diabetes What Do You Make Of This?

[Will314159]

What do you make of this?

I put in a claim for IU, frozen shoulder sec to DMII, flat feet secondary to service records in sep 2008. Sent in supporting documentation w/ claim. sent in claim thru DAV.

Had a mental health exam in july 2009, as well as a physical C&P Exam, & an eye exam in July 2009. Never was examined for frozen shoulders (bilateral). At the time I i'd had a rating of about 84%, 20% DMII, 30% PTSD, and the rest for conditions secondary to diabetes such as bilateral neuropathies, HTN, etc. & SMC-K. Had had all this for about 7 years.

In November 2009 I was rated 70% PTSD, given IU based on the 70% PTSD w/ SMC-S. With a future exam in a year. Frozen shoulder exam deferred. Flat feet sc, b/ rated 0%. I found about the future exam from the commissary letter, that i wasn't permanent.

I had my regularly scheduled mental health appointment at the VA in December.

NOW, here is the KICKER. In January, I am rated again b/ no more money. 100% Schedular PTSD w/ SMC-S. Now the letter never talks about SMC-S, just a bunch of "housebound" verbiage which confused the heck out of me b/c i know i am not housebound, b/ i figured out later from this board what it meant. And they rated my shoulders from the medical info I had sent in a year and a half ago as 30% bilateral. They said in that letter, that based on my latest exam, it was obvious my mental condition was worse & was not getting better % hence 100% was in order with no further exams being necessary!

What is going on? Does the VA not like that court decision T-Bird listed in the fast letter, Bradley v. Peak- where SMC-S is based on IU is awarded and wanted to get me out of that category?

[jbasser]

It appears to me that the VA rated your PTSD at a single 100 percent disability. Then you have other conditions that add up to or exceed 60 percent so you meet the total plus 60 criteria.

Bradley V Peak would not play into is one presently.

[john999]

But Bradley does play into this case, John. The VA wanted to avoid invoking Bradley so they bumped him up to 100% for PTSD. I put in for SMC "S" and I am at 70% for a mental condition P&T for 9 years. I am not getting any better so let's see if they bump me up. I have in excess of 60% besides the 70%IU. I was expecting the VA to do this if they could. They want to avoid Bradley because there are thousands of vets out there who could qualify. A friend of mine who was IU asked for HB and they granted it,but bumped him up to 100% for single disability first. In that sense Bradley is in play.

[Will314159]

But Bradley does play into this case, John. The VA wanted to avoid invoking Bradley so they bumped him up to 100% for PTSD. I put in for SMC "S" and I am at 70% for a mental condition P&T for 9 years. I am not getting any better so let's see if they bump me up. I have in excess of 60% besides the 70%IU. I was expecting the VA to do this if they could. They want to avoid Bradley because there are thousands of vets out there who could qualify. A friend of mine who was IU asked for HB and they granted it,but bumped him up to 100% for single disability first. In that sense Bradley is in play.

correct,

you have to read my post closely

in my november 2009 rating, Bradley applied, i was given HB w/ an 70% IU rating w/ a further exam scheduled a year later, then shortly thereafter

in January of 2010 i was bumped up to 100% schedular w/ HB & no further exams scheduled

my theory is it was done to decrease the number of Bradley vets.

[Testvet]

the raise in your PTSD from 30% to 70% is what they used to base your TDIU on from what I see and based on your other rated issues they would have denied IU before that date negating the SMC S issue you can get a lawyer and try and fight the issue but that staged rating will be hard to overcome the VA has been doing staged ratings for years to avoid large back pays don't feel picked on it's not personal they do it to almost everyone

I don't think you would even have much luck getting a lawyer to take this on when they dig into it it looks ugly but there is no there there if you understand it they could spend years in appeals to BVA and CAVC and not see a nickle even lawyers need to eat they have to see a way to win and staged ratings are hard to over come

[john999]

I guess in some cases the only way to get "S" is to be housebound.