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brokensoldier244th
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Posts posted by brokensoldier244th
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They are part of the same 'system' so you can only get a rating for one due to rules about pyramiding contentions.
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Was it paper, or PDF? If PDF you might have to open it an Adobe, type 'Recognition' into the sidebar to get the option to convert to OCR recognition. Adobe will then scan the whole thing and try to make what text it can identify searchable. It won't work well (or at all) on handwritten stuff, but for the typed things it helps alot. You may not need to, though. Try searching for a few common words like "depression" or "headache" or whatever you know should be in there somewhere. See if you get any hits. Sometimes the format of how the file is scanned doesn't include OCR recognition because it takes longer- at 5000 pages you'll start the process and then go do something else for an hour or two.
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It looks like its folded into M21-5 7.D.2, the DROC manual, that I may soon come to know better since I may be starting in the D.C. DROC soon.
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39 minutes ago, broncovet said:
Im sure its hard for employees to keep up, but even worse for Veterans. When we do a fast letter search, sometimes it will say its been rescinded. But not always.
Most of us dont have time to not only read THAT fast letter, but all the others to see if its been rescinded also.
You just pointed out a flaw. My guess is that, for example, new employees dont necessairly know whe a fast letter was rescinded either, for example.
Rescinding this fast letter, however, is disturbing. Very disturbing. You see, I was "on the cusp of being homeless" waiting on VA benefits, and I got a partial grant. So, VA's actions speak louder than their words. The Va has all these programs to help homeless, so why not just pay em right away, so, at least those where money is the reason they are homeless, can keep their home? So this makes me question VA's sincerity of helping homeless Veterans.
Is this too hard to understand that, for many Veterans, the only thing preventing them from getting homeless is the vA check and delaying that increases the chance of homelessness?
I held out for more than a year...without income..before losing my home. Many people are one or two paychecks away from homelessness. So, just a month or two of delays, can mean the difference between having your home and homelessness. Yes, I fault VA for delay of my benefits causing my loss of home. I applied in 2002. I did not see a penny until 2006. 4 years. And, Im not unusual. Its too long. Way too long. Of course, my claim was denied by the VARO with a current diagnosis, in service event, and nexus. 3.5 years and an appeal to the BVA, and 2 more RO decisions later, I got partial benefits. It was too little too late. Im not the only one, this has ever happened to.
Most of the homeless Vets "are not" on this forum. Why? Well, most shopping carts found under the bridge do not have wifi and a working computer.
OTHER Vets, sadly, take their own lives in this hopeless situation. About 22 Vets per day. Is money to keep your home the only reason for Vet suicide? Of course not. But its a big one. If you have a home, can invite friends and family over, well that helps depression or PTSD more than going to a VA hospital a half hour and listen to a therapist, then go back to the shopping cart under the bridge.
Most of FAST letters have either become REG, or have been superseded at some point over the years. Rescinded doesn't always mean "no longer valid" but it is a clue that whatever that letter talked about has been updated or outdated at some point.
I don't know anything about being completely homeless, other than my part time work with residents in an apartment building that was mostly transitional program homeless into an apartment setting in a controlled environment. I and my family have also lost a house in the mid 2000's due to economy/job loss, etc- and I was getting my benefits at the time. We had to move in about 2 weeks after fighting the foreclosure to the end, with begged and borrowed money, and then into a house that was more expensive than our mortgage had been, but cheaper than all the fees and penalties that had been due on it. Moving a family of 6, and having to explain to your kids and family and friends why is not something I want to ever repeat.
That in no way is the same as being completely homeless- I understand that- but and not completely blind to homeless veterans' struggles, or suicide/suicide attempts whether adjacent to me or not so adjacent. Ive never tried to say the VA is perfect, far from it- and I see the sausage every day. I'm just 1 person though in a giant machine that probably should be broken up into smaller 'somethings'- I don't know the solution but I do know that with so many Veterans receiving or applying for benefits breaking it up just isn't possible with causing even worse chaos..
Many younger employees probably aren't aware of FAST letters- but then, many of those letters apply to Raters and authorizers, and the bulk of claims workers are like me- VSRs. I found out about them here and in a few other forums over the years prior to working here. We don't make very many major decisions other than exams and character of discharges, and even that stuff is still checked by someone else. A lot of the really old FAST letters have become policy in some way or another, so 'rescinded' means that its been folded into actual M-21 regs. Sometimes it does mean the letter is no longer valid, too.
That just emphasizes that a VSO, some other form of claims rep, the Internet, etc, is really important in claims research but don't put all 'your' research in 1 basket and run with it because we all learned on AD the devil is in the details, VSO are overworked and sometimes apathetic, Lawyers can help but they want your money, 'friendly doctors and for profit vet help websites' - same, and, worse, they get paid whether you win or not or you don't get the letters/IMO/help in filing. In my opinion some of those are WORSE than lawyers.
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29 minutes ago, Waitingtoolongdave said:
From what my sparse research on fast letters tells me so far, "rescinded" doesn't necessarily mean what we think. If the fast letter (FL) gets written into policy, the FL is no longer necessary and is rescinded. It looks like this might be the case.
THIS- I was just pointing out that some of the info that has been used in the past from FAST letters, old decisions, etc, is sometimes based on information that is no longer completely relevant. Many veterans I have worked with outside of my 'VA hat" find a lot of information by searching Google/DuckDuckGo, whatever, and then run with it- and if they get denied they are upset (understandably) and don't know why, because- "it says X,Y,Z right THERE!!".
Like, for a time you could get Chap 35 DEA from both parents as long as you didnt try to use it at the same time, so you could get around the (then) 48 month limitation of total benefits cap. That is no longer the case but the CAVC case always comes up in Google, and Ive seen/worked with some people in a Chapter 35 forum that come in expecting to use (now 36 months) of benefits twice.
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Just make sure you check that FAST letters are still applicable and not rescinded (like this one is). I didn’t research it any further, I didn’t have time today- just be aware that there is a lot of old information that floats around on the internet about VA stuff, that is cited as gospel, that no longer applies the same way or at all.
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Are you volunteering, then?
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What about it? They are a regulatory nightmare. Nothing is untrue about that statement. Are we not allowed to complain about parts of our job, now? Why should you get to have all the fun?
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1 hour ago, broncovet said:
There is a fast letter stating, to the effect, that, if you have a claim decided with multiple issues, some of which are granted, and others denied or remanded, the varo is SUPPOSED to pay you for the items granted, and "not" delay for the denied or remanded issues.
If you want to see the fast letter do a search for fast letters "partial grants" or similar.
V.ii.3.B.1.c, but basically the whole section, starting with B.1.a
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EED's suck. Not for you all, like, I'm not denigrating it at all. If you are due for an EED I'm all for it. Seeing them from MY side, though, and I only develop information and I don't rate- yikes. Its a real minefield to wade through, regulatory-wise.
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1 hour ago, Waitingtoolongdave said:
So, you believe I should be getting a rating on the 2 issues that were granted and do the remanded one separately?
At our RO, yes. I don't know if it's left up to the RO, though.
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For many of these, throughout Covid, we've been issuing partial rating decisions on what we can, and deferring the parts that can't be, unless they are intertwined or dependent on one another. That's at our RO, though.
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No need to delete- its a good reminder that, if you are unsure or something, file the appeal. 'You' can add new information to it if you are doing an 0995, so if there is an inkling of an idea that you don't have documentation for and its federal, you tell us, and we dig for it, and you can as well if you wish-, or private medical- either way, let them know on your claim so they know that new evidence is forthcoming so they keep the appeal open. As you know from reading here some of these guys/ladies have kept appeals going for years due to a lot of things, sometimes waiting for records from somewhere or another. If the appeal is continuing, the effective date is the original DOC (unless you are appealing EED, thats a whole different ball of wax). If you let it get away from you, though, then its final after a year.
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Camp lejeune had always been covered for exposure. PACT only lets you sue them, too.
The letter says renal failure, the regulation says renal cancer. Point out that you have renal failure because of renal cancer. Not every VSR has the same level of experience with medal terminology and generally rather than get bogged down in medical Latin we'll ask you for more info if your dx doesn't match the regulation.
The raters take far more classes than we do regarding body systems and affecting conditions but they don't see it until after we do, unless the vsr is more experienced and had built up experience or internal contacts to ask about things like this, or has a medical dictionary and the rating scepter on their shortcuts list, or knows that they can look up prior appeals court clues. This isn't part of VSR training, it's stuff you pick up as you go.
The first year and a half of a VSR is class learning regulations, training, not screwing up, and about 6 months of actual claims work, and VA has hired a lot of vsrs in the last year.
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If you are getting vamc treatment it doesn't matter if it's for SC or not. They are required to attempt to recover costs. Thank Congress.
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Released to who? They are medical records, unless there is a signed release, subpoena, or a court order they don't get released to anyone.
GAD can fluctuate in a given day, same as PHQ. They aren't definitive tests on their own, their value is more in establishing trends over time. Can you file a claim? Yes. Is your claim going to hinge on the two tests above? No.
GAD7 is an anxiety base line, pHQ is depression.
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Yes, if its VAMC treatment.
Some private practice doctors will send stuff to VA IF YOU TELL THEM TO- they can't just send it UNLESS you authorize it with a record sharing request, or it was a community care appt. Comm Care counts as VA even though it is private.
That said, sometimes Comm Care providers don't always send the records back to VHA to get into your VAMC records. That's why whenever you file a claim if you have private treatment, or community care treatment, tell us so we can send you a 21-4142/4142a (or fill one out on your own). It gives VA release, for 1 yr, to request records from whatever private providers you put on there. -
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Don't yell at me, I don't know the history of your claim, and I didn't ask for your 'tude.
I'm just telling you what its for, and why its required- its a legally binding agreement. If your attorney didn't notify VA that you canned him then it needs to be taken off the record if it is still on there. If you didn't expressly revoke it before, then its still in effect, just like any other legally binding contract and it needs to be removed. There are requirements for that, and this form is one of them.
If you already filled them out and sent them in, then fine, that should be it.
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If you aren't currently represented now but they are saying you need a 21-22 it means that you never revoked your original POA, probably, or at some point you sent one in and the form is incomplete in some way, so from VA's point of view it needs to be corrected. We have no idea if you revoke a POA until you tell us, or they tell us. They don't always tell us, either
21-22a is for Attorney representation, 21-22 is for VSO/Service Organization representation- big difference, two different forms- they didn't change.
In order to revoke you either have to do it Expressly- meaning you notify VA IN WRITING that you don't want to be represented by X,Y,Z, or, you fill out a 21-22/21-22A and appoint someone else.
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The documentation from the Discharge review board says that once they make a determination it is final. Occasionally new information will come to light that allows VA to make a new determination, but the information we rely on is about 99% what we have to request from the Service anyway (court martial/JAG notes, shore patrol, CID, etc) and the Discharge Board would have already had access to that, often easier and faster than we do. So, its not often that a character of discharge changes after a DRB because they already rule based on the same information we would have had to get from them.
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Ebenfits has been in a decommissioning status for over a year, its not a surprise that there are outdated forms on it.
What form was it? The form date is clearly printed on the bottom, and any form that is modified or updated is still good for 1 yr past that date, but no longer. There is no pretext. The form is outdated, there is nothing you can do about it other than re-complete it.
Some forms are modified because the legalese behind it is modified (like HIPAA language) or ratings criteria language to the examiner. Some forms, like 21-4142s and ITFs are only good for a year anyway. If you were told the form is outdated, then it is outdated, and is no longer valid and must be resubmitted. It is obviously not delaying your claim if you have an exam scheduled, so just fill out the form.
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Just now, glashutte said:
Very good advice thank you.
Can they obtain documents such as decision letters for each disability?
Do they ever report things to the VA? For example, if I have a rating for anxiety but is controlled by medications and then the county VSO sees me as 'normal' when I am on meds...can he/she message the VA and say something like "I believe this veteran to not have anxiety in my opinion from my interaction"
Yes, they can see your Efolder and get things. Will they have time to do so? Well........that's a different thing altogether.
No- they are not medical people any more than we (VSRs) are, and they have have no place in the claims process other than to help you facilitate filing claims- why would they report otherwise?
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One has nothing to do with the other. There is no 'extra cautious'- it is irrelevant to the claims process.
IBS and GERD
in VA Disability Claims Research
Posted
Thank you for adding to that, Pac