ptsd Awarded Smc (S) For Tdui + 60%-Retro Seems Short

[carlie]

Jim,

Me, personally, (I get so tired of fighting them) even if they were off a month

on my retro - I just go ahead and tell myself - whew, it's finally over.

I just can't take another fight on for one month of retro - my health isn't worth it.

But for you I say - YIP-PEE, finally SOME resolve to your fight.

You my man - have REALLY hung in there and fought the good fight, and won.

I am so very glad for you and your family.

This will mean Chapter 35 for Hector - right ?

[GuaymasJim]

Pete, that sucks worse than my situation!

Bronco,

This is a verbatim copy of the decision information with typos and grammatical errors uncorrected.

Medical Description: % Assigned Effective Date

Ischemic heart disease 60% Jun 10, 2013

Ptsd 30% Jun 10, 2013

Entitlement to special monthly compensation based on Housebound criteria being met is granted effective June 10, 2013.

We also took into consideration our telephone call on April 24, 2014. In this conversation, you informed us of Flora’s date of birth. If you have anything else you would like to report to us of if anything in this conversation is incorrect, please tell us as soon as possible.

Your overall or combined rating is 90% effective June 10, 2013. However, we are paying you at the 100% rate effective April 8, 1980 due to your entitlement to Individual Unemployability. We do not add the individual percentages of each condition to determine your combined rating. We use a combined rating table that considers the effect from the most serious to the least serious conditions.

Entitlement to special monthly compensation based on Aid And Attendance/Housebound.

You did not specifically claim this ancillary benefit. It is inferred. This rating decision granted PTSD at 30 percent and ischemic heart disease at 60 percent. VA regulations permit an additional housebound benefit for veterans who have a single 100 percent evaluation and have additional service-connected disability or disabilities independently ratable at 60 percent, which are separate and distinct from the 100 percent service-connected disability and involving different anatomical segments or bodily systems. In your case, you are service connected for the following: PTSD at 30 percent and ischemic heart disease at 60 percent, when the disability percentages are combined, entitles you to this inferred benefit. The effective date of this entitlement is June 10, 2013.

FYI, my 1980 TDUI condition was atypical chronic cluster headaches (50%) and hyperesthesia of fifth cranial nerve (10%) combined for a single rating of 60%. Approximately 10 months later, the VA called CUE on themselves and severed service connection for the cranial nerve. To substantiate their CUE, they altered my medical records illegally. During that same period of time, I got into a confrontation and punched a VA doctor. In the end we made a deal, I wouldn't send some of them to jail for fraud and perjury if they wouldn't send me to jail for assaulting the doctor. It was a good deal for everyone--BUT I strongly discourage anyone from following my example no matter how badly you are provoked--and believe me I was both severely provoked AND provocative! I had them nailed on falsifying my records (one of my father's former students sent him the originals of the original unaltered medical records which he had been instructed to destroy) and Sen. Alan Simpson was one of my father's best friends. Without those two facts on my side, I would have most certainly have gone to jail. In today's climate, even that might have been enough or maybe I would have just been shot.

Edited May 10, 2014 by GuaymasJim

[GuaymasJim]

Carlie, as always, you are right on. The VA has been screwing (polite term) with me and vice versa for 39 years. It is time to just let it all go on a personal level. I have limited energy now and you know where I want to spend that energy. I am keeping in the loop with the Phoenix tragedy both officially and personally, but that will be my last battle. I can still write a hell of a claim and will help anyone I can, but the nose to nose combat with the VA is over. I even bought Medicare Advantage last week and will try to see as little of them as possible.

We are still in a battle with the Hague Convention over Hector's adoption. We may not have the resources to prevail--minimum $30,000. But it really doesn't matter as my father considered Hector to be his grandson (and best buddy) and as a parting gift arranged for a legacy scholarship for him to attend a private university in the US. After providing me the best education possible, Dad is doing the same for Hector. Thanks Pop!

[Philip Rogers]

Philip, the effective date was June 10, 2013. A clear reading of the award letter would seem to conflict with “June doesn't count for money, at all.” (That doesn’t necessarily mean that I disagree with you.)

The award letter:

“Your payment begins the first day of the month following your effective date. You will receive a payment covering the initial amount due under this award, minus any withholdings. Thereafter, payment will be made at the beginning of each month for the prior month. For example, benefits due for May are paid on or about June 1.”

If the award letter had stated that “Your entitlement begins the first day of the month following your effective date” with every other word in the paragraph remaining exactly the same, June would clearly be a “lost” month. However, it doesn’t. I am fairly (what a shitty word to use in a discussion about VA behavior!) sure that this has been argued ad nauseam here on hadit.com and elsewhere—and I lose. It might interest you to know that the rater who called me with the decision agreed with my math. In fact, he gave me the numbers unsolicited. (I tape and transcribe almost every single interaction I have with the VA; and then translate it into Spanish for my wife.)

Berta, thank you! I was diagnosed with severe IHD at VAMC Tucson on August 24, 2012 via angiogram along with two stent placements with the others to be staged over the following months. Due to the extreme incompetence of the med students (Fellows) who just couldn’t get the job done correctly, I still have one to go. One of the medications that I have taken for years is known to cause IHD or myocardial ischemia. In July 2012, I had two incidents after injecting the medication which dropped me to my knees feeling like some Mayan/Aztec witch doctor was ripping my heart out of my chest. I really thought the Reaper had come for me! I have suffered moderate to severe angina ever since with all but the most mild exertion. VAMC Tucson will not perform either a physical or chemical stress test for fear of provoking a MI. The rating was based on interview METS and NYHA Class III (2-5 METS) designation.

I did formally claim IHD on June 10, 2013. I have no real evidence of informing the Veterans Benefits Administration of the diagnosis other than having it entered into my (Veterans Health Administration) VAMC Tucson medical records in all CAPS and repeated and being told that Tucson RO would be informed via those records. Seem like the VBA and the VHA don’t communicate. I discussed an “inferred claim” with the rater who called, but got nowhere. “The laws won’t allow us to back farther than the date of the claim.” My original TDUI claim (34 years ago) was an “inferred claim” and was paid to the date of diagnosis because the diagnosis under VA care was the claim.

I have no prior evidence of IHD other than moderate atherosclerosis of my aorta and iliac arteries which diagnosed via CT scans in 2006 and 2007 but never reported to me, discussed, or treated in any fashion. AHA/ACC strongly recommended Plavix even back then to slow PAD progression and avoid CAD in the future.

Nehmer just doesn’t apply to me. However, I do accept, that with the wonderful exception of the heart and memories of my dear Hector, I will certainly soon be no more than a footnote!

I don’t suppose it will do any harm to NOD the effective date, and I will consider it.

Thanks again for the replies.

Jim - there is somewhere in the regs where it is spelled out. Payment starts accruing on the first of the next full month, after the effective date, and starts actually paying on the first of the next month. In your case June, 2013, is nothing, July, 2013, you get paid for but not until August 1, 2013.

pr

[Navy04]

I am with Carlie on this one. I was just awarded 100% a few weeks ago, and SMC-K. My PTSD went from 30 to 70% and the Psych Examiner stated on my exam that why was not already 100% alone for PTSD going back to 2012. So basically the VA called themselves out, and when I did the math the VA would owe me over $2500 if I would have been 100% from 2012 to now, and not the 80% that I was. Then with the new 100%, when I did the math the VA was off almost a $1000. I am tired of the fight with the VA. I receive my SSDI, 100% VA, and my wife gets 2K a month to be my full time caregiver, I will take that for now. I just don't have the strength to fight anymore. Very happy for you bud, just take the money and run, not worth you dealing with those idiots over a few cents in my opinion. God bless all of you and hope you guys have a good weekend.

[GuaymasJim]

Thanks for all the replies! I wanted to note that we spent the retro$ shortly BEFORE receiving it! All is well on the home front.