tdiu Exam - Tdiu

[babyray]

JamesBrechenridge, I informed them that the 5 disabilities that I am rated for are the causes why I am unemployerable. They are: MDD-70%; Left ruptured guadriceps-30%; DDD spine-20%; DJD left knee-10%; and Bursitsis left hip-10%. No I did not apply for SSD. Thx.

babyray

[JamesBreckenridge]

I'm guessing MDD is a mental disability. That's the most common 70 percent item I can think of.

You should be getting a mental exam in that case, and the doctor will be asking you questions about how your disability affects your social and industrial life, and he'll render an opinion on whether it's bad enough that you're not employable. Your other conditions (spine, muscle, joints) would also be evaluated; you might be entitled to an increase in one of them and not know it. Those doctors will also comment upon how those disabilities affect your ability to earn a living.

I would encourage you to apply for Social Security benefits, if your disabilities are bad enough to keep you from working.

Hope this helps.

[babyray]

I'm guessing MDD is a mental disability. That's the most common 70 percent item I can think of.

You should be getting a mental exam in that case, and the doctor will be asking you questions about how your disability affects your social and industrial life, and he'll render an opinion on whether it's bad enough that you're not employable. Your other conditions (spine, muscle, joints) would also be evaluated; you might be entitled to an increase in one of them and not know it. Those doctors will also comment upon how those disabilities affect your ability to earn a living.

I would encourage you to apply for Social Security benefits, if your disabilities are bad enough to keep you from working.

Hope this helps.

This info is invalueable. MDD is Major depressive disorder. Also on 11/09 I filed a claim for left L5-S1 radiculopathy in which my private doc diagnose me with this year. I took early retirement and started drawing Social Security benefits in 2003. I cannot draw SS disability, can I? The radiculopathy I filed a claim for would be secondary as to the SC'ed disabilities of early degenerative joint disease of the left knee and calcified left quadriceps muscle.

babyray

Edited November 26, 2009 by babyray

[steve&pat]

I would check with SS to see if the early SS can be changed to SS disability- a friend did this and then got SS disibility after he had early retirement for over more than a year .His SS worker recommended he do it that way. Also you get the full benefit of retirement pay instead of the early retirement amount. I sure would check it out.

I thought it wouldnt work===== BUT he is now SS disability.

STEVE & PAT

[babyray]

I'm guessing MDD is a mental disability. That's the most common 70 percent item I can think of.

You should be getting a mental exam in that case, and the doctor will be asking you questions about how your disability affects your social and industrial life, and he'll render an opinion on whether it's bad enough that you're not employable. Your other conditions (spine, muscle, joints) would also be evaluated; you might be entitled to an increase in one of them and not know it. Those doctors will also comment upon how those disabilities affect your ability to earn a living.

I would encourage you to apply for Social Security benefits, if your disabilities are bad enough to keep you from working.

Hope this helps.

JamesBreckenridge, I filed for TDIU in November/2009. Last week I got a IMO from a private doc. Attached you will find this IMO. Read it and give me your opinion, how would you rate it? Is it good enough to get me a TDIU grant? Thx

babyrayscan0003.pdf

[JamesBreckenridge]

JamesBreckenridge, I filed for TDIU in November/2009. Last week I got a IMO from a private doc. Attached you will find this IMO. Read it and give me your opinion, how would you rate it? Is it good enough to get me a TDIU grant? Thx

babyrayscan0003.pdf

Hmm. Okay. Short answer: I don't know. I don't have your file in front of me. Your disability that meets the criteria for IU is your mental condition. THAT is the condition I want to see an independent medical opinion saying it renders you unemployable. If that had been the exam and opinion you posted, I would have said that it looked like a grant to me. But I can only assume that you've already tried to get IU due to your mental condition and been denied for some reason, and that you must not be able to find a psych doctor who believes your condition renders you unemployable?

All of that said, the opinion you posted says that your ortho conditions (rated at 20 percent) are under rated and render you unemployable, and his opinion is that the file needs to go for extra schedular consideration at Central Office. We do that for situations where a condition may be rated at a low level, but for some reason it has a disproportionate impact on the veteran's industrial functioning. Reading the opinion, I'm not getting WHY the doctor says that your ortho conditions are so bad that they render you unemployable. I would want to see examples of things you can't do, or limitations in what you CAN do, accompanied by the doctors opinion that it renders you unemployable.

At best, I might take your independant ortho doctor's opinion and use it as new and material evidence to reopen a previously denied claim for your various ortho conditions, or interpret it as a new claim if you've never claimed them before, and ask for a C&P exam on the conditions that your ortho doctor says are caused by your already SC conditions. I would also ask for a medical opinion from "my" VA doctor, but I wouldn't give it more weight; what I'm hoping for is that he agrees and it makes the decision I want to give (a grant) be much stronger. But even if he strongly disagrees with the independant opinion, if the doctors are equally qualified, it's a tie and reasonable doubt is resolved in the vet's favor.

Summary: I don't like it, because ortho is not your problem, it's your mental. Your ortho doesn't currently qualify you for IU, but your mental does.

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you.

Remember, take all of this with a great BIG grain of salt. I am a competent rating specialist, but I don't have all the facts before me.

[babyray]

Hmm. Okay. Short answer: I don't know. I don't have your file in front of me. Your disability that meets the criteria for IU is your mental condition. THAT is the condition I want to see an independent medical opinion saying it renders you unemployable. If that had been the exam and opinion you posted, I would have said that it looked like a grant to me. But I can only assume that you've already tried to get IU due to your mental condition and been denied for some reason, and that you must not be able to find a psych doctor who believes your condition renders you unemployable?

All of that said, the opinion you posted says that your ortho conditions (rated at 20 percent) are under rated and render you unemployable, and his opinion is that the file needs to go for extra schedular consideration at Central Office. We do that for situations where a condition may be rated at a low level, but for some reason it has a disproportionate impact on the veteran's industrial functioning. Reading the opinion, I'm not getting WHY the doctor says that your ortho conditions are so bad that they render you unemployable. I would want to see examples of things you can't do, or limitations in what you CAN do, accompanied by the doctors opinion that it renders you unemployable.

At best, I might take your independant ortho doctor's opinion and use it as new and material evidence to reopen a previously denied claim for your various ortho conditions, or interpret it as a new claim if you've never claimed them before, and ask for a C&P exam on the conditions that your ortho doctor says are caused by your already SC conditions. I would also ask for a medical opinion from "my" VA doctor, but I wouldn't give it more weight; what I'm hoping for is that he agrees and it makes the decision I want to give (a grant) be much stronger. But even if he strongly disagrees with the independant opinion, if the doctors are equally qualified, it's a tie and reasonable doubt is resolved in the vet's favor.

Summary: I don't like it, because ortho is not your problem, it's your mental. Your ortho doesn't currently qualify you for IU, but your mental does.

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you.

Remember, take all of this with a great BIG grain of salt. I am a competent rating specialist, but I don't have all the facts before me.

I also filed a claim for radiculopathy L-5,C-1 a week after my fileing for TDIU so that is why Dr Bash is trying to give me a nexus as secondary to my DDD to get me up to 40% for TDIU.

babyray