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brokensoldier244th
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Posts posted by brokensoldier244th
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I have no idea what you are trying to say up above.
Suffice it to say that not ever veteran is close to a VA hospital, not every VA clinic or hospital has every kind of doctor to do C&P exams.
You are comingling the two scenarios. Just because a VA hospital or clinic has a "doctor for condition whatever" doesn't mean that doctor can do C&P exams- most of them don't, anyway- they see it as a conflict of interest. They are treating you, they are not in the best place to be objective when it comes to VBA. Many don't want to deal with it- their job is to be clinicians not to be gatekeepers and examiners for VA benefits.
Treatment and benefits are two wholly separate things. There are very few VA doctors that do C&P exams, and the assumption that everyone in a white coat that does them is a VA employee is probably where you are getting tripped up. Even in the VAMC or clinic a C&P examiner is likely still a contractor from outside of VA.
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4 minutes ago, Mr cue said:
So my friend calls me this morning tell me that lhi ask him to travel a 90 mile away.
This is crazy an ppl feel like this is ok.
If a veteran is disabled I don't many who can travel that far alone.
The va hospital is 10-15 mins away we're he and I have always had are comp exams.
I don't want to hear the hospital can no longer do them. Because they can.
This has to stop.
He told them he not able to travel that far they tell him it might be 2 3 weeks before they can get something closer.
Once I complete this fight.
I have a new mission
No, they can't.
If we try to schedule an exam and the VAMC is not accepting exams for certain things, or at all, then they aren't. Stop telling people what you *think* VA can and cannot do. Because, in this case, you are incorrect.
We routinely scan through pending exams that have gone over 30 days without being scheduled and re-route them to local VAMC if we can. If the VAMC isn't accepting exams then its not excepting exams. That's it. There isn't a way to over-ride it, it's based on the facility administrator's capacity to do an exam at that time. Thanks to covid, among other things, sometimes you just can't get what you want for a location for an exam.
The veteran can call 800 827 1000 and request a shorter distance location and if there is one that is available we can sometimes switch the veteran to that one. I do it all the time- but only if the facility or location is accepting exams for that condition.
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2 hours ago, Mr cue said:
I think what you are saying is a little bigger than duty to assist.
An condition that was part of your record should have been address.
Did they order exams back than for your condition to see if they were service connected or secondary.
Listen veterans are not doctor and should be act like them.
It is the va Duty to find out if the condition is cause by a service connected disability.
Not the veteran.
Other may have the law that address this.
Shockley v. West, 11 Vet. App. 208, 214 (1998)
Collier v. Derwinski, 2 Vet. App. 247, 251 (1992) - among others
however, neither of those require that every thing in your STRs is a claim, nor every conceivable potential theory.
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No, veterans aren’t doctors and neither are we. Just because something shows up in a service treatment record doesn’t mean it’s service connected. There are still criteria that have to be met. VA is not, nor is it required to, assume things that you want to claim. Lots of things aren’t disabling but show up in service records. They aren’t disabilities unless you claim them to be, other than presumed conditions.
Regardless of primary or secondary the OP needs to address the reasons for denial, which they have not given.
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Probably not. We process whatever you claim but we can't make the determination of whether or not a condition you claim is secondary to something else unless you raise the point-we'd just be guessing, plus, a secondary condition has to be claimed against an already SC condition. If you have several SC conditions in a related part of the body we wouldn't know what/which you were claiming it to be secondary to.
The requirements of DTA are found here: M21-1 I.i.1.a
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I’m not a phone person, completely different position. Their clearance is considerably less. They can’t see claims. Ever. I can.
agree to disagree in the rest.
I didn’t forget but that’s okay , it won’t happen again, for anyone. I specially ask the few times I do that for the poster not to advertise because I’m not dial a claim and I can decide whether it not to assist someone. Problem solved, no more worrying about that.
moving on…
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13 hours ago, pacmanx1 said:
Here is the thing, I am not trying to debate with you or disagree with you. You may be the best VA employee there ever was, but you still can’t speak for an entity that has well over 300,000 employees. With your assistance every claim that process can be granted but as a whole what does it really mean? Sure, someone can say good/great work, but it is not about you or the work you do because let us keep in mind that the BVA, CAVC, VSOs and attorneys and many other organizations/industries has been created to help veterans fight bad VA decision and it seems there is no end. The VA is more willing to hire new employees instead of paying veterans their benefits.
What’s the point of hiring new employees and teaching them improper procedures? Claims are still being denied and veterans are still filing appeals and winning them. My posts may not breakdown every little step that happens but that does not mean that I am wrong, I am sharing my experiences. When a veteran calls the PEGGY 1 800 number and ask to speak to a supervisor, they are connected to a supervisor. It does not matter what you say or post because I know what happened, I was there, I had the conversation. Did I speak to you no, you were not involved in that conversation? You have no idea who I spoke to, and the facts are that individual told me she was going to deny my claim and my claim was denied only proves that you are trying to comment on something that you should not. I know it is your opinion, but the simple fact is this. I was told by a person claiming to be a supervisor and that she was going to deny my claim and my claim was denied and those are the facts, and your opinion can't take that away.
You just demonstrated my point. You talked to 'someone' at the 800 number. When? The call centers are not in the RO, they are wholly separate, and have been for at least a few years- so, your phone person would not just be able to transfer a call to a Rater, and a call center person has nothing to do with the rating of a claim, I don't care what level of supervisor they are.
They might be able to see a note on the claim that says that but a phone person has no authority to do anything WITH a claim. It may have been that way sometime ago but its not the way it is now, same with a lot of other things. Your post sets up the expectation that someone can call the 800 number and then get connected to someone with authority to do things to their claim. That's not how it works anymore.
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Which is really misleading because the 800 number doesn’t automatically go to supervisors.
So, by your post, someone reading will think that the person on the other end has full access to their file to answer questions and fix things- which they don’t
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“Peggy” can barely see your claim, much less deny it. They don’t have near that level of access.
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You only need to get them off myhealthvet if you want to mark them up. MHV for you is just a different view of what we see.
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No, you have to up load them- you can get them directly off myhealthvet by date range and it lets you download a pdf of them. Or, just send a 21-4138 with a list of approx dates, issues, etc. it gives us a framework to start with. We’ll get them anyway-it’s required by federal law under “duty to assist” but if you feel more comfortable marking them up first that’s fine too.
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We request them from VAMC but if you want to download them as a pdf and highlight the high points in Adobe Acrobat and resubmit it’s faster and easier for us (the searchers through your records) and the examiners because then we don’t have to keyword search as much in what could be hundreds it even a thousand out more pages.
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Creative Organ is also a catch all category for disabilities that don't have a more specific, or even relational, place in the Schedule of ratings.
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Has nothing to do with making babies. Loss of use is loss of use. If it had to do with babies we’d be asking about condoms or birth control use and denying for that- we don’t, because it’s irrelevant for the definition of loss of use. Plus, I had SMC k before my vasectomy, and still have it after. That was 5 yrs ago.
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You’ll be fine. One has nothing to do with the other.
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In traumatic spinal cord injuries, yes, but if its not affecting regular inspiration it is going to be a harder sell. That's all I'm saying. I HAVE a spinal injury- and OSA. Ive read most of this stuff, too, and it had no impact on my rating because my regular breathing is not impaired. If a breath test indicates weakness in the diaphragm or other breathing apparatus then he should be fine.
My OSA was secondarily connected due to BMI brought on by an underactive thyroid, demonstrable chronic pain, and sedative medications that cause relaxation of the physical breathing apparatus. Another avenue to consider.
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Youd have a challenge, I think, connecting OSA to neck disc compression unless the discs that are compressed affect regular breathing. Not saying it won't happen, just that Ive not seen it- both while in VA and when I wasn't and still researching my own OSA.
A secondary condition is just one that is caused by the primary- it can be rated higher in and of itself since it's its own thing.
- Vync, Rivet62 and ShrekTheTank
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13 minutes ago, Rivet62 said:
Ok on the nerves...
I need to get clear on the straight leg test. I'll search that. But I actually couldn't raise my leg. Waddell's sign. I'll search that too.
They usually do it both seated and laying down. It’s easier, less painful, when seated. If a patient has 2 different reactions, or the seated pain is worse than laying down, it *can* be indicative of psychosocial or psychosomatic conditions.
Reactions that are out of character or exaggerated pain during movements that don’t cause pain can be interpreted as Waddell’s.
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8 minutes ago, Rivet62 said:
Wow. Good to know.
If you know where the nerves are and where you are injured you can literally follow the lack of sensation or tingles all the way down. It helps to have a basic idea of the nerve paths and how they correlate to your back or neck for when you describe it to them. "I hurt here and it radiates to "here" or "here", or I lose partial or full feeling "there" or "There". You can also look up straight leg raise test and Waddell's sign. They can tell if you are faking- Waddell's sign is how. Knowing the straight leg raise test is good, too, so you know what to expect, physically, during an exam.
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You don't need one to request the records yourself. The form is for us to request them for you. We need both parts of the form 4142 allows us to request on your behalf, 4142a is where you list the providers and basic contact info and treatment dates. We then send those to the provider to prove that you are giving us informed release to request your records. They don't always respond to us, though- they are not obligated to do so. So, many times it is easier if you do it with whatever forms, process, website, whatever- and then send them to us. I used to pull stuff off some of my providers pages that have websites showing notes and clinical visits that you can access. Print to PDF, merge it all together into 1 or 2 PDF's rather than 50, and kick it down the road.
My Friend has been as to travel 90 miles for his comp exams.
in VA Disability Claims Research
Posted
I didnt say they got rid of it, now you are putting words in my mouth. Read what I wrote again. You can’t make up your own facts just because you don’t like them the way they are now.