Veterans Administration Claims: What You Need to Know to Be Successful
By Asknod
()
About this ebook
maze of VA regulations, written and unwritten, that prevents them
from attaining service connection. The VA, like any governmental
entity, is difficult to work with. They do everything on paper and have
not advanced to electronic files yet. Only 12-15 percent of VA claims are
approved due to red tape and a misunderstanding of what is required.
VA prefers you use Veterans Service Organizations to file your claims. I feel Veterans are not very well served by this method and advocate a do it yourself approach. This works well until you get to the Court
of Appeals for Veterans Claims(CAVC) at that point, you would be best
served by having a good attorney and nothing less.
Asknod
I’m 61 years old and a Veteran of the Vietnam War. I served two years on the Indochinese peninsula in Thailand, Laos and the Republic of Vietnam in the Air Force from 1970-1972. I have diseases from Agent Orange as well as Hepatitis C virus from a transfusion there. In addition, I have degenerative Disc Disease from a fall and an airplane crash. I filed my first claim with VA in 1989 and lost. I finally won in 2008 and am now cleaning up their mess from claims never completed in 1994. I live in Washington State. I use a pseudonym because my claims are still being appealed to the VA. The Veterans Administration has shown that they can be very vindictive towards those who criticize them. I have no desire to cross swords with them.
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Veterans Administration Claims - Asknod
Copyright © 2012 by Asknod.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Xlibris Corporation
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Contents
Foreword
Chapter 1
A My Military Experiences
B After The War
C History Of Va Claims Process
Chapter 2 Beginning The Process
A Vso Representatives
B Going At It Alone Pro Se
C Getting Your Records
D What Records?
Chapter 3 The Recipe—Filing A Claim
A Dos And Don’ts
B Beginning The Claim—Basics
C Collecting The Evidence
D Organizing The Evidence
E The Meat Of The Claim—Your Nexus Letter(S)
F Overwhelming Evidence In Smrs That Precludes Need For Nexus
G Proceed To Go! Push Print
Chapter 4 The Denial
A The First Denial At The Ro
B New And Material Evidence Submittal
C Appeals Time Limits Filing The Notice Of Disagreement (Nod)
D Dro Hearing And Review?
E Soc And Ssoc Time Limits
F Form 9S
G Hearing Or No Hearing?
H Bva Waiver Of Varo Review
I Bva Motions For Reconsideration
J Cavc: The Court Of Appeals For Veterans Claims
K About The Court And How It Works
Chapter 5 You Win (Or Did You?)
A What’s Next?
B Fenderson Or Staged Ratings
C You Win In Dc
D Attaining 100 Percent Schedular Ratings
E Total Disability Due To Individual Unemployment Or Tdiu
F Going For Permanent And Total
Chapter 6 Clear And Unmistakable Error (Cue) Filings
Chapter 7 Earlier Effective Date Via 38 Cfr §3.156(C)
Chapter 8 38 Cfr §3.156(B)
Chapter 9 Vr&E Filings For The Independent Living Program
Chapter 10 Example Of An Initial Claim Using Hcv As An Example
Dedication
image006.jpgThis book is dedicated to the memory of Charles Edwin Engle, born February 8, 1945 and died February 22, 1971, Captain (promoted posthumously) of the United States Air Force Reserve. He is the sole reason I’m not room temperature and still on this side of the grass.
Foreword
This book is written for the 8 percent of you who have served in the military. That’s approximately 26 million as of 2012. Many of you were injured and never sought compensation for it. No one told me to walk off base in 1973 and file with the VA, nor did they tell me I could. I’m sure it wasn’t a big secret, but it certainly wasn’t advertised. Now we are older, and some of those injuries are starting to become apparent. VA has many ploys to prevent you from receiving compensation for this. You may apply for a pension if you are totally disabled by non-service-connected injuries, but this is no reward. It’s an either/or proposition—VA pension or SSI/SSD. VA, in most cases, won’t grant a pension until you attain the age of sixty-five. The only thing that can be said for a pension is that if you are 100 percent disabled, it generally pays more than SSI. However, if you are entitled to VA compensation, it is tax-free. You can also collect the SSD/SSI in addition to the VA compensation. This is the major distinction between the two types of VA funds.
There is one thing you should know about the Veterans of the Vietnam era. We are dying at an exponentially higher rate than other classes of Vets (i.e., Korea or WW2). Sixty-six percent have already passed away, and the war ended only thirty seven years ago. I attribute that to the wealth of injuries we temporarily survived over all this time and some of the unique diseases caused by Agent Orange. Hepatitis C is a huge component of this too.
You are going to discover many things when you enter the VA claims system. You will be seeking compensation for your injuries/diseases. A denial is almost a given the first time out. This separates the ribbon clerks from the poker players. Ribbon clerks were the mousy Western Union fellows at the train depot in the TV series Gunsmoke. You get the idea. If you are not prepared for a long battle, this is a waste of time. We are talking as many as eight to ten years in some cases. If the evidence is clear-cut, it can still be several years. The idea is to wait you out and cause you to lose interest. Decades of evidence suggests their technique is very successful.
Do the arithmetic. Somewhere in excess of 1.2 million claims are filed at regional offices annually. Only fifty thousand a year are appealed to the BVA, and 22 percent win. Only five thousand a year are appealed to the CAVC, and 70 percent of the five thousand see another day and usually a win. You won’t get those odds in Las Vegas. You may spend some money on postage, but the amount will come back a thousandfold. Vets are not given to complaining much, and many lose heart when they are denied. VSOs do not talk about these figures. They are in the volume business. Everybody’s a winner in their book. Jeez, they even have the compensation rate tables out there handy to look at when you arrive showing the untold riches that await you. Not one of them ever told me about the need for a nexus letter though.
The VA almost forces you to do this with the help of a Veterans Service organization (VSO). If you know what you’re doing, you can try this yourself. You are not entitled to the services of an attorney unless and until you lose the initial claim. You can see why this wet blanket approach makes many give up. Veterans are accustomed to getting short shrift from the VA. Besides, who ever heard of a legal process that precludes the use of attorneys at the outset?
This book will show you many things you can do to avoid the mistakes most make. It will show you how to do it yourself rather than depend on the VSO path. The ugly truth is VSOs are nothing more than glorified mailmen. They have no attorney credentials and little or no training in this field. Many are not even Veterans. They receive a salary from the government for representing you and filing your paperwork. They are located inside regional offices and have access to your file. This gives them little more than the ability to tell you why it’s taking so long. You can accomplish everything they do and win without the annoyance of someone between you and the agency you are filing your claim with. In fact, chances are your evidence will be filed more successfully if you do it. Every time you introduce a new cog in the machine, something can happen. We won’t go into Murphy’s Law, but the comparison is obvious.
VSOs may say that they have the ability to discuss your claim directly with the rater and do some bartering. That is what you don’t want. If you have hearing loss, you do not want to settle for tinnitus at 10 percent. You want that plus hearing loss for 40 percent. When you let someone else speak for you and not even consult you, you will end up being screwed. Don’t read about it afterwards.
The difference between most self-help DIY VA claims and this book is simple. After twenty-three years of dealing with this insurance company, I have observed all the things VA does to impede your success. Misrepresentation of evidence, misinterpretation of same, and a bad habit of denying you are what they do. They do not face a demotion or a bad progress report from their supervisors if their efforts have a 60 percent error rate. This would get you fired anywhere else. They are the only game in town, and they know it. Instead of a simpleminded book that says Insert claim here and wait,
my method is dynamic and based on skirting their defenses. If you know ahead of time what it is they are going to use to deny you with, you simply cover all the bases. When this happens, they just grant your claim. It’s like a vertical slope with no cracks to get a grip on. They rarely encounter this and don’t cover the possibility in their manuals.
Veterans who file for themselves have better success if they know what they’re doing. This book will not guarantee you a win, but it will show you how not to lose. Every claim is unique, and having the evidence is the reason you will succeed. There is also a lot of proof that the longer you fight them, the greater the chance of a win. This is the squeaky wheel theory. VA tires of fighting a claim for years and will sometimes give in to get rid of you if it has merit. It also appears that in more than 60 percent of cases, the VA is pretty much unjustified in denying you. This is usually discovered on appeal and is the reason I said you might spend a decade on it.
Veterans aren’t prepared to win a claim because they assume the VA is there for them. Wrong. VA is there to defend the gates against you. The Veterans Administration rightfully should be named the Anti-Veterans Administration. I know that sounds dumb. They have limited financial assets ($126.9 billion) and are stingy about handing them out. Like any government entity, they guard their domain jealously. You are going to attempt to breach this defense. Be prepared for some rude surprises. You will encounter them but will be pleasantly surprised that you prepared ahead of time. VA speaks of a Veteran-friendly environment in which to make our claims. The informal ex parte system of justice is often cited. If it is so Veteran friendly, then why are you forbidden to have an attorney and they can employ five hundred against you?
You will see the word Veteran
and Vet
capitalized throughout this book. This is not a misprint. Veterans are those who served in the military; veterans (uncapitalized) are those who have been around a while on the job or who have more job experience. With all due respect to first responders, they are veterans as they serve a local interest, not a national one.
Now, Young Skywalker, wipe that defecation-eating smile off your face. VA is going to get down and dirty with you. They will put on the smiley mask and repeat that famous We are here to make sure you get what’s coming to you
phrase, which means so much more. They will pretend they’re bending over backward to understand what it is you want. They will claim they collected all the evidence when they haven’t. They lose things regularly because it’s a paper system. At the end, statistics tell us you are going to get the Dear John letter. That will be the 85 percent scenario if you don’t read this book.
\\!//
(o o)
–oOOo-(_)-oOOo–
Chapter 1
image007.jpgNOD, Dad, and Uncle Jay (WW2 POW)
A
My Military Experiences
I was a military brat. My father was a fighter pilot in the Air Force and retired after thirty-three years. I enlisted on October 1, 1969 in Virginia in the Air Force. With a draft number of 39, I was due to be drafted in a month. The Army didn’t thrill me. I had good test scores in electronics and went into that field. After graduating from telephone installation and maintenance, I had visions of going to England or Italy. Spain was my third choice. I got Thailand to begin with. I arrived on May 15, 1970.
image009.jpgBecause I spoke French, I was asked to volunteer for an interpreter job in Cambodia with forward air control pilots. This was the highly classified RUSTIC program that originated when we invaded Cambodia in May 1970. It was run directly from the White House. The assignment changed to Laos a week before my deployment in late July 1970. I was wounded there in September 1970 and returned to Thailand. I got another assignment to NW Thailand to a small forward operating location in October 1970. In December, I noticed I was fatigued and was losing weight. I happened to look in the mirror right after New Year’s and noticed that my eyes seemed a little yellow. On the eleventh of January 1971, I entered the local civilian hospital for hepatitis. There was no testing then to determine which type you had. If it went away in short order, it was infectious hepatitis A. If it lingered for weeks, then it was assumed to be the viral type, or hepatitis B. Doctors didn’t have alphabetic designations then. The hepatitis diagnosis came eighty-nine days after my wound and transfusion. No one related it to that. After six weeks as an inpatient, I was released to six weeks’ light duty and my next misadventures.
SgtNOD111970.jpgI was injured several times within a two-month period later in 1971. It started with an airplane crash in April while laying cable from the air. The pilot pulled up too quickly and stalled the aircraft at low altitude. Fortunately, we walked away from it. I was standing in the back paying the cable out the cargo door when we augured in.
image7.jpgSimultaneously, we were suffering extensive sabotage to our cables on telephone poles off base. After the aircraft accident, I had started to recover from the back pain.