georgiapapa

Great news at a perfect time of year. Congratulations, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family. GP

Buck, Andyman is right. If you have a combined rating of 30% or higher, you get travel pay for any VA appointment. All veterans can claim travel pay for C & P appointments regardless of rating. Even if you have no rating or a 0 % rating, you would still get travel pay for a C & P exam. GP

Congratulations on your award and good luck to you. Under Secretary Hickey helped a lot of veterans and I was really disappointed when she left the VA. Semper Fi GP

Congratulations and good luck to you. GP

This is good info for Camp Lejeune vets. I was at Lejeune in 1968, 1969 and 1970. GP

You are welcome.

Your experience with the C & P examiner is another good example of why C & P exams should be audio recorded and even better if they were video recorded. JMO GP

Dtown, Congratulations on your increase. Your increase to a combned rating of 30% entitles you to travel pay for all future VA medical appointments. You can also request travel pay for prior VA medical appointments retroactive back to the date your 30% combined award became effective. Good luck to you. GP

Did you ever set foot in Vietnam or serve on a vessel on the inland waterways of Vietnam? Did you ever serve on a ship listed on the VA's alphabetized list of ships possibly exposed to agent orange? If you answered yes to either of the above questions, your heart condition (ischemic heart disease/coronary artery disease) would be considered an agent orange presumptive disease and you should file an FDC claim asap. A successful IHD claim along with your other service connected conditions should entitle you to a 100% schedular award. JMO GP

Congratulations on the 100% P & T award and thank you for your service. Take care. GP

Congratulations on your win and thank you for your service. Take care. GP

Congratulations on your win. You are now in VA priority group one since your combined award is 50% or higher. As a result, you can receive free VA medical care and prescriptions for any medical condition regardless of whether the condition is service connected. You no longer have to pay copays for VA appointments or prescriptions. You can also request reimbursement of any copays you previously paid back to the effective date your combined rated reached the 50% or higher level which in your case would be May 31, 2011. Good luck to you and thank you for your service. Take care. GP

Buck, My last claim involved a little over 100 pages of documents which I initially sent certified mail return receipt requested and then hand delivered a second copy of the documents to my RO after the VA lost the documents I had mailed. Due to the volume of pages and to simplfy it for the VA, I added a Table of Contents at the front of my claims package and tabbed the different sections according to subject matter (e.g.- Statements in Support of Claim, Military Records, Service Medical Records, VA Medical Records, Private Provider Medical Records, Dependents Information, etc.). I also numbered my pages in the following manner: 1 of 100, 2 of 100, etc. I tabbed my sections and numbered the pages just in case VA employees disassembled my claims package or accidently dropped it, It also makes it much easier for them to find something in your claims package with minimal effort. Also make sure your documents have your VA claims number listed on the top of each page. I highlighted my claims number and other parts of my documents which I deemed to be most relavent to my claims and necessary for VA rating officials to see and read. They will probably not read every word of every document but chances are they would be more likely to focus their attention on highlighted sections of your documents. JMO Good luck with your claim. GP

Sloan Gibson has been Deputy Secretary since February 2014. As far as I know, Hickey was never #2 at the VA. She was the Undersecretary of Benefits. I guess many vets looked at General Hickey as the #2 person they would contact for benefits problems behind Secretary McDonald. Despite her other issues at the VA, she did help many vets including some on the Hadit website. GP

Buck, General Allison Hickey was Undersecretary for Benefits before she resigned. I do not think a replacement has been named at this time. I hope the new Undersecretary is truly a strong advocate for veterans. Take care. GP