Closed Claim

[hayley3]

I submitted my claim and I got turned down, according to the VA because I had not submitted all the information they requested. I resubmitted the information and I then received a notice about an Appeal and it would go thru the traditonal process.

Two years later I received a letter that this is the first step in the appeals process.

Normally I am on top of things, but the VA performed a hysterectomy on me and due to that have been experiencing anxiety/depression along with my immune system problems for which I am trying to get service connected, so my brain was under a lot of stress when I received this and could not deal with it. Long, long story.

Now that I am able to deal with it, it tells me I only had 60 days or the case would be closed. It also says I have a year to submit additional info. It's long past the 60 days.

Is there anyway to get this reopened. I started this process in 2003 right after the hysterectomy. Unfortunately, I didn't know they were going to take my brain when they did the surgery.

Why do they say to submit additional info up to a year, if they are going to close it?

Any ideas appreciated!

[Berta]

You can re-open the claim with new evidence.

If you mean 60 day response to the SOC (Statement of Case) the VA is proposing to lower that time limit to 30 days-

Did they ever acknowledge your evidence at all and refer to it in the SOC?

[hayley3]

On the second page it does say Statement of Case.

I do remember the reason they denied it now, it was because I didn't give them a LIST of the doctors. I had provided the information, but they didn't like the format I gave it to them in. So I assumed once I resubmitted it in their format, things would be okay. But instead of accepting that info, they just sent it to appeal. It took them two years to send me the appeal info. That doesn't sound right does it?

I'm going to contact the American Legion tomorrow. Maybe they can pull my records.

Thanks!

You can re-open the claim with new evidence.

If you mean 60 day response to the SOC (Statement of Case) the VA is proposing to lower that time limit to 30 days-

Did they ever acknowledge your evidence at all and refer to it in the SOC?

[Vike17]

hayley3,

If you could give us more information on your claim/appeal, such as date filed original claim and for what disabilities, date of the rating decision denying any claims, date you sent them a NOD, and any dates of SOC's or SSOc's, this would help us great deal as to giving you information as to what options are open to you.

Vike 17

[mobie16r]

Hayley,

what i would do is submit new evidence to corroborate claim.you said va would close your claim in 60 days.Sometimes they give 60 days to submit new evidence and if you don't submit new evidence they would go ahead and work claim with the evidence they already have.Since you already have a timely appeal in, that's the reason you still have a year to submit new evidence.if you don't have a VSO, get you one to help you,But you can always help yourself by getting all your information from your private doctors and submit it as soon as possible.

mobie

[hayley3]

Thanks everyone!

My case was a little tricky in that I got a jerk for a doctor.

Instead of giving me a diagnosis, he said I have either Inflammatory bowel disease or reactive arthritis. The inflammatory bowel disease was ruled out by a colonoscopy, and so...., even though that leaves the other diagnosis, which I am claiming, they denied it.

The service connected disease I have is related to the arthritis.

I'm not sure what new information I could give them. I don't think they looked at anything I sent them. I also thought that they would follow the reasonable doubt rule. I would not have submitted this without being 100% sure it was service connected.

Thanks!

[Pete53]

You can appeal a VA decision when you are turned down or not awarded benefits for 1 year. If you are appealing a decision that was less than a year ago you need to fill out a Form 9 to protect your claim. Any Service Officer can help you with this.

To reopen your case you need new evidence. This is not as hard as it looks just a simple Doctors opinion can do it.

Good Luck you can learn a lot at Hadit to help you with your claim.

Pete

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