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Just A Brief Suggestion About Submitting A Claim

An attempt to help veterans help raters do their job effectively with hopes of veterans receiving their deserved benefits.

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Byron Harding
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393 views5 pages

Just A Brief Suggestion About Submitting A Claim

An attempt to help veterans help raters do their job effectively with hopes of veterans receiving their deserved benefits.

Uploaded by

Byron Harding
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Just a brief suggestion about submitting a claim

Hello. First, I am sorry for your ills and misfortunes.


Here is my personal suggestion of developing your
claim. I did this myself, submitted more than 20
letters, and my desire was to make the raters job
easier. In truth, I should have started with the
comprehensive medical group as described below. In
the latter case, less letters can likely be submitted for
efficiency, but I had to write letters for a sense of
control during a VERY stressful period. The writing
released stress, it helped me cognitively[4;5] as a
schizoaffective disorder (bipolar type), and I explained
that to the Veterans Affairs as politely as possible with
references as I have done in this note.
In truth, I should have ordered my letters according to
groups like Medical, Association or Causation,
and Complaints as well, but lesson learned. The
latter groups can easily be applied to the footer of the
word document so that it is automatically repeated as
new pages are added. I believe the latter will help
raters to organize more effectively, focus, and
possibly increase your chance of receiving much
needed disability.
Also, I wrote the letters logically, used references to
back up my symptoms and experiences, and I
expected that the Board of Veterans Appeals could
see my claim. I was not afraid to assume that any VA
employee needed educated on my symptoms. My

rater called me and told me my letters significantly


impacted his decision to rate me 100% total and
permanent for schizoaffective disorder (bipolar type).
Good resources for preparing your letters are the VA
regulations at Government Printing Office[2], Purple
Heart presentation[1] on presumptions of Gulf War
Illnesses, etc. The following can, in reality, be applied
to any situation.
Before you start, read about the symptoms of Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Irritable Bowel
Syndrome, and the ailments listed under undiagnosed
illness at the Veterans Affairs website[3].
When you build your detailed personal
experiences(discussed below), list your symptoms at
the beginning, and discuss how they match, as
example, the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. You will find
that many symptoms overlap.
I would suggest you work several paths
simultaneously: Medical health, mental health,
personal letter development, and buddy letter
development, which can come from military peers and
family. Military peers can describe your experiences in
the military, and family can describe how the war
changed you.
To develop your personal letter, you should search the
38 CFR Schedule of ratings for your illness or
symptom, find out the requirements for percentages,

copy that information to a Notepad to eliminate any


web formatting and then into a Word document, and
then build your letter. To build your letter, search your
medical records for symptoms that match the
schedule of ratings, highlight the comment to be
copied, and mark the page with a paper clip or other
method; copy that information to a table in your
letter; include: comment about symptom, medical
professional that documented the symptom, and date
of the comment so that it can be searched easily by
the VA Regional Office VBA rater.
If medical evidence of any condition to be described is
available, it should be added to the above mentioned
table. After you have a table built under your schedule
of rating info, begin a section that describes how the
symptoms have affected you from the 1991 Gulf War
until present. Be very personal in this section and
honest. If you were homicidal or suicidal, admit it and
be detailed--use medical evidence if available and
include in table. If you have shit on yourself because
of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, be detailed. If you have
sexual functioning problems because of illness
symptoms or medication, be detailed.
Also, try to put a quantitative value on the symptom.
In other words, how many times does it happen in a
given time period. After you complete the 38 CFR
Schedule of Ratings, medical record excerpts, and
personal detailed explanation, for, as an example,
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, repeat it all for your other
ailments.

Sometime during the process, verify the accuracy of


all your data transferred from the 38 CFR, medical
records, etc. I suggest you verify it right after
transferring too. We are humans, and humans make
errors. This is very important because inaccuracy
could cause a VA employee, rater included, from using
all your hard work. How would you feel if it was
inaccurate. Like the rest of the process, this step
requires much preparation and, in truth, work.
Important: Add your name and Social Security number
to every page (the header is the best place to do this
as it automatically repeats), including on, at least, the
front page of any attachments. Also, you, your family,
your friends, and your military friends should add the
following to the end of every letter:
"I, [Your Name], hereby certify that all statements and
attachments submitted for my claim are true to the
best of my knowledge and belief."
References:
[1] PurpleHeart. (2012). Update: Gulf War Claims.
Retrieved (2015, Mar. 23). Purpleheart[online].
Available from:
http://www.purpleheart.org/ServiceProgram/Training20
12/7-M%20-%20Gulf%20War%20Presumptions.pdf
[2] US Government Printing Office. (2015, Mar. 20).
Electronic Code of Federal Regulations: Title 38

Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief. Retrieved


(2015, Mar. 23). Ecfr[online]. Available from:
http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?
tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title38/38tab_02.tpl
[3] US Department of Veterans Affairs. Public Health:
Gulf War Veterans' Medically Unexplained Illnesses.
Retrieved (2015, Mar. 23). Publichealth.va[online].
Available from:
http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/gulfwar/me
dically-unexplained-illness.asp
[4] Mendella PD; Burton CZ; Tasca GA; Roy P; St Louis
L; Twamley EW. (2015, Mar.) Compensatory cognitive
training for people with first-episode schizophrenia:
Results from a pilot randomized controlled trial.
Retrieved (2015, Mar. 25). Schizophr Res[online]. vol.
162(1-3). pp. 108-11. Available from:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25631454 ; doi:
10.1016/j.schres.2015.01.016
[5] CogSMART. CogSMART FAQs. Retrieved (2015, Mar.
25). Available from: http://www.cogsmart.com/faq

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