Sending out an SOS

[63SIERRA]

NEEDED . veteran friendly mental health doctor in the great state of texas,

we are playing the evidence game with the  VA  and were are down one ,  (strange how that happens when the person they send you to at VES gets thier check from the VA)....thanks Dr Mara  ... so  we  need a reasonably priced IME  Doctor of psychiatry in preferably Tejas... , but if needed will travel to  oklahoma,  thank ye!  Pro BUENO    (pro bono,, free,, gratis..) would be awesome, but willing to pay reasonable fee. 

[Berta]

Broncovet is Right-

I have known vets who think an IMO/IME can establish an inservice  nexus-

Two of them I know personally thought it was an easy thing to do- and wasted their IMO money.

Neither IMO doctors Nor Vet lawyers can perform  a miracle-

I see you have 100% now- could this anxiety and depression be secondary to any established SC disability you have now. One vet ( no names) here spent a lucicrous amount of money for the wrong claim (he had 2 )

It is highly unlikely an IMO doc or vet lawyer could give buddy statement,unless they served same time, place, same unit with the Vet.

I don't know if buddy statements would help you- not enough info here.

Nothing is impossible. The first time my dead husband went to the VA,it was for a business loan.

He ended up leaving the VA that same day with a PTSD diagnosis and a claim in progress.

And a buddy statement in detail from the VA director ( also a psychologist)who USMC or DOD had called into the scene of a horrific volunteer job my husband and a few other Marines did in Vietnam

Maybe  you are not seeking PTSD- but  as Broncovet said-

" An IMO doctor can not provide an "in service event" or aggravation, these will need to be present in your service records"

That goes for just about every MH issue, unless the doctor can give a detailed medical rationale that it is, in fact, a secondary MH issue due to an established SC one.... or a MH issue that was "aggravated "by service....but I think that might be hard to do.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 28, 2018 by Berta

[pwrslm]

https://www.imenet.com/specialties/psychiatry

• IME Training

Found this tonight. Might be spendy, but it is an option.

 

Might be helpful.

[broncovet]

Outstanding post, pwrslm.  I read through this "SEAK", and it certainly would appear that VEterans seeking an IME could surely find one of these doctors to do the exam.  I would also defer to Alex Grahams idea of using Mednick.  The advantage of Mednick is that Alex has apparently used their services to help Vets get an IMO/IME, where I dont know any Vets who have got a successfull IME through Seek.  Here is the link for Mednick:

https://www.mednickassociates.com/veterans-disability-claims/

[Buck52]

I recommend to call around just be honest with the Receptionist /Dr Office, let them know what you need and be sure they can use the VA Language as to how the VA likes things worded &  read the pertain records that your claiming , examine you ect,,ect,, talk to the Dr openly and give him/her an insight as to what you need.

when you find a veteran friendly Dr  they will be glad to do this for you..I've did it 3 times with different Dr's

Language like=''in my opinion it is likely as not'' related to this veterans military service  type stuff .

You be supprised at what Dr's will  help you and the office call is much cheaper than reported above,,,b/c some veterans just don't have the funds to be calling theses type of high priced Dr.s

you can use them if you have a lot of retro they will get 20% of your win but you may not need to do that if you call around.

some times these kinda things are close to home and will fit in with your budget.

jmo

Edited July 30, 2018 by Buck52

[Guest L]

My 2 cents: - Credentials of the IMO profession are crucial.

a general practitioner - md may not carry as much weight in a decision process. 

I was able to  find one ( and checked credentials)  on watchdog.org 

[FormerMember]

The metric now is layered, First, for PTSD, you would have to be in a place where there was a reasonable chance of bodily harm-either by incoming ordnance or being attacked/overrun. Being in Saudi Arabia at an Air Base and getting PTSD from fear the Taliban was going to fly over to Riyadh, rent a car and suicide bomb you would not be considered a credible stressor. That would probably be to Afstan now, maybe Iraq. That is called your stressor. The JRRC will run you to make sure you were where you say you were. Step One completed ( VAF 21-0781). If it were a MST claim, you  don't need proof of in-service event. Just the 0781. 

Next, I let VA's shrinks fly at it with the "independent medical exam" to discover... yep... not at least as likely as not related to service. You lose. I then get my private psychologists/psychiatrists hired guns to review all the records and I do mean ALL. C-file VBMS, Virtual VA, any paper, VistA, CAPRI- the whole nine yards including STRs/ combat medals, # of deployments/ time total in country. The psych opines yes but uses VA's exam to cite to what they (VA) did wrong or forgot to take into account. That's the art of rebuttal in the ex parte arena. You always make sure you-Johnny Vet- get the last word in. Figure out why you lost and rebut it. If VA tries to rebut you, you re-rebut them.

Now you have equipoise. One IMO for and one against. Both parties have read the entire c-files and have no superior position. Mariano v. Principi says you cannot develop negative evidence against my client. Since the evidence for is in equipoise with to the evidence against, there is no need to gather more evidence. §3.102 is for application which gives you the benefit of the doubt and you win. 

That's really how simple this is.

File.

Lose.

Figure out why.

Hire agent/atty. or go pro se.

Get IMO. 

File NOD and new IMO.

Sit back and remodel the kitchen or convert the garage into a bedroom and rent out to Air B'nB.

Win.

Get new c&p to determine first rating

File NOD with rating and ask for increase.

Win higher rating but file new NOD for higher rating.

Get SOC.

File VA 9 w/i 60 days.

Sit back and redo back patio. Put in waterfall and Koi pond.

Opt in to RAMP (no new evidence)

Win at BVA several years later. 

One thing I note. If you file for bent brain, you need, at a minimum, a psychologist. A medical doctor cannot opine on mental issues. 

 

Edited September 2, 2018 by asknod