they literally go over any single job that you could possibly do, even a crappy one. An attorney is worth the maximum they can take from you, truly. You are very close to the end, I have kept you in my thoughts and prayers as I know this has been weighing heavily on you. Know you are not alone.

I would actually choose Tricare standard over champva 100 times over for my family..........I have dealt with tricare standard for over 25 years and never had a single issue anywhere we have ever lived, never used a military facility for any of my children and never will, never had an issue finding them providers who accepted the allowable for tricare and billed it, champva no one will even accept my children/husband as patients. They will accept my one child who still has tricare.......we went out and purchased a private insurance plan not an aca plan just to have access to providers. Champva is merely a safety net for major medical for us, if the worst happens it is there, it is provides ZERO coverage for ASD which Tricare does. Only insurance I have ever heard of that covers zero therapy, etc. for autism. So, no I don't think Champva is amazing, and it wasn't exactly free........I paid a very high price for it.

Each of your dependents is entitled to the full benefits of chapter 35, so far 3 of my children are using their chapter 35 benefits. My husband has no intention of using his. Also, check into what your state offers because it is not like the gi bill, it does not pay all of tuition and expenses, etc. It pays currently a little of $1000 a month which in most places won't cover tuition and books, let alone room/ board etc. Florida also pays for my children's tuition at any Florida in state public college for 4 years or the equivalent at a private Florida college. Many states have something similar with rules about having lived there for a period of time or having lived there when received your rating, etc.

SSDI is not income sensitive, SSI is as is VA Pension........I would weigh the pros and cons of divorcing and really what you are willing to lose. If you divorce, there are other things to consider and I would consult a lawyer about every single scenario, death being the major one. If you own property, etc. there are so many things to consider.

FYI I had my neuro and my pcp fill out the form for my aid and attendance, not only did they send me for new cp exams for every thing I was rated for but they sent me a letter for a proposal to reduce which would lose my IU PT (that was squashed in less than 2 weeks with emails and a new award letter was sent to me with an apology) they denial for aid and attendance as well as smc k. I received a denial for both about 3 weeks ago, and now they are "UNDER REVIEW" because again the RO is a cluster fockery of incompetence. So be aware that this could happen. The idiots had proposed to reduce a rating that had so much evidence to not only warrant my rating but that it was what my neurologist wrote my aid and attendance for........not kidding. Only the VA does this shit, only the va.

I have my claim for smc L and K under review after they were initially denied, this ought to be interesting. I agree with you completely that anything we get is fair winnings as they sure as hell don't fight fair. The RO called me and said they were reviewing my claim then my vso called me from the RO the next day and said to hold tight and not do anything else, everything seems to be going fully favorably ??? Sure, it is..........I will believe that when I see it ;) He did say I should hear something within a week or so, but then Irma came so maybe next week.

I have had good and bad, LCSW at the VA currently I have none........the last one wrote all sorts of crap that was not only incorrect but absolutely not even about me?? I don't know where she got the crap from. It is frustrating for sure, they see only a snapshot of your life and when you begin to feel remotely comfortable sharing with them, then they feel as if you don't have as many issues because clearly you can converse with them? That obviously isn't how it works and as a professional they should know that, the good ones recognize that, the crappy ones don't :( I would make sure that your LCSW knows at your next visit that your are having anxiety and panic attacks still and examples of when etc. and how frequent, not just how you are coping with the lesser ones. Feeling as if your symptoms and mh is being lessened or dismissed is a horrible feeling and tends to only piss me off or make me feel worse and stress then causes the anxiety/panic attacks to get worse. I hope that isn't the case for you. Make yourself be heard and if you have to bring in your wife to advocate for you or at least have her write a letter to your therapist to explain that your anxiety and panic attacks aren't getting better. If that doesn't work, fire him and find another therapist if you have that option. Check the notes in myhealthyvet to see what he wrote, if he wrote anything you need to dispute make sure you write something to do so.

Have you looked at the DBQ for migraines? They will pretty much ask you all the questions that are on the DBQ maybe not that straight forward but they should be covered. I have a long VA neurology history which made my rating very easy to receive as well as an extensive history on active duty of migraines not just headaches.

I see you are in Palm Beach, hope you are safe.......we are waiting up here to see what happens near Tallahassee. Hoping and Praying all come out safe on the other side!!

It is really strange here for some reason, most providers don't want to see veterans.....at least not the mh providers and I can't even find a provider that will let me pay them CASH! There is a congressional inquiry at this point forcing the va's hand, lol, cough cough, lol......supposedly they are trying to force them to get me telehealth even if it comes from another va across the country. We shall see, there are some things I don't understand. My neurologist, a gem, he does phone appointments with me so I don't have to be driven 5 hours round trip. He does see me in person when necessary but if it can be handled via phone or secure messaging he sees no need to have me carted 5 hours or more round trip, he knows how hard that is on me. I had a psychiatrist as fantastic as him for a decade, he left and crap has been bad at that clinic since. The funniest thing was when fee basis sent me a letter for a behavioral clinic and i called to make an appointment and they insisted that the VA HAD to take care of me and that there was fancy new clinic built in town and why wasn't I going there? Like I was some sort of idiot? I have navigated choice and fee basis for quite a number of things and choice has been a hassle but ultimately got an appointment after hassling healthnet but fee basis.....fantastic, except for mh. It is where I live, craphole of care I think.

I have the female version of ED from meds......... ;) I am not being "denied" treatment they can't find me treatment, they have referred me out thru choice, community based care, and now fee basis and cannot find me a mental health provider for individual therapy........not kidding. Been going on almost a year..........the local va cannot provide the care as they do not have the resources, it is a mess. An entirely different issue, and a mess. MH here at my VA is horrible, many other clinics are great, it is bad so I can't let this claim impact my mh any more than it has. Self preservation is important. ;)

Well, the only $$ I can get is for my SMC's which I claimed which I should be getting both my neurologist and my pcp filled out for my aid and attendance and I meet all the criteria for SMC K but well, women don't get viagra, there is no meds for it. So they denied it, even though it is in my records repeatedly for me complaining about the side effects for the same meds that guys get the same side effects that they get viagra for ya know? so I called bs on that one!! If I end up getting my SMC's I will be shocked honestly, the VA has been screwing me out of them and well that is what they do. As far as the other sc and not increasing my mh rating, we shall see what happens. thanks :)

Well, you are absolutely correct about taht Allansc not only will that drive your further into depression but at this point I do nothing but scoff at the absolute ridiculousness of the claims crap. I am more concerned about my care, which is absolutely horrible by one clinic in particular. Choice could never find me an appointment, the VA can't provide that care, excuses excuses. So, this is not what stresses me out anymore honestly. Care does. :( I sent an email which initiated this, no new information.........they had all the necessary information. Florida RO sucks, everyone pretty much knows this. No secret.

The only new and material evidence they have is me emailing folks that got their nose into the regional offices business (they have the same information I emailed) they just never bothered looking at it. Now, they are being forced to address it and just like last time they are getting called out on denying a claim they should have approved. Last time it was a proposal to reduce my migraines from 50 to 0 which I had held for 10 years and I am IU PT. Denied me sc for another condition when I proved in service onset and I was then awarded 60% on that sc. I went from proposal to reduce to 60% and losing 70& IU PT to 90% IU PT and an apology from the RO, and deferment of additional items. This is all about the deferment of the additional items which were all subsequently denied, every single one! I happen to write very good factual emails with the assistance of my husband. The RO doesn't like it.

This was part of a claim that closed but these items were deferred, I never received the award package but had sent an email out with a complaint about the denial. The regional office called me and also had me speak with the VSO at the RO office that day, he let me know that he had typed of a reconsideration and that it was going to move very quickly the woman who called me on the phone from the regional office had walked into his office and asked him to write the reconsideration and why. I initially thought the phone call was because I had asked for a new award letter to be sent out as I hadn't received one and had asked for another. The VSO at the regional office told me to sit tight and wait a week or two and that things should go favorably......why the heck the RO doesn't do things right the first, second or even 3rd time I have no idea. This is the second time on this claim I have had to call bs. The last time I just got a new award letter with an apology in 2 weeks and the other items went into deferred (which is what these items are now being reconsidered, they were all denied after being deferred) after the claim had been closed. Now with Irma hitting I am sure it will take longer but we shall see, what a mess. I do write very compelling emails to folks who happens to be situated in high places apparently, that is all that has stopped me from having to go to hearings (which would be very difficult for me) or waiting years in appeals. Not quite sure why the rater doesn't look at the exact same evidence that I sent out in the emails? That gets the attention and makes them have to reconsider? THAT is the question, isn't it :)

Has anyone had a claim closed (August of this year) and now it is reopened, I was called by the regional office yesterday and it is under reconsideration. I am assuming this is good news as this was a few deferred items left on my claim and they were all denied or left at the current sc I had.

I agree with Bronco on this one, I highly doubt your hearing has improved and 10% ratings you can look up each and every single one and look at the rating criteria as well. If you file for IU, more than likely you will be sent for CP exams for every single rating you hold. That is common practice and because your SSDI is not based soley on service connected disabilities the VA that is more likely than not going to be the case. I would not let fear be your guide honestly. If you can get your hearing loss connected by a professional that it was caused by menieres that was not diagnosed earlier, THAT would be golden!! Menieres is no joke. I feel for you, balance disorders suck!! If it were me, I would go for it but everyoone has to make their own choice and pros and cons..........all the best!!

I go right into the Tallahassee VA clinic about a week after my CP exams in Gainesville and they print them out. That is only for the ones the VA conducts in Gainesville, not the QTC ones.