Weight-Related Claims Denied ???

[pacmanx1]

44 minutes ago, harry59 said:

On a Hill & Ponton live chat on YouTube, I just posed the question of "The VA denied my secondary claims for OSA and Hypertension using my weight as the "intermediate-step." Should the VA consider the Walsh vs Wilkie case in any of their decisions?" Their response was that the VA Regional Offices will not consider case law in their decisions. They suggested I file for a HLR appeal and if I'm not granted service connection there, appeal to the BVA. They said the BVA will consider case law in their decisions. Hopefully I won't have to appeal to the BVA, since that will take years, but I have to, I will.

Hopefully this information will be useful to others going through similar issues. 

Under the new AMA program, appeals do not take years anymore, at most it should not take more than a little over a year to appeal to the BVA and an HLR appeal should be three to nine months. Before COVID, appeals to the BVA was 365 days or less and HLR appeals were about 125 days, but that COVID is really making things take a little longer than they should. So, no more years on years of appeals. The VA is trying their best to eliminate all legacy appeals by end of 2022-2023.

[harry59]

That's some good news.  

[Riplip]

Thanks for that info. I might need to get on that train.