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brokensoldier244th
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Posts posted by brokensoldier244th
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That I have no idea, im not a rater. TBI is its own exam, as is Depr/Anx, etc. Usually the Depression/anxiety are rated as secondary to the TBI but there are some requirements like 'how long after the TBI did the depression and anxiety start',. Other cognitive deficits, headaches, etc. can be rated separately as well depending on the circumstances. I see a lot of PTSD/TBI mixed residual claims that are part of the MST claims that I work and the hardest part is separating the cognitive deficit from the PTSD vs the cognitive deficit from the TBI. (as an example- You didn't say anything about PTSD but im trying to give you some context within what im more familiar with).
The important part is "what" is your condition, and "how" it is caused by your military service- thats the biggie question she will will have to answer and do an opinion on. The affects of your disability(s) on you and your quality of life are secondary to that. If you aren't SC for it first the rest of it doesn't matter with regards to a VA rating-(Im not trying to minimize anything you have going on
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Yes, absolutely. It would be best if she did the DBQ, answered the questions, and then typed up a separate statement basically summarizing the same thing with professional rationale, observed behavior(s), noted cognitive deficit, etc. and how it affects your daily living activities AND how it affects you, or would affect you, in an occupational environmental setting.
VA doctors fill out 2 dbqs for service connection- the one you have with all the questions/testing, etc, and then a separate one for the opinion. Unless you are within a year of RAD the opinion is required, meaning that even if your exam is scheduled within that year if they send in the DBQ after the year has elapsed (i.e. your exam was close to the end of that year) they will get it kicked back for the accompanying opinion, so its better to just do it all up front. Medical Opinion.pdfMedical Opinion.pdfMedical Opinion.pdf
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It is a yearly claim.
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1 minute ago, Riplip said:
Can you guys stop bitching on my thread? I can't even follow my own stuff here. I'm trying to get advice and i keep reading all your sh&t that has nothing to do with my thread. Respectfully argue somewhere else. Thank you
10-4
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1 minute ago, Rivet62 said:
Well that's encouraging. Why twice though? Mine took me 3 years but I had to develop documentation and my attorney pointed me to where...official recognition like my state's voc rehab and actual documented work difficulties (instead of having melt downs and quitting like I had done for decades)...that sort of thing.
because the first time I did it half-assed, and I was younger (under 35). The 2nd, with an attorney, but with no health insurance so I couldn't get my 2 VA providers to fill out or do an FCE that was being requested by SSA (a full functional capacity exam- they can take a few hours, easy, to SSA standards). I had a denial from Voc Rehab saying I was unemployable, too, but the SSA employment witness that was called at my hearing said that I could likely still get a job counting widgets in manufacturing or chickens in an agricultural industry. Like, who does that anymore?
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18 minutes ago, Mr cue said:
I really am about to stop responding to you and I hope the board ban you.
First you are not the VA you are a low level worker.
Stop try to make yourself bigger than you are.
Listen we understand that you are a VA employee and a poster from the other site were they think the veterans affairs can't do no wrong.
We don't need your VA talking points on ever post.
When a veteran complain about there problem with the VA.
I really wish you would go back to the other place were your post are need.
Were they discourage veterans an then ban them.
I read your posts there, too, and I know why you got banned, so.......
*shrug*. I guess if this site bans me they ban me. I can sleep at night because I'm not telling any of you anything that isn't true. Your opinion on 'where' I am in the pecking order of the VA is irrelevant because, at the end of the day you see one side of things. I hired on at here after many years seeing the process from the other side and wondering the same stuff you all do. Now I see both sides and I try to educate and explain. Im not sorry if you don't like it.
3 minutes ago, shrekthetank1 said:This is great if they do. I have had two who did not even come close to this. I thought the exam went great and they only put in their opinion. It does work out sometimes, but I always prepare for when there is a firefight, and I am going to need all my ammo.
Best way to be.
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17 minutes ago, Rivet62 said:
Yes. I realize all of that now. But back in 2016 I did not. And even in 2018 I was only forming some grasp on matters of accountability, etc., etc. It's a process. I'd say the veterans unemployability claims process is perhaps more onerous than SSDI claims, whereas the initial veteran's disability claims process is less onerous than SSDI.
Being paid at 100% (an amount above the already thoroughly reviewed rating outcome of 80%) would require quite a bit more to justify. I didn't realize that when I filed my initial claim that's for sure, even though unemployability was a real issue with me. I had assumed back then that they would see the record and hands-down I would get it, maybe like an added treat...you know like a cookie or a mint after the meal. LOL.
Its actually quite a bit more forgiving, and I can say this having gone through the SSDI process twice.
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17 minutes ago, Riplip said:
OK so I know my thread got compromised but I hope some are still following. I have an update from last nights call. Here's the backlog to my story. File claim for Menieres. Get C&P exam quite a drive away but go to it and it seems well. 2 1/2 weeks go by and I receive an email stating I have another C&P exam scheduled for hearing loss on 4/27 5 minutes from where I work. All good except I'll be out of state on vacation from 4/21 to 5/2. That same day I call them and tell them I won't be able to make that due to prior plans and will be out of state. They say thats fine we will reschedule after 5/3. All good. The next day (yesterday) they send me an email stating I have an appt. rescheduled on 4/29 2 hours away from me in another state. I call them last night and told them I spoke to one of there representatives the night before and I can't make anything in that 10 days period. We him and haw for quite a few minutes, I ask for a manager and I talk to her and she said since I'm canceling this appt. its being sent back to the VA. I think this is outrageous, I don't even see how it is legal. I wasn't even given a chance to make this. I told them I can see someone anytime from now until 4/20 and anytime after 5/3. Nope the VA guidelines state this and that. You will have to take it up with the VA. So now I plan on getting a instant deny and have to start all over. I know it will fall on dead ears but where can I make a complaint. I want to file a formal complaint to every possible office that I can. If this is happening to me its happening to others and it is unfair to anyone having to deal with issues. That my rant. Sorry but thanks for listening if you did.
The va guidelines states nothing about the direct scheduling of exams other that putting in the request to have it scheduled ( unless it’s at VA directly) because we don’t do that. The decision to send it back to us has nothing to do with us.
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1 hour ago, Rivet62 said:
So let me get this straight. I understand that the examiner has to follow the DBQ. Right? In your experience, based on the DBQ, would a C&P examiner be pressed by the VA to give an opinion on the nexus of an existing rating when the exam is for unemployability (an increase)?
I want to gather opinions. I'll post this question more fully in a new thread.
A request for IU is a request for an extra schedular rating based on all disabilities. What are you asking? The examiner has whatever you put in the application to go by. The VA considers the totality of your condition rather than just the one thing you list, in case you are wrong (in the examiners opinion).
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10 hours ago, Mr cue said:
We understand that the VA feel and have default to the private contractor.
Doesn't make it right and soon or later it will end.
If you think Congress is going to allow veterans to travel 2 3 hour for a exam when the hospital is 10 mins away.
Based on the you wait longer at the hospital is bull.
I never wait more than 2 weeks to be scheduled.
But I am going to let you have that one. Smh
Who do you think pushed for VA to ‘do something’ about the time length and claims backlog, based on concerns from vets? If you think Congress wants to fully fund VA then I have some land for you on the moon.
You can’t really complain that claims take too long, and also complain that the government spends too much money on things (like fully funding the VA at the level it would actually take), then complain that you got what you asked for- more exam locations but no direct VA control over the exam scheduling and availability. Veterans wanted “something done”. They wrote their Congress people. They then got what they wanted- something done.
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1 hour ago, Rivet62 said:
Just the very idea that a simple request for increase allows them to review the existing claim and rating, rather than simply an increase based on where things are now, is utterly terrifying. I filed a claim for unemployability, based on my combined rating of 80% and I guess I was naive because I thought it was a matter of simply looking at the difficulties I've had in getting and maintaining employment. No. They open up the entire file from start to finish to re-evaluate the service-connected disabilities to re-determine a nexus in the first place?? Maybe. If not that, then shoot it down to a meaningless amount?
Anxiety? Ha! I understand.
I was naive. I'm 80%. So I file a claim for unemployability, but by doing so I've just given them the gun and all the ammo to shoot my 80% down? Yeah, probably.
I haven't gotten a decision yet. I had C&P exams in January.
IU is considered a claim for increase based on all disabilities that affect you. You are saying you can’t work, pay me 100%, outside the ratings schedule, because of your disabilities. Why wouldn’t they all be looked at? You may not see it that way but it’s a benefit to you. If all they asked for was what you thought was the issue and you only put one thing, and that wasn’t enough to move the needle rather than just considering all of them and how they affected you would you feel the same way? Or would you then be upset that all other possibilities weren’t considered as contributors?
It’s also not like all va disability money paid out isn’t followed by people in Congress that would live nothing better than for you not to get it at all. It does have to be justified. I’m sorry that many of you feel that is onerous but at some point there has to be some accountability. Just like when the government spends money on something that doesn’t affect you and that you don’t agree with.
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Not sure what the alternative is if the only available examiner is there. We don’t schedule the times, and the place defaults to the vendors. They then schedule time and place, and there are more of them than va clinics. If it was just va you’d be waiting longer and traveling further.
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Heh...there are days. I spend a lot of my time reading through NCIS/CID/local police/domestic violence MSW notes, UCMJ proceedings, etc- if im lucky. Sometimes is more needle in a haystack because they didnt report it. Thats when I get to put on my monocle and grab the pipe and funny hat, 'cause I have to start looking for psycho-social markers. Physically its about the cushiest job I could ask for but mentally its really hard sometimes. My wife is a trauma survivor- happened while we were friends in college before we started dating later. I was there to listen to, and see, the physical and mental fallout. That's why I volunteered for this subgroup of VSRs. I figure I couldn't do near as much as I would have wished, then, being on a different campus, but now at least I can try to get some resolution for these vets.
If you believe the symptoms (PTDS/back issues) manifested sooner than your effective date there IS an avenue to attempt to change that. 38CFR 3.157 covers effective dates. You can appeal under that and see what happens. There are a lot more people on here versed in appeals than I am, I don't work them. If you search under EED, Earlier effective date, 3.157, etc, you'll find threads about it. Your back issues might not need that, though, if you can show that you underwent surgery in svc that shoudl be all you need.
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If you didnt claim PTSD within 1 yr of service then the date of the rating is from whatever date you filed the claim.
There doesnt have to be a current diagnosis for something to 'be' under something else. I work MST/PTSD claims exclusively and I get a lot of stuff, things that we call 'markers', that manifest while in svc, shortly after, or sometimes long after, that end up being indicative of MST related traumatic PTSD. It doesn't change the effective date if they claimed it years later but it DOES serve as evidence that a condition might have existed while in service, which is a path to service connecting it.
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Insomnia may well have been a manifestation of the PTSD you didnt know you had, yet. In any case, unless its tied to OSA- a specifically diagnosed condition, so don't apply for OSA unless you've had a sleep study and are diagnosed with OSA- then it still falls under Mental, and since you already have a mental disorder the insomnia is already accounted for in that rating.
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It wouldn't, necessarily- though a hearing exam/ear exam usually goes with menieres since menieres is a defect within the inner ear. Whoever scheduled it should have requested both at the same time, though.
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I don’t know, Buck. A friend of mine has their leg amputated below the knee due to an opportunistic infection and between the phantom limb and the prostheses pain sometimes she says the infection was better. Plus learning to ambulate again…
might help with the pain but there are some changes that you’d need to account for, too.
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9 minutes ago, john999 said:
You know the VA does Inspire implants in vets with OSA. I could not tolerate the cpap so I got the Inspire implant a few years ago. If you get it done at the VA you will save many thousands of dollars. Look up Inspire sleep apnea device and you can learn more. My apnea is severe with the whole nine yards of breathing stoppage and many apneas every night. Inspire was the best I could do. In Tampa where I live the VA does the implants but they will try and make you use the cpap until you convince them it is not working for you. Cpap is the gold standard with most doctors. They are conservative in treatment even though about half of cpap users stop using them over time for all the usual reasons.
I’ve seen those, I didn’t know VA did them, though. Hmmmm…….I have a Phillips CPAP on recall right now. I should check that out. Thanks for the heads up!
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Remember, his appeals and the results only apply to him- they aren’t binding across VA unless they are CAVC.
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Remember, if your notes are extensive and/or detailed there may be something in there already linking the two.
also, the changes to the rating proposed are not taking cpaps to 0%. They are adding less intensive treatments to the ratings schedule. Right now it’s basically BAM- CPAP! and has been for years. Not every one needs a cpap, or can tolerate one. There are other options now, and they are updating the rating (potentially) to reflect that.
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This is correct. If you file before the new regulations take effect while your claim is in a pending (pre-rating) status before they take effect, you would be rated under both and then most favorable outcome applied.
Just saying, though- even though the comment period ends in late April its going to be likely months after that before something like this would begin to take effect. This stuff takes a long time before it filters down to us as new policy.
Rating question brain injury, deeply appreciate input VA personnel
in VA Disability Claims Research
Posted
If they were to do that it would affect us all anyway. Congress wrote the laws. They try to do it every few years, it usually dies before committee.