Diabetes Claim

[freedog89]

Hello Everyone. I have a question about getting approved for a diabetes claim. I was diagnosed with prediabetes in 2007 with METFORMIN and taking blood glucose 3 times a day. I was never diagnosed with diabetes until 2013 after I retired in 2011. I put in a supplemental claim and was denied in Jul 2020. They did give me the qualifying event of prediabetes and that I do have a disability of diabetes. I have a HLR in now but I feel they will disapprove it. How do I go about getting this service connected when they tell me I had symptoms of it 4 years before I retired. I am not understanding the process. I have the continuity of symptomatology in my SMR which they pointed that out. Thank you for your time and please stay safe.

[Christie]

#1. You may wanna get checked for cancer as METFORMIN has been recalled for causing cancer.

#2.  No offense, but how did the service cause your diabetes. As someone with a family history of it, there is no way its service connected. And I am seeing more and more of people who are getting diabetes or with other family histories getting service connected for non service connected illnesses. And that is wrong. I had to fight for 20 years for my actual service connected issues. And there are VIETNAM vets STILL fighting. That is what is wrong with this system.  My dad died getting NOTHING. So many things with the system need fixing...on all ends.

[brokensoldier244th]

What are you claiming it’s caused by? There aren’t many things things military that cause DM as a presumed effect, so what about your service is causing you, you think, to have DM?

[freedog89]

Thank you for responding. That is a question I cannot answer and I will do research to come up with one. I always thought if you had an illness or injury that started in service you could connect it somehow. A lot of people are getting compensation for DMII that are not Vietnam Vets. Maybe I should read up on it more. Thank you for your time.

[brokensoldier244th]

Generally you either have to be diagnosed in service for it to be automatically connected, have some kind of exposure event (presumed), or, SA can be a contributing factor, and obesity as an intermediary step ( I dint see many of these- doesn’tn mean they are rated, I just haven’t seen many) 

 

https://cck-law.com/blog/type-2-diabetes-and-va-disability-compensation/

[freedog89]

The reason I am confused is that you read all the information and they give you different answers. On one law blog it says if you can prove chronicity and continuity of symptomatology. I have that with the with them giving me a qualifying condition for prediabetes. I was never obese and am not now. The examiner said it is less likely than not incurred or caused by military service. So I will get a VSO once the HLR review is over. Thank you for your response 

[brokensoldier244th]

What exactly did your examiner say, under rationale? If they didn’t provide rationale it’s an incomplete exam. Were there Any indicators on enlistment? If so it’s not a complete crap shoot because you can still claim aggravation.  
 

I don’t work with a lot of diabetes claims [and I am not a rater] so I apologize if some of my information is a bit general. 

is your pre  indicators clearly marked in your record (by you) or at least noted in your claim “blah blah diabetes diag on DATE....pg yadda yadda. Even if your examiner opines one thing a preponderance of evidence already of record indicating otherwise can be inferred by a rater if call it out to them so they can see it. The opinion isn’t everything. My job is to eyeball your records and find some of this stuff before setting up exams but at hundreds of thousands of pages even I miss stuff, especially if it’s handwritten doctor scrawl. It helps if the vet at least gives me an approximate date or estimate, years, Season even, On their claim form-so I can find some of this stuff-especially if it’s important. 
 

I WANT to make sure vets at least get exams-that’s my part. To do that sometimes I need a little help to go to bat for them so I can argue if a claim gets kicked back to me asking why I scheduled exams if all three  elements For sc exam are thin or not all there. 

Edited August 22, 2020 by brokensoldier244th