Question About Old Claims Can Someone Help?

[leadbelly1981]

Hi I served three years in the Army from 2000-03 as a 11c with an honorable discharge. I ets from camp casey korea and had filled a claim during my exit exam for my left knee and left shoulder. Both were approved for tendonitis and i was rated at 20 %. At the time of my exam i also complained of lower back and hip pain on my left side. I belived it was due to my left knee. We were road marching and running a lot in korea, thats what the infantry does. In 2004 when i got my 20% rating for my knee and shoulder the claim for lower back and hip pain were deferred.Fast forward in jan 2013 i went to the county vso and had them help me file for an increase for my shoulder it has continually gotten worse. The claim took a year and at the end i was granted 30%. The weird thing is when i received my rating in the mail the old claims were addressed stating we see that your claims for lower back pain and hip pain in nov 2003 are unresolved, sorry for any inconvenience. Online on e benefits the claims for lower back pain and left hip pain just appeared one day and are in administrative review. Also online the claim date Changed now to 2013 instead of 2003. My question is what do i make of this what do i do?

Edited March 6, 2014 by leadbelly1981

[Berta]

"The weird thing is when i received my rating in the mail the old claims were addressed stating we see that your claims for lower back pain and hip pain in nov 2003 are unresolved, sorry for any inconvenience. Online on e benefits the claims for lower back pain and left hip pain just appeared one day and are in administrative review. Also online the claim date Changed now to 2013 instead of 2003. "

"My question is what do i make of this what do i do? "

Say Yippee!

If the medical evidence warrants awards for the lower back and hip disability, the VA did the right thing in noticing these claims were never adjudicated.
That could possibly mean, as I understand this, ten years of retro.

You certainly could not have filed a Notice of Disagreementon the back and hip claims because they were never adjudicated and were not denied.

I feel that,if VA awards SC for the back and hip problems, your earliest effective date should be 2003. the date of the original and unadjudicated claim.

Many here have fought for better EEDs and have succeeded.

I believe if they SC the hip and back problems, they might do a staged Fenderson rating from 2003 to the present.

Lower back pain and left hip pain are pretty vague terms.

What is the actual diagnosis. do you have an established nexus to your service for these problems and do you have consistent and current treatment records for these problems.as well..

[Berta]

forgot to add, it sounds as though the back and hip problems are secondary to the SC shoulder and SC knee problems.

I hope you have some of the 30% retro left....you might well need a strong IMO to support the 'new' but actually 'older' claim.

However there might be enough medical evidence to properly SC the back and hip problems too....and they will order a C & P exam.which I hope,accounts for the secondary aspect as well as direct SC.

"Also online the claim date Changed now to 2013 instead of 2003. "

(aint that the shits....I see this more and more over the years.......vet has claim never adjudicated, either VA finds it or the vet brings it up and then they try to screw the vet out of the proper EED......and VA often gets away with it because the vet does not fight back.Maybe that isnt the case here. Ebennies is not always accurate)

[Berta]

one more thought....


Hold onto this BVA case link just in case.......

http://www.index.va.gov/search/va/view.jsp?FV=http://www.va.gov/vetapp94/files2/9418452.txt

"The Issue:

Entitlement to an earlier effective date for a 100 percent rating
for paranoid type schizophrenia."

In part:

"4. The December 1984 informal claim for a total rating based on
unemployability was never adjudicated; that claim has remained
open.

5. Based on the evidence of record, December 14, 1984 is the
earliest date as of which it is factually ascertainable that
paranoid type schizophrenia rendered the veteran unemployable."

The veteran had been granted 100% with an EED of 1990, in 1992.

Still, by appealing this, he obtained 6 additional years retro for 100%... a nice chunk of change.

[leadbelly1981]

thank you very much for the information. I cant find anything in my medical records where I complained about my hip or lower back hurting. I can tell you why. I was an infantry grunt and it is frowned upon big time if you go to sick call. I did however make a point to tell the doctor at my exam before my ETS and that is how my claim started. Is that enough since I stated it then and had not ETS yet? I had mentioned it to the doctor at the va here in town years ago and got the response ice and IBP, even though it hurts I just gave up on the va. What should , do I need to do? Thank you very much!!

[leadbelly1981]

I also have a posting on this the title is ten year forgotten claim. Im new to this I put some information on there I don't know how to direct you to it.

[Berta]

I found it and do feel that these might need to be claimed as secondary because of the other SC disabilities.

'I cant find anything in my medical records where I complained about my hip or lower back hurting. I can tell you why. I was an infantry grunt and it is frowned upon big time if you go to sick call."

yES we can all relate to that (get me, I said 'we' but I am a civilian)

"I did however make a point to tell the doctor at my exam before my ETS and that is how my claim started."

Was that point noted at all in the SMRs or discharge certificate?

Did you file this claim within one year of your discharge?

If so your EED should be one day after your discharge.

The VA will probably send you a letter asking for more info and they will need a reply and also they will schedule a C & P exam.

Was the back and hip problem due to something you feel is totally unrelated to the SC conditions?

Do you have a copy of the first C & P exam they did?

There might well be something in that narrative that triggered the VA to start working on this back and hip claim.

Sorry if I seemed abrupt here this AM....some of us hardcore VA claimants get angry when we see stuff like this.....VA makes errors and hopes we will never find out............

and those errors are almost always to their advantage.

Edited March 7, 2014 by Berta