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Caluza Triangle defines what is necessary for service connection
Tbird posted a record in VA Claims and Benefits Information,
Caluza Triangle – Caluza vs Brown defined what is necessary for service connection. See COVA– CALUZA V. BROWN–TOTAL RECALL
This has to be MEDICALLY Documented in your records:
Current Diagnosis. (No diagnosis, no Service Connection.)
In-Service Event or Aggravation.
Nexus (link- cause and effect- connection) or Doctor’s Statement close to: “The Veteran’s (current diagnosis) is at least as likely due to x Event in military service”-
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Tbird, -
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Post in ICD Codes and SCT CODES?WHAT THEY MEAN?
Timothy cawthorn posted an answer to a question,
Do the sct codes help or hurt my disability ratingPicked By
yellowrose, -
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Post in Chevron Deference overruled by Supreme Court
broncovet posted a post in a topic,
VA has gotten away with (mis) interpreting their ambigious, , vague regulations, then enforcing them willy nilly never in Veterans favor.
They justify all this to congress by calling themselves a "pro claimant Veteran friendly organization" who grants the benefit of the doubt to Veterans.
This is not true,
Proof:
About 80-90 percent of Veterans are initially denied by VA, pushing us into a massive backlog of appeals, or worse, sending impoverished Veterans "to the homeless streets" because when they cant work, they can not keep their home. I was one of those Veterans who they denied for a bogus reason: "Its been too long since military service". This is bogus because its not one of the criteria for service connection, but simply made up by VA. And, I was a homeless Vet, albeit a short time, mostly due to the kindness of strangers and friends.
Hadit would not be necessary if, indeed, VA gave Veterans the benefit of the doubt, and processed our claims efficiently and paid us promptly. The VA is broken.
A huge percentage (nearly 100 percent) of Veterans who do get 100 percent, do so only after lengthy appeals. I have answered questions for thousands of Veterans, and can only name ONE person who got their benefits correct on the first Regional Office decision. All of the rest of us pretty much had lengthy frustrating appeals, mostly having to appeal multiple multiple times like I did.
I wish I know how VA gets away with lying to congress about how "VA is a claimant friendly system, where the Veteran is given the benefit of the doubt". Then how come so many Veterans are homeless, and how come 22 Veterans take their life each day? Va likes to blame the Veterans, not their system.Picked By
Lemuel, -
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Post in Re-embursement for non VA Medical care.
broncovet posted an answer to a question,
Welcome to hadit!
There are certain rules about community care reimbursement, and I have no idea if you met them or not. Try reading this:
https://www.va.gov/resources/getting-emergency-care-at-non-va-facilities/
However, (and I have no idea of knowing whether or not you would likely succeed) Im unsure of why you seem to be so adamant against getting an increase in disability compensation.
When I buy stuff, say at Kroger, or pay bills, I have never had anyone say, "Wait! Is this money from disability compensation, or did you earn it working at a regular job?" Not once. Thus, if you did get an increase, likely you would have no trouble paying this with the increase compensation.
However, there are many false rumors out there that suggest if you apply for an increase, the VA will reduce your benefits instead.
That rumor is false but I do hear people tell Veterans that a lot. There are strict rules VA has to reduce you and, NOT ONE of those rules have anything to do with applying for an increase.
Yes, the VA can reduce your benefits, but generally only when your condition has "actually improved" under ordinary conditions of life.
Unless you contacted the VA within 72 hours of your medical treatment, you may not be eligible for reimbursement, or at least that is how I read the link, I posted above. Here are SOME of the rules the VA must comply with in order to reduce your compensation benefits:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/38/3.344
Picked By
Lemuel, -
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Post in What is the DIC timeline?
broncovet posted an answer to a question,
Good question.
Maybe I can clear it up.
The spouse is eligible for DIC if you die of a SC condition OR any condition if you are P and T for 10 years or more. (my paraphrase).
More here:
Source:
https://www.va.gov/disability/dependency-indemnity-compensation/
NOTE: TO PROVE CAUSE OF DEATH WILL LIKELY REQUIRE AN AUTOPSY. This means if you die of a SC condtion, your spouse would need to do an autopsy to prove cause of death to be from a SC condtiond. If you were P and T for 10 full years, then the cause of death may not matter so much.Picked By
Lemuel, -
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Question
pacmanx1
VA FACES FLOOD OF NEW CLAIMS AS BACKLOG SURPASSES 1 MILLION, SYSTEM CALLED "OUT OF CONTROL" Carol Wild Scott, Chairman, Veterans Law Section, Federal Bar Association: "The mounting backlog is out of control. The backlog is symptomatic of a process out of control."
NOTE from Larry Scott, VA Watchdog dot Org ... Congressional hearings can uncover some interesting information.
http://veterans.hous...aspx?NewsID=595
How big is the VA's claims backlog? According to Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs:
Why do we have the backlog? According to Carol Wild Scott, Chairman, Veterans Law Section, Federal Bar Association:
Scott's complete testimony is here ...
http://veterans.house.gov/hearings/Testimony.aspx?TID=636
98&Newsid=595&Name=%20Carol%20Wild%20%20Scott
We get more from Bob Brewin of www.nextgov.com . This article is used with permission.
-------------------------
VA faces flood of new claims and charges of a 'hostile' work environment
By Bob Brewin
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_2010061
6_2924.php?oref=topnews
The Veterans Affairs Department faces a wave of more than a million new disability claims this year, a workload compounded by delays in developing automated systems to process them, department officials and representatives of veterans services organizations told House lawmakers on Wednesday.
In addition, employees at the Veterans Benefits Administration have difficulty managing paper claims in a work environment described as "hostile" and that has "deteriorated significantly" since Eric Shinseki took over as VA secretary in January 2009, a representative of the American Federation of Government Employees told the hearing.
"In 2009, for the first time, we received over 1 million claims during the course of a single year," Michael Walcoff, acting undersecretary for benefits at VA, told a hearing of the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs. The number of claims the department received increased from 578,773 in 2000 to 1.014 million in 2009, a 75 percent rise.
Walcoff said the number of claims should increase 13.1 percent this year to just under 1.2 million. For 2011, he said claims are projected to grow another 11.3 percent to more than 1.3 million.
Accounting for the sharp increase are the nearly 10-year-old wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and less restrictive requirements for Vietnam veterans to file claims for exposure to Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant, he said. The new Agent Orange rules will add 186,000 claims to VBA's workload through 2011. Last month, VA kicked off a fast-track procurement for an automated system to process Agent Orange claims.
Walcoff told lawmakers the agency has begun a series of pilot programs to help streamline claims processing, including a Business Transformation Lab test in its Providence, R.I., regional office that electronically processes a small number of claims. Business practices developed in Providence will be incorporated into VBA's new automated Veterans Benefits Management System, which is scheduled to go online in 2012.
Ian C. de Planque, deputy director of the American Legion's Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Commission, said the Providence pilot provided claims examiners with electronic tools that removed the need to "shuffle through papers and books."
In addition, examiners typically process portions of a veteran's claim serially. VBA changed that practice in another pilot at its regional office in Little Rock, Ark., where teams of employees worked together on claims. The test shows the "most promise . . . as the starting point for digital claims processing," said Carol Wild Scott, chairman of the Veterans Law Section of the Federal Bar Association.
Joseph Violante, National Legislative Director for Disabled American Veterans, said since VBA is at least a decade behind in automating its claims process, it should not "rush to meet self-imposed, aggressive deadlines for piloting and rolling out the VBMS. He urged, "They get this done right the first time."
He told lawmakers he was seriously concerned that VBA did not plan to make rules-based processing a core component of VBMS. That process is commonly used in the insurance industry to automatically compute numerous parameters in claims without the need for manual intervention. Violante said VBA officials told him rules-based processing "will be a component to be added on later, perhaps years later after the full national rollout."
He urged the subcommittee to "fully explore this issue with VBA and suggest that it might be helpful to have an independent outside expert review VBMS while it is still early in the development phase."
VBA got more bad news at the hearing when Molly Ames, a rating veterans service representative at the VA regional office in San Diego, said the agency should improve its relations between labor and management if it wants to better process the flood of claims. "Labor-management relations at many [regional offices] have deteriorated significantly, resulting in a work environment that is more hostile now than under the prior administration," she said in her testimony on behalf of the American Federation of Government Employees. "Terminations of both experienced employees and newly trained employees are a routine occurrence."
Ames said VBA has targeted union representatives, sometimes at the expense of veterans. A union official Ames did not identify was prevented from working overtime to process claims because she was a member of the union, she said.
Although Shinseki has touted the use of technology to transform VA since taking office, she said the approach does not apply to telework for employees.
VA "maintains discriminatory, counterproductive telework policies across all its [regional offices]," Ames said. "Last year, at our request, Congressman Frank Wolf [R-Va.] asked Secretary Shinseki to offer telework to more claims processors and to end the arbitrary, unfair practice of requiring higher production from work-at-home employees. Unfortunately, Secretary Shinseki refused to change course."
I deleted some of the links because they would not open but you can fined the full article on http://www.vawatchdog.org/10/nf10/nfjun10/nf061710-5.htm
Edited by pacmanx1My intentions are to help, my advice maybe wrong, be your own advocate and know what is in your C-File and the 38 CFR that governs your disabilities and conditions.
Do your own homework. No one knows the veteran’s symptoms like the veteran. Never Give Up.
I do not give my consent for anyone to view my personal VA records.
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