Holllie Greene

Excellent news for you! I'm still waiting to hear about my granted stuff from July 2018. My remand is in prep for decision for 3 weeks now. Doc told me it was service connected so not sure the hold up. I'll just keep going to work until I drop lol. Those headaches are terrible I'm at 30 for them I get em a few times a month and sometimes they last a few days. Take care

The good news is you got your award.  The bad news is that the VA appears to be holding the cash award until the remand is straightened out.  They are not supposed to hold it until the remand is complete but they have been.  The only bright side is that it is all money being banked in your name.

Vetquest,
Yes, there is also a remand for TDIU.  No movement on that as far as we know.  

We cannot say.  Was there a remand with the award?  Is there any issue outstanding?

Hello Hadit friends!
I am so excited!  I logged into Vets.gov today and my husband's rating has finally changed.  His migraine percentage was updated to 50% and overall rating to 70%.  We have been waiting almost 14 months since the judge granted the increase on migraines.  Thank you Jesus!  I don't know how long we will have to wait on retro......but we are so happy to see this update!

I got my retro today.it was three days after closing.Now can plan for daughters college in two years.

Congratulations on your win!
If you are already setup with the VA to get disability payments via direct deposit, then you might see the retro in your bank account before you get anything in the mail.

You have got that right.  I have had several remands granted after the RO denies.  The BVA gives the RO a second chance to make it right and then grants after the RO refuses to do their job.

Wow... I just read the entire article they are actually proposing many different ways to eliminate compensation. 
The TDIU elimination would  not affect me personally,  but I still have concern over this option
They listed 7 diseases that CBO  considered not to be caused in any way by military service, good arguments could be made that some of the conditions are caused by service.
Arteriosclerotic heart disease Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Crohn’s disease Hemorrhoids Multiple sclerosis Osteoarthritis Uterine fibroids I would be directly effected if they eliminated COPD from compensation in that I would lose my 100% rating.  Ironically,  I would still have a 100% rating based on all my other medical conditions. 
I would also lose my 10% rating for Hemorrhoids which I would argue, would never have happened if I had not been eating c rats in fox holes with water up to my ass 
I do not see the CBO  revoking compensation based on disease alone, it would not be  an easy thing to do.. more elected members would be inclined to limit medical care to certain veterans, or reduce
compensation for those with a 30% or less rating or some other less drastic measure than to take away a 100% rating especially for someone like myself who has been rated 100%  for 12 years, and prior to that TDIU for 8 years for TDIU.... 
Every veteran Could be impacted by at least one of the 6 options outlined...... scary stuff  hope it doesn't happen to anyone.....
  

My evidence wasn't even listed. That's what makes me mad. 

Don't get mad, file an appeal.  If you can get to the BVA they will read all of the evidence and usually award.  I had this many times were the VA refused to consider all evidence.

Sorry forgot to update profile after last decision. I have about 5 items that if I can get them through will add up to about 60 or 70 percent.  I'll just have to wait to see what the NOD crap shoot does for me. 🙂
 

Howdy all,
I'm pulling all my support docs together for the NOD I plan to submit. I had requested an increase for my knee. Originally I was rated 10% for Meniscus repair. The decision came back changing that to 10% for reduced range of motion due to pain. I feel it should be rated at least 20% under DC 5258  (Cartilage, semilunar, dislocated, with frequent episodes of “locking,” pain, and effusion into the joint). My knee locks numerous times a week, hurts all the time, and swells up most of the time due to a bakers cyst that does not go away.  The torn/dislocated cartilage and bakers cyst are both in my records and annotated on the most recent MRI. So would the locking, swelling and pain be symptoms that my personal statement supports or would I need the doctor to put it in his report?

Found this on VBMS this morning.
"Decisions appealed to the Board for direct review are accomplished in an average of 365 daysThis is a vast improvement to the average 3-7 years Veterans waited in the Legacy process."
As for the denial, Loyal, look to the Howell decision and what you underlined. In spite of a 2680 declaring you housebound, that is the doctor's assessment. Remember  that a VA "examiner" (i.e. a rater) made the final decision. He probably based it on an incomplete understanding of the M 21. I rarely see SMC S granted based solely on a 100% rating rather than the standard 100 + 60 metric. 
If you would, copy and paste the actual denial language. Often, it is couched in VA legalese and difficult to unravel. You've dealt with VA long enough to realize they are devious and vague.
r
a

Here is the form to fax in evidence.
2017-01-18+Claims+Intake+Fax+Coversheet-1.pdf

This is exactly how I feel about this, I live 24 miles from my local clinic, it takes more than 30 minutes to get there but if you google it drive time always says 29 minutes or something a bit less so they will use that or some crap similar to deny veterans like me the 30 minute rule for that one........I definitely will take advantage of the 60 minute one because I get sent 5-6 hour round trips for all of my specialty care.  They wanted me to go to gait and balance once a week 3 hours away, I can't drive more than 30 minutes on  a good day, can't take the van and as a pre 9/11 veteran my spouse sure as heck can't afford to be taking time off work every week to bring to to that many appointments so often I go without care.  I also find it hysterical that MH is not a specialist???  Well played, well played.    I sure as heck hope they start giving caregiver stipends to the first round of those they are supposed to roll into the program, I will be the last to be included but that is fine with me.........older veterans getting screwed over and over is absolutely beyond reproach.  I was trying to work with adaptive sports, they referred me to all these organizations that receive grants from the VA, so I contacted the only one in Florida that helps with what I needed, guess what?  They only help post 9/11 veterans.  Seriously?  So, the Va is giving them grants but not all veterans can get help???  This has to stop.

After using VA medical care for 23 years, I can definitely throw my support behind partial VA privatization.
Nothing changes your perspective like the VA scheduling you for surgery and it turns out to be unnecessary because they failed to read radiology reports or listen to the patient. This has happened to me more than once.
If veterans like getting their care at the VA and don't mind the long waits, let them. I don't mind visiting the VA PCP a couple of times a year for routine care.
However, veterans should have the ability to see a non-VA doctor of their choice, show their VA ID, and the VA cover costs of the treatment - all without excessive delays. I have found that the VA takes about three months to do what the private sector can in just a fraction of the time. My dependents can use CHAMPVA to see a doctor of their choice, when they want to, and get the treatment they need very quickly - all covered by the VA.

John999,  they have me driving 6 hours round trip from outside of Tallahassee all the way to GAINESVILLE for appointments!! It is absolutely ludicrous.  I need to go to gait and balance which is weekly but it is in Gainesville, no way can I do that with all my disabilities.  Tallahassee is 30 miles from my house, that is bad enough but at least I understand that, there isn't much in my county really but there is an urgent care that I use for things because if I get sick I know if I go to the crappy little clinic in Tallahassee I will be sitting there all day long and half the time they don't even figure out what is wrong.  Last time, the doctor looked at me and asked me if I need to be on all this medication.  I looked at her and said, "Have you looked at my diagnostic page?"  "The Va has prescribed them to me, you tell me?"  Cripes shake my head absurd!!  Yeah,  6 hours round trip for OT as well!! Neurologist and so many other things.  Thankfully my neuro is a great doctor and he does a lot over secure messaging and on the phone, he only makes me go down once a year because he knows it is a serious hardship for me. 

I have a suspicion that if the government supports private care there must be a considerable cost savings.  I hope the savings is not at our expense.  Every time the government changes the VA is seems I am worse off.  I am 100% vet, so my gripe with the VA is the fact they are usually behind current medical knowledge and treatment by 20 years.  My other problems is access since I must drive miles for care.  If the new VA was actually easier to access I would have fewer gripes.  I just don't trust these our VA masters.  We are usually the last priority for them.

I feel the VA will fight privatization-
Because a non VA doctor will see your VA medical records.
Same as getting an IMO/IME- and the privatized doctor might see medical errors occurred during your VA care.
Broncovet posted the BVA's annual report to Congress-
As one of the charts shows: (Page 31) (and is consistent in this respect to all past BVA Reports to Congress,
The Service connected Statistics included all DIC awards.My DIC check says VA comp.
The problem with this, it does not account for any awards of DIC under 1151 or 1151 to living veterans as part of the SC Statistics, in claims allowed by the BVA.
It makes it appear that the SC allowed claims are all for SC veterans.
Therefore, neither Congress or the public in general really knows how much comp is paid under 1151 every year.The VA does not want those statistics out.
In 1151 claims awarded at the RO level-those claims either DIC or 1151 to  living veterans, are also not accounted for by the VA for the Public or for Congress.And never get into the BVA stats at all.
For example- this is an estimate ( I  have a complete audit somewhere)
The VA has paid me about $ 316,800 -24 years of  Section 1151DIC.( past 24 years)
9 Years ago the DIC became  under direct SC death ( AO award)-that did not change the 1151 aspect.
My point is ( and this is report is evidence for my main OAWB complaint) that VA absorbs ALL 1151 pay outs to veterans and/or their survivors,into the allowed service connected compensation percent figures and anyone - even a Senator or Congressman, reading this report- would not know that the service connected compensation amount , paid for the allowed claims, by the US Treasurer Dept, does not reflect how much the VA has paid out due to valid 1151 injuries, medical errors, lack of proper dagnoses, etc etc to include causing the deaths of veterans under 1151 awards to widows.
There is no accountability for either 1151 awards or even those FTCA cases, that involved large settlements - that should have been reported to the NPBD, but were not.NPDB info goes to state data banks,whereby the public can review to see if their VA or private doctor has been sanctioned in any way for malpractice.
I dont know if we have any New Yorkers here but this is our state data bank of disciplined doctors.
https://www.health.ny.gov/professionals/doctors/conduct/
The VA doctors who malpracted on my husband were never reported to the NPDB and should have been. That meant they just went on to malpractice on more veterans.
One of them was a well know VA cardiologist at Syracuse VAMC.
This means nothing to most veterans in the VA health care system. The VA saves lives every day.
However the fact is that malpractice is very costly to the taxpapers, and without an accountability over it's True costs, VA will do nothing to prevent it from occurring and will protect it's doctors -even if the medical evidence is  overwhelming that they have harmed or killed a veteran.
 
 
 
                             
 
 
 

I have been getting a new PCP at the VA about once a year now for the last 5-6 years.  I had a couple of decent doctors back about ten years ago, but it has gone down hill since then.  I am not thrilled by the Choice Program dentist and PT therapist I had for a while.   The dentist was a crook and the PT  people were  awful.  The VA people in those fields were also poor, so now I pay for those things via my own insurance.  I use the VA but I have private medical back-up for all my medical conditions.  The VA said I had a heart condition ……… no treatment,  so I get care from private cardiologist.  I have never seen a cardiologist at the VA.  My PCP is supposed to be able to handle that.....ha!

WHY does IU always come up on the chopping block?  Don't these people realize that if a veteran has IU, his social security payments are almost nonexistent due to the very fact of the unemployability?  This proposal would affect Vietnam vets more than any others. Let's work together to make sure that these proposals never see the light of day!

"To care for him who has borne the battle..."
I agree with Tbird about forewarned is forearmed so I signed up for daily e-mails from the CBO.
 

The average salary for a VA physician is $186,775 with a potential of
Cash Bonus (2)
$71,625
$8K
as an additional income from the VA.
https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/US-Department-of-Veterans-Affairs-Physician-Salaries-E41429_D_KO34,43.htm
A good doctor in private practice can surely make more than that- but will need to pay for costly malpractice insurance, unlike VA physicians.
 
And another benefit of working for the VA is to have a 8 hour practice schedule,while private physicians probably all work many hours a week beyond 40 hours.
 
VA is not attracting good doctors to work for them- they have to hire contracting firms to supply doctors and other medical personnel who are not technically VA employees and not subject to the malpractice conditions of 1151 and FTCA. I am not saying thesde contracting doctors aren't good, but they can move around from one VA to another as I understand it, and might even be replacing a VA PCP that you have confidence in , have established a good relationship witn, and who is giving you excellent care.
I am sure the contracted medical people make far less than they would if they actualy worked for the VA- but not sure at all.
This AM about 6 :30 news mentioned that money is being allocated from the Dept of VA, to begin privatization -(the Choice program is not working well- they didnt say that on Fox but we all know it ) but I ony caught part of that news.
If someone hears this or gets a PR (Press Release) from VA I might miss, please post the info here.
I think it is Great News but then again the Choice Program ,at first, sounded great too.
I have no idea where the money is going to come from within VA to do this.
 

Buck-this would only regard private medical care and not "VA Pay"- I think you mean compensation ("pay").
You asked "what about older veterans that are on medicare but do nor have a supplemental  to cover co pays  or prescriptions?"
I don't know. That is an excellent question.I have been trying to get my neighbor -a SC vet- to use his Medicare.
He finally called his vet rep after 20 years of me telling him they lowballed his condition.
They gave him 10% and I feel he should be TDIU or 100%. A 10%  1997 award for a DDD problem has caused him to hardly be able to walk. VA said he has so much arthritis that they cannot consider a hip replacement.
Not now they cant- they should have done that years ago.
He had to leave a message with the rep- who has not called him back.I told him to go over to the VAMC and see if his car is parked there- this coming week- the VAMC is only 20 minutes away from us .I dont think this rep ever returns phone calls. This state office used to be packed and had at least 4 employees.Now they only have one vet rep .