broncovet

No offense Mr. Thomas..this had to be a typo as it is not possible for Larry's mother to be ill if she died last month.

Mightoak Remember there are two basic kinds of Life Insurance: Term Life, which can be thought of as "rented" insurance. If you dont pay your "rent" on the term insurance, you get "kicked out" and have no insurance. The other kind is "whole Life" which is "owned" insurance. You make payments on it, as you would a car, but you dont have to give it back. You get to keep it for life. Most whole life policies "pay up" in a number of years, similar to the way you pay your car off. When you get your car paid off, you get to keep the car, and enjoy it, without making payments any more. The same is true with most whole life policies..they "pay up" and you own the policy, no more payments are due and you keep the insurance, or can sell it to the insurance company for its cash value, or, even borrow money on it using the policy as collateral. If your father borrowed too much money on his whole life policy, it can cause the policy to lapse if that money is not paid back. If your father had term insurance, it never pays off, and he did not likely have any insurance, unless he was still paying premiums, possibly automatically deducted from his checking account. Kind of like rent..and then not paying the rent anymore..you cant stay there, your rent does not "pay off" the house for you, it pays it off for the landlord.

I am an "older" Veteran, but not THAT old. The VA life insurance sends me a notice each year of what my didvidend is, and other information about my life insurance policy. However, if a Veteran moves, the right hand of the VA does not know what the left hand is doing. You cant just change your address in one place, it is a complex procedure to change your address: You will have to change it with VA medical, VA compensation and Pension, VA life insurance, Education benefits, Regional Office etc, etc. If your VA comp and pen was "farmed out" to another regional office, then the VA will be confused forever. Your AOJ (Regional office in your home) may forget to tell the RO that your compensation is farmed out to, so neither one knows what the other is doing. Its a huge bureacatic mess. If you forget to change your address with even one of these things, the others can feed off your old address and foul everything up. They do this so they can avoid paying comp and pen benefits: They send you a notice of a comp and pen exam to the "last known address", which is usually the address you just moved from. Then, when you dont show for a c and p exam, they cut your benefits, and "blame the Veteran" for not sending the VA notice of your new address. It is one of the many dirty tricks the VA uses to avoid paying benefits.

Grunt Daddy You can go ask, but it may well not be done yet. It depends on how long the examiner takes to "write it up". Some do it right away, while others sometimes have to have their boss read it and approve it. Go to your VA hospital's Release of Information desk, and they should be able to tell you if it is there or not. If it is there, you should be able to get a printout of the exam right then and there..for free.

Call Debt management and then Wriite a letter to debt management. Explain clearly and concisely why you feel that you dont owe any money, and request a waiver. If you have not done this, do this. This is the first place to start. Read the case Berta posted below. In your request for waiver explain: 1. Why the debt is not your fault. 2. Why recovery of the debt will cause an "undue hardship"..and explain your financial situation. 3. Why you dont owe the money. I think if you dont contact debt management and request a waiver, I doubt you will be successfull in court..it would be like appealing a decision when you never applied for benefits in the first place.

Shark... Based on what you said in the post, using a risk/benefit analysis, there is no need to file for hypertension...as you said there is nothing to gain as 10% wont add anything, and more to loose...time. I like doing thinks that are low risk and high benefits, the scenario you mentioned is low risk but no potential benefit. I would say you are better off playing the lottery, it is low risk (you are risking a dollar) but high benefit potential..(hitting the big one) Ever wonder why millions play the lottery even tho most people understand it is a "voluntary tax", that is, about 50cents of your lottery dollar goes to some "worthwhile" government program, and the other 50cents is paid back to the lottery players in the form of "winnings"?

I am going to post the link for the hearing loss rating tables, and there is also more information on this page: http://knol.google.com/k/jim-strickland/a-...4hm0dxfnnzs/14#

The key word is Retaliation. I hope this sets a precedent so that Veterans who have been retaliated upon by the VA can likewise file suit.

Waynes My recommendations are as follows: 1) Apply for an increase if you think your hearing loss has worsened. You can go to a private audiologist for the test to see how it compares to the VA. Many companies are glad to do hearing tests for free, hoping you will buy hearing aids from them. 2) Go back to your VA audiologist and tell him/her your hearing aids are not working. There are several causes, wax buildup, defective electronics, moisture damage, need reprogrammed, etc. My VA hearing aids work pretty good, tho hearing aids are a prosthetic like a wheel chair..the prosthetics are a help but they are not like the real thing. The VA will give you a new set of hearing aids about every 3 years, so if it has been that long, or longer, you are due for new ones. Newer is better when it comes to hearing aids. 3) Post your decibel loss on hadit or PM me. I will look it up for you to see if you are rated right. Unfortunately you have to be nearly deaf to get a hearing loss rating above 0%. You also need to tell me the speech discrimination as well as your decible loss in order to calculate your hearing loss rating.

There is new legislation proposed to give the VA a deadline. Maybe we should call our senators office and say, "Its about time". Read it here: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-3087

I agree with Pete. When you applied for benefits, you signed a release form, and if you didnt sign it, you wouldnt get benefits. This is no different. When the Va pays you benefits, they expect (and get) to know every single detail about you. Its just the way it is.

Yes. Isnt in interesting that the documents that the VA RO "looses" almost always favors the Veteran? Why doesnt the VARO shred C and P exams that are UNFAVORABLE to the Veteran? Never. That bad exam will NEVER get lost in the shuffle, never get ignored, and instead will be cited for reasons they denied you. I am glad the hearing loss manual helped you..on page 60 it explains how hearing loss, depression, tinnitus and occupational deficiencies (that is, TDIU) are all related.

Good Post, Hoppy, and I agree. Even a dog understands, "you dont bite the hand that feeds you." QTC C and P examiners are very well paid for their work..on the order of $500 per hour. It is very easy for the VA to simply hire the C and P examiners that write medical opinions to support their position. The VA's position is that all Veterans are crooked and are trying to get benefits they do not deserve. A Veterans own words mean nothing. Even Veterans words spoken to his doctor are not beleived by the VA. In most cases, a Veteran telling his doctor something does not result in benefits..the Veterans words have to be verified about sixteen different ways. Blood Tests, past medical history, DD214's, X rays, MRI's, buddy statements, C and P exams (the medical examiner is selected by the VA..not the Veteran), prescription records, military history, etc, etc, all has to be consistent with the Veterans statements before the Veteran is believed, and, even then, often the Veteran is not given the benefit of the doubt, as required by regulations. Then, the Veterans C and P exams are often lost, shredded, or misinterpreted and which is almost never in the Veterans favor. There is no requirement that the VA follow its own regulations, because there is simply no penalty when they do not. With the VA's "zero enforcement of regulations" policy, VARO's are free to violate regulations, and there are no penalties for not doing so..not even wrist slaps. The Veteran pays the price when the VA violates regulations...even when the Veteran successfully appeals, the VA has gotten an interest free loan from the Veteran for his retro. In order to "regulate" C and P examiners, the VA simply flexes the $ muscle. The C and P examiner will simply not be given future examinations if the VA feels they are too lenient with the Veteran in offering medical opinions which award benefits, and, instead, hire an examiner in line with their own agenda. With the VA in complete control of C and P exams, the Veteran looses. Almost everyone understands that you dont mess with the guy who signs your checks.

Sam Yes, take Berta's advice: Write them a letter explaining their math was off and why you think so. You have nothing to loose, and you can always file a NOD later, but make sure the NOD is filed BEFORE the year is up..DONT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST DAY..file the NOD a month early, then file it Certified Mail Return Reciept Requested as the VA has a tendency to "loose" documents that benefit the Veteran.

Rentalguy You have helped others on this board, and I thank you for that. IMHO you should NEVER wait to apply for benefits for the following reasons: 1. Waiting to apply costs you money as it is a later effective date. 2. Waiting to apply only seems to prevent delays, because delays are as inevitable as the sun coming up tommorrow. The VA WILL Delay your claim, no matter what. They have plenty of financial incentives to delay claims. For example: a) Bonuses are paid when VA employees delay claims (though the Va denies this, the VAOIG says differently) http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfmay09/nf052209-5.htm :D The Veteran may die before approval, so the longer the VA delays, the more likely the Veteran is to die before approval, and then VA pays nothing. c) The Veteran may abandon his claim and the VA wont pay, and Veterans sometimes abandon claims because they forget about them because it takes so long. d) Even if the claim is approved, with retro, the VA gets an interest free loan from the Veteran because they pay 0% interest to the Veteran on retro payments. Bottom Line: Waiting to apply costs you money in retro, and does not "hurry up" your claim, the VA simply uses a different excuse to delay you.

Rock I agree. While I certainly do appreciate combat Veterans, the dividing line between combat/non combat Veterans is very fuzzy because: 1. Intent. When most people join the military in war time, (or even not wartime..war can flare up again at any time), they know or should know that they may well be deployed to a combat zone. Whether they are actually deployed or not usually depends on the decisions of military management, not the Veteran. In a similar way, many combat Veterans were drafted and were there in the combat zone not necessarily because that was their choice, but because they were following orders and serving their country. 2. Both "combat" Veterans and Veterans considered non combat can be killed or injured and a victim of war. One example of this are nurses killed during the bombing of world war 2 at Pearl Harbor. Should the nurses/or their famalies be denied benefits because they were designated "non combat" even tho they were actually killed or injured by enemy warfare? Considering the above, it is unclear that there should be any difference in benefits between combat or non combat Veterans because BOTH laid their life on the line for our country. It is the least we can do for our Veterans, whether or not they were designated "combat" or "non combat" by the powers that be to offer them benefits, because both of these groups have risked their own life for our freedoms. JMHO

There is something called a request for reconsideration if you feel there is a clerical error. They may even fix it.

Carlie In a PM, I sent you the link to the watchdog article showing, in 2006, the "average" QTC hearing exam was $495.55 and that article pointed that QTC medical examiners had received a raise exceeding 400%. That watchdog article is here: http://www.vawatchdog.org/old%20newsflashe...5-10-2006-9.htm Further, in this 2006 article, it points out that QTC is pressured to deny Veterans: http://www.vawatchdog.org/old%20newsflashe...4-23-2006-6.htm Veterans groups and radio talk shows recently have seized on Principi's ties to QTC and accused him of conflicts of interest. John Hennon, who broadcasts a veterans show in Illinois, said he was convinced that QTC "was contracted to deny as many claims as it could." He blamed Principi. He said it was "not a surprise" that the former secretary had an interest in QTC. Skip Dreps, head of government relations for the Northwest chapter of Paralyzed Veterans of America, said: "I'm disappointed in the secretary." He said he regretted "even the appearance of a conflict of interest." QTC has additional critics.

I agree. File a Notice of disagreement if you do not agree, and if you think you are entilted to more, and that your condition has worsened, also file a request for increase. Remember to send these documents to the VA certified, return receipt requested as they have a tendency to shred these things then complain that you filed your NOD beyond the one year period.

Its called "pass the buck" and it is the VA way. If the VA cant fix the problem, they can certainly fix the blame. The VA sees it this way, in summary: The shredded document scandal is the fault of untrained employees. The contanimated equipment scandall is the fault of the 55 Veterans who got infected with HIV and hepatitis in order to obtain benefits by alleging dirty equipment. The 10,000 Veterans unprocessed claim files discovered in Detroit is the fault of defective shredding equipment. The one million claim backlog is the fault of Veterans because they file too many claims. The high Veteran suicide rate is the fault of Veterans drug and alcohol abuse. The high Homelessness rate among Veterans is the fault of civilains for not being homeless more, in order to make the VA look bad. All of these things are isolated incidents which occur only rarely and do not indicate a pattern of poor service by the VA to the Veteran. The Va denies that any of these things occurred, but they are taking steps to make sure they dont happen again.

Unfortunately, I think Basser and testvet are right and I am wrong. I interpreted it to mean if the CPI stays the same the INCREASE stays the same, that is, we get our raise. They interpret it to mean if the CPI stays the same or lowers, the Compensation remains the same, that is, NO RAISE. No doubt the powers that be will interpret that to mean the 'favor the Veteran' rule which REALLY MEANS: "Give lip service to the Veterans concerns then forget the Veteran"

I think the difference is IMO is Independent medical Opinion, where the Doctor reviews the medical records, and offers his opinion. AN IME adds that the doctor does an examination, in addition to a review of the Veterans medical history. Altho I have not heard this on this board, it would seem to me that the doctor personally examining the Veteran (IME) would likely bear more weight than him just reviewing the records and what other doctors had written in his chart. JMHO

John.. Ten years is not even close to the longest decision done by a VARO. I am personally acquainted with a Veteran who has been waiting for his decision since 1973, more than 3 decades. He has gotten congressmen involved, however, the VA just keeps delaying him. About every six months the Va sends to the congressman a statement to the effect "We are making progress on his claim, while we havent reached a decision yet, you can be assured that we havent forgotton about this Veteran". I thought my 7 year delay was bad..but the fact is the VA has no requirement to EVER make a decision. Even then they can shirk the issue and decide only part of the claim, then "deemed deny" the rest, that is, secret denial.

Unfortunately, for Veterans, something has been done about it. Ohio is pretty much at the bottom of the pile..pays less than all other states. So what did they do about this? They promoted Christine Alford (the former manager of the Cleveland Regional Office) to the VA central office so they can help reduce compensation to Veterans in all states, not just Ohio. It did not matter that Cleveland Ohio was one of the worst states of the shredded documents, in fact, in my humble opinion, that shredding helped her win her promotion.

Maine VARO has a reputation for one of the best.