Survivor Info -Reps Benefit

[Berta]

This benefit is misunderstood by vet reps as well as the VA itself.

Recently one of our members asked for info on REPS and I am glad she did.

I have bumped up this topic in our AO forum yet it needs to be here too and in the DIC forum.

This benefit can involve a substantial retroactive award to certain survivors

therefore why would VA advise application even when the evidence warrants it.

There is discussion here:

and here:

in our AO forum and I will bump the info up in DIC forum as soon as I get time.

Sorry for my griping in those posts- I want all survivors and all vets to know how capricious and arbitrary the VA can be regarding widows in the way they can avoid issues that involve cash.

Then again they don't discriminate – they just treat some of us as bad as they treat many veterans.

It pays to get your spouses involved NOW in the claims process for at least some understanding of what they will have to deal with in the event of your death.

If there is no living spouse but adult children,and one of the new AOs could cause your demise-

it is time to inform your adult children of this site as well as where your paperwork will be found, if you should die while your AO claim is in process.

REPS only involved a mere 4-8 applications per month when I sent the my award letter and SSA info to them last year.It is the SSA status that determines the eligibility as well as SC death.

But that amount of REPS applicants can surely grow in time due to the thousands of critically disabled veterans with young families who have incurred injury in the Iraq/Afganistan war.

I found out what REPS was in 1991 when I purchased my first VBM. I never though it would apply to me but it did.

I have never met any vet rep yet who understood this benefit.

Worse then that is the VA often doesn't understand it either.

[Berta]

The statute of Limits has passed for FTCAing (first step in suing them(them and believe me, there is no honor in a 1151 death.

It means the very entity that one's service paid for was responsible for more disability or their death.

"My claim IS for direct service connected death" that is good and better then the 10 year death award.

I assume he had a 100% P & T SC rating at death (because you get DIC)

Therefore you would be eligible for a posthumous SMC rating as well, as based on your posts the VA failed to diagnose and treat his heart disease in any way. So I must assume the IHD had nothing to do with the 100% ten year award.SMC is Special Monthly Compensation.

We have plenty of info here as to Special Monthly compensation.

But the problem here is that how can the VA rate his IHD and then consider the SMC benefit?

My husband's death by VA was due in part to lack of diagnosis and treatment of his IHD.

However when I sued them I had medical evidence of the IHD and multiple other conditions they failed to diagnose and treat

and I was even able to tell VA how much money I expected on the pending IHD award.

I had enough VA med recs that revealed his IHD and other conditions they tried to cover up wen I started asking the docs too many questions.and the recs revealed the potential proper Nehmer rating.

How does your VSO want to handle the claim?

Is he/she pursuing direct SC death -that has no benefit to you financially except for the funeral expenses and REPS - yet is he/she also pursuing the IHD to generate possible SMC retroactive accrued award?

Then again- this is an unusual situation.

How would the VA rate the IHD that they (obvious to me) were surely negligent on diagnosing and treating -without something in the med recs that could prompt a rating?

Has your VSO considered that you file a Section 1151 under Nehmer for accrued SMC? That might potentially garner a Section 1151 accrued SMC award.

Has your VSO considered a possible CUE claim on the standing DIC award decision that could draw them out for potential SMC award?

There is much here under the SMC forum and under the search feature so didnt get into that here.

I thought my claim was unusual but yours is very unusual.

"My husband was a VA patient and at the time I guess I was too devastated to realize negligence, so I never did anything about it. "

YES, they know that and count on us not to realize their negligence.

I think they get away with this stuff more than we think.

There is no time limit for filing a Section 1151 claim.

My husband died in the barn 17 years ago today.My CPR efforts could not arouse him and he died as I administered CPR.

Sudden death syndrome due to undiagnosed and untreated DMII. I am still so angry that he isn't here.Hours before he died he again told me ,as he had many times, to pursue the 1151 claim he had filed that same year and to get whatever I can from them if they killed him.

I continue to do just that.

Please fell free to give your VSO any printouts of my posts here as I understand better now- what you are claiming and why-

but I think there is might be more benefit to you then just the REPS and Funeral expense award.

It is beyond me how VA didn't know your husband had CAD.

Then again they diagnosed my husband's initial heart attack in 1988 as a sinus infection.And said a major stroke he had was labyrhinitis ( a hearing problem)and I was swayed by the degrees the VA doctors had on their walls.

They probably made their medical degrees with the Paint program template in Windows.Or were taught medicine by the Three Stooges.

But seriously - we were dumb in those days.Rod had read every AL,VFW and DAV magazine one day waiting in the VA clinic for his appt and since he was last patient, he then picked up his med file on the nurses area to read as he was bored.

A nurse flew around the reception bay and screamed at him Hey you don't have the right to pull that off the shelf and read that! PUT IT BACK RIGHT NOW!

I was afraid he was going to hit her with his PTSD-

but he just shrugged his shoulders and said to me-well I guess I am not allowed to read my medical records.After his death I tried to get his med recs and was very surprised that they came in the mail a few weeks later.1995

As soon as I began to read them I knew they had killed him.I re opened his 1151 claim and I filed FTCA tort claim within days.

His legacy was overwhelming to me-and for anyone here.

Make sure you all have copies of and understand your VA med recs!

It could save your life.

With the internet it is far easier these days to comprehend medical symbols and terms etc in med recs.

And ask your PCP for explanation of any info you don't understand in them.

The VA saves countless lives everyday.

Their medical incompetency is probably comparable to the private section.

No VA doctor gets up in the morning to go to work and harm any veteran.

Then again the VA spins their malpractice stats so no one really knows how many vets they harm or kill.

When my AO claim is done I intend to continue to pursue that problem.They are not accountable on 1151 claims and ecen FTCA issues and something must be done about that.

Edited October 13, 2011 by Berta