Just joined the board

[Merc]

Hello all, Just joined the board. Stumbled on here after getting fed up with VA and their nonsense.

Since I started reading, I've made a leap of faith and reached out to a few of the respected doctors for some assistance with putting our stuff together. So far, Dr. Bash has been the most responsive. After speaking with me and my wife, he thinks he can move us both from 20% to 100%... It's not cheap - quoted $18k!!  But if he can deliver and maybe even get us some retro, it may be worth it.

 

Figured I'd chronicle the adventure here for the benefit of others.

[Merc]

The denial for my wife's claim is scanned. For some reason I don't have the correct tool suite to properly redact the papers. So, I figured that I'd just print it and redact the old fashioned way with a marker. Now my printer appears to be running low on ink!!!

I'm having a rough time of it today.

 

[Merc]

Hello Moderator, this is a little frustrating. I'm trying to be responsive to all these good folks who have taken the time to reply and all of my responses are hidden. Is there any way to speed along the process? Or do I have to generate 6 posts first?

Edited May 16, 2019 by Merc

[Merc]

After reading all of these replies, I'm getting the impression that I might be able to do some of this stuff by myself. It's just so tiring to keep fighting when the VA is so difficult to deal with.

All I wanted to do was to get an expert on this and now I'm getting the distinct feeling that I may be going about it the wrong way.  Honestly, if we were both able to get into the 100% status, I suppose it could be worth the $18k that is being asked for.

And as it turns out, I simply cannot make the money work. There's no way I can even swing a reasonable payment plan after reviewing the finance situation. I've sent Dr. Bash an email to that effect.

I was so psyched to actually have a medical provider who knew what they were doing to help us.  Think I may need to take ya'll up on the offer to assist. Just feel a bit out of my depth.

Edited May 16, 2019 by Merc

[ShrekTheTank]

Once you get the ball rolling you might be very pleasantly surprised.  Please take this advice to get started.  Open you claim on Ebenefits or Va.gov before the end of the month!  You just have to start it and you have a year to finish it.  This way you have tons of time  to gather all your 5 star evidence and then submit.  

5 star evidence: 

1. Current diagnosis

2.  An in service event

3.  lay statements showing how bad the condition is at home or work or socially.  You can also tell about the in service event.

4.  current treatment

5.  Any and everything else you think is relevant to your conditions.

Basically you want to box the VA into giving you your benefits so you can support your family!  Remember you went in healthy and came out not so healthy! Just ask questions everyone here will help!  Keep fight it is worth it! 

[Berta]

"You do say something that has me concerned "the RO refused to read his IMO's"--- WHAT?? "

Indeed they did- they refused to read any of my evidence and refused to even re open the claim at first- what a hassle- it was a CUE - BUT I had enrolled into AMU at the same time, and knew my claim would be awarded by the BVA- it was.Part of the problem was a VCAA violation and my so called vet reps would not help with that- even their director who suddenly got canned,after I wrote a 43 page complaint on them to the OGC.

I wanted to get my degree from a Military school. I was their first civilian.That had priority.

My USMC professor was TOUGH. They all were. I graduated with Honors.

Dr Bash was furious with what they did to me, but I knew the BVA would award anyhow and I wanted to get VA out of my mind, I was in a warfare  school, the reality of warfare, and had no time to play the VA's War of the words games.

You said:

"After reading all of these replies, I'm getting the impression that I might be able to do some of this stuff by myself."

Yes, we have all learned that- and that is surely why the fee was so high- you were asking Dr. Bash to do a lot of time consuming stuff. The claim they refused to read my evidence for  ( DMII AO death claim- my husband was never diagnosed or treated for DMII by VA) and my former reps said it didn't have a chance. After the VCAA fiasco I dumped them as my POA and sent to Dr Bash everything he needed to have-which had taken me a lot of time to get together, and he did the IMOs in mere days.

When you are able to scan here- can you scan the VCAA letter they sent to you?

This is the letter ( It used to say Important Reply Requested on top) and we claimants have to respond to that letter with what the VA wants from us.

Your VCAA letter -like mine- might have been faulty-

but still , what you asked from Dr. Bash was an overwhelming amount of work-

The nexus- alone takes time. It took me three weeks to find a veteran's nexus in his SMRs.

Every day I had to blow up SMR entries that were handwritten and almost impossible to deficer.

He had been to the CAVC twice by then - and finally I found the nexus, and asked him to get an IMO/IME-

from his private doctor. He did, with my findings from the SMRs and after 10 plus years he won his claim.

None of his lawyers ever even read his BVA cases. Those denials gave me a clue as to what to look for in his SMRS and I even prepared a letter to the VA telling them his lawyers did not deserve to be paid, and I told them why.

I dont handle one to one stuff like that anymore-and the vet himself could have done some of the work I did.

No wonder the fee Dr. B wanted was so high. And any IMO/IME is useless if a veteran cannot establish a valid Nexus.

I only know of one case where a doctor was able to do that- it was for my husband-who went to VA for a business loan and came out with a PTSD diagnosis and a  claim had been filed for him with a strong Buddy statement from a psychologist  who was also the director of that VA, and who also was at the scene of something my husband described in Vietnam to him- while he was waiting to be arrested...(he didnt get arrested though)- a volunteer job that was horrific and the doctor had to treat some Marines immediately at the scene in Vietnam because the Mil knew it would be  so catastrophic. Something like that hardly ever happens however.

I know a few vets who have been in the VA system for over 10 years because they still have not established a valid nexus.

 

 

Edited May 17, 2019 by Berta

[Merc]

I understand that this is a bunch of work. That is why I was looking for a well respected expert to handle this and put the packages for both our sets of claims.   My thinking was that sometimes, you need to pay an expert for their expertise. For example: if my transmission broke on my car could I fix it? Maybe, eventually, after spending a ton of time and effort learning, buying manuals and tools, and it still might not come out right because I do not have the expertise. Whereas, if I took the car to an expert, I might take a monetary hit, but I would likely be in a better position because the expert does this for a living. If they're not good at what they do, they don't stay in business very long.

Anyway, I am taking all of this in. I am inspired by you all and hope that maybe I can do some of the groundwork myself. It's just been a constant battle...