broncovet

JoeyJoey Well, I wouldnt shoot your VSO, just rough him up a bit. No, what you need, you are getting here. KNOWLEDGE. It is power. To get your claim Service connected, you need a Nexis. You can get one of those at your Toyota dealer....just kidding again. What you need is a Nexis Doc statement, that something very similar to this: "JoeyJoey's sleep apnea is most likely due to military service because..........." If you dont have a nexis, you probably wont win your claim until you get one. If you cant get a VA doc to write you such a statement then you may be able to get a private doctor to write you one. Its called an IME (INdependent Medical Exam). An IMO (Independedent Medical Opinion) helps, but the money is in the IME. REASON: A doctor who gives an IME without seeeing you, and just looking at your records and offering an opinion something like, "I reviewed JoeyJoeys medical records and in my professional opinion his Sleep Apnea is most likely due to military service" is good, but much better is a doc who says "I examined the Veteran and reviewed his medical records and In my opinion JoeyJoeys sleep apnea is most likely due to military service. That is, an IMO without an exam could fail if the VA doc examined you and said other wise. By law, if 2 docs who examined you offer differing opinions, the VA is required to go with the one most favorable to the Veteran. Medical evidence is compelling, and the VA rating specialist cant say the doc is full of crap, because it will be struck down upon appeal. Basically neither a rating specialist, nor a judge is qualified to give an opinion that overrules a doctor who is qualified to give a medical opinion in his area of specialty. No, you cant have your Psychiatrist friend give you a nexis on your back injury, unless the Psych doc is also qualifed as an ortho pedist.

John and Pete: Of course you guys are right! Think about it: Who is more likely to be homeless: a. A 100% disabled Veteran earning a steady $2600 per month. Or b. A disabled Veteran, who has applied for VA benefits but is waiting on an answer and is one of the 1,000,000 backlogged claims who earns 0$ per month. Is this hard for the VA to figure out?

JoeyJoey You, like many other Veteran Victims, are at a distinct disadvantage. I know what you meant, YOU know what you meant, when you stated, "I would like to attend the review". This means you want a hearing, not a review, since you are present at a hearing but not at a review. The VA uses there own lingo, and uses our lack of knowledge about it against us. Your best bet is to use that knowledge against them. Here is my recommendation: You can go ahead and submit additional evidence for your review, in writing, and hopefully you will win. If you win, dont do anything. If you loose, then complain that you did not get your requested hearing, as you asked, "I would like to attend the review". You can cite Moody VS Principii which states: "In Roberson we held that the VA has a duty to “fully and sympathetically develop a veteran’s claim to its optimum,” 251 F.3d at 1384 (quoting Hodge v. West, 155 F.3d 1356, 1362 (Fed. Cir. 1998)), and that this requires the VA to “determine all potential claims raised by the evidence, applying all relevant laws and regulations.” Id. The Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims held that Roberson did not apply here because it “identified a narrow factual scenario which sufficiently raises an informal claim for TDIU within the meaning of 38 C.F.R. § 3.155(a)” and “there is no indication that the facts of this case coincide with those of Roberson.” Moody, slip op. at 3-4. However, this distinction disregards the broader holding of Roberson. As we recently confirmed in Szemraj, “Roberson requires . . . that the VA give a sympathetic reading to the veteran’s filings by ‘determin[ing] all potential claims raised by the evidence, applying all relevant laws and regulations.’” 357 F.3d at 1373 (quoting Roberson, 251 F.3d at 1384) (alteration in original). This duty applies “with respect to all pro se pleadings” before the VA. Id. " I personally think this part highleted in bold means that you dont have to use the word "hearing" to get a hearing, that a "sympathetic reading" of your fiilings can be reasonbly construed as you desire to have a hearing. There are many times when the Veteran did not understand the right lingo, but the court gave the Vet a sympathetic reading in the Vets favor. As I said, dont do anything if you win, but if you loose, ask the court to throw it out based on the fact that you had request to be in attendance, that is, a hearing. JMHO

I agree with Basser and Berta. Ask for a copy of the original rating denial decision, then look carefully at it for CUE. If you can find references to a hearing loss in his SMR, then that would mean that the VA failed to consider that evidence (as grounds for CUE). There is another possibility of CUE here also. Did the VA provide a C and P exam way back in 95, and, if so, did the audiologist C and P examiner offer an opinion as to the cause of the Veterans hearing loss. If the VA failed to request a C and P and denied it anyway, then you may be able to get a CUE on that basis. My hearing loss claim was denied EVEN THO the audiologist stated that my hearing loss was most likely due to military service. They used the tired excuse that there was no record of hearing loss in my SMR. Upon appeal, the BVA basically said..gee the audiologist said it was caused by military service, so what is the problem? And they granted SC based on the audio report. Remember, the VA delays always, denies when they can, and only approves when they have too, and then they lowball you. You have to fight for every cent you get from the VA unless you happen to be a VA executive requesting a bonus..then its automatic and without delay.

Vets didnt steal anything. VA employees stole from Veterans and do not deserve amnesty. That is the "looking the other way" part. If the VA employees were children, and this is the first time they ever stole anything then it may be appropriate for the parents to make em put it back. I am not blowing it out of proportion: If VA employees steal small things and get away with it, why should we trust them with big things? That is like making a thief that breaks into your house your investment advisor and turning over your retirement to his discretion/care.

If you have gotten a recent award, getting your life insurance is a no brainer. Just do it. The premium will be waived AND this is a whole life policy that builds cash, so not getting it is throwing money away. Doing it sooner is better than later, because, this cash buildup will happen sooner rather than later. You can borrow on this cash buildup of your life insurance policy, or surrender it and keep the cash after at least a year. I do not recommend surrendering it, if you need the cash buildup, borrow it, but dont surrender the policy. That being said, I agree that 10,000 is far too little. Not just a little bit too little, but hundreds of thousands of dollars too little. Life insurance is designed to replace the income of the deceased for the family. Example: Disabled Veteran earns $2500 per month. Veteran dies, and famalies needs for food, shelter, clothing go on. If Veteran has $750,000 life insurance and widow can invest that $750k at 4% interest, the interst would be $2500 per month and replace the Veterans income for the family. Then, the Veterans widow could go on, and replace the income her husband earned. It wont replace her husband, but just the income he earned. $10,000 is not enough, and it actually should be, in this example about $760,000...$10,000 for burial expenses, and $750,000 to replace his income.

Here it is: http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfoct09/nf101909-1.htm Let's keep it in perspective: On one hand the VA management "looks the other way" when VA employees steal blankets from homeless Veterans. On the other hand the VA management tells congress that if they only had more money, they could help homeless Veterans by instigating new homeless programs and services because the VA "cares about its Veterans". Do the VA promises to help reduce the backlog and reduce Veteran homelessness seem hypocritical to you too?

Pete... Yes, I have heard that the VA only admits to 400,000 of the 1,000,000 claim backlog, that VA watchdog.org , and other organizations have posted. It is my opinion that I am more likely to beleive VA watchdog rather than the VA, because the VA has a long history of trying to cover up or minimize their problems. I also think that the VA's number does not include BVA, CAVC, AMC, DRO, or Eduction claims backlog, all of which are under Shinseki's control, and all of which amount to the same thing for the Veteran: He isnt getting paid promptly, and it isnt getting better, the VA backlog has grown by about 16% since Shinseki took office. Regardless of whether or not you buy into the VA's attempt to minimize the problem there are far, far too many Vetrans waiting on the VA to process their claims, and that number is growing, not getting better. At this rate of growth, it is not a question of if the VA claims backlog will reach 1,000,000 but only a question of when it will reach 1,000,000. Fraud seems to be growing also, tho my guess is that VA does not keep records of how much money is stolen from Veterans. In just ONE incident, in one department, vawatchdog.org reported that $342 milliuon in failed IT projects was squandered. Are we supposed to beleive this is an "isolated incident" that the VA has fixed its internal fraud? Just this project really hurts Veterans. For example, wikipedia reports there are 257,100 100% disabled Veterans. http://www.va.gov/healtheligibility/Librar...eThresholds.pdf If this squandered $342 million were equally divided among 100% disabled Veterans as a "Cola", my math shows that they would get $1330 each. That is, theives have stolen Veterans Cola, and the VA intends to do nothing about it, except to make plans to repeat it next year also.

Yes. Its called Mathematics..101. Multiply 1,000,000 Veterans claim backlog. Times 6 feet per Veteran. (A six foot man has a span, finger tip to finger tip of 6 feet) That is 6 million feet. With 5280 feet per mile, thats 1136 miles. 6,000,000 divided by 5280 ft per mile = 1136 miles. The Distance from DC to Kansas City is about 1075 miles. No Links..Just Math.

If each Veteran waiting on the VA to process his claim were to line up, in Washington DC. How long would the line be? And how long would the wait be? Answer: Not counting the backlog is Education benefits claims (the NEW GI BILL), if the 1,000,000 "backlogged" Veterans lined up, fingertip to finger tip, (Assuming 6 feet tall Veterans), the line would reach more than 1,136 miles. In other words, the line of Veterans waiting for benefits would stretch from Washington DC to Kansas City. Since Mr. Shinseki took over, the backlog has grown by about 15%, or the line has grown about 170 miles longer in the past year. The wait averages about 2 years. The VA says that it takes about 6 months, however, since far less than 50% of Veterans claims get initial approval, an appeal process is required. Right now, a BVA appeal takes about 2 years. So the Average wait is about 2 years.

Strikeout: A "NOD" has 3 different types of appeals. 1. DRO REVIEW. This is the fastest. An experienced DRO review officer reads your files over and issues a new decision. This can be done in 2-12 months. 2. DRO Hearing. Second fastest. A DRO hearing officer has to schedule your case and set a hearing. Then you get a decision a few months after the hearing. Probably about 18 months or so.. 3. BVA appeal. Your claim goes to the BVA in Washington DC. Count on this taking at least two years. Then, your claim goes back to the RO and this can take a few more months. It is you who elects which type of appeal it is. You can do #1 or #2 and still do #3 if you dont like the result. Remember: Your appeal takes exactly how long the VA wants it to take. NO more, no less. The times I gave are a fairly good average, but they can be less or more than that, depending upon how good a mood your Va is in. Remember, that, under our new Secretary Shinseki, he is supposed to reduce the backlog, and get claims out faster. He is going backwards, and the claims backlog has grown 15% since he took office, so it just keeps getting worse. It could well be 3-4 years, or more, before your claim is done. There are literally 1,000,000 Veterans who are waiting on their claims ahead of you..that is the backlog..I did not make it up.

After reading about IME's and IMO's, it would seem to me to be that we Veterans advocates recommend an IME and not an IMO, because it is clear to me that a Veteran is more likely to win his case with a favorable IME than just a favorble IMO, because, as has been pointed out, they will deny the claim because the VA doc (who offered an unfavorable opinion) actually saw the Veteran, while the IMO doc never actually saw the Veteran. This is one time I will agree with the Va. If I were forced to pick which witness was more important..one who SAW the crime, or one who read about it, I think I would favor the eyewitness every time. Even if the IME doc says...I examined the Veteran, and his medical records show a history of depression..that is more credible than saying.. well, I never saw the VEteran, but his records show he is depressed. I would go so far as to say I probably would not pay for an IMO. An IME, yes, but the IMO doc really cant give you any NEW evidence, but merely HIS interpretation of the evidence. I think the "favor the Veteran" rule, as well as the doctrine of equipose, would mean that if 2 docs saw the Vet..the VA would have to use the evidence most favorable to the Veteran. However, I just dont think that would apply with a doc who never so much as ever saw you.

http://www.va.gov/healtheligibility/Librar...eThresholds.pdf I read the link...gee, if I read this right, if Vets have more than 80K in assets they dont make the "means test". I guess Veterans are not supposed to own a home, and their not supposed to have a 401k at work. $80k in Assets in America CERTAINLY is not rich. Frankly, a home worth less than 80 k is usually in a pretty bad neighborhood. I think the "average" priced home in america is just about double 80, or 160k. I guess the Va does not want Veterans to be homeowners, they want us to be poor and they plan on keeping us this way. And 80k in your 401k will get you a stick with a nail in it to collect cans to pay your heat bill, and that is about it. If you were to try to retire with 80k, and you got 5% interest on your money, it would generate you a whopping $330 per month retirement to live on. You really need at least 10 times that amount, and, even then, a retirement of $3300 per month for a couple probably is not going to be enough if you live very long.

Contrary to what the VA would like for us to believe, being underfunded is not Congress fault. It is the VA's own fault. There is so much fraud and theft in the VA that there just is no money left after the VA/employee crooks rake in their take to go to Veterans. The VA doesnt need more money, it needs less fraud, and there will be plenty for Veterans. Just in the past 3 months THAT WE KNOW ABOUT, there has been about a half billion dollars in VA employee fraud. The VA has changed their policy from "look the other way" on fraud, to "help your fellow employee cover it up". On top of the $342 ripped off in the IT scandal, plus another $27 million in unauthorized executive bonuses, the fraud is going on in the RO's. Hillary Clinton declared the NY RO as fraudulent, and here is what is happening in Wisconsin: http://www.cbs58.com/index.php?aid=9595 The fact is that VA employees are robbing VEterans blind. Until/Unless the fraud problem is fixed it wont get any better for Veterans. More Money Just means More Fraud. There is a HUGE LEAK of money that goes into fraud, and as money increases, the fraud increases. Last year was a huge increase in the VA budget but Vets did not get so much as a 4% Cola, it virtually all went to fraud. Remember, there WAS no inflation, or it was negative, according to our government Cola people, but yet, the VA got a huge increase. What did the Va do with the increase? They spent it on fraud, and had no money left over to even give disabled Vets a raise.

James.. The courts have recently ruled that is illegal. The Va cant have a set of checks and balances ONLY for Veterans with big claims. It would be ok if they audited a random 10% or so, but to audit only the big claims has been declared illegal. Remember large retros are usually the result of many, many, many years of delay. A $250k retro is usually a claim delayed MORE THAN 10 years. I think that a Veteran whose claim has been delayed 10 years, doesnt deserve any more delays sending it to Dc. I personally think there should not be $250k retros, because there should be no excuse for delaying a Veterans claim more than 2 years, let alone 10 years. I think if the VA cant deny the claim or approve it in 2 years, it should be automatically approved. If you order a credit report and protest something on your credit report, the 30 day clock starts ticking. The credit bureau has to verify it in 30 days or must remove it. Same with the VA. Veterans have a one year time limit on appeals, so why does the VA not have a time limit on claims? There is no excuse for a 10 year old claim. I really dont think just checking large retros helps stops fraud..it just means that employee frauds will go "under the wire". In other words if they only check em at $250 k retro, then the frauds will do $235k retros. If they only check $100 k retros, then crooks will do several $80k retros. If you really want, I will show you the court case where they cant do that anymore.

Vets Lady: The Va does not call their "customers" PATIENTS for a reason. I think I am an IMPATIENT patient. It is easier to get it to try to stop raining than it is to hurry up the VA. It is my humble opinion that they should pay Veterans compensation with the same speed employees get their pay. If a person went to work for the VA then had to wait a year or so for the VA to "process" their paperwork, like Vets do, the employees would quit or starve to death.. And they wonder why Vets are angry while there are one million Veterans waiting and waiting on the VA to process their paperwork, and many have waited more than a year. It is not a suprise to me that Vets are angry..it is more of a suprise that Vets dont take RO employees hostage and demand that their claim be worked today before the hostages are released. I am very suprised some PTSD Vet doesnt just go get some weapons and take some hostages after being frustrated by the VA for years and loosing their home, like I did, waiting for Va benefits.

You are going to need something called a Nexis. It is made by Toyota ....no just kidding. A nexis is a statement made by a doctor which links your medical condition to military service. What the VA is looking for is the doctor saying something like this: "The Veterans Sleep Apnea was at least as likely as not due to __________ condition (or injury which occurred) during military service" The doctor could say something like, "Veteran has had symptoms of OSA for 8 years, which includes his military career"

Retired... The courts have ruled, for example, that when a Veteran goes to his (VA) doctor, and tells his doc that he is unemployed, this medical exam constitutes an informal claim for the benefit of TDIU, but the Veteran is required to submit a formal application within a year. In practice, dont count on this medical exam being considered an informal claim. Go ahead and submit a formal claim, but cite in your formal claim that you already informally applied through your doctor. That is, even tho regs require the VA to give attention to all informal claims, the reality is that they dont always do this. Even tho you will likely have to appeal, the courts are on your side. That is, the VA cant just ignore an informal claim and get away with it. They do it, then hope the Veteran wont appeal, and in many times that works. The VA gets away with as much as the Vetran will allow, knowing well that many Veterans do not know the laws. They frankly count on Veterans ignorance of the laws, and that usually serves them well. However, many of these hadit members especially are far from ignorant, and sometimes know the laws much better than rating specialists. To increase the chance that you may win your claim on the first go around, dont count on the VARO to "notice" your informal claim. You see, there are no penalties for anything the VA does..they can violate the law, and the only one to pay the penalty for their regulation violation is the Veteran. The Veteran is the one who's claim will be delayed and he will have to appeal it for years, when it was the Va who made the mistake. They can just keep on repeating their mistakes indefinately...without penalty.

Some time ago I read where someone did research and found there was no difference in % of claims awarded in a DRO Review vs a DRO hearing. That is, it suggests that it does not help your claim to request a hearing instead of a DRO review. Of course, I think there may well be times when you need to explain your evidence..in person. The reason I dont think a DRO hearing is any more likely to get you your benefits than a DRO Review is because they really dont consider anything the Veteran says anyway..he has to document EVERYTHING. If the VEteran has no documentation to prove something, it is as if it never happened. Of course, if you are there you can at least protest that some evidence is missing, where you could not do that if you were not there. (But you could also review the decision and protest that evidence was missing as they are supposed to list all evidence considered in the decision) I am not sure how credible this research was..they may have just been "shooting from the hip", or they may have studied it thoroughly. I can say with a reasonable degree of certainty, however, that a DRO HEARING will take much longer than a review without a hearing, because the backlog on DRO hearings is very very long. In my opinion, most of the time getting a DRO hearing will "get you your say", but really wont help you get benefits. If your goal is to get your benefits as quick as possible, then I would skip the hearing and go for the DRO review. Then, if you want to talk about it, talk to your shrink about it or your VSO...just dont take your VSO's advice if he tells you to drop your claim.

Carlie, I agree and want to thank you for helping a Vet. He could not have done it without you. Funny how The VA has hundreds of lawyers on staff to fight Veterans yet they call themselves 'non adversarial'. If they were truly "non adversarial" why dont they pay those lawyers to fight FOR the Veteran instead of fighting against him? Funny how The VA budget was just increased by Billions but not one red cent of that increase found its way to a Veteran and instead a 0% Cola was given to Vets. Funny how YOU have to represent the Veteran because the VSO's arent doing their job, but the VSO's are getting paid and you arent. Funny how Veterans claims forms get lost/delayed, and Vets dont get paid, yet there is no backlog on VA Executives, VA employees, VA executive bonus, or VSO pay. Their paper work NEVER gets lost or shredded. That sounds 'adversarial' to me. Maybe they should swap: Have those "good employees" who dont loose other employees paperwork for pay and bonuses, work Veterans claims, and the people who are working Veterans claims, do the employee/executive pay, and let them loose their paper work so they dont get paid.

In my experience the VA not only fully complies with the unwritten policy of "looking the other way" when it comes to getting other employees in trouble, but they also have a network of covering up other employees boo boo's because they know that other employees will cover up his boo boo's too. You see it time and time again. VA covers stuff up, over and over again. There is so much stuff swept under the rug, that they certainly do not want to call attention to other peoples dirt under the rug, when they know darn well their dirt is also under the rug.

Remember: Take the name, date, time of call and all details of person(s) who offer you a deal. Put this in your file and it is your ace in the hole that you can use later if the VA screws you over again. Even tho this person probably wont be there in several years when you need it, you still have your evidence. Then, to CYA, save your phone bill/record of said phone call "deal", and write everything down at the time, so you dont forget details later.

Yes, its as Berta says. If you take the deal and it does not work out, then tell the appeal judge you dropped your claim because the VA offered you a deal. You see, the deal they are offering you is illegal, so use this to your advantage. This is why there is very little risk to you to accepting the deal. If you turn it down, I can almost guarntee the VA will put you on the hampster wheel of deny,delay, appeal, deny delay, appeal. Dont volunteer to jump on the hampster wheel.

I think you are ok to take whatever deal they offer you and here is why. In a nutshell, your risks of this going bad are not that high, while you should get almost an immediate reward. I like those kinds of odds. Mind you I am not an attorney, so if you know one, by all means take his advice over mine. This is the way I see it. Lets say the VA offers you IU and you agree to drop, say sleep apnea..just as examples. For a minute, lets just consider the "downside risk" part, which, of course, may never happen. A few years later, you feel better enough to go to work, and you do so, but you still have OSA that could be worth 50%. So, predictably the VA drops your IU, and you wind up with, say, 60%, and you feel that is not enough. The drop in IU goes through as your protests are unsuccessful. Remember that VA inefficiency can work FOR you sometimes, as well as it has worked against you in the past. Now you want to get OSA started again because 1) you think you deserve it and 2) you need it. So, you reapply for OSA that you agreed to drop 3 years ago. VA says, no way you dropped it 3 years ago. Remember this: The VA will use the regulations against you, as a weapon to reduce your benefits. This is a given. But, you ALSO have the regulations, as a weapon against them! They have their "weaseling" out of giving you your due, but you, have a resource at your disposal that they dont have. You see, you can review your claim, over and over, and over..and become an expert in your claim, especially with hadit members help. There is no way that any rating specialist is going to know as much about your claim as you do, if you are diligent about reading and rereading what the VA has sent you in things like your decisions, IRIS emails, VCAA letters etc. Armed with this claim knowledge, then you can get guidance here on hadit as the best course to take. With persistance, the Veteran is "at least as likely as not" to win, IMHO, because remember, you need only convince ANY ONE of these people to get your benefits: 1. Rating Speciaist 2. DRO Review Officer 3 BVA judge 4 CAVC judge 5. Federal court judge. If any one of these decide in your favor you win. For the VA to win, they have to win all 5 decisions, if you just keep on trying. You need only win 1 out of 5, or 20% and you win. I think there is an excellent chance you can beat VA employees, as they are usually overworked and frankly many of them dont even care if you win. Some of them actually WANT the Veteran to win benefits he is entitled to. IN summary, I recommend taking the deal, but keeping documents of everything just in case you need it in the future.

12r3G Yes, you are correct. The Va is required to consider all the evidence and the courts have ruled so repeatedly. For example Roberson vs Principii states: "The government alleged that an informal claim for TDIU was not raised under the specific facts of Norris’s case because entitlement to TDIU requires a showing of at least an informal claim specifically alleging TDIU. Id. The Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims rejected the government’s argument because such a position “loses sight of VA’s congressional mandate that VA is to ‘fully and sympathetically develop the veterans’ claim to its optimum before deciding it on its merits.’” Id. at 420 (citing Hodge v. West, 155 F.3d 1356, 1362-63 (Fed. Cir. 1998)). In addition, the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims stated that developing a claim “to its optimum” must include determining all potential claims raised by the evidence and applying all relevant law and regulation raised by that evidence regardless of how the claim is identified. Id."