To "RAMP" or not to "RAMP"

[broncovet]

As many may know, Congress has passed new legislation which essentially requires VA to cut down on appeal backlog.  This plan is known as "RAMP".  

Currently, only Veterans who ARE INVITED by VA can elect to go with RAMP.  Im not sure it will do much good to write to VA and tell them you want RAMP, tho its POSSIBLE that VA may grant this request.  

A well known law firm has published some credible, and valuable information on RAMP.  If offered a chance to "RAMP" through a VA letter, its probably a good idea to:

1.  Just do it and go for RAMP.

2.  At least read the following before declining ramp, and discuss this with your representative.  

https://cck-law.com/news/news-cck-live-revisiting-ramp/

MY summary:

    UNLESS you have a compelling reason, opt "in" for RAMP.  

    CCK says you should not do RAMP if any of these would harm your claim:

However, veterans should fully consider that participating in RAMP means:

• not being able to appeal to the Board until at least February 2019.
• not being able to take their claim directly to the Board of Veterans Appeals.
• never going back to the legacy appeals process.

 

 

[Wayne TX]

Got a Q for anyone......I am considering RAMP as well..........here is my Q:   If you had more than one Appeal denied in recent months can you just submit the one you think is the strongest of the denied to test the RAMP waters before putting all the rest now sitting in wait with Legacy now into RAMP?   

Edited May 2, 2018 by Wayne TX

[Richard1954]

I was offered ramp, an attorney told me to stay away, they do not know what they are doing and those offered the early chance are  guinea pigs.   And if you have more than one issue pending,  you can't decide to do just one issue, its all or none, Now no one knows how this new system will work, doesn't it make sense to stay with the system you know. Heck, the va makes so many mistakes, and ramp is going to be a mess for a while to come. One thing for sure just because they have a new system doesn't mean it will be quicker. Really, how many time has the va told us things will get better... 

[Wayne TX]

Excellent information there Bronco....TY!  

[broncovet]

I agree that attorneys are, generally, advising clients not to opt into RAMP.  Its the safest thing for THEM to do.  Why?  There are 2 possibilities:

1.  Vets opt in to RAMP and get a favorable outcome quicker.  In this case, attorneys can advise their clients to opt in down the road. 

2.  Vets opt in to RAMP and dont get a favorable outcome.  This would reflect very poor on the attorney who advised the same.  

      So, attornies "play it safe" and advise against it.  Nobody wants to be the first to "dive into the water", so everyone blisters in the heat.  

      For Vets, however, its a different story.  Again, there are 2 possibilites:

1.  Vets opt in to RAMP and get a favorable outcome quicker.  Obviously good for the VET. 

2.  Vets opt in to RAMP, and do not get a favorable outcome.  As far as I know, a Vet who has opted into RAMP can still appeal at the  BVA and can still appeal that to the CAVC...a Vet "opting in" to RAMP isnt surrendering his or her appeal rights.  Those appeal rights just take a slightly different path with RAMP, and still could be ultimatly decided by the BVA or CAVC.  

       Its my opinion that GS 7's or GS 9's, dont have the authority to approve a claim which results in 100k retro to the VET.  This has to come, generally, from a Veterans law judge, or CAVC judge, so the GS 9's are simply instructed to deny the claim, and pass the buck onto someone else.  So, the quicker you get your claim to someone who "can" actually award benefits, the better off you are.  

[broncovet]

Its almost like calling a doctor friend and say, "Gee doc, I cut myself pretty bad, what do I do?"

Do you think the doc will say, "Aw, go ahead and treat it yourself.  You dont need to be seen by a doc..just get some bandaids and cover up the wound.   The bleeding will eventually stop, and you will save money by not going to the doc."   

No.  The doc is gonna tell you to go to the ER or make an appointment in his office for him to inspect the wound and THEN he can decide the extent of the treatment necessary.  

The lawyers are doing the same thing, by telling VEts not to opt in to RAMP, UNTIL THEY HAVE SEEN WHAT IT WILL DO.  

So, we have to make a judgement call..is this a "bandaid" cut, or is it a Emergency room visit?  

But, the lawyer is looking out for himself..HIS liability..just like the doc.  We dont need to go to the ER everytime we get a scratch, but dont expect the doc to tell us that.  The doc can not really gauge OUR interpretation of the wound.  We could be in shock.  

We really can not expect attorney's to advise an unproven program.  

However, if you are terminally ill, and you want an unproven treatment, this is a different story.  You want to try anything..whether its FDA approved or not.  

For many VETS, our claims are "terminal"..we will or could die before they make their way to the BVA and maybe CAVC through the legacy claims process.  We dont have a choice.  I say opt into the RAMP program unless you are age 25 and can wait 10 years for your benefits.  If you are 65, you probably dont want to wait 10 more years.  

 

[ErinNick]

My husband's representative encouraged his to move into the RAMP program.  He submitted out NOD at the end of January sometime, and his NOD was pretty simple, in my opinion.  We were disagreeing with the effective date of my husband's claim.  We submitted an Intent to File in September of 2015 and officially filed his claim in September of 2016 after waiting for all of the medical records to come in.  When he finally received his 70% disability decision, they effective date used was September 2016 instead of 2015.  I didn't realize that we could be sitting in a queue for his NOD to be looked over for 4+ years just for the effective date, which they could easily verify that we submitted an intent to file in 2015.  So we moved over to RAMP in March and we have been told that we will receive a decision by May 30th.  Fingers crossed, as I don't see how anything can go wrong when we are just contesting the effective date, but it is upwards of $20K were talking here, so hopefully the VA does the right thing!