diabetes Ebenefits Expedited Claim Submitted

[green]

I wanted to thank all those who helped and provided advice and guidance for my expedited claim. I started the online claim the beginning of December and finally got all my ducks in a row last night. I submitted what I think is a well-documented claim for 5 secondary conditions. I submitted a letter of introduction covering the facts, my wife created and I submitted her letter of fact/support of my claims. For each of the 5 claims I created a separate PDF consisting of a cover sheet (with a detailed statement of the facts) and supporting documentation including chart notes and test results.

It feels nice to have this submitted and now I am hoping to be able to think of other things while my claims work through the process.

I currently have a 60% rating for Diabetes and my medical discharge was over 32 years ago.

I'll keep you posted on the progress/happenings.

Green

[green]

I contacted the RO this morning asking for a status update and was told my claims are "Secondary Ready for a Decision".  I've never heard or seen this as a status on e benefits, does it sound familiar to anyone else?

 

Thanks,

Green

[USAF-Vet]

The kicker is that those records probably would not be found anyway, since they date back 20-30 years and those records were probably purged many years ago (unless they are SMRs). It looks like someone at the VA recognized this and called you to clear it up. I wouldn't be surprised to see those "estimated completion dates" change back to the earlier dates now that you've told them not to seek those records.

My VA RO (Oakland, Yeah I know) insisted my medical documentation "did not exist" and also stated they had checked the Archives on their denial letter. They promptly closed my claim 3/10/15. Tiny problem for them, I was USAF 1986-1990 (Jet engine Mech), then became an Dependent until present (29 years of full medical history in military facilities). I also served in USAF RES.

Had to do a Congressional on the VA RO and also onto the VA Archives. Magic, 7/30/15 my USAF 1986-1990 medical records were scanned into the VBMS system VA RO uses to review your medical documentation. I had also requested my medical records on a Disc from my local Military medical facility which covers from 2003-present. Between working with congressional aide and VA Archives head office, the rest of my Dependent medical history has been retrieved from the Valmyer caves where medical records are stored. Every time you PCS, your medical records are archived and stored in the caves. Today I learned that the rest of my medical documents from 1991-2003 have been located and they are being scanned into the VBMS system this week. They will send me a Disc so I'll have a complete set again.

When you submit a claim, the VA RO rep is supposed to submit a request to the Archives to do exactly what I just had done. My VA RO NEVER DID IT. They took the easy way out IMHO looked on VBMS, didn't see anything and just closed my claim. It has been a year since I submitted my initial claim and I am either in a NOD or reconsideration status. EBenefits says NOD so who knows. Between Congressional aide and DAV plus my persistence, I hope this isn't going to take another year to resolve. I also submitted 79 pages of documentation including supporting statements from people I served with and family to support claim since at the time I wasn't aware my original medical files had been located and uploaded to VBMS.