RBrogen

Thanks for your support St. Wilky!!!

I hear you brother ... I'm so glad you got yours! If you could sign and share that petition around that would be awesome!

I hear you brother ... I for one, am at my wits end and the only way to address this after being forced to danced the dance with the VA alone. I tried multipe VSO etc etc only to be told a month or more later that they hadn't even filed the claim which f'd up my potential effective date and when you are talking 4k+/mo that adds up quick. I decided to learn the process and take it myself and a few months later went from 1 condition rated 20% to 23 conditions rated - 100% P&T without the help from a single VA resource. I used resources like HadIt.com and militarydisabilitiesmadeeasy.com before they began to charge. The militarydisabilitiesmadeeasy.com site was probably the most informative and helpful when it came to just looking at 38 CFR, how and why things are rated the way they are. It was a super easy to follow layout and helped me navigate my various conditions and educate me on what to look for in my C&P reports. For instance, I didn't even know I could file a claim for scars and was obviously never told about it from the VA or any of the doctors doing C&Ps. Things like that add up to I would guess the majority of veterans not be fully rated for all of the potential conditions they qualify for. So, I am now a dog with my bone and I will not stop until I get legislation on the books that mandates that the C&P reports go out with the decision letter. I really want as many signatures as possible on the petition so when I do meet with my senators that I will have that as additional supporting evidence.

Hey BroncoVet, Thanks for the insight and I haven't had any issues with the ones I received in 2018-2019. My point is that if the exam results are not made avaialable to the veteran once the decision letter is generated, they are seriously impeding the ability for the veteran to have a proper appeal. As you know, without this information you have absolutely no idea as to what the C&P doc said, rated your severity as nor any other issues they may have documneted/opined on that could potentially assist you in getting a proper rating. This is in direct violation of the VA's mandate of duty to assist. Bottom line is it should not matter where the C&P originated from, once the raters have the data in order to make a rating decision, that same data must me made available to the veteran so they can make an assessment on their appeal options within the time required. The process should automatically include a copy of the report going to the veteran no matter if it is VBA or QTC.

Yes this was/is my understanding as well ... for over 20 years I was at 20% for my low back and they would only treat me for that.

Congrats! I've been waiting since July 2020 for a my hearing to be scheduled.

Definitely need more signatures!!!

My 75 y/o vet friend is going to go to the VMAC with release form in hand to see if that will work. According to this page on va.gov you should be able to: https://www.va.gov/boston-health-care/medical-records-office/ I'll keep you posted and thanks for the advice Bronco!

Exactly! However, it doesn't benefit the VA to have informed, prepared veterans.

Hey T, I've just got back on after being off for quite a while getting life things sorted out. I'm a former Chief Technology Officer with decades of programming and technology experience. I know own my own professional photography studio but would like to help out if I can find something that I would be able to do and fit into my schedule. Let me know if you are still looking/need/want assistance. Best, Randy

Here's the petition that I created on change.org to start. Be sure to sign and share. Here's a link to a petition that will be used in conjuntion with meetings with congressional leaders to show support for a law to require that the VA automatically provide veterans with the C&P results in a timely manner so that veterans can properly assess their options for appeal. Change.Org Petition: https://chng.it/bDh8TstdFk

Here's a link to a petition that will be used in conjuntion with meetings with congressional leaders to show support for a law to require that the VA automatically provide veterans with the C&P results in a timely manner so that veterans can properly assess their options for appeal. Be sure to sign and share!!! Change.Org Petition: https://chng.it/bDh8TstdFk

As an FYI - when I submitted my FOIA, they denie my claim incorrectly using FOIA Exemption 6 which protects from the release of sensitive information. Unfortunatetly for them, I found the actual law on the DOJ website and promptly informed them that the part of the law they "left out" on my denial letter plainly stats that they could not invoke Exemption 6 for any information requested by the person in when the information pertained (e.g. me requesting my own information). Treating Requesters Alike A more subtle yet highly significant aspect of the Court's opinion in Reporters Committee is its pronouncement that a FOIA requester's identity can have "no bearing on the merits of his or her FOIA request." 109 S. Ct. at 1480. In so declaring, the Court made it unmistakably clear, once and for all, that agencies should treat all requesters alike in making FOIA disclosure decisions. The only exception to this, as the Court specifically noted, is that of course an agency should not withhold from a requester any information that implicates that requester's own interest only; making a disclosure to a "first-party" requester in such a circumstance "is consistent with . . . denying access to all other members of the general public." Id. Put more colloquially, an agency will not invoke an exemption to protect a requester from himself.

Yeah basically the local district court is a last resort ... I had gotten to that point with mine in 2019 but then found the FOIA Public Relations director and got my entire c-file in 1 week.

That's because internally, VA raters have a quota and a time clock and thye needed to get stuff finished by end of year for thier reviews for promo and salary