Dbqs

[concern]

Do anybody know of doctors filling out the new DBQs for claims

[iraqvet77]

Hi

Did you ever call the Orthopedic Surgeon in Tampa about doing a DBQ and what was the results?

Thanks

[hedgey]

I had my private Gastro doctor do a DBQ for me. In the comments section she wrote that my IBS is "definitely the result of and exacerbated by my PTSD". She also wrote that the frequency of attacks makes it impossible for me to be gainfully employed.

I haven't submitted it yet because I'm seeing my podiatrist today, and she is doing a DBQ for me. I'll make sure she states that my problems are directly related to my in-service, line-of-duty injury.

I'm also going to have one done for Hypertension to connect it to my PTSD. That's the one that matters most to me, and I will be seeing a cardiologist for it.

I will ask if my VA PCP will do a DBQ for hypertension, but I bet anything she'll decline.

[K9MAL]

The DBQ is a cruel hoax as there is no box for the IMO/nexus. A doctor filling this out would surmise there is no need for one. If a Vet is naive, he, too, would not know to admonish the doctor to be sure to add one. Many of you are aware of it but can you say that for the FNG who just got here and missed the briefing?

At the congressional hearings last year, a Congressman pointed out the absence of box for an IMO/nexus. Under Secretary for Benefits Allison B. Hickey apologized for this and said new forms would have this important feature but that they would have to use up the old ones first. Think about that statement. The forms are on line, not in print form. Modifying them would take little or no time whatsoever. What does this tell you about the claims process? Helloooooooooooooo?

The long and the short of all this is that if you are not financially strapped, it may be much more advantageous for Vets to simply submit claims the old fashioned way so the documents- and the IMOs/nexus letters- are prominently displayed as an individual document so the rater(s) can view it individually. They already have a storied reputation for "top-sheeting" claims by reading as little as possible in the first several documents to arrive at a flawed decision. DBQs may seem to organize and corral the important information but they do not capture the essence of the claim from service. DBQs do not identify the first ingredient needed in the claim- a disease or injury in service. This is where most claims fail and the VA does not even address this. VSOs fall in right behind the VA and herald the importance of the DBQ without impressing on the Veteran that the first key ingredient is lacking.

Your entire post was cogent and right on point. These paragraphs really stuck out to me and should be emphasized to all veterans. Thanks for posting!

[Berta]

ASKNOD is always right on the mark.

I LOLLed at this statement:

You may sadly discover that the records from your service in 1991 in Kuwait burned up in the great NPRC fire on July 13th, 1973.

How true!!!!! I had a vet once, whose Vet rep didn't even catch the fact that VA told him,in their denial, that his records were burned in the St Louis

Fire.

The fire was many years before he even enlisted!

Another vet got the same type of letter from VA with 3 SMRs enclosed, telling him the rest of his SMRs had been burned in the fire.

I had been helping my former vet rep with his claim and went ballistic when the rep showed me the 3 SMRs.....

I was with a local fire department for 8 years. The 3 SMRs VA sent had no water marks or charring on them.

I know for a fact that firemen in St Louis sure didn't have time to randomly rescue a few pages of SMRs out of anyone's files there.The fire was catastrophic.

Every time we buy what the VA is trying to sell, without using some common sense... we can get screwed.

As ASKNOD said ,many vets just walk away, thinking federal employees who decided their claim,certainly had the intellect to give them a valid decision, when they got denied.

I have some old decisions that reveal that the rater appeared to be downright illiterate or should have accessed hadit in order to use the correct regulations, and then properly decided the claim.

Edited February 3, 2014 by Berta

[Navy04]

Berta,

You are on the money as usual. The VA always has one excuse or another.

[FormerMember]

The Great Motto of the VA:

You report. We decide.

a