ptsd Deceased Veteran Widows Pay

[banchie]

Hi Brothers & Sisters. My life has improved so much thanks to all of you! A slight tear there, sorry.

;)

One of my brother veterans died with his power of attorney assigned to his wife. He was wounded in Nam in the leg and received disability benefits for leg wounds & PTSD. He died of cancer before I could get him A/O connected (was filing the paperwork on presumption). His rate for leg wounds never increased over his lifetime.

The VA has since cut his wife off from any VA benefits. Is this correct? Here is a women who endured a PTSD veteran, and cared for him dying of cancer in her home. Is she entitled to anything? Pension or VA compensation coupled to power of attorney?

Thanks for your help in advance. Banchie VN 67-68'

[Judy]

What a travesty, and the tale goes on.

I received the "package" of documents yesterday as previously stated and mind you, I have never seen a C file but it appeared to me to be just a huge pile of med recs that had a yellow post it note on the front page (no cover page) containing a handwritten notation "appear to be duplicate medical documents, return to widow".

Inside this huge package was another brown "DVA return address envelope" (window type) with a document inside and my (correct/current) address appearing on the addressee portion. THIS envelope had 7 pages inside, stapled.

Inside, the Cover page is dated May 27, 2008 (this is coincidentally 2 days after I IRIS'd them!) and it states "We made a decision on your reopened claim for service-connected death benefits received November 2, 2007"....." We continued the denial of your claim"... (skipping down the document here for the sake of brevity but continueing to quote)..."If you do not agree with our decision, you should write and tell us why.....Our letter of June 15, 2006 contained VA Form 4107, Your right to appeal our decision, which explained your right to appeal. You have until JUNE 15, 2007 to appeal that decision.

(*** let me inject here that I only reopened this claim in NOVEMBER of 2007 after it was denied the last time in 1995!! What in the name of anything are they talking about here (referring to June 15, 2006 decision?????)...how can that be? The case wasn't even open at that time!***)

In the attached documents (page 2 of the 7) it appears that they mailed me a decision on March 21, 2008 (two months ago) and mailed it to my PREVIOUS address (no matter that I had sent them a letter of notification to change my address), So now the MAY 27, 2008 "cover letter" is attached to that one. (grrrrrr).

Moving along here, in the attached official DVA Rating Decision on the case (dated March 17, 2008) it states: "Veterans Claims Assistance Act letter to you dated FEBRUARY 11, 2008 requested that you submit new evidence in support of your claim for benefits. VA Med Center Houston treatment reports dated September 1981 to August 1, 1990, death certificate and statement in support of claim from Dr. W>D> W..., Jr, dated December 6, 1993 were ALL considered in previous rating dated June 3, 1995. We have received no further documents from you in support of your claim to date." (does this not indicate that 1995 was the last date a decision was made?)

(*** let me say HERE; when I received this FEBRUARY 11, 2008 request for any new evidence, I telephoned my SO and asked if I should send another copy of Dr. Bash's IMO (as it had ALREADY been sent to them by me AND by the SO....no I did not send it certified mail....) and my SO said return the request and state that "no additional evidence to submit at this time" (since Bash IMO had already been sent twice) and I DID SO!!! (grrrr) wish to high heaven I had sent the Bash IMO AGAIN at that time...but I didn't and thats that.)

So I took all this trash and garbage this AM (took off work and we are on overtime too) directly to the SO's office and more or less demanded to be heard... I was given a meeting... he agreed this was atrocious... wanted to NOD and appeal. I said "NO".... I want to send NOD and request DRO.. I'm sick of these people and want to be heard in person. I want to hand a live person the IMO and state this case because I am weary of them telling me they don't have it, never got it.. blah blah blah... so we filed a NOD and stated:

"the dates on the Decision letter make no sense as it states that I have until June 15, 2007 to appeal .... " An IMO from Dr. Craig Bash was submitted to re-open the claim and the VA failed to consider this evidence when rendering this decision...I am attaching the IMO that I submitted in November 2007 as new evidence .... I requested a FOIA in October 2007 and still have not received anything as of this date....I am requesting that my address be updated ...this new address was submitted in January 2008 and has not been updated yet....I am also requesting that the POA be updated to reflect The American Legion as my POA.....At this time I am requesting a DRO "de novo" review." and then of course the standard VA jargain for the NOD...

(***the POA was changed in November 2007 and had it NOT been received by them, they never would have sent the C file to the American Legion SO and he HAD the C file when last we met in February 2008!***)

I'm not sure what cans of worms they have opened for me to use against them but I'm ready to do battle in any way I can.

Judy

[Judy]

When you enter into a DRO, can one believe that that review officer has READ any or all of the file and or evidence? OR do you go in presuming that he knows nothing of the case and you need to "state all"....

thanks to any who can contribute and who may have experience in some case similar to mine.

I appreciate all the helpers on this forum.

Judy

[Berta]

This is what the DRO is supposed to do:

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:3nC0w...us&ie=UTF-8

If you had requested a De Novo review already and this decision is the result-

Tell your POA you want him to get a DRO COnference and have the POA present the IMO from Dr. Bash directly to the DRO.

Otherwise request the De Novo review and send them the IMOs again-

On a DRO Review form a few months I got for my SMC CUES s(and I understand this same DRO has my AO claim too due to a VCAA letter I got last year)-

I listed all of the medical evidence I had already sent, also added the IMOs again to it and asked for telephonic conference if there was any question from the DRO regarding my evidence.

I was so fed up that I also wrote to Deputy Secretary Mansfield- who already had a situation where Dr. Bash was having problems with the VA-and it was resolved- and I sent him my IMos too in case they mysteriously disappear again.

The VSM responded to me recently that they had been contacted by the VACO and the DRO had my medical evidence to include the IMOs.

Since my POA illegally revoked my POA last OCtober they actually still hold my POA (per the OGC) but they are not permitted to even touch my C file as their POA was removed from my C file.

So-at least I know they cannot remove the IMOs again-

your case if different -this is deliberate violation of the regs I stated in last post- and your POA should agressively make sure they dont continue to violate basic VA 101 regs.

Edited June 1, 2008 by Berta

[Judy]

Berta,

We (SO from AL...on Friday) "presumably" filed the DRO "de novo" request and attached the IMO from Bash.... CAN I RESEND IT MYSELF via CERTIFIED MAIL/return receipt requested as well??

I would KNOW the name of someone who received it that way.... ALSO:

There is the issue of VA knowing the AL has my POA (else they would NOT have sent AL SO my C file) HOWEVER, when the SO looked into the computer system last Friday at our meeting..... alas, the VA computer system had NOT updated my POA to the AL and that was done last November 2007! SO that meant that as we were meeting last Friday (May 30) the SO could NOT ACCESS my file in their system because the POA showing was a very old one and listed Texas Vets as my POA of record.

Can I personally send the request for the DRO "de novo" and attach the Bash IMO as stated herein?

thanks,

Judy

Also, what other written docs must I prepare to take to the DRO hearing? I do so want to be MORE than fully prepared.

Judy

[Judy]

Berta, ...you wrote:

"your case if different -this is deliberate violation of the regs I stated in last post- and your POA should agressively make sure they dont continue to violate basic VA 101 regs."

Does this relate to a CUE of application per (Authority: 38 U.S.C. 501) (d) ??

ALSO: The SOC I just received refers to a decision made by them in 2006 (stating that I had until June 2007 to appeal); my case was NOT EVEN OPEN at that time AND I received NO SUCH COMMUNICATION from them either... I received NOTHING from them during 2006 (as stated, this claim was not even re-opened until Nove 2007!)

Does this open door to CUE OR ???

Judy

[Judy]

"Question- the VA should have sent you a VCAA letter telling you to obtain an independent medical opinion-

did they?"

NO, NEVER since the original filing at the time of Jim's death in 1990 did they ever do this.

Judy