brokensoldier244th

Unfortunately, by law, a rater determines what is “enough” or “adequate” or “complete”. Partly why I’m not a rater; 1. I don’t want the drama, 2. I’m better at finding the bread crumbs as a researcher. I’d rather help build as strong a case as I can by mining “your” records- you’d be surprised what’s in there, however subtle, that I can usually add to your already submitted evidence that was overlooked or deemed inconsequential by someone.

instead of focusing so much on the DBQ you need to have your lawyer look at the exam request itself because within that is the question or questions that are being asked by the rater, which would then be the driver for the new C&P exam. The DBQ‘s may look to be complete, but I see DBQ‘s sometimes that are full of all kinds of things written down as rationale, or citations for medical documents or reports or studies, and other things, but none of it actually addresses what was asked. Kind of like those term papers you write in college every now and then after you’ve had a bad weekend and there’s something due on Monday. You throw literally everything you can add to it and hope that the instructor gets lost in the details without seeing the whole picture, and the simplicity of what was actually being asked. I see this a lot with the swampy type of lawyer firms that basically upfront promise to increase your rating by X etc., etc. and then the documentation that they provide to the ratings people is full of all sorts of legalese and half theories and generally rubberstamp opinions from examiners that they have agreements with or relationships with, but none of it necessarily matches up completely with your service treatment records or your personnel records. The opinions being made are not supported with a decent rationale or citation of the medical records as to why that opinion is being made by the examiner, it just sort of comes out of nowhere.

Insomnia is rated as a MH condition, unless it is specifically physical like OSA.

You can always use both just remember that if you send us. 4142/4142a release to gather private records file you that does not compel your outside provider to cooperate, cooperate timely, not charge for records, etc., and VA is not budgeted an allotment to pay for private records whether they be medical, civil, or criminal (in the case of MST, for example). In those instances it’s faster that you do whatever it is your private provider or local LE requires to release records to you and then you copy or scan and send to us.

Yes, you can continue to submit up until the point when it is in "Rating".

Yes

No. If you don't authorize it the providers won't share it. The control is on the providers' side, and yours.

You're aren't 100%, and your state and county, even, can make their own rules about whether they accept TDIU the same as a 100% schedular rating. My state, for example, does not. If you aren't 100% schedular you don't get property tax exemptions, etc. You are not going to see 100% reflected when you log into the computer because you aren't rated 100%. They're isn't anything for the RO to correct.

What did you, or your doctor, write on the 8940 that you used to apply for tdiu?

If those other contentions are considered part of tdiu then they aren't separate. Yes, they are, but it gets missed so sometimes you need to ask.

I would leave out the references to your other family members, and to SSA. VA will already know that you are SSDI/SSA, its part of what we look up. The references to your family may be useful if they were discovery for court, but VA disability is about you, and only you. if it didn't happen to you or wasn't experienced by you, it didn't happen. I would simplify your support statement down to the bare minimum of What you have for a service connection event and any treatment in service or complaint in service, something that shows you have a current disability now, and then briefly explain how you think they are related. Posting studies about things that you weren't directly involved with (like medical trials, for example) doesn't do much for you because the studies aren't about 'you', they are cross-section of other people. VA, for good or ill, is only concerned about you- its like the MST claims I work on- you may have a personal trauma event/PTSD or similar because of something you witnessed, but for MST specifically if you saw something happen to someone ELSE its not an MST based claim, because MST by definition has to be experienced by you. Bronco pretty much covered the rest.

HLRs by legal definition, can’t introduce new evidence. They only consider what was in the claim at the time it was denied, a review of the claim as it was. Superman’s can consider new evidence that is new and or relevant, though.

It means that it’s no longer part of something that needs to be found on its own, it’s in the manual with everything else.

If multiple new issue claims are filed within a year they get combined into one claim. Whether it’s 1 issue or 20 it all gets worked at the same time. If you are asking for increases those go on as well. If you are appealing something that’s a supplemental claim and is worked on its own.

Smc is a separate tier. Instead of “regular” tier you are paid at SMC tier, they aren’t stackable. Smc has nothing to do with caregiver. Housebound doesn’t mean being a vegetable or chained to your house. Remand means sent back to RO level to fix something. It’s in your decision letter.

Just write it off to the side, or type it as part of the contention name - DEET Exposure-PACT; toxic Substances disposal-PACT. For “toxic disposal” you’ll need to list at least something that was being disposed of, though, like chemical, or ordinance, or at least “particulate matter”. “Disposal of toxic substances” without saying what it was isn’t a claimable contention in an of itself. We (VSR) are supposed to look at your dates and locations of service and liberally consider anything that might be PACT, but we still have to know what substance(s) you are claiming. We can look you up in a DOD database but that only lists potential exposures. You have to tell us what, in general. What is your nexus for depression/etc and PACT? I’d claim the physical stuff (not under PACT- phys stuff, generally, can’t be claimed under PACT) and the depression secondary to that, also. You can claim the same thing more than one way. I’m SC for back and related nerve pain w/ depression secondary to it, for example.

Anything you file as PACT is just your supposition that it might be. We still have to consider it on a direct basis as well. Even if you never left the States you can still fall under PACT due to TERA opinions (toxic exposure risk activities). TERA is basically anything that would show up on the hazardous in some way MSDN list as a civilian product. DEET shows up on the list under Gulf War veterans so it would also be folded into PACT. PACT isn't so much its own thing as it is an extension of what was already considered under GW but adding some locations and extending timeframes. Youd be surprised what shows up under PACT- we run your name through a database from the DOD called ILER that cross-references your MOS, your various duty locations, and what substances you might have come into contact with. We then have to document the relative totality of your contact through your time in service. We can't just point to that time you were in Djibouti and stop- we have to list possibly significant proximal exposure wherever you were, domestic and abroad- it takes a few minutes, LOL. But, with that, if we can't point to a direct thing(s) that falls under PACT as presumptive we can still ask for an opinion about whatever contention you are claiming on the basis of overall exposure. Hypercholesterolemia or elevated serum (blood) cholesterol is not a disability for which VA compensation benefits are payable. Diagnoses of hyperlipidemia, elevated triglycerides, and elevated cholesterol are laboratory results and are not, in and of themselves, disabilities. 61 Fed. Reg. 20,440 (May 7, 1996). I don't write the laws that's just what they are. The physical pain/spine issues shouldn't be too hard to service connect provided you can identify in-service event(s) that would plausibly represent the beginning of what you have now. If you had no complaints or treatment in service, nothing on your SEP exam, and you've never been treated for it until the last few years it's going to be more difficult, though. Some MOS's we can take pretty easily as causing those types of issues- if you were an 11B or have an ice cream cone with wings or something then yeah, you probably have back, knee, foot issues. If you were an intelligence guy in a bunker in the AF for 10 yrs, well, that's more of a challenge.

Of course. Why couldn't they? The ratings are individual to the person.

Ill have to keep my eyes open for that, then. I haven't come across any, but we get a lot of detritus from other offices sent to us. They are being told by their mid-level sups that if a claim has MST on it at all just boot it to us with no other development. What is supposed to happen is that they develop the non-MST contentions as much as they can THEN send to us. We then continue to follow/develop the non MST stuff, and the MST stuff because those claims, once here, stay here with us. It delays the claim a lot if there is nothing done to it because they saw MST on it and then we start on it from scratch. The system will also sometimes label a claim that way if it's not- say you went to Air Assault or Mountain Assault school or something- guess what....... That has been reported by me and a few others, and is supposed to get fixed. Thank you for the heads up.

Under what regulatory guidance did they claim that? That is not regulation as far as I know- and I see a lot of supplemental claims.

Use 20-0995 to do a supplemental claim

Search the BVA website-. https://search.usa.gov/search?affiliate=bvadecisions

true- you may have high frequency hearing loss, which, when paired with tinnitus, really sucks. Even a 0% rating is a win, though, because you can get hearing aids to boost those frequencies and many have a subtone that helps cancel out the tinnitus. The last pair of Phonak's I got do this, and also let me adjust hearing more to the front, rear, or all around, and bass/trebel. They are also rechargeable just like a pair of earbuds, so I don't have to worry about batteries, either.

VA Hearing exams are based on 2 factors- a puretone audio exam, and the Maryland CNC Speech Discrimination test, which uses 50 words to determine the level of speech discrimination (how well you hear common words).

Its a standard thing- for all VA knows you've had more treatment that may be relevant since the last time. You can selectively send what you want, if its relevant, or leave it alone and the request will expire. We see both all the time and don't take it personally. There are just certain things that we are required to do under DTA.