Anybody Use Dr. Bash Imo / Ime?

[tssnave]

1. Has anybody used Dr. Bash or his associate for an IMO / IME? He advertises at vawatchdog.org and says he prevails 80-90% of the time at BVA. If so, were you happy with his service?

2. How do you circumvent the four letter restriction on the hadit search engine? So much of what we do with the VA uses an acronym that this restriction makes it difficult to look stuff up. For instance, "Dr Bash IMO IME" netted me nothing more than an error message that one or more of my words had four or less letters in them. Even if I spelled out doctor and independent medical opinion I still don't know how to get Bash as an additional search critera. Plus, how many of us write out independent medical opinion in the subject line? ARRRGGGG! There's gotta be a way around this that I just haven't figured out. Please share the secret with me.

Thanks,

ts

[USACID]

I have most recently used Dr. Bash hiring him on January 4, 2008. I received his 10 page IMO yesterday. His strongly worded opinion says that the injuries/illnesses are/is connected to military service and he points to SMR's and also provides secondary conditions for other illnesses, that are not reflected in SMR's. He discussed recent medical literature which identified new reasons for certain diagnosis which I never knew existed. He does not say "more likely than not". He says "they are the result of this, that and the other". The IME along with the packet is off to VARO tomorrow so we will see what happens. I am surprised at how strong the IME is but he makes it clear as to the causes of the illnesses, etc. The cost was $4,000.00 Its not cheap, but to quote Berta, "it may very well be a good investment". I will let you know what happens.