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brokensoldier244th
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Posts posted by brokensoldier244th
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Did you account for the difference in awarded percentages for each year as you calculated? You'll only get payment for the difference between your original total rating and the new percentage, then you need to look at what X percent rating is in each of the years prior. Its something that catches a lot of people when they are trying to calculate retro payments. They may have done it incorrectly, and you do have the right to request an audit also.
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Even with the IMO/IME its in your best interest to go to the VA exams- they may run counter to what your IMO/IME sometimes says, but not going at all does a few things- 1. (prior to covid) it starts the clock after you miss it and can push your claim forward into being sent to a rater, and 2. it makes you look uncooperative which I/we see. If I see exam no shows I contact the veteran, vendor, and/or the VAMC to find out why- if its on them for not scheduling yet or on you for not going. If I see a vet that hasn't gone to exams a few times eventually I need to move that file to rating with the evidence at hand and those are the ones that go first, barring my being able to either contact them, or the vendor, or the VAMC, to provide a reason why. Not going to exams enough times triggers "waiving your right to an exam" and the claim must be moved forward.
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I am also SC for apnea w/cpap. Rhinitis would be a more likely just due to the anatomy of the issue. Having back and neck issues doesn't exacerbate OSA, OSA is based on sinus, palate, throat, etc, or in the case of central apnea, nervous signals triggering breath events not being sent correctly. You'd need an eval of your rhinitus to be more than 0% to strongly suggest a connection, though, because a 0% indicates that they acknowledge it but its not debilitating in any way. Radiculopathy should be easy(er)- but you have to have complained about it in the context of your existing cervical issues to your PCP or private doctor - they have to make the connection. You can, as a layperson, discuss your conditions and their effects but you can't make a nexus without a doctor.
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Usually that would go (internally, anyway) the other way round. A claim isn't considered closed until a decision is mad, or if there is a procedural problem such as being an invalid claim (526 filed, should have been on an 0995/0996, as one example).
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What can you specifically not see? I haven't used VA.gov at all except for printing up to date letters, or Ebenefits, in about 7 yrs. I finished filing my claims a long time ago. I do have an email to one of the development teams that works on VBMS and I could ask them about the team on VA.gov and who to contact for pushing feature requests if I have a list of something to give them.
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FYI- phone people are cleared for very little in VBMS- they can see our notes that we leave on claims as we work them, and more up to date status since VBMS updates in 'real time' and Ebenefits doesn't-thats about it. Plus Ebenefits is going away completely in March. Its been in drawdown for the last year and some as they move everything to VA.gov. I never trusted Ebenefits much when I was a veteran filing a claim, and we as VSRs NEVER use Ebenefits at all for work related, well, anything. Its its own thing.
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Hard to say without a VSO or POA looking at it.
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DBQs are the 'property' of the respective requesting agency. Just like an appraisal report for a house the report doesn't belong to you until the appraisal is done- it belongs to the lender. DBQs are the same. The VA is requesting them from the examiner, therefore the examiners wont always release them to the veteran because 'owner' of that report is the VA. Va can release them to you, or a VSO can look them up in your efolder. They aren't hidden, they are right there, labeled at DBQ X, Y, Z, whatever.
I don't agree with the logic, but that is what the VSO is trying to say (not well).
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The Fed sends its ACH batches early when there is a holiday, and since Friday is the 'holiday' for Fed they start sending them out a day earlier. My paycheck was the same way last week.
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You could but I would definitely stickynote or ear-mark only the relevant pages you want them to see- they aren't going to to go through all of it right there. You can enter that stuff into the record yourself direct to your claim file via your POA or scan it in at home. You can even scan it on your phone, save as file, upload the whole mess in 1 shot through VA.gov (or ebenefits, if your claim started on that page)- CamScanner is free and works great, though there are many other phone scanner programs. Ive used CamScanner for over 5 yrs w/no issues.
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NO, the GPO did. VA had nothing to do with the GPO printing delay. Good grief. CAVC uses GPO, too, you know, so if CAVC isn't addressing it, again, NOT A VA PROBLEM. We've addressed it as best we can. What do you think should happen? VA just starts paper printing and metering postage? With what budget, what staff?? There is no budget passed yet- I'm currently getting paid on goodwill. You want impossible things and then want to be upset because its impossible and its not going to happen. I'm sorry that no solution is good enough for you. Not much I, or VA, can do about that.
/out
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3 minutes ago, Mr cue said:
Last thing I want to put out there.
The va letter about the mail delay and extending time.
Does address the 120 days you have to appeal a bva decision to the us court.
The court hasn't address there mail delay. There is no memo at the court to extend there 120 day time limit.
So now the va has cut it to 90 days
I guess they over look that In there memo lol.
Miss that 120 days u have no appeal to the court.
Look like a new trick to me but who am i.
Wake up veterans be on top of your claim Process
There will be a lot of veterans told at the court they miss the deadline to appeal to court.
Yes, there is.
https://www.bva.va.gov/docs/Delayed_notifications_fact_sheet.pdf
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3 days if you are lucky- I live an hour from a major postal hub, and have a smaller one in the city where I live- It can take 3 days to send something between the two. I had usps tracked mail last week from CA and from the East coast take 5. Your estimate of 3 days grossly oversimplifies. You guys post on here about worrying if your meds will get here on time via usps. I went to VA on Friday to pick up temporaries because I haven’t gotten refills of things yet. Usps is most definitely not 3 days from anywhere, domestically.
I’m not going to even try to discount the amount of baseless conjecture in your post regarding the claims process, or what you think is happening with it, Cue. Suffice to say that I can’t decide if your view of the claims process is overly simplistic or just uninformed. I see a lot more awards go out than you do, on many more claims, of many different kinds. I send the exams to get scheduled, and I’m not directed to send anything but the least number of exams, the one(s) specifically required.
Va has just stopped basically doing RFE a few months ago with the exception of a few cancers and specific surgeries, and if you want an area where there might be overspending it would be there, either because veterans conditions no longer meet the criteria (paying out when va shouldn’t be) or in not catching some one claiming and getting what they shouldn’t be getting. We WERE doing RFEs on more than were necessary because of the way the regulation was written and it was costing money and causing undue anxiety, so we have reduced both the frequency and trigger for them. You’re welcome.
VA benefit statements, by the way, aren’t required to have a due process period by law. Decision letters are. That’s why they are controlled, monitored, and mailed from one place, to satisfy the laws that go with them, and why we can have the response date time frame changed in them. If it was a dastardly scheme we wouldn’t have out the information out at all that it was happening.
Your assumption that the VA can just pivot on a dime and start mailing things on its own, tomorrow, purely fantasy. No staff to do it, no postal equipment for mass mailing, no space to put it in, no budget for it- never mind that the va uses GPO is because the cost for it is paid for on THEIR dime. Not VA.
Meaning I don’t care if I send a letter and I’m more likely to, not less, including letters to vet that just update them on things that aren’t legally required- I quote caluza elements to veterans that send in claims with no treatment post svc at least 3-4 times a week to give them a heads up. I have it copy saved, I use it so often. Your proposed solution assumes money, staff, supplies, equipment- all coming out of VAs direct budget. Along with pressure from within to not send things because of cost.
We aren’t blaming GPO, we got the notification FROM them that this was the problem. Then we temporarily modified policy and notification dates to try to mitigate. If it was a ploy to deny why bother, much less post publicly on the va website about it?
I’m out of this convo before I really put my foot in my mouth. Sorry ladies and gents. I’m breaking off for a few days (hah) for Christmas, now since I’m back to work tomorrow.
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We use the same contractor that a lot of the government does, US Gov Publishing Office. They print/publish, then post it out to wherever it goes.
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Its a constitutionally required office. Its not going anywhere anytime soon.
VA documents are all already being extended 90 days automatically in 30 day increments, and at 90, should it still be subject to GPO delay, continuously in 30 day increments until we hear otherwise. 90 days at the time we got the email from higher up telling us it was a problem was an estimate on the part of the GPO, not a deadline.
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That’s why I posted the updated link. Anyone that wants to read it has the whole thing directly and not just a cut and paste. I see too many things on claims referenced as evidence that I can literally google word for word when I’m off the clock and find it in a 4 yr old forum post somewhere from 3 M21 updates ago, or points to a dead or historical hosted link on someone else’s webpage.
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CTRL F is your friend, too. Look up CFRs, Appeals, etc and CTRL-F through them for variations of your condition. It helps to at least narrow down if the one you are reading applies to you, and then you can back up and read the legal jargon if its necessary.
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If you conclusively documented that the information was present in your STR's and was missed then I would assume that it would go back to the original date because of new and relevant evidence that was not properly evaluated, but I'm not a rater, either.
Did you just file a supplemental, or did you allege CUE and request an EED as well? They could assign 0% based on pain only, if there were no other indications of disabling characteristics noted in the Sep exm or the C&P based on 38CFR part 4 (the ratings schedule). The reason I say that is because of below- if you didnt have a continuing appeal for the whole time then the RO decision would be considered final after a year.
V.ii.4.A.7.a. Requests for an Earlier Effective Date
In Rudd v. Nicholson, 20 Vet.App. 296 (2006), CAVC held that VA has no authority to adjudicate a “freestanding” request for an earlier effective date associated with an RO decision that has become finally adjudicated under 38 CFR 3.160(d).Although VA cannot consider a request for an earlier effective date on a finally adjudicated RO decision, the claimant may allege CUE with respect to the assignment of the effective date in that prior decision. For the CUE claim to be considered valid, the claimant must specify the factual or legal errors at issue.Example: A claimant’s statement that “my effective date is wrong, or “I want an earlier effective date” does not sufficiently specify the factual or legal error at issue. -
That link is outdated and historical information.
What you are looking for is: M21-1 I.i.2.B.2.a. Authority to Review a Claims Folder
Basically all of Sec B, but primarily what you are quoting above is incorrect- VSOs do not have current authority to review claims decisions before finalization.
I.i.2.B.2.k. No Authority to Review Rating Decisions Prior to Issuance of a Decision Notice
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VBMS access to your live C file/Efolder is restricted to VBA and POA's/VSO's- This is due to federal privacy laws, not VA rules. The process for a POA to get certified to access records is long and is a pain, but I'm not, nor have I ever been, a VSO or POA, but I would assume that the access would transfer to the next VSO in the office, but maybe not.
You can request the paper or electronic copy but it takes for ever, especially now, as claims have grown in number again during covid and are backed up more because while VBA has been working the whole time, and VHA in some capacity, the contractors do their own scheduling and at times over the last 2 years not been working at all.
Here is the link to the same manual we use, just the external version. Its not a walk through, but its something at least. When we learn to navigate it it takes about 2-3 months of training and access before we start even looking at claims, much less working them.
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The personnel stuff *might* be redacted but the medical stuff isn't. I worked on a file from a guy that retired out of SEAL team 7 the other day. *shrug*. I see lot of weird stuff.
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You may not have been in a combat MOS but if you were in any area that was designated that way, or you ever received hazard pay it is still lumped in that way. I guess I don't understand what you are worried about- you didn't lie to the examiner, and your stressor is already verified. Regardless of whether you are a combat vet or not, if your stressor is verified then obviously something caused you to be where you are today- and its already noted in your records through some other source than the VES psychologist. Several other people looked at this before they rated you.
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Unless the forum is incorporated as a non-profit any proceeds received through a go fund me would be considered as income for the recipient, and thus, taxable.
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0995s and regular claims are separate issues. I would just cite 3.156. You don’t need to over think it. If you try to lawyer it too much you might make it worse.
Like claiming OSA for sleep disturbance when you dont have an OSA dx. Sleep disturbances can be all kinds of things that are usually easier to win on but if you claim OSA in place of sleep disturbance than OSA is what gets rated. Don’t overthink it too much.
Secondary Connection
in VA Disability Claims Research
Posted
Whether it’s primary or secondary doesn’t matter once it’s SC. Primary just means it was caused on its own, secondary is something that is connected to or developed later due to something already SC.