brokensoldier244th

yeah, its pretty nuts from what I hear. Miy training was wall to wall 8 hrs a day from April to June before I could even start looking at claims, and even then every action I took was reviewed and critiqued for almost another month before I could work on my own, and then it was still another 3 weeks before I was actually held to standards where my mistakes weren't just fed back to me to fix, but also counted against me. They do try really hard to not just drop you into things but you've seen the M21 (or maybe you haven't- you should, its publicly accessible). There are literally some things in

Maybe, I don't know. Since I don't rate Im not really privy to the subtleties of interpreting the M21 when it comes to ratings activity. For good or ill, those guys/girls go to class 8 hours a day for like 6 months just for that job, and thats after having been a VSR for some years because gs7-9 dont do ratings. Thats gs10 and above and usually a Masters degree in something or another. Im almost there (3 months) education wise, but I have awhile to go before I can even think about doing their job- and I don't know if I want to. I like being a relatively low cog.

That should probably be canceled. Unless it’s an RFE but having one a year out is unusual-not unheard of, but unusual. It’s likely that you were scheduled because somebody didn’t document the claim properly before you and scheduled it despite you already having decision. Or you filled a paper claim and electronic claim for the same thing and it wasn’t caught so it was processed as its own claim. it also could be inferred by a rater after the fact. I see that sometimes, too, to correct an error where something in the contention wasn’t addressed because the vsr didn’t order the exam an

Id love to but Id need a larger than 2xl size. LOL

Keep in mind, too, that a complaint from a veteran, while not a current diagnosis, is enough to trigger a plausible nexus at least for the purposes of scheduling the exam (my job). Not for rating activity- for that you need an actual DX and opinion. But for me to schedule a C and P for you I at least need to be able to show that it started in service, is being treated now, and is being complained about now. A veteran, for the purposes of the exam, can opine that he/she thinks something might be connected to something else- they cannot use "the big words" and try to self diagnose, so don't

If they are VAMC records we’ll grab them automatically, though if you’ve gone to more than one vamc it helps if you tell us that. If they are private and you don’t tell us about them we don’t know about them. If you do, we’ll request them, but if you have them-vamc or private-it’s faster for you if you just upload that. c and p still uses dbq they just get updated every so often.

Are you asking about box 20? Thats in relation to work/employment retirement benefits. You don't need an attorney for a first claim- its a waste of money, and a VSO or logging into VA.gov will get you to the same end result for free. Unless you stand to be granted a lot of money most attorneys won't touch it unless its an appeal or there is potential backpay for several years. Its good that you sent your SS letter with the rest. We'd pull it anyway but you sending it will save time waiting for SSA to respond.

Good idea, I didnt think of that. OP, your OMPF will only have your info in it, but JSRRC would have access to training rotations, rosters, etc. Do you have one of those BCT pictures of your company? I don't know when that became a thing, but I did in the 2000s and I contacted the photographer that took the picture- they had the names of everyone in it. That might help- though it might trigger something, too, if you see their face in it. Tread lightly.

Are you looking for evidence of a stressor? You would fill out an 0781 with as much as you can remember on it and then that would trigger us to submit to JSRRC which is the records research center- like a hub. They have access to all the services stuff that not always in your OMPF/STRs etc. a suicide in basic isn't usually going to be in the paper, especially not 40 yrs ago- most likely it was a telegram or a call from the chaplain to the parents and that was it. The local Obit may or may not have contained anything mentioning military service or affiliation.

I don't know. Its not anything from you they are questioning. You can try it and see. They are asking for clarification or rework from the doctor. Sometimes that results in an exam, but this is between the rater and the examiner not the rater and you.

They don't have to do a full c and p. VA would have your MEPS exam- when we do claims for the first time we order all STRs from all sources we can find them. VA may still schedule a C and P it depends on how much detail your doctor provides.

It could be that the person they have for peripheral nerve exams couldn't be there for part of the day or is split between two practices which is pretty common everywhere, VA and civilian. Their schedules are electronic anyway, they shouldn't be leaving a schedule book around where it can be seen. You may not have seen it in the book, but that doesn't mean that there weren't other things going on that you couldn't see.

But, also KIM that a paid for IMO is still just an opinion- and whether you win your claim or not your Doc that you paid already has your money, and some of the more popular doctors that I see people referred to from the internet can charge from 500 to well over 1000 dollars or more and are not the ones actually reviewing your records. How could they? They supposedly do IMOs for thousands of cases a year with their name on them, which, if you want a good IMO with time spent on it, is a statistical impossibility. They need to be impeccable, specialized or at least very proficient in that area,

Yes, basically, but it has to be more than "I Dr. So and So, think this is service connected....." It needs his name, specialty, years of practice helps, and lots of rationale not just based on his personal opinion only, if they can get it (literature, personal observances, studies they've been a part of). It doesn't need to be flowery, but it needs to be more than a doctors note to school, too. Scoliosis would have been inextricably mentioned somewhere in exams on your shoulders and back, and it would appear in your medical history summary that would be in your STRs and also in

Pretty much, yeah, except we don't call. We get the pending counts from all the contractors every day uploaded into the system and so it assigns based on distance and overall case load- except that at the moment they are ALL backup up a couple hundred based on my last looking on Friday, and not all VAMCs are open for every type of examination yet. Sometimes we yank someone that has been languishing in exam hell waiting for one from a contractor to a VAMC or vice versa, too, if we can identify how long they have been waiting and availability at another location, to try to get things moving alon