highoctane

Yes I understand 30 Nov doesn't count..my effective date is 1 Dec.. but what about the month of December? We do t get paid for the first month? That makes no sense..That's like saying if I joined the military on the 1 dec I don't get a check until 1 feb and I never get paid for December and that's not how it works on the military side. And if that's how it works on the VA side that's just wrong. JMO. I interpret the verbiage to mean you should get a PAYMENT the 1st of the month following the effective day..as in for the month or part of the month between the effectove date and the 1st of the following month.. But I guess it could be like you said.., like the whole rounding down to the nearest dollar..who comes up with this stuff lol

Wrong thread

Ok...need a little sanity check.. my last day on active duty was 11/30/14. My effective date of disability is 1 Dec 14. I received my first regular payment 1 Apr 15( for March obviously). So by my math my retro should be 3 months..1 Jan 15 payment (for December), 1 Feb payment (for jan), 1 March payment(for feb.). The VA paid 2 months and after talking to 2 people they still seem confused because of the way the law is worded about the 1st of the month after disability...IMO that means that is the date you get paid...ie if disabled from 1 dec, you rate a payment 1 jan for December...but 2 people at VA ive talked to so far disagree(granted it was just phone answers). But when they finally let me fully explain all they will say is "DFAS" did the audit..and DFAS says we did the audit with the info VA provided(which was wrong).. DFAS agrees with me but cant do anything because the VA put the effective date for the audit as 1 Jan 15..VA says that's just the way it works..so why does my rating decision have one effective date and my audit another? Ok...so am I wrong..and if so what kind of sense does it make that we just don't get retro for the first month? Final answer from VA was write a letter to us explaining what you think was done wrong...I'm talking to you on the phone and you can see my records and see what I'm talking about...but I have to write a letter?? Ok...rant over...I really wanted to think that the all the VA horror stories were just the fact that rarely anyone reports the good...but so far my claim has been a nightmare. It was done quickly...about 90 days..but everything has been screwed up...the 2 most serious contentions denied for no clinical diagnosis, they are all over my records that the has(DAV SO confirmed this)..3 of my 4 dependents names spelled wrong...and these are easy names to spell and were clearly written on the paperwork...now this retro thing. Even if "that is the way it is"...it makes no sense to me that we just don't get paid for a month. I know its only one month but its the principle...not the money. This whole process is so frustrating. Ok...now seriously...rant over.. Thanks for listening. :)

Wrong thread

Thanks. I plan to gauge her attitude when I talk to her and go from there. I talked to a local rep here who has filed a lot of claims, he helped with mine and he knows what was submitted, he said It was obvious error, he theorized they are rushing and making mistakes. He mentioned that whether they make mistakes or not the claim still counts as completed in X number of days. He said that the first thing the service officer should suggest is asking for a reconsideration? Hadnt heard that term before but he made it clear it was not an NOD. He also said it wasn't a CUE, and that because that(CUE) is a "legal" process it can drag out. Just repeating what I was told. Does this sound accurate? He also said the service officers at the VARO tend to try to be more politically correct and won't be quick to present a how the heck did you miss this approach. In his words they try to catch flies with honey.

Thanks for the info. I hand carried the civilian records from 2 different hospitals (1 where I had the stents placed, the other where I did cardiac rehab)to the local VA office where my BDD claim was filed, along with a copy of my paper service medical record, which is procedure here for BDD claims. I literally have probably 100+ pages just related to my CAD. The civilian records are not listed as evidence, but my SMRs are listed. Again, when I took the paper copies in I told them that most of my record for the last few years is electronic, they said don't worry about it, the VA has direct access to the electronic SMR...and I know my CAD is WELL documented there. I really want to e-mail or call someone and ask how they could have made such a blatant error...but I want to be sure they in-fact had the information, or at least had access to it. I feel they must have because like I said they gave me service connection for another condition that was even less well documented in my SMR, and was never officially diagnosed (because if diagnosed it was an automatic ticket to a med board and I was close to retirement). Sad thing is like I told my wife...now I am going to end up having to tie up some VA workers that could be doing other claims to unscrew something that should have never happened. I understand that some claims get NOD just because the vet thinks he didn't get what he deserved percentage wise..and sometimes it seems that the percentage subjective..but I NEVER DREAMED they would completely deny my CAD...never even entered my mind as a possibility. I mean if they had given me 0%...I'd have really been fine..but denided? Someone pinch me...I must be dreaming. Halfway makes me wonder if someone has a sick sense of humor and was like.."how can we really blow this guys mind and shock him with our decision". I'm going to see what the DAV Service Officer says before I jump in with both feet. They are in the RO building...hoping she can give some insight maybe?

So basically I should act as though I didn't already send them the evidence instead of presenting an "are y'all blind" type of case? I agree that they couldn't have considered the evidence I sent. What I also don't get is I was told they have access to our digital military record system...a lot of my records are on the computer...they are trying to go paperless. I know my diagnosis is in there all over the place because every time I had an appointment for a new doctor they would mention my heart disease, ie 'oh we cant give him that medication because of his coronary artery disease' ect. But the records from my stent placements I drove 40 miles and got hard copies to send.

Thank you for any and all suggestions. I've got some research to do, I don't even know what a CUE is, but I'll do some searching and figure it out. The RO is Winston-Salem, I put a call into the DAV there this morning, since I'm not real sure what to do and I don't want to screw anything up. Haven't heard back from my service officer yet, no idea how long it usually takes them to return calls. It seems ridiculous that I'll likely have to go through some long process, to get something so blatantly wrong, fixed. I could understand if I hadn't given them the records. They denied my hypertension too...and that is all over my records dating back about 8 years that I have to take BP meds...I was in aviation so there is a record of it at least every year for the last 8 that I was in service.

What's even more bizarre is they granted me a claim that I'm pretty sure was never "officially" diagnosed in my records. My military doctor withheld an official diagnosis.

I was diagnosed with coronary artery disease in 2012 while on active duty, I had 2 stents implanted, then 2 more 6 months later. This is all in my medical records..after 20 years about half of my medical record is from March 2012-dec 2014 when I retired and is related to my heart disease. I even got all my civilian records from when the stents were implanted on 2 different occasions and supplied those to the VA. The claim came back "not service connected".."no clinical diagnosis". This seems absurd to me..what am I missing? What evidence specifically might they want that might not be in my records? I mean the diagnosis was good enough for the insurance to pay for the stents..I'm baffled thanks for any Input.

Thanks. Although I'm not too happy right now. My heart disease was denied because of no clinical diagnosis!! Half of my medical record is related to my hear disease and its treatment. It's literally baffling how they could have screwed that up. I guess I've had stents placed twice and insurance paid for both times because I have perfectly healthy coronary arteries.

Well so much for my success story...my main contention...Coronary Artery Disease ( I was diagnosed and had 4 stents implanted while on active duty) came back NOT SERVICE CONNECTED???? WTH? Haha...I just have to laugh..

Thanks, and yesI do qualify. BTW CRDP is now automatic if eligible. http://www.dfas.mil/retiredmilitary/disability/crdp.html

Well my claim was completed in ebenefits pretty quick but it's been almost a month since it and still no BBE...I guess VA makes you wait one way or another.

I have a sad feeling the sick call bandits were the smart ones.. Lol

Major ones were heart disease..I've got 4 stents in my heart..but I "sucked it up" and ran PFTs and CFTs and put out on the stress tests and said I felt fine in order to stay in until retirement(I'm sure that didn't help my claim..oh well). So my stress test results probably going by the book didnt get me squat for that contention..even though I'll be lucky to see 60 according to my military cardiologist. Other major ones are ulcerative colitis..started after a tour in Iraq..no famility history..I was hospitalized for it but long story short I was told if I wasn't better Id be discharged..doc told me..hey if you complain you will be discharged..so I didn't..after the inital severe illness.. I just dealt with it. Luckily I was at a point in my career where I could make sure my office was near a bathroom. Next most severe was a back injury from falling off of a helicopter back in 2003..I have constant low back pain and you know how that is in the military..it's taken with a grain of salt..unless you are the one who has it..I've not slept more than 4 hours straight since 2003..my back wakes me up and I have to reposition..but all the military doc wanted to do was send me to physical therapy that didn't help so I gave up and dealt with the pain..I had reponsibilities, I didn't have time to go the physical therapy everyday when it wasn't helping. I finally got an MRI right before I retired but o doubt that the VA saw those results..it was after my exams were complete. Which by the way the C&P exams were a joke..the main exam the doctor would ask me about a contebtuon(he had not seen my records) and before I could even answer he was asking about the next one..and if I said I wasn't dont explaining he would say "we aren't t talking about X anymore we are now talking about y"..he said I don't have much time. I felt like the whole process was a check in the box. I could go on and on...no point though I guess. Any who I have several other contentions..shoulder injury, foot injury ect...surgeries ect..but all in all I pretty much didnt follow up after I initial treatment because as you say we just take motrin and suck it up. My DAV rep said "they know that"..but now I'm not so sure he was right :)

Oh and I believe the effective date is just the date of the last pay increase...so maybe that's ok, I'm still learning.

60%, dont have the BBE yet, just looked at the letter on ebenefits. Marine I honestly don't know what I "deserve" .but based on what I have seen personal aquaintances and friends get rated I should have probably gotten 100% easy lol. Most of my contentions were well documents in my service treatment record but I'm wondering if the fact that I gave up on getting treatment while active duty for most of them and just "lived with the pain" might have hurt my claim. Obviously I'm speculating and will know more when I get the paperwork. I'm just glad the initial waiting is over and thankful that it wasn't lower. It can always be worse right?

First off this site, and a few others, have been a great source of info..so I hope I can start giving back a little. I guess this goes here? I feel fortunate that my claim was completed so quickly(even if I'm not 100% happy with the results) BDD claim(Winston Salem) >8 contentions I retired 1 Dec 14, all exams completed prior to retirement. Claim filed 1 Dec 14 Skipped to Prep for Decision 7 Jan 15 Pending Decision Appoval 20 Feb 15 Complete 21 Feb 15.. Outstanding as time far as I can tell..claim effective date is off by 1 month(says 1Jan 15)..and while I'm not crushed by the total rating I did expect it to be higher. I do know at least one contention that I claimed was not rated at all(doesn't show up as a contention on ebenefits)not sure why. But I chose to not interupt the process and deal with that after the fact. Now to figure out what to do next lol.