Cue On Original Claim

[saxman]

Hello everybody! I'm knew to this form so please bare with me if I am posting in the wrong form.

First some of the details on my CUE claim: I filed my original claim back in 1992 for Sarcoidosis and Ulnar nerve entrapment, I was awarded 30% for my Sarcoidosis but they never mention or adjudicated the Ulnar nerve entrapment. I took the 30% and never looked back until years later I started having problems with my wrist again. So I was told to file another claim and I did and this time they granted SC with a effective date of the second claim. After I was awarded for my wrist I filed a CUE for an effective date of the original claim.

Do I have a CUE for an effective date of the original claim?

Thanks,

saxman

[saxman]

Carlie, the decision was made when I filed the second claim Aug 2013 and they awarded me 10% for the nerve entrapment, and then I filed a CUE for an earlier effective date than aug 2013. I'm asking for an effective date of Nov 1992 the date of the original claim of the nerve entrapment.

[Philip Rogers]

If the original claim was never adjudicated, back in '92, that claim remains open and it is not a CUE. You merely have to write them and request that they now adjudicate the original claim, that was filed in 1992, as Carlie stated.

pr

[Berta]

"if my claim was noncompensable in 1992 and become compensable at a later date how would I know if they never adjudicated the claim?"

Right..I get your point...You wouldnt know because they violated your rights by failing to make a decision on the ulnar nerve.

For some reason I think I replied to you under a different post you made the other day.........

I thought you said the VA had "re-opened" the older claim,......

In any event you were denied the ability, even if they awarded at "0" in 1992, to appeal that rating then.

I also believe that your EED would be the day after your discharge.

This is what I think VA will do.....adjudicate the older claim, giving you time to send them any evidence you have that would warrant a rating of at least 10% for the 1992 nerve claim. Then along with the evidence and the fact that you have a rating now, they will possibly do a Fenderson rating....meaning they might stage the rating from ) for a few years at "0" % to 10 % for a few years, based on any evidence prior to the new claim you filed (then again maybe not)
or they might keep the rating exactly how it stands now, with the EED still remaining at the 2014 rate. Which sucks.

I am glad the CUE was filed because they did not give you appeal rights or anything.

This claim was filed in the days when VA could say a claim was "not well groubded" and then deny it.

I am thinking too that if VA said they "re-opened" the claim recently...thought I saw that in a different post here the other day......they now have to send you a VCAA letter and that would open the door to get this squared away.....

They dont send VCAA letters on CUEs however.

I suggest (you probably did this already) to look over your SMRs and post service med recs, to see if in fact the present 10% is correct and if it should have been at least at 10% in 1992.

The Schedule of Ratings links here will also show you the actual rating criteria for this disability.

[Berta]

sorry for double post...cant delete or edit...wind hitting my PC dish.....

dont know if this will come through

This vet succeeded in getting a compensable rating of 10% on appeal for ulner nerve entrapment in 1997:

http://www.index.va.gov/search/va/view.jsp?FV=http://www.va.gov/vetapp97/files3/9728084.txt

In this decision the BVA mentions the ratings in 1996 , surely the same ones you would find in the VA Schedule of Ratings :

"As previously mentioned, a 10 percent evaluation has been
assigned to the veteran's postoperative ulnar nerve
entrapment pursuant to 38 C.F.R. § 4.124(a), Diagnostic Code
8516. Such an evaluation contemplates mild incomplete
paralysis of the ulnar nerve. The next higher evaluation, a
30 percent rating, requires moderate incomplete paralysis of
the ulnar nerve. "

http://www.index.va.gov/search/va/view.jsp?FV=http://www.va.gov/vetapp96/files3/9627038.txt

This is a long but more recent BVA decision in which they define 'incomplete paralysis":

http://www.index.va.gov/search/va/view.jsp?FV=http://www.va.gov/vetapp12/Files4/1226780.txt

I am not a doctor but wonder...do you also have a diagnosis carpal tunnel syndrome?

If so is it possibly due to the nerve impingement.?

A friend of mine, (USAF Ret.) took me to Elmira NY the other day.
He gets 10% for a SC back injury and has developed knee problems and also VA diagnosed him with severe carpal tunnel syndrome and he told me the doc said the CTS is from the back injury and some sort of nerve impingement.
.
I have been after him for Years to file for TDIU because he claims he was on FERS solely for the back problems,and also gets SSDI solely for the back, but keeps saying he wants the backlog to claim down and then he will file....

and I explained again how he is losing potential comp by doing this...comp that would would give him potential CRDP as well. Oh well.

But my point is I dont know exactly what kind of impingement he has and if he remembered what the VA doctor really said...he definitely had problems keeping both hands on the wheel, for this 40 minute trip and then helped me get some HT pads out of my jeep that were lightweight but I could see it was hard for him to grasp them and he had problems trying my new weed wacker out due to the CTS..

I guess my long point here is .he could never work again with such limited use of his hands, in addition to the SC back problem, and this might be all due to an impingement of a nerve. I am surprised the VA ratings don't go beyond the 30% but maybe there could be secondaries too ,to the impingement that could be claimed.

[Philip Rogers]

Whatever you do don't let them re-open an already "open" original claim. If they do that you will lose your original claim date. They're slippery, so you have to be on your toes, as you can see by missing that non-adjudicated open claim.

pr

[carlie]

Carlie, the decision was made when I filed the second claim Aug 2013 and they awarded me 10% for the nerve entrapment, and then I filed a CUE for an earlier effective date than aug 2013. I'm asking for an effective date of Nov 1992 the date of the original claim of the nerve entrapment.

OK - so when you "filed the second claim Aug 2013" did you submit additional evidence then or was there

a C&P done ?

Your Rating Decision that awarded 10% for nerve entrapment - is this when SC for nerve entrapment was first

warranted to be SC'd ?

How about posting all of and exactly what is stated in the Reasons and Bases Section for nerve entrapment,

to include everything stated about SC for it, the percentage evaluation for it and the effective date for it.

Without this there is no complete understanding.

jmho