SMC-l Aid and Attendance

[Paul USMC]

I have been 100% P&T since 1989. Recently my conditions have gotten worse and I went to my VA Doctor and she filled out an Aid & Attendance form very favorably. My question is will VA grant the SMC-l out right based upon her favorable findings. Or will they call me in for a C&P exam?

[Lemuel]

I have an award letter that says 100% P&T with 80% combined? back to 1985.  (awarded by the Director, Compensation Services.)

[namvet6567]

You may want to look into whether a combined TDIU requires the VA to consider A&A and HB.  I vaguely remember a COVA/CAVC decision that required that consideration, sometime after 1989.  I could be wrong, but I don't think so.  If it is that claim would remain open.

[Rattler]

I thought this might be interesting I thought it was.

Haskell v. McDonough,

https://www.google.com/search?q=haskell+vs+mcdonough&rlz=1C1ASUM_enUS1049US1049&oq=Haskell+vs+McDonough&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgAEAAYgAQyBwgAEAAYgASoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:62571f64,vid:J0PV8FOO4oM,st:0.

[Lemuel]

I have been receiving "community care" aid and attendance since 08/23.  Prior to my wife falling and fracturing her skull she was providing that care essentially progressively since 1983 as my abilities erratically deteriorated. (And are still erratic.)

I do not expect to get SMC-T all the way back.  But there should be some progression up the ladder to the point that a community care nurse was required to come into my home yesterday and set up the timed medicine dispenser to ensure that I take my epilepsy medication in a timely manner per the change in the law.  

To the degree that I can remember to keep the dispenser with me that will work.  

After playing Rattler's YouTube link I realize, even as defined by the VA counsel in this case, I now qualify for SMC-T since I first received the dispenser, as it was ordered by my health care team, in 07/23.  But the social worker never authorized the "nursing care" to set it up.  The social workers I have been dealing with do not understand that just because you can talk and remember 3 words after a short conversation in most instances, does not mean that you can always remember to take your medication. 

I missed a whole days medication last week and became concerned about having a status epilepticus seizure like the one that killed my wife on 12/11/23.  I called the Whitehouse Hotline during that period of anxiety and submitted a VAOIG complaint about not receiving the supervision of my medication since my wife passed and about the equipment being purchased and given to me but never put into use because it required a registered nurse to set it up and refill it weekly though it holds a two-week supply of medication.  The weekly observation is to make sure the medication is being taken.  The dispenser locks any medication inside that has not been dropped out and taken. (or thrown away as some mental patients will do)

I expect to receive SMC-T from the date the dispenser was delivered to me indicating the need for "higher level of care" even according to the VA counsel's remarks at about 53:00 specifically noting what I am now, finally getting it though it was ordered in July which I am going to argue meant I should have been getting it in July.

I will also, as indicated above, request SMC be graduated from the first time I requested aid and attendance in 1986 until the present according to my record of treatment including the mistreatment with Tegretol in 1990-91 and the lack of epilepsy treatment from 1991 until 2015 though an IMO indicated that I should have begun treatment with Dilantin in 1986.

I will look at the You Tube a couple of more times because I catch more each time.  And I wonder what the delay is on the decision.  I guess the panel has an expectation that the "Constitutional Revision" of the regulation will be appealed to the CAVC and has a bunch of clerks working up the detail so their decision will stand.

Note, CC&K was the only one who cited a prior case in argument.  VA GC did not.  Instead focused vaguely on "policy and fairness."

My award back to 1985 TDIU compared my "relative" loss, not real loss in dementia.

When I was demonstrating outside the Central Office in the mid to late 1990s, I frequently had discussions with a double leg amputee who was working in a $90,000.00 position at the Central Office while receiving his 100%.  There was another veteran, who had a diving accident and was boarded out 100% P&T but recovered enough to also take a position at higher than average pay at the Central Office.

The system is full of inequities.  One could argue that a veteran who went into the military with a category III mental induction score should have higher compensation because they would not be able to compensate for the schedular rating disabilities as well as a mental category I.

My current rating was defined as in the policy by the Director, Compensation Services in the grant of TDIU back to 1985 when I was rated at only 40%, 20% hearing and 30% traumatic brain disease, so there was no presumptive rating.

 

[Lemuel]

Note:  If you are following this case, the title has been changed to Laska v McDonough via substitution on Mr. Haskell's death.  Currently that is the last filing if you search the case at the CAVC website, which is easy to do.  Just do a docket search for 22-1018 and click on the case number to get a list of the filings.