Treatment at VA and VA wont write letter to employer

[jamesriley1990]

2 hours ago, GBArmy said:

If you already have gone thru this disability claim stuff, you know by now that the VA (Benefits) is NOT your friend. They are down right anti-veteran often. I was thinking that if it were me, I would type up a nice letter requesting what you need, make a copy for your self and keep that in a safe place, and then send it registered mail to your RO. The reason I say that is, if the remote possibility that you can't get a letter that supports what your employer needs and you should lose your job, it may help in applying in the future for TDIU. Sending the letter is just a confirmation you requested the VA to HELP you keep your job, and they refused to do so. Might be a nice piece of evidence for you. But it is a little thing that you can do now that can't hurt. And planning for the future, if you are rated 40% for at least one disability (you are), if you have others that can get you to 70%  combined, you could possibly qualify for TDIU. So, do you have anything else that might be pursued as a disability? If so, start working on it.

I will get with my VSO over the letter, because I think the same way, either the VA says I can work or if they dont then they are stating I cannot maintain employment so I should be rated TDIU.  thank you for this idea.

[GeekySquid]

6 hours ago, jamesriley1990 said:

n. I go to my VA mental health doctor and they 1. STILL dont recognize my PTSD service connection, and 2. Said they are unable to make a statement on my ability to work or not. 3. They will only say that I am in treatment and I have been active and doing all treatments that are recommended

@jamesriley1990

When you say your VA shrink doesn't recognize your Service Connection what do they actually say?

Are they treating you for PTSD or something else? what is their diagnosis of your condition?

It is important to know this distinction.

VAMC has nothing to do with VARO decisions and compensation. It is like pulling teeth to get them to even discuss compensation issues and their teeth are cemented in their VAMC heads.

Your rating decision letters and awards will only say you have an SC'd condition of PTSD. Nothing else. The VARO will NOT do squat to get you a medical release.

The Patient Advocate at your VAMC might be of help, so can your Senator and you can call the White House number.

Do you have a Premium MyHealthEvet account? if you don't get one. If you do go to My Blue Button on that site. You can download your last three years of medical treatments, notes, labs etc.

There are 3 options. Full, Summary and Labs/Xrays etc.

First do the summary and use the full range of available dates, basically whatever day you started at VAMC. If you view the results online in MyHealthEvet the headings are clickable.

The summary view is fairly well organized so all relevant files are grouped for you.

Find your mental health treatment notes. Print these and then save a full copy of the summary to your computer.  I save mine in the cloud too.

I get my health care at the VA so once a month I go in and print a new full copy of all files and then do a search for the subset of files since my last download. I keep them both on my local machine and in the cloud. Name them in a sequential way so you can research them in an organized fashion.

Keep in mind they only keep 3 years of your files active. Make sure you set a schedule to download the latest as long as you are using the VA for any services.

I promise you at some point in time having those copies locally will come in handy. Particularly when you apply for an increase.

[Richard1954]

Many years ago (1998) I had a doctor write a letter to my employer that I could not work in temp's lower than 72 because of my lung condition. (  I was working in a main frame computer room and anyone who worked with mainframes knows that the room has to remain cool to protect the equipment. ) My doctor was a va pulmonary doctor, and when I handed the letter over to my boss, I got a call from personal who threatened  to terminate me because as he said I did not disclose my disability when I was hired.  I told the idiot he better do his homework, my condition was service connected and it was in fact disclosed when I was hired,  in fact it was because of my disability that I got the job... I was working for the federal government  and I was also protected from any reductions in force. Anyway this was a VA doctor and back then they were allowed to write letters and I believe they still can. see the attached.

VHA Directive 1134.1 Provision of Medical statements and forms by va doctors.pdf VHA Directive 1134 Provision of Medical Statements and form by VA doctors.pdf

[GeekySquid]

4 hours ago, Richard1954 said:

Anyway this was a VA doctor and back then they were allowed to write letters and I believe they still can. see the attached.

DUDE! those attachments are awesome!

There is an ongoing problem with VA Dr's and contract DR's refusing to help with writing statements and doing DBQ's.

This line in particular from1134(1) is right on point for DBQ's.

(c) Completion of DBQs to Support VA Benefits Claims. A “no wrong door” philosophy must be adopted to accommodate Veterans bringing a VA DBQ form to a VA medical facility for completion.

1. Veterans may ask their primary care or specialty care provider to complete a DBQ for conditions which are already diagnosed and documented and for which the provider is treating the Veteran. DBQs can be completed by the treating provider during a routine office visit when there is sufficient time and the medical information is available. DBQs can also be completed outside of an office visit, or an appointment can be scheduled for completion. (See VHA Directive 2013-002, Documentation of Medical Evidence for Disability Evaluation Purposes, or subsequent policy issue, on the VHA
Publications Web site).

In My Opinion those Docs need to be pinned to the top of the forum and be part of the Hadit Library.

Thank you for bringing them up!

In fact the surgeon who oversaw the interns working on my foot also worked on another Veteran who I met waiting for an appointment. The surgeon is a Dbag for many reasons.

The vet asked for help with a return to work form for Workers Comp and the a-hole looked at him and said "that's a legal problem not a medical one" and then walked away.

We were in the waiting room when he said that and everybody there was kinda stunned.

I have his contact number and I am going to send him these and if he files a complaint I will file a witness statement to support him.

Thank you so much  @Richard1954 for providing those docs...

[Buck52]

i Took a DBQ to one of my primary specialty clinic Dr's and pointed out to her that it shows on the DBQ that she/he can fill it out   her response was ''its not my job''  you need to go see the DAV for claims processing''.   pissed me off

[GeekySquid]

54 minutes ago, Buck52 said:

its not my job''

that is AFU and I am so tired of hearing it.

I am going to store those directives on my phone and the next one that I hear say that about helping a vet I will be ready.

Those Dr's need to be reported