brokensoldier244th

VIII.iv.3.A.2.c. Definition: Marginal Employment Marginal employment exists when a Veteran’s earned annual income does not exceed the amount established by the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, as the poverty threshold for one person, or on a facts-found basis, and includes, but is not limited to, employment in a protected environment, such as a family business or sheltered workshop, when earned annual income exceeds the poverty threshold. Important: Marginal employment is by definition not substantially gainful employment. Do not consider amounts received from participation in the Veterans Health Administration’s Compensated Work Therapy Program as income for IU purposes.

Yeah, im not gonna comment much, as I may need one someday for my right (dominant) and it scares me. I play guitar and I'm blessed with weak rotators. My mom had it done (20 yrs ago) and it was a long recovery and she never quite had it back. Now, its probably a lot better now, but when your doctor says "immobilize......" or "no more than 5 lbs..." don't F around and F out. (FAFO)

526. Its just a regular claim. Sometimes the hospital will send an admission report to us if you tell them you are VA disabled, but not always.

Send a request for 100% Temp disability along with copies of the admission report, the surgical reports, and the prognosis/rehab stuff. You can always update or extend it later if your rehab is being less than successful but initially they will usually go off of what your doc says first, i.e. "patient prognosis 6 months to full activity..." or whatever they put in there- or just have your surgeon or your followup doctor write you up something short and sweet with your expected recovery time. Still submit the other stuff but its nice when the doc puts it all on 1 page.

Both tiers are being worked. I don't see real time numbers, though

You have to request them, usually, from the vendors . A VSO has access to VBMS, also, so they can do it if you know what date range you are looking for.

That it is

VA math, like insurance or other actuary/disability math, starts at 100% 'whole' and every rating percentage you get takes away from that, but what that means is that every subsequent rating is a percentage of less than 100%, i.e. whatever was left over after the last rating. So, as you get towards 100% into the 80 and 90 percent range it takes something like a 50%, or a combination thereof to get to 100%. 100%-50%= 50% rating and 50% remaining Next rating 10% 10% of 50% (the remaining from the last rating)= 5%, so, now you are 55% 20% of 45% (the remaining "whole") =9% so now you are 65% 20% of 35%=7 so now you are 65+7=72, which rounds down to 70. Etc, etc. The ratings table is online and you can learn to do the calculation yourself, or, punch numbers into one of the many calculators available online, though they don't SHOW you how the math works so you have to trust them. The ratings tables are what the RVSRs still use since its still part of the CFR. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-38/chapter-I/part-4/subpart-A/section-4.25

It would be difficult, depending on the job. I have accommodations for most of the above including an accomodations to work from home always as long I'm within federal employment. I'm not tdiu, though.

Exactly. The phone people know enough to read some of the notes we leave, and that's it. There are no auto c&P's. They still all have to be reviewed and approved.

IMO or not you may just have to go. The standards and tests for a VA audiologist to prescribe hearing aids are different than hearing loss standards for a rating based on the CFR. I have tinnitus and HF hearing loss and I'm only rated for tinnitus. My VA audiologists exam is not the same as a C&p exam, and hearing loss is not enough to trigger the thresholds for HL.

This mostly affects Veterans where they would have gotten a higher rating if bilat had not been applied. You'll have to math it out. Much of the impetus for this has to to with vets that would have gotten 100% if not for the regulation saying it was required to apply bilat factor.

Medical opinions from private doctors that aren't occupational therapists are supposed to focus on the disabilties' affect on ADL (activities of daily living) and on how they would affect a veteran in an occupational environment, but not making a direct opinion on employability. They can say what activities the veteran can or cannot do, and with what level of difficulty physically or cognitively, but they can't make a direct opinion unless they have something in their CV or practice that makes they qualified to make an occupational opinion.

A rule change can't be retroactively applied to reduce a rating, so those cases above that you listed would either be grants or stay as they are. Static, 5/10/20 and over 55 only applies to RFEs and/or reductions.

In some cases, a bilateral factor actually makes it harder to get a higher rating, primarily due to rounding issues. If you do a bilateral factor you only get 1 number to round up. If you don't combine them it can result in 2 numbers being rounded up, resulting in a higher rating. Effective 16APR23 38CRF 4.26 is being revised to say "except as provided in para (d) of this section when a partial disability results from disease or injury of both arms........" etc. Para D is being revised to say "Exception- in cases where the combined evaluation is lower than what could be achieved by not including one or more bilateral disabilities in the bilateral factor calculation, those bilateral disabilities will be removed from the bilateral factor calculations and combined separately, to achieve the combined evaluation most favorable to the veteran". In claims adjudicated prior to 16APR23 where the veteran was rated 90% instead of 100% VA will readjudicate those claims. Compensation Services and Office of Field Ops has estimated some 3000 veterans' claims will be reviewed.

If there is a record of the request, like an 0820 record of the phone call in his Efolder he could contest it on the basis of he requested a reschedule and it wasn't done. Requesting reschedule isn't always automatically granted but 'reasons and basis' is pretty liberal, too. The system doesn't generate a C&P- they are created by VSRs based on a lookup by zip code that scans available locations daily. The zip that comes up closest available AND able to do the exam (not all locations may have an audiologist or something, or, during Covid a lot of locations' ability to do exams of many types was compromised) is the one that gets put in. I wouldn't think a C&P would have been necessary, though, since he already had exams, and hearing aids, and I'm assuming that it was within the year prior of him claiming HL/TInnitus?

VA has changed there rating table for tinnitus. That was proposed, still being discussed, but not finished or finalized.

But it doesn't- because its not a bill, and won't become a bill. Its better to shut things like this down before they start to spread and become 'fact'. Im sure that guy on YT is making a killing but he's spreading falsehoods that others who don't know better will believe, and then tell their friends, etc. That's how rumors become 'facts'.

Who knows?

Apologies- I skimmed further up and thought maybe I missed something about you already being rated.

That's not how VA claims review work. His filling for tinnitus has nothing to do with his other contentions and if they were in question for severity he wouldn't have gotten to 100 in the first place.

If you submit a supplemental 0995 then you are reopening it, you just don't get your original claim date

It may be N/R but after a year the HLR is final, so your supplemental DOC will be your new dining date.

only under certain circumstances.

To be somewhat fair, VSOs may say this but no RVSR or public contact person I've worked with or talked to (in my office or others) has ever told a veteran an estimated date of decision, for the reason you bring up. It depends on the claim, if the records/exams come back quickly or not, if they need to be sent back because the examiner didn't answer all the questions or if something is brought up in an exam that now needs an exam or clarification of its own.