Looking for some advice...

[CH88]

Hello everybody, 

I wanted to post this under the RAMP program but seems to be disabled or discontinued area to post. Anways short background is I a filed claim for anxiety and PTSD in Sept. 2016 was denied, appealed to DRO Aug. 2017, accepted to be put into the RAMP program Aug. 2018 in Supplemental claim with the initial completion date to be June 8th 2019. Called PEGGY yesterday to find out if they have had any movement and was told by individual that he really doesn't see anybody in RAMP anymore. Asked if he could dig a little deeper and he stated he would send an inquiry to the RO dealing with my claim (assuming its still in Phoenix AZ). So I checked VA.gov today and now my estimated completion date was pushed out from a completion date of tomorrow to July 10th, 2020. I thought that RAMP was a pilot program that basically the VA was attempting to complete most claims submitted for the results and find out if this new appeals process would work? Maybe I'm wrong but it seems like I should have just stayed in the DRO and not taken the risk if they are going to take the same time to complete if I didn't opt into RAMP. 

I was initially denied for mental health disabilities due to my psychologist doing the C and P exam (in 2016) stating "I cannot answer whether the disabilities started in service without mere speculation." Then the VA asked her to give an answer along the lines of most likely or not, direct, less likely, etc. She wouldn't answer and I was denied benefits. I had an IMO which gave me a an "at least likely as not" for service connection and filed an appeal. Then during this RAMP in March 2019 VA sent me to another C and P exam offsite and was given the same "at least likely as not" for anxiety service connection. I was diagnosed with anxiety, insomnia, shortness of breath/panic attacks during service which seemed kind of straight forward when applying for anxiety but I guess not. 

I guess I am asking is there anybody else out there that has a RAMP with a completion date of July 2020 or later? Does the claim seem relevant, meaning diagnosed with anxiety in service and given diagnosis of anxiety from VA mental health/private provider within few months of recent C and P? Is RAMP a long term appeals process or should I be hounding my back burner DAV rep. who seems to be busy all the time? Also I have been in a preparation for decision phase since the last C and P exam which was March 2019, for all my other claims once it hit this stage it went a lot faster. Any advice would be great, thanx!

 

Edited July 31, 2019 by CH88

[GeekySquid]

2 minutes ago, Buck52 said:

I don't understand why you think this is CUE because of what the C&P Examiner wrote up in his/her report.?

I think you might be getting confused among all the posts on this.

The cue is that she only looked at one of my enlistments.

all the things she says are missing are in my second enlistment which she ignored.

[Buck52]

Okay I must be getting confused and I don't want to confuse you on all this &  I apologize to you GeekySquid

Hopefully broncovet Ms berta can help you    Ms Carlie was our CUE Expert here on hadit  for years and unfortunately she passed away in 2015 sudden unexpected heart attact..However Ms berta is the member we all lean on for advise  she knows what she is talking about  and you can take her word to the Bank  Broncovet is pretty good too with a CUE  or at least he can tell if its a CUE or not.

I seem to not understand  maybe the C&P Report you showed and what the examiner mention is confusing to me......> or my memory is failing me.

[GeekySquid]

7 minutes ago, Buck52 said:

Ms berta can help you

she has already chimed in and gave me the direction i needed.

thanks though. I do appreciate the input. This thread and topic is getting too long and confusing and I did not mean to hijack it.

[Buck52]

geeky since the RAMP/ AMA  Things have change and I am old school on the way VA did things, this new change has a lot of us old veterans pulling at straws scratching our heads as for as the regulations  and how they are changing things up   and this is already started,  the Lanes  veterans have to choose from   they are not enough information out to go by  so were all going to have to relearn this cockamamiea VA New claims system AMA If a veteran is denied in the supplemental lane  he can go to the higher lane  and morel likely than not be denied there too   only until he reaches the BVA will he have a chance (jmo)

what we use to do and how we did it has no effect on the new AMA System their using today,WERE GOING TO SEE A LOT MORE DENIALS THAN WINS.

  We all are going to have to retrain our self's to better help Veterans with this new claims process (AMA)...in other words the old way is gone to the curb and we all have to learn this new AMA System and guidelines set forth...we all need more information on these new process of claims since the birth of AMA (jmo)

[GeekySquid]

4 minutes ago, Buck52 said:

the RAMP/ AMA  Things have change

i agree with everything you said. That is why I asked TBird to create the AMA forum here. Just to start tracking those changes and how long things take to process.

[rsm-esq]

CUE is a legal standard to request the VA to reconsider their prior decision.  In other words, CUE is the basis for requesting the VA to go back and take another look at their previous decision.  In order for them to even look at the reconsideration request, the claimant mist show evidence of a glaring procedural or administrative error or mistake on the VA’s part that meets the legal definition of CUE. Then, assuming there is a CUE-level mistake, there needs to be sufficient evidence that were it not for the mistake, the claimant’s claim would have had a significantly different outcome.

CUE isn’t a subjective statement of what we think is an error.  

This is why CUE cases are difficult to prove and are rarely successful.  In practical terms, to save time in an already clogged and backlogged system, appealing (via NOD) is more often than not a better option.  Because if the CUE request fails (which it probably will) the claimant has to appeal anyway.