Allowable time-frame to file a Supplemental claim after your initial claim.

[briang_74]

Hello everyone. 

I hope you're all doing well... This in my first time posting on this forum, so hopefully this is the right process.

I'd like to get some guidance on the supplemental claims process if possible. I filed my first claim in 2016 after being discharged in 2012.. I was denied for most of the items I listed. One of those items was for macular drusen, which is the beginning stages of Macular Degeneration. I was diagnosed with drusen while in service in 2012. Fast forward to 2020, and I'm now legally blind. I want to file a supplemental claim for the macular drusen/macular degeneration with a supplemental claim, as all of my medical treatment has been through the VA. However, I'm not sure if there is a time-frame to file a supplemental claim. I read on the VA website it's best to file a supplemental within a year of your initial claim.

Question(s): Is it too late for me to file a supplemental since my initial claim was from 2016?  Will I be able to file a supplemental even though it's been over 4 years from my initial claim?

If you have any insight into the supplemental claims process / knowledge of the allowable time-frame to file, I would greatly appreciate any and all feedback, thanks!

Respectfully, 

Brian

[GBArmy]

Brian_74 Sorry for you, but the time restraints still apply. For a Supplemental claim,  in order to keep your original submittal date active, EED, you have to submit new/additional evidence prior to a year passing. But it isn't the end of the world. You just submit a new claim. It has to have new and relevant evidence. Remember the Caluza Triangle; a current diagnosis, an event or action in the service and, a nexus connecting the last two. If there is a diagnostic code for your condition, eval your symptoms to see where you may be rated. Then, my opinion, I would suggest you get a certified eye doc to give you a nexus opinion that the early event in your service medical records are the cause of your current worse condition. You are not a doc, nor I, so even if it is obvious to a 3 year old that the two are cause and effect, the VA won't go along. The fact that you already lost your original claim makes it worse for you. So get a IMO. 

[brokensoldier244th]

You can file a supplemental at any time. If you file within a year of the initial claim decision   you get to keep the same effective date, otherwise your date of claim is the date of the new filing. Remember, for a supplemental claim you must provide evidence that is new and relevant, but the threshold is low, and if you have been continuing treatment those records are enough to satisfy new and relevant. You want form 20-0995. 
 

if the macular Drusen was initially diagnosed in service what was the denial for? That is what you need to be able to counter- whatever the denial said. That you were disgnosed in service should have made it a no brainer to direct service connect.

Edited August 10, 2020 by brokensoldier244th (see edit history)

[briang_74]

Thank you both for the guidance. I was hoping the supplemental claim would kept the same effective date from 2016, but it sounds like it doesn't.  Thank you again for the feedback, it's much appreciated!