Moph Will Not File A Nod For Anything Other Than....

[FirstOldOne]

For those of you who are using the Military Order of the Purple Heart as your VSO, I am asking, have you recently received a letter from your MOPH VSO stating that the"MOPH will not submit any notices of disagreement without New and MATERIAL MEDICAL EVIDENCE."

If so, what are your thoughts on this?

[Vync]

I don't use MOPH, but that sounds pretty suspect. I know I have personally submitted three NOD's without new and material evidence just based on the fact that the VA rater failed to read the evidence correctly...

[Berta]

Unusual move by MOPH......

Then again, the NOD is the initial avenue of attack....and certainly one of the most important documents we will ever need to prepare.

Whatever is not challenged in a NOD ( or subsequent SOC,response) means we have accepted what we did not challenge.

I always have sent evidence in with my NOD to tell them why they are wrong.

I did what Vync did.....I sure didn't call it N & M because they already had it ,but failed to consider it properly.

I just realized something. I had filed a timely NOD on a award letter, that I also had a CUE claim pending on.

I also filed for NOD extension with good cause and told VA if they properly award the CUE, there would be no need to

make a decision on the NOD extension request.and I could appeal any denial on that issue to the BVA.

I guess they didn't have to deal with the NOD extension request at all because I see nothing at ebenefits about that.

The 2 claims are closed and decision is in the mail.The other info at ebenefits is generic stuff except for 56 files or documents in the historic claims stuff....

I still am curious about the extension request because my point was that we cannot properly NOD a decision if it contains a legal error that must be addressed first.

If they made any statement or decision on that, in whatever they are sending to me, it might help others here.....

Edited March 5, 2015 by Berta

[paul554]

My guess is that the MOPH is over loaded with claims and is attempting to sift through them to find meretorious ones.

Here is the problem though. A veteran gets denied because the VA misapplied the CFR. The veteran doesn't articulate this, they just know they were unjustly denied. The MOPH VSO, who is a volunteer with no legal background, knows the denial seems wrong but they also can't articulate how the VA reached this decesion. A simple appeal on the merits will fail because the VA has evaluated the evidence and applied the CFR. What you need in this case is a well reasoned legal argument showing that the VA misinterpreted the statute, and most VSOs don't habe the ability or background needed to provide such an argument.

Remember though, even if you have a VSO there is nothing preventing you from flinging the NOD on your own to preserve he appeal.