REDUCING THE VA BACKLOG ONE MISTAKE AT A TIME

Posted on March 1, 2026 by asknod

Several days ago, I read that VA has miraculously managed to shrink the backlog to less than 100,000 claims for the first time since 2013. At first glance, most of you would think “Holy shit, Batman. That means my claims will get done sooner.” Back the boat up to the dock, Gilligan. It doesn’t work that way.  First off, allow me to set the stage for this article. I have a client for whom I won Aid and Attendance. As most do not know, because VA has perennially been narrowly interpreting its own Special Monthly Compensation (SMC) regulations to shortsheet Veterans since 1946, hundreds of thousands of Veterans were disenfranchised over the years and lost a lot of dough on just one of their regulations – §3.350(f)(3).

That error cost each and every one of you Vets with a SMC L or higher rating (up to N 1/2) a minimum of $250 per month in today’s dollars- and conceivably lots more. Obviously, SMCs L through O paid less in years past. But right now, in 2026, if you had been granted aid and attendance ten years ago and you had separate and distinct ratings adding up in VA math to 50% or more, you’re missing out on that money.

This gentleman managed to stand for his CMOH during the SOTU address.

The good news is you can file for it and get it paid back to you retroactively because it isn’t a new regulation. That makes it a CUE with retroactive application because nobody ever pitched a bitch about it for seventy eight years. And, because I think that is a rather nasty thing to do to my fellow Veterans, I’m letting you all know. It might drive the backlog up over 100,000 again but VA owes it to you.

Now, to put that in perspective, I’ve done about 500 of these SMC L aid and attendance (or higher) claims and appeals just in the past five years or so and almost each and every one of those Veterans are calling me up asking me to file for what we call the Barry bumps. §3.350(f)(3) permits a “bump” up from SMC L to L 1/2 with the above-mentioned case of 50% or more. If you had two disabilities or combinations adding up to another 50%, you’d bump to SMC M. And so on all the way up to N 1/2.

If you reach the N 1/2 combination and also had a SMC K for loss of use of winky or a mastectomy, you’d get a bump up to SMC O automatically. If your L was for aid and attendance and not for loss of use of the lower extremities, your O would “bump” up to SMC R 1. To put this into perspective, SMC L (married) pays $5120.42. SMC L 1/2 pays $5373.59. SMC M pays $5628.14. And so on. SMC R1 currently pays $10,046.47. These figures are enough to roll your mental socks down around your ankles, huh?

On the eighth day the Lord created White Phosphorus and saw that it was good.

Now let’s put this into the context of reducing the VA backlog. Simply put, how will you ever reduce the backlog when antique error is built into the equation? But there’s more. What happens if you ignore the error and keep repeating it now-in 2026? This is worse than Sisyphus pushing the rock up the hill.

It’s a given that WW II, Korean and early peacetime, pre-Viet Nam Vets are probably too old or unaware that they got the poopy end of the Punji stick. But for Viet Nam Veterans, and especially the hordes now assembling in the wings from the 20-year Afstan and Iraq misunderstanding, correcting the record is going to take a while. Add in the Duran v McDonough decision pointing out that VA has also been screwing us on §4.124a DC 8000-8025 diseases since 1946, how can VA ever hope to reduce their backlog? They’re their own worst enemy and merely make more work for themselves every time they cut a new SMC rating.

On a more personal note, let’s do a peekaboo at one of the classic mistakes VBA is making every day nowadays. You finally prevail on your claim for SMC L for, let’s say, aid and attendance. By being granted the L, you are now automatically entering the “bump” zone. Since VA raters do not use innate intelligence to ascertain your correct rating or entitlement to these ancillary bumps, they just grant the L. This is the problem. VA raters don’t know how to do SMC. They resort to the fabled M 21 manual to tell them how to adjudicate a claim. Garbage in. Garbage out.

So we start with Johnny Vet’s new SMC L. In this case, he also has a 30% for migraine headaches, a 20% rating for a lower back problem and a 10% for his left knee. Using the §4.25(a) chart, he has a combined rating (30+20=44+ 10=50). Actually, he has five 10% ratings in addition to the above but we’ll get to that in a moment. The VA blew right through the Barry bump we did file for like a stop sign and didn’t even slow down. No problem. An easy fix, right? But this means while VA just reduced the backlog by one claim, they created the need for another one. But that is not the end of the matter. Oh, hell no- by a long shot.

I can’t make this up but I’ll show you how bad the system has become. I’m unsure if it’s all the new AI or if it’s pure ignorance. That’s irrelevant. I now had to file Johnny Vet for a supplemental 995 and say he’s entitled to SMC L 1/2 (or in the vernacular of the VA, ‘the intermediate rate between L and M’) based on the headaches, back and knee. I even pointed it out for them both in VAspeak and in Dick-and-Janespeak just in case they assigned it to a FNG who’d never heard of SMC. Shoot, I went even further and attached a 4138 just in case they were still confused…

redact 995 Barry bump

VA accepted the supplemental claim but here’s where the confusion and claim # 3 begins. The intake specialist (and I use that term lightly) read this to mean Johnny wanted an increase on his headaches, lower back and knee. They promptly scheduled him for three (3) new c&p exams for each of the items I listed. Now think about this. Each one of those c&ps cost VA (and you the taxpayer) $750 bucks a pop. Poof. There went $2250 up in smoke. The silver lining to this cloud for Johnny Vet was that the Headache inspector actually read the records and checked the right box.

When I spotted  all this c&p stupidity, I emailed the Coach who was supervising the rater and explained it carefully in one-syllable words. All I got was “If you have a complaint, please submit it to the Change Management Agent and s/he will transmit it to us. Otherwise, piss off.”

Fort Houston gave Johnny a brand new rating with a 50% for headaches (they just confirmed and continued his back and knee ratings). They even managed to figure out he was entitled to that SMC L 1/2 I asked for, too. But not so fast, Speedy Gonzalez. They gave him the 1/2 step bump for the headaches only. But by increasing his headaches, they accidentally created another half step bump to SMC M because Johnny has other 20 and 10% ratings that add up to 50% or more.

redact L RD for L1.5 2.24.2026

You see why I can’t make this shit up? Nobody would believe me. So here’s the code sheet. He’s now L 1/2 but he still has separate and distinct disabilities which have nothing to do with his bent brain syndrome supersized with his TBI that add up to a second 1/2 step bump. 20+10=28+10=35+10=42+10=48+10= 53%. How could Roger the Rater miss this? How could the M 21 miss it? Brain fart or programming error?

redact CS 2.24.2026

The repair order for Johnny Vet is definitely not to go for a HLR. If these folks can’t get their underwear on facing the right way when they get in the morning, expecting them to fix this is a fool’s errand. No, sadly this will require another trip to the BVA to get it sorted. Idiot’s delight. From the cheap seats where I’m sitting, I see one claim actually creating two more. In my parlance, that’s one step forward, two steps backward. If they turn around and walk backwards, they’ll get there sooner.

 I do wish someone with a little pull could take this documented example up to Secretary Doug and explain the time-tested adage that haste makes waste. Or, as the Ahnold might say it, hasta la wasta, baby.

Yeah. I know. The picture’s reversed because the infeed was on the port side.

Here’s another good example of missed bumps. I’ve done about 25 of these in the last five months. More come through the door every day. To me, the crime is that you Veterans do not get to see your code sheets which means you have no idea they’re screwing you out of some serious folding money. Come to think of it, maybe that’s the idea…

redact 995 Barry bump

redact BVA filed 2.16.2026

This one was even more humorous. they turned the Vet down because he didn’t have loss of use of hands above the elbows and a few other misinterpretations of §3.350(f)(1).

 

Posted in Aid and Attendance, Barry Bumps in SMC, SMC, Special Monthly Compensation, VA Agents, VA special monthly compensation, Veterans Law | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

THE SUNDAY ROUNDUP/CHICKEN LITTLE REPORT

Posted on February 22, 2026 by asknod

I find all kinds of gems scattered across the Internet. One toy I play with is a word search tool to find out where my name is mentioned to make sure nobody is putting words in my mouth. As all of you know, I don’t have to advertise young Russian hotties who seek White American Males or cheap Viagra for 87¢ a pill. I cheat. I have a law practice which pays for all this. “All this” is a whopping $100 a year. I owe my thanks to WordPress™ for that. Actually, even if I had no practice, I lucked out by marrying a rich girl. 

My word search alarm went off somewhat late on this one but it’s a daisy. We talk about SMC a lot here because, well, what the hey? That’s the essence of my practice. Relax, I’m just a lowly VA Agent with permission to practice at the Court. That makes me .001% more cool than a VSO service officer in reality. Like old Rodney Dangerfield used to say, “I don’ get no respect.” But then, I’m not a parade kind of guy. I don’t expect any.

But back to the search alarm. I see VBN (the Pink Peggy site) has really changed. It ain’t pink anymore. I hadn’t been there for almost a decade but my name popped up on one of their forums Check this discussion out. https://vetsbenefits.net/viewtopic.php?p=1643933 

The word search found Tankerslead 19K interjected my website as a trustworthy source for information on SMC. Mr. Tanker was wasting his electrons. VBN treats me like an illegal alien or the crazy aunt that lives in the attic and erased my existence. But then, so did Hadit.com. Over there, they had so many threads with my name in them they couldn’t erase me so they just gave me a new moniker- Former Member. But Mr. Tanker announced:

“I’ve been reading a lot of Asknod and some of his trainees work he is more than solid has been working SMC for years his cases are very interesting and you get some Vietnam stories in the mix.”

The conversation link above is dominated by several of the Grand Poohbahs of VA law. One is an absolute hoot. As an aside, VBN booted me out long ago when I began publishing BVA decisions on asknod that contradicted all that wonderful advice they were offering over there. Grand Poohbah (GP) Cruiser even went so far as to correctly announce there is no rule forbidding two aid and attendance ratings but then promptly contradicted himself to say it cannot be done. A Veteran has a better chance of winning the Powerball Lotto than getting two a&a awards?

“To my knowledge (and I did do this at VA for 30 years so I think I’m on solid ground) there is no law or regulation that specifically says that two awards of aid and attendance cannot be granted based on separate disabilities, each requiring aid and attendance on it’s [sic] (their) own.  This has always been VA’s interpretation and VA decision makers (be they raters, DROs, or BVA Judges) are required to rule accordingly.”

Since I’ve done this (double a&a ratings) about 300 times, I’m wondering if GP Cruiser spent his thirty years at the VA mopping their floors. But not to be outdone, he (she?) doubled down and stated you would have to appeal to the CAVC or the Fed. Circus to attain this rating…

“The only way you will get this is to appeal a BVA decision denying you the second aid and attendance award to the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and get a Judge to overrule VA’s interpretation, either there or in a Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.  In other words you will only get this from a court outside of VA.  I haven’t looked to see if there has already been a court ruling on this.  I’ll let someone else do that.”

That’s okay. I looked it up for you, sir. It’s called Breniser versus Shinseki and it happened way back in 2011. It put the quandary he discusses to bed once and for all. I guess what scares me is that Veterans Advocates’ websites can publish this tripe with a straight face.

Lastly, on the VBN site, I notice they’re busy selling everything from cars to … wait for it… cheap Viagra. Jez- False VA law and Viagra? But I digress.

I see Hadit.com has reverted back to an ad-free venue again. In spite of the change, it would appear they’re having a hard time keeping the lights on. They have an active section devoted just to seeking donations. Again, what do they do with all this money?

$250 Dollars per year for a Patron’s Badge.

I know for a fact that I got Hadit’s owner (Theresa) SMC at the L rate for a&a back in 2018 or 19. Using the VA’s SMC calculator, we know a single Vet gets $4900.83 a month for a&a. Add in a SSA payment of at least the minimum at $1000/mo. and you’d think she would have no problem floating the Hadit boat. Go figure.

The next subject of interest this week is all the panicans going apeshit at the prospect of VA reinterpreting how §4.10 should be interpreted. To sum it up in a nutshell, this was a nonstarter. The whole thing existed on paper for 40 hours before being rescinded. Yet every guy with an ascot or a Santa Claus-sized beard is writing articles or Utubeing about how the sky is falling. Worse, even after Secretary Collins called off the dogs and pissed on the fire, the major news outlets (Stars and Stripes, Military Times etc.) were still crying in their beer about how many Veterans would be made homeless or die if this comes to pass.

Being the perennial Devil’s Advocate, let’s disassemble this and put it in perspective. Let’s say just for shits and grins that ol’ Secretary Doug did implement this for the sake of argument. The very first thing would be that if you were rated before this came into existence, VA could never use the new code interpretation to reduce your existing rating.

Another facet of the existing precedence, established back in 2012 in Jones v. Shinseki said that if the diagnostic code mentions the ameliorating effects of a medication, then you can rate on the medicated state of the Vet. Put more simply, if you had eczema and you used some kind of corticosteroid cream to help you reduce the rash or itch, then the improvement would be what you rate on. Look at Diabetes Mellitus II. Same thing. If you have it and need no medication, you get 10%. If you use metformin of glipizide, you get 20. If you have to regulate you activities and require a supervised diet then 40. And so on.

Take cancer. You get a temporary 100 for the active period when using chemo or radiation therapy. Afterwards, if it goes into remission, they rate on the residuals. So after they fry your prostate gland into charcoal and kill the cancer, they reduce you and rate on the residuals of how many Depends© undergarments you go through in a day.

I suspect the fear of most Veterans is if they are getting 50% for OSA and using a CPAP, they worry about getting reduced. Or with Bent Brain Syndrome, they’ll get a haircut based on the new and improved version of themselves on Paxil®. I get their concern. But, being the Devil’s advocate here, let me explore this.

So let’s say you’re at 70% for bugf**kyitis in a medicated state. You can still go to work as a Po-liceman and kill people but don’t need any accommodations for your disease. With the new ruling, VA is going to look at the medicated you instead of an unmedicated you. If you didn’t eat your Seroquel daily with a side of  trazadone and supersized with a hit or two of 10mg Valium, you might be a basket case. But you aren’t! The drugs make you a productive member of society.

So VA is saying why give you 70% for the bent brain when they can lubricate your brain and make you functional? Seems to me the 70% or 100% rating for a Vet’s mental problems should be reserved for the guys that medication can’t even fix. One of my Vets was getting hosed with 600 mg of Thorazine three times a day back in the 90’s and it didn’t even faze him. He was certifiable then and still is.

The biggest obstacle to instituting the new rule was trying to avoid the 90 day comment period. Well, that and the that pesky Jones v. Shinseki rule recently reinforced by the New Ingram v. Collins decision at the Fed Circus. That’s what put the fear of god in them. But, just like a bullet, you can’t call Ingram back and put it back in the gun chamber. Short of Congress remodeling the regulations, Secretary Doug’s hands are tied.

I have no doubt we’re going to be revisiting this abortion at some time in the future but I don’t waste my time theorizing on all the possible what-ifs. Think back, Remember when all the Big Six VSOs were shitting their britches and saying Congress was going to do away with TDIU? I noticed §4.16 is still on the books this morning.

This Chicken Little crap about the sky is falling is beginning to become a bit much. Let’s all calm down and worry about our health-not how much we’re going to get paid for the lack of it. Truth be told, I’d turn in my SMC S tomorrow morning if I could eat some magic pill that would give me back my health. I just can’t conceive of this argument I hear that Veterans are going to have to forego their Eliquis and Entresto in order to keep their 100% rating for Ischemic Heart Disease. VFW’s bigwigs say you’d rather keel over with a bodacious Myocardial Infarction supersized with a stroke that reduces you to a vegetable in order to keep the bucks? I just don’t buy it.

 

Posted in CAVC Knowledge, Diagnostic Codes (DCs), Food for thought, Medical News, VA Agents | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

BVA– DIC- DON’T WORRY BABY/ EVERYTHING WILL TURN OUT ALRIGHT

Posted on February 21, 2026 by asknod

This is another one of those DIC stories I love to make the telephone call to the widow on. Only this one dragged out for ten years and three months. Grab a brewskie and some chips, turn off the boob tube for a spell and listen to the story about Frank and Jeannie- two American kids who grew up in the heartland.

 Jeannie and Frank met up in Nashville back in 1982. She got a job at Frank’s supermarket and caught his eye. Turns out they fell in love and got hitched. Too bad all stories don’t just end with “and they lived happily ever after.”

Frank joined the Marines when he turned 18 in 1953. He did his three years as a R/T, got out and went back to Nashville. Part of his enlistment was two years and some change at Camp Lejeune and he was unaware the water was pure poison. Sure, like most guys his age, and especially in the Gyrines, he smoked leftover unfiltered smokes from c rations. Even if they hadn’t been free, they sold them at the PX for about a nickel a pack.

The Famous Peach can to prevent jams on the infeed of the Pig.

Three or four years after he got out, he decided to quit and that was that. Or so he thought. Fifty three years later, in April 2015, he went to the family doctor with a persistent sore throat and cough. Turns out it was the lung cancer. They began the usual stuff like chemo and radiation to fight it but he was gone by November. I can’t  help but think he was probably telling his Jeannie “Don’t worry baby” just like the Beach Boys song right up until the end. That’s what I plan on telling Cupcake, too.

 

Fast forward a few years. Jeannie was right about it being due to Camp Lejeune but just imagine her locking horns with the VA. After a two-year tussle, the VA went out and got a gomer independent medical opinion. The doctor decided to alter history and stretch the truth a mite bit. He claimed the records showed ol’ Frank was a regular smokestack and went through no less than 3 packs a day until 1975.  Six years of a pack a day segued into 22 years of 3 packs a day just because a doctor who had never laid eyes on Frank said so. Pardon my French but that sucks.

Frank had filed for the lung cancer back in April when he found out. Hell, Camp Lejeune’s water problems were pretty much old news by then but not the lawsuits. VA was beginning to panic and was trying to limit the damage as much as possible. That part of the claim was lost for accrued purposes because Jeannie wasn’t getting any legal help. But she did manage to keep the wrongful death part of the claim alive.

After the VA denied it in ’17, she waited patiently for the Statement of the Case (SOC) to come out in early ’20. She then filed her 10182 and transitioned into the AMA process. Fortunately for me and for the sake of a happy ending to all this, she asked for a hearing. She’d submitted two “sorta” IMOs- one  from Frank’s family doctor who’d known him since he was knee high to a 9-inch bottle of Schlitz. That doctor put a fork in the 3 packs-a-day lie the VA was pushing.  His pulmonologist/oncologist doctor also opined as to how it had to be from Camp Lejeune water. But, from the tricky legal aspect, we know that unless she had submitted these before the SOC, they were inadmissible in the AMA… unless she submitted them in the Evidence lane within 90 days of her 10182 or… if she’d asked for a hearing, then they were admissible in the 90 days following the hearing.

Everybody wonders if there’s a God. Well, for the sake of argument, let’s say a lot of folks wonder. Me too. Fast forward again to Veterans Day in 2023. Having been cooped up at home for two years of that nothing burger Pandemic thing, I had a hankering to get out and move about the country. So I sashayed on over to Winchester, Tennessee for their grand celebration.

John Stacy, who does the Exposed Vet podcasts, with Ray Cobb, who is also one of my clients, put on a great show and we had a full house of Veterans, their wives and VSO representatives. One of my LRRP group (of five) even came down from Northern Tennessee with his lovely wife to thank me for getting him his 100% with aid and attendance. I don’t get to meet very many of the guys and gals I represent so this was quite the treat all by itself.

I gave an eye-opening speech about SMC and how it begins after 100%. All the VSO crew were busy shaking their heads sideways and allowing as there was no such thing. Jeannie had come to listen mostly but one of the fellows sitting at her table who was taking in my SMC speech leaned forward and said to her “Now that there’s the fellow you want to represent you- not one of these chowderheads.” And then along came God.

So, about lunchtime, I was headed to the kitchen to strap on the ol’ feed bag when Jeannie glides up and slides her arm through mine and introduced herself. She talked a blue streak over lunch about how Frank had passed on and all the trouble she was having with VA. Now, I reckon most guys have a soft spot for widows- especially ones who have been done wrong. Before I could even think about it, I’d already agreed to take the case.

I went through that file and realized this was a job for Mednick- my trusted outfit for good medical opinions. I’ve never lost a single claim or appeal using them over the last ten or so years. Their doctor wrote a beautiful opinion but VA’s opinion wasn’t hard to beat. He had the facts so screwed up, no one was going to buy it. Worse, he didn’t have one peer-reviewed cite and all he talked about was how most folks who smoked for 30 years died of lung cancer. The dude never said squat about Camp Lejeune’s famous water or what would happen if you smoked and drank that, too.

I did the BVA hearing with Jeannie remotely. I was in Seattle and she was in Winchester. If I hadn’t been so pressed for time, I’d have liked to have flown back to DC and had her drive up from Winchester.  Talk about luck. When you’re dealing with a widow and DIC, you pray for a woman VLJ. God must have heard me because we drew Judge Jennifer Kirby. I think she was used to holding hearings with VSO service officers who had room temperature IQs.

I’ve read a bunch of their briefs and read their transcripts. The prime argument always consists of “My client never got the benefit of the doubt, your honor. §3.102.” Short and sweet. No discussion of the evidence for… or against.  The representative asks the Vet how he got _______ and they always recite stuff that is pure poison to the Judge’s ears. You never ask your Vet to dangle a stethoscope around his neck and talk like a doctor. Never.

By the time I got finished with my hearing, the Judge was nodding and telling me it was refreshing to talk to someone with a grasp of the law, CAVC cites and had a vocabulary of more than 300 words. That’s when I felt like busting out with the Beach Boys song in three part harmony. I knew I had Jeannie’s cat in the bag. Just to be safe, I’d asked Judge Kirby up front if she would consider taking this case all the way to the finish line. With the new AMA, she wasn’t obliged to. She didn’t say one way or another so I didn’t even know she had until she signed it. Here’s the transcript.

redact BVA Hearing txscript 4.26.2024

What I didn’t contemplate was that it would take another 663 days to solve this Rubik’s cube. My guess is it’s the backlog. The evidence was unequivocal. Seems when President Trump took office, a lot of BVA employees took offense with his methods of fixing America and quit. This created a problem getting things done in a timely manner.

I was glued to CASEFLOW on Friday when the decision finally was published about 1629 Hours (L) DC time ( a minute before quitting time). I wasn’t surprised we won but I’ll tell you Jeannie had flat out been a hot mess ever since the hearing. She was convinced she’d stepped on her skirt and done a face plant with the judge. No amount of cajoling or encouraging words could roust her out of her funk.

redacted BVA DIC Win 2.18.2026

Redact RD 2.19.2026

I get to do about 3 or 4 of these DIC gigs every year. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to make that phone call and set a widow’s heart at ease. But then, I don’t recall hearing about any gal having to fight ten years and some change to win one of these. That’s unheard of… or should be.

I reckon the best part is old Frank is probably looking down from Heaven about now and saying “See? I told you not to worry, baby. Everything turned out alright.”

That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

Posted in BvA Decisions, Camp Lejeune poisoning, Dependency allowance, DIC, Exposed Veteran Radio Show, Food for the soul, SC For Cause of Death, VA Agents, Veterans Law | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

EXPOSED VET ZOOM SHOW

Posted on February 18, 2026 by asknod

Tomorrow afternoon/evening (1600 Pacific and 1900 East) John Stacy is doing a Video discussion of the new Medications = reduction that just came to pass yesterday. We’re going to discuss this one until we’re blue in the face. Also, we will discuss the import of the new Fed Circus decision in Hamill v. Collins which does away with the odious “implicit denial” abortion from Cogburn v. Shinseki. Call in and give your opinion or figure out how to ask for access to express your views.

Here’s the link:

https://riverside.com/studio/exposed-vet-productions?token=9e9897cb93037443f3af1b98ea67d6e2788b9eb2

Be there or be square.

Posted in Exposed Veteran Radio Show | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

FED CIRCUS- IMPLICIT DENIAL– SWEET CAROLINE

Posted on February 8, 2026 by asknod

I never was a fan of Neil Diamond. His stuff crossed into Neil Sadaka territory-too bubblegummy. But I heard the song on a recent Landman episode and it fits. “Sweet Caroline/Good times never seemed so good/I’ve been inclined/To believe they never would.” After almost 37 years, I’ve watched a lot of legal decisions adjudicated and our rights as Veterans gradually increase. This last week,  we received a long-overdue ruling from the Fed Circus doing away with the dreaded “Implicit Denial” theory. I’m fixing’ to discuss it directly but you might want to chew on it as I lay it out for you. https://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions-orders/24-1543.OPINION.2-4-2026_2642963.pdf

Frequently, when we file for claims, VA has a habit of denying them in strange ways. Sometimes they even disremember to mention they adjudicated it. If you pitch a bitch, they’ll try to convince you they actually did deny it but somehow it must of just snuck by you. I reckon you’re expected to examine the decision and deduce your denial by the fact that your paycheck didn’t grow larger. Considering Veterans never get to see their Ratings “Code Sheet”, how would they know?

So, let’s spin the wheel of fortune and see what it (implicit denial) is (or was), what it looks like and what just happened.  Let’s start by pointing out that in the old world of Legacy claims pre-February 14, 2019, implicit denial was perfectly legal but hardly fair in the true, nonadversarial venue we’re supposed to inhabit. Even though they’ve forbidden it from now on, you can bet they’ll take another two years to “catch up.”

Since all I do is SMC, implicit denial has been a major thorn in my side. Let me begin with a sample of a real filing for several SMCs. VA, up to this point, had denied anything to do with SMC above an S or K for my Vet. So, to get their attention, I threw three at them at once. It had it’s desired effect. Boy howdy did it.

redact filed for A&A X 3

VA looks at this like a bull at a red blanket. One of three things usually happens. Either they state “Your current level of SMC is confirmed and continued at the current rate.” or “Aid and attendance is denied.” or this new one: “Review of your file shows you are already in receipt of aid and attendance. As it can only be awarded once, you’re plumb shit out of luck, bubba.”

redact RD 9.15.2025

When Congress decided to make VA law ten times more difficult in 2017, they invented the AMA. A big change between AMA and Legacy was that they had to tell you a few things.  You know- important things you needed to win. In other words, no mo’ implicit denial. The Boys down in the trenches didn’t get that email and continue denying Vets using Legacy rules. For six years this has been going on, folks.

Here’s what they’re supposed to have been doing since February 19, 2019- §3.103(f)

(f) Notification of decisions. The claimant or beneficiary and his or her representative will be notified in writing of decisions affecting the payment of benefits or granting of relief. Written notification must include in the notice letter or enclosures or a combination thereof, all of the following elements:

(1) Identification of the issues adjudicated;

(2) A summary of the evidence considered;

(3) A summary of the laws and regulations applicable to the claim;

(4) A listing of any findings made by the adjudicator that are favorable to the claimant under § 3.104(c);

(5) For denied claims, identification of the element(s) required to grant the claim(s) that were not met;

(6) If applicable, identification of the criteria required to grant service connection or the next higher-level of compensation;

(7) An explanation of how to obtain or access evidence used in making the decision; and

(8) A summary of the applicable review options under § 3.2500 available for the claimant to seek further review of the decision.

Not one but eight things VA is required to do in a rating decision. Here’s a hoot. The RD says a&a denied but the favorable findings report avers you need a&a. Only in VA Unicornville, folks.

redact RD 7.23.24

Implicit denial arose out of the anti-Veteran, trailer trash, Walmarket Big Six VSO mentality that Veterans are just a bunch of welfare queens. It began perhaps in Ingram v. Nicholson, then grew into Deshotel v. Nicholson, segued into Adams v. Shinseki and finally blossomed in Cogburn v. Shinseki. This came to a head in 2010 with Mr. Dennis W. Cogburn, a true, boots in red clay Veteran like me went up against the VA. Dennis got a remand and then got his ass handed to him on fine china. The BVA trotted out a new horse, a fresh rope and clarified what was needed to rebut an implicit denial (the four Cogburn rules). Turns out it was just a rehash of the old VA Three-card Monte game. Heads I win, Tails you lose.

What disturbs me was the CAVC judges. This was perhaps the first time I felt Judge Schoelen was way to hell and gone off base. She put in a separate concurral but still agreed that the legality of the concept of implicit denial was okay. This, to me, is a betrayal and repudiation of her pro-Veteran stance up to this point. In what universe would it be okay to purposefully pee on a Veteran’s leg and tell him it’s raining?

We are finding more and more inconsistencies in the AMA as we move forward. Certain regulations have had to be rewritten to comprehend the New World Order of the Bix Six VSOs due to their being found to have conflicts. Their fingerprints are all over what attorneys and Agents can and cannot do in Part 14. They (VSOs), of course, are free to make mistakes willy nilly and laugh it off as gross ineptness on their part. We Agents and Attorneys are expected to have our shit in a row. Look at the Laska “copy and paste” disaster. VA clearly made SMC T’s requirements the same as R2’s  and then tried desperately to defend their error.

The only way Veterans’ advocates like me have found a way around implicit denial is to frame our requests for a&a individually and capture them in anally specific bites. Hence, “entitlement to ___________ due solely to _________.” The purpose of doing it this way becomes clear after the denial when you move up to the BVA. There, people actually read the law and act appropriately in applying it. But not always as we know or there would be no reason for the CAVC, the CAFC or the Supremes. Every legal system has to have a runaway vehicle off-ramp to fix mistakes.

So, after you analyze your denial, look for all those eight items listed in §3.103(f) above. They won’t all be stacked up in a nice row. You may have to jump back and forth from page 6 back to page 1 to page 4 to align them with the components of §3.104 numbers one through 8. If they ain’t all there, then VA just gave you an illegitimate rating. Now, sadly, if you take this implicit denial error up to the Board, all you’ll draw is a remand back down to shit-for-brains land where they’ll probably screw it up all over again. Unless… you do some simple housekeeping.

The repair order is simple. After your initial denial, file a 995 supplemental with  a VAF 21-2680 which specifically states you do need a&a for _________ and collect the second denial. Take that one up to the Board and you have a chicken dinner winner. Your Fort Fumble may even get specific in this supplemental denial in saying you lose but will again step on their necktie and fail to address all the a&a contentions. Or they’ll say you need a 100%er to get in. Or you’ll get the favorable findings denial. Or the confirmed and continued at the current rate or whatever- but it almost always will be a denial.

I overcame this recently by slamming two a&as down their throat into the supplemental. VA granted the a&a four days later without any c&ps and the effective date was, yep- you guessed it- the date I filed that 995. My Vet has so many things wrong with him that his code sheet runs to 8 pages so I filed for the Barry bump trick all the way up to N 1/2 plus K which translates to O and R1. I’ll report back after the win sometime this Thanksgiving or Christmas when it’s decided. Make ’em shit or go blind trying, folks.

redact 10182 filed 1.28.2026

Remember, these chowderheads at the local Puzzle Palaces don’t even have a clue how SMC works. They type it into the M 21 and out comes what passes for the correct answer. What’s even funnier is watching all this on VBMS TV. The Quality Control Rater, usually a RVSR, runs it through her magic SMC calculator seven or eight times getting God knows what answers before she just says screw it, it is what it says it is. Imagine an old 8 ball you keep turning over and it says “Come back later” the first time. Next, it says ” It’s possible”. The third time it’s “I can’t be sure.” In Unicornville, that’s a hard ‘no’.

Fortunately, the BVA is getting far more consistent in their denouements which gives us hope. Hamill is just one more small step for Vets but a giant leap for Vetdom to start of 2026.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday. I know my Seahawks are gonna shine today.

 

Posted in CAFC Rulings, Duty to Assist, How to Qualify for VA SMC, Implicit denial, SMC, Special Monthly Compensation, Tips and Tricks, VA Agents, VA special monthly compensation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

BVA– AND I’M FEELIN’. . GLAD ALL OVER

Posted on January 19, 2026 by asknod

In the news, we’re constantly bombarded by articles about the passing of the last Pearl Harbor Survivor, the last guy who came ashore at Omaha, the last Navajo Code Talker and more. Don’t get me wrong. I revere every one of those Veterans but it raises another question. One of these days, you’ll be reading about the last Viet Nam survivor. At the rate Viet Nam Veterans are auguring in, you might expect we’ll be extinct in short order. Shucks. I’m turning 75 this year and I was a latecomer. I didn’t get to the party until six years after the shit hit the fan. Two if you count from Tet ’68. Guys my age are keeling over left and right. I know because I represent them.

Fortunately,  I’m not that bad off yet. I was able to help this poor gal Cheryl at the tail end of her and her husband Don’s VA odyssey. It’s one of the worst cases of VA “I don’t give a shit” ism I think I’ve ever run across. Don was a Marine and all that goes with it. Gung Ho takes on a whole new meaning in the world of crayons. He had a Purple Heart. That’s a mighty exclusive club made up of folks who suffered lead poisoning. When we signed the POA, Don was bedridden and at SMC S. With cancer times 2. And ALS. This was pretty much his last rodeo and we all knew it was a race for the win.

Cheryl came to me with a very sad tale of Don getting rejected for SC for ALS over and over. Now, a lot of Vets don’t realize that if you come down with this disease at any time after service, it’s an automatic 100%. §3.318. In spite of my filings for this- even with an IMO, VA dug in and began the fight all over. Not even a c&p exam. Just a flat out hard “What part of ‘no’ don’t you get, hoss?”

Check this out. VA kept denying Don on the ALS with a bunch of bogus no’s.

1) You didn’t have it in service or within a year of separation.

2) It isn’t on the list of Agent Orange shit.

3) No studies have ever said it’s caused by Agent O.

4) You don’t actually have a true dx of ALS-just a variant that we here at VA don’t recognize as the real McCoy.

5) 38 USC §1168(a)(2)(B) gives us the right to deny you a c&p. So piss off and be quick about it. redact RD 7.23.24

I think most Veterans (and their VSOs) fail to recognize that VA uses this technique of citing all the inapplicable laws to deny while studiously ignoring the regulation(s) that support your claim. The inevitable result is you give up because what the hey? VA knows the laws and they would grant if they could.

Fortunately, the Board  didn’t have its head hidden from the sunshine and wasn’t using its belly for a porthole… this time. Redact BVA ALS win 1.30.2025 . But the parade of “no’s” continued far past his death. VA plumb refused to piss on the fire and call in the dogs. This win for Cheryl firmly incorporates the holding in Akles and Bradley that the date of claim has nothing to do with the date entitlement arose when adjudicating SMC.

Don unfortunately passed away back in November 2024. The BVA decision on the ALS and a&a didn’t even pay Cheryl for the cost of his wake and incidentals. This is why I continued to fight this to the end. If the Board had gotten it wrong, I would have taken it up to the Court. This level of SMC ignorance at the local yokel level is becoming more and more prominent with the advent of Artificial Intelligence.

You can almost imagine some denial-challenged RVSR or Coach sitting in his 6X6 cubicle Kingdom in that two-story architectural abortion(the Houston VARO) being admonished to “find a way, Jose. We just can’t let this double a&a get through or Vets are going to be storming the gates at our Fort Fumbles across the fruited plains.”  Jose goes back to the drawing board and delves into ChatGPS™ or some other AI vehicle.  Because it’s eager to please, it promptly manufactures some fictitious Fed. Circus holding saying “Sorry, Don. One a&a to a customer no matter how many 100%s you have. It’s been that way since the War of 1812.” See how easy that was and it didn’t even require using the M 21.

 

So it was with great pleasure to realize a BVA Veterans Law Judge actually read my brief in its entirety and came to the same legal conclusions as I did. One thing I should stress in my writings is that you should not condemn VA folks for asking their AI machine to tell them what to do in any given claims consideration. It’s data base is a closed system and only relies on the M 21. Sadly, like an analog clock that needs winding, the M 21 gets it right at least twice a day.

Within the greater world of AI, searches via multiple platforms access tons of data that may be helpful as long as the platform isn’t geared to act like a Labrador retriever bringing the ball back to you. I know my Pickles sometimes stops to pee or poop while retrieving. When that happens, she hyperspazes out and sometimes just grabs an “apple ball” from under one of our trees or pulls one off a low-hanging branch. Retrieving the mail up to the house is an entirely different proposition. She’d pee in her pants before she relinquished a letter.

Until the advent of the AMA, the BVA used the Purple Book as a guide on how to resolve unique points of law. It not only summarized CAVC, CAFC and SC stuff but also dictated the decision outcome based on BVA’s very own past holdings. Notably, it expressly adhered to the Overton v. Wilkie theory that they were not beholden to the M21. Good thing, too or we’d have even more wild and crazy decisions than we do now.

The peach can solution to infeed jamming on a Pig

In its place, the BVA published the Operations Manual in 4/2020 to replace it. Same book. Somewhat updated data and rules to incorporate the AMA. Different color of the cover.  However, stare decisis is a many splendored thing. It means that, in the absence of any new Federal or Congressional revisions, VA is required to stand by the dictates of prior statute and regulation. We’re hoping that one day, VA will absorb that concept at the Agency level and develop a uniform way of adjudicating a claim the exact same way every time.

Here’s Cheryl’s new nest egg for her sunset years. I haven’t added it up but 9 years of SMC L for a&a back to 2015 is some serious folding money. The R2 grant was only effective for the eight months preceding Don’s death but it, too, will add an exclamation point to the settlement’s moral vindication. We don’t expect an apology or a host of mea culpas. As long as VA clings to their misguided Manual, we VA litigators are eternally condemned to toil alongside Sisyphus and keep pushing the rock of law back up the hill of Justice.

Personally, that’s something I’m honored to be allowed to do for my fellow Veterans.

redact 10182 a&a filed 2.28.2025

redact L & R2

P.S. The title of this blog for all you FNGs to life is a hit song from the Dave Clark Five from the mid-sixties.

Posted in Agent Orange, Aid and Attendance, BvA Decisions, BVA Purplebook, Pickles, R1/R2, Special Monthly Compensation, Tips and Tricks, VA Agents, Veterans Law | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

BVA–YOU CAN’T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT TIMES 2

Posted on January 12, 2026 by asknod

Always remember the second half of the bridge- “But if you try sometime, you’ll find…you get what you need.” It’s the theme song of my VA litigation journey at VA. This is a great win for a poor, horribly disabled Veteran (now deceased) and his surviving bereaved widow who repeatedly got the poopy end of the VA punji stick. Sometimes I get nauseous reading AOJ rating decisions. The AI jargon in there oozes disdain and indifference to the widow’s plight. It’s plumb disrespectful.

In this case, Cheryl came to me with her husband’s long travails to get SC for the ALS that was killing him. This kind of law is my favorite. ALS, MD, MS, Parkie’s, leukemia, cancer- you name it. If it’s  killing you, I want to defend you. If he’s already dead, I want first stab at torturing the VA to make it right for you. The VA screwed me for 28 long years.

In Vietnam, we had a rather macabre sense of humor considering we could die at any time from incoming mail. A common phrase heard when a guy was charcoal was “If you’re dyin’, I’m buyin’. ” It meant if you’re going to die, “I’ll give you my last hit of Jack Daniels in my backpack” or “I’ll give you my last Marb Red and even light it for you.” Once they loaded you on the Dustoff and you were evac’d to the 312th at Chu Lai, you weren’t gonna be lightin’ up inside the hospital or dropping by the Class VI store.

When Cheryl came to me with Don, he was waaaaay into Jack Daniels country. I will say I fought the good fight for his Lou Gehrig’s disease but when I saw he’d been 100 for Prostate since 2015, I realized this was going to be the real financial lifesaver for Cheryl when he augered in.

Sure enough, Don checked out about 8 months later and my work really began. Today the song panned out- Cheryl got what she need. I only wish she’d found me about 10 years ago in 2015 and ol’ Don would have been R1 until ’22 when the ALS really began kicking his ass.

Could’ve, Would’ve and Should’ve ran in the 4th, 5th and 6th races at Golden Gardens as my daddy used to say. Que sera, sera. God Bless you and yours, Cheryl. I’m blessed to have been allowed to fight this one for Don and you. I can’t rightly say how many more of them I have left to be honest.

Check it out.

Redact BVA ALS win 1.30.2025

redact ex pgs Prostate 10182

redact L & R2 1.12.2026

As Wavy Gravy said one morning overlooking us in Max Yasgur’s back forty, “We must be in Heaven, man!”

P.S. and while I was writing this article, another piece of good luck rained down on one of my oldest clients. VA must hate him. I’ve had to buy two IMOs to get him to permanent and total. Everything we’ve ever filed was denied at the local Fort Fumble. He’s got a ton of frequent filer miles stacked up at the BVA. His is the absolute shortest BVA decision I’ve ever received. I got his other one back last week for a win all around. If this keeps up, I’m gonna have to learn how to shit ice creme and walk on water.

redact BVA Win No. 1 1.05.2026

redact BVA Win No. 2 1.12.2026

Posted in Aid and Attendance, BvA Decisions, R1/R2, Special Monthly Compensation, Veterans Law | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

MANSPLAINING THE ‘NEW’ VA AI

Posted on January 11, 2026 by asknod

Several decades ago, back in about 1973, it finally struck me that the VA embraced the core tenets of the UCMJ. Rule number 1 is, of course, the Veteran is probably a liar or grossly exaggerating this- ergo he’s not entitled to the benefit. Rule number 2 is the old Murphy u-turn. If he is entitled, figure out how to go back to Rule number 1. Fortunately, things have changed in the succeeding years… or have they? 

With the advent of not only one war (Viet Nam) causing a bow wave into the future from 1965 onwards, our Great White Fathers in Congress decided in their infinite wisdom, to double down and do a new 20-year gig in Southwest Asia. Between the two of them, we even managed to throw in several Caribbean adventures and a test run in Kuwait.

So now we have a huge class of disabled Veterans. Because of the predicted, gradual tapering off of WW II  and Korean War Vets, VA quit building more hospitals and began bonus payments for denying. But we suddenly went into high gear in Southeast Asia before the expiration date on the leftover c rations. The rational conclusion to this tsunami increase would have been to hire more frontline raters as the numbers ratcheted up. But you don’t know the VA.

The old VA I know clung to the idea of paper records like they were the 10 Commandments handed down by God. They had the money to convert or ask for it. They had good examples to follow being used by other Agency-level organizations. Yet they chose to stay in the Dark Ages until nigh on to 2013.  Why? What could possibly be the benefit of delaying the inevitable? Did they suspect that computers would eventually be passé and we’d all revert back to paper?

Somewhere after that brain fart died and they were forced to go paperless, we reached a crossroads. The sheer volume of keyboarding needed, even though more rapid and advantageous, ran head on into the reality of the sheer volume of disabled Vets building up. Whereas in 1989, a rater hand-worked about 40-60 claims at any given time mostly in conjunction with another (with his own 40-60) and a medical doctor/rater as the overall supervisor. This constituted a “Board” at the local level. Average claims time? About 8 months.

With the advent of 1991, the VA engine of justice began to bog down with the new load  of Kuwait/Iraq boys right on top of the beginning of Nehmer and the Agent Orange gullywasher. But, as they say down in Texas, you ain’t seen shit yet, bubba. To add insult to injury, there were a whole new crop of us Hepatitis C Vets who were casualties of- yep- streamlining the  inoculation line in Basic with the jetgun.

Each wave of newly minted disabled Veterans started piling up on the last of the WW II/ Korea dudes. VA’s response was to increase everybody’s workload again. Congress was throwing money at it- but not in serious enough quantities… yet. VA was putting a lot of it into VHA to warehouse the damaged ones and build all the hospitals they neglected to build in the 80’s and ’90s. And then came 2001. Boy howdy, if you thought there was a backlog before this, you needed to listen to them fellers down in Texas.

VA tries. We must give them that. What irks me is the unwritten presumption of lying. While we are usually supported by our records in service -both medical as well as personnel, there are those of us whose records went astray. Some of us went TDY to places that qualify for AO but those records are gone too. Think Laos or Cambodia. Those Vets are screwed. No nexus letter invented can speculate about what doesn’t exist. Go back to Rule #1.

Which brings me to the present and the new AMA. VA is forced to adjudicate hundreds of millions of claims- still with about the same number of raters and worse- some of them are SVSRs, DROs, Coaches and VSCMs. They glance over this stuff, run it though the Artificial Intelligence decyphering device, write a brief synopsis and forward their “idea” of what direction they think the decision should go. That translates into “Deny if You Can. Grant if you Must.”  The orders are passed down to the next level for assignment to the E-2 Eleven Bravo 10 FNGs to “construct” with- wait for it- more AI. This is the well-known M 21-1MR (Manual Rewrite). As with the infantry, there are huge numbers of VSRs who quit due to the bullshit workload requirements while the GS12-14s just update their Faceplace accounts and give orders on what to say or write.

To illustrate how AI can go horribly wrong, I’ve had the pleasure of taking these daisies up to the Board of Appeals. No matter that I show the gross error, few, if any, of the VLJs will take the bait and scold the idiots below. How about:

“It is less likely as not that the Veteran’s Tinnitus was caused by his Toxic Exposure Risk  Activity (TERA). “

The Veteran’s total rating for his PTSD only caused mild incapacity and not a constant need for a&a.”

“You are already receiving a&a. therefore, your request for a&a is moot.”

Now think about this conundrum. VA has an M 21 quote that states “Generally, an award of 100% is the minimum prerequisite for entitlement to a&a. As you have no single rating for 100%, your claim must be denied.” But what happens when you file for being permanently and totally bugf–ky and they grant the 100%? Do they immediately write to you explaining your shiny new a&a rating and pay raise based on your brand new 100% rating? Oh hell no. By operation of law, that 100% malarky should cut both ways.

AI has taken the place of about 10,000 raters. Unfortunately, it is programed with the UCMJ dicta. Nowadays, we also have an ILER (Individual Longitudinal Exposure Record) in our c files. This, like the TERA, identifies your exposure to medical or other external influences which might lead to approval of a claim. But what happens if you were trained as a helicopter repairman and when you got to the Repo Depot in ‘Nam, they were short of door gunners. You were given the short course on the care and feeding of your Pig and shipped out to Camp English, the 1st Air Cav and a year’s free paid vacation.

Hundreds of law dogs have been caught out trying to build legal briefs using AI and have their programs begin to manufacture precedential cites out of whole cloth. Bad idea. But yet VA can crank out something that says “We agree you were exposed to JP 4 and other petroleum products associated with your military occupational specialty (MOS) of a fuels specialist but there is no evidence to connect this to your MDS (Myelodysplastic syndrome).”

Now, the obvious problem here is no nexus letter. VA knows full well that MDS is caused by benzene 99.999 times out of 100. But unless you present the medical ‘nexus’ link, they can play dumb. Again, this is pure AI. VA begins the claims process from the beginning utilizing AI. AI wants to see it written that the etiology of the MDS is JP 4 but no c&p nurse is going to write that. That’s not her job. She just measures what stage you’re at how many times you puke in a 24 hour period.

Claims inflow at the Evidence intake Center (EIC) up in Janesville Wisconsin automatically sorts these things into three piles. New claims (526s), old denials coming in as new supplemental claims (995s) and NODs to the Board (10182s). A CUE filing is rejected and has to be processed manually but goes into that huge pile of denials eventually.

It’s pretty obvious the average IQ of the real human beings at VA Veterans Service Centers (VSCs) and DROCs is borderline 100. Anyone with 120 plus will float higher in the ranks if they have the UCMJ mentality of Rule #1. This is amply confirmed by some of the Coaches’ notes I read in VBMS.

The obvious problem rapidly evolving is the total implicit trust put in what the AI computer generates as gospel truth. We are witnessing a new wave of rebellion at the local Regional level where Quality Control RVSRs are refusing to grant remanded grants coming down from the BVA because- hold on to your hats- it isn’t written in the M21.

For the uninitiated in this area of law, the M 21 is like the assembly instructions you get with your new flat pak IKEA™ bookshelf. The only difference between the two is the IKEA instructions will allow you to correctly assemble the bookcase. The VA’s version is more of an “If…then” model with each choice guaranteed to lead to a denial. Served in Viet Nam? Check. Has Respiratory cancer? Check. Is it a presumptive? Yes… but not so fast. He also has liver cancer so it might have come from the liver and metastasized to the lungs. Denied.

One of the newer techniques is to rephrase the c&p exams they send you to with a zinger. Is the Veteran’s loss of the use of his lower extremities due to Diabetes Mellitus II? The c&p clinician says hell yeah it is. It comes back to the rater and s/he says Denied. You do not have a diagnosis of loss of use of the lower extremities. The favorable finding of fact at the very end will inform you that you are service connected for… wait for it… DMII.

We are entering a new era of VA litigation with AI. I guess you could call it the Deep fake technique. You have to be a wordsmith to discern you’ve been bitchslapped by a computer. For those of you who can get a copy of their c&p exams, I urge you to examine what the medical opinion actually says. This is where you find the VA 3-card Monte trick. The actual question will be phrased as “Is the Veteran’s meniscus tear of the left knee at least as likely as not due to his exposure to petrochemicals associated with his military occupational specialty of generator repairman?”

Once you learn to read every work, no matter how innocent sounding, will you see what’s right before your eyes. Most Vets scroll down to the different choices of answers to find the “It’s less likely as not…” and go into a rage without even seeing the illogic of the underlying question. Garbage in. Garbage out. Now multiply that with two or three IMOs and they all have bogus off base questions asking for idiotic answers.

The last technique, which is older than me by a long shot is the inane “We reviewed your STRs and there is no mention of the fact that you suffered from Parkinson’s/heart problems/ lung cancer/DM II etc. during your period of active duty.” 100% correct. But they’re all on the presumptive list. A 996 HLR won’t fix this even though you argue yourself blue at the informal conference. The hearing officer just uploads it as a difference of opinion and they run it through the AI program for a shiny new retread denial. Going to the Board is basically your only recourse.

I suppose we could all write letters to Uncle Doug and ask him to fix it but they’ll probably run it through the same AI computer to decypher. Until we get back to the old computer attached to our necks, we’re doomed to superior denial technology-even with a well-reasoned nexus letter. If VA suffers a 74% reversal rate on claims at the Court and the Board only finds 29% are wrongly decided, nobody at the AOJ is going to look under the hood of the AI computer to find out why it’s so frequently wrong. Shoot. You gotta remember they long to go back to paper files days.

Posted in Complaints Department, Tips and Tricks, VA Agents | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

YOU DON’T TUG ON SUPERMAN’S CAPE

Posted on January 3, 2026 by asknod

I guess I don’t need to tell anyone we woke up to an interesting development in the Caribbean this morning. Seems the U.S. elected to repossess Chevron’s stolen oil infrastructure from Venezuela. With the exception of two minor U.S. military casualties and a slightly damaged chopper, it was a nonstarter. Kind of like the old Roman colosseum scoreboard- Lions 5, Christians 0. But enough of that. You didn’t come here for a history lesson. Let’ talk about Emanuel.

Emanuel came to me in September 2025. He’s a Viet Nam Crayon Eater (Marines).  All he has is an Obamaphone™. No text. No video. He’d called up a bunch of NOVA lawyers and begged for representation. They all turned him down because, well, he’s already 100% p&t and none of the law dogs saw any money in helping him out. This sadly shows you how ignorant VA attorneys are regarding Special Monthly Compensation. He’s been in a nursing home now on and off, with side trips to VAMC Long Beach and Cedars Sinai ER, for three years. To me, that’s a crime all by itself.

DAV, his VSO, is ignoring him. The last time he contacted the rep in January 2024, they never even returned his call. So much for “free” representation. So he called us in tears and begged Cupcake not to hang up on him until she heard him out. I’m going to share his story here and build off Wes McCauley’s recent post on his website about “clearing out the backlog.”

So, to begin with, chew on this blog and then come back and watch in real time what happens when you have a bunch of sub-75 IQ VA gomers with about 3 weeks of training in litigation try with all their might to promulgate Emanuel’s January 2024 claim for aid and attendance and the ultimate bitchslap- leaving him hanging there waiting for 652 days.

https://unitedforvets.us/spectator/2025-2026?ss_source=sscampaigns&ss_campaign_id=69596ee7b5356f6b9062b191&ss_email_id=69596f222279f0109192dfca&ss_campaign_name=2025%3A+Every+Which+Way+but+Loose%3B+America+250&ss_campaign_sent_date=2026-01-03T19%3A34%3A11Z

 

Doc-in-a-box coming to a Walmarket near you (courtesy of Wes)

So, here’s the gig. We (Cupcake and me) decided we couldn’t abandon Emanuel.  Since the DAV dipshit wouldn’t call him back, Em got his nurse at the Marlora Nursing home to complete a VAF 21-2680 for a&a. She screwed up and listed a bunch of not service connected (NSC) ailments on his claim. Sure enough, VA denied within one week. Being unsure what to do, he filed a CUE saying they denied without so much as a c&p. For several months, they’d call him or send him letters asking when he wanted the hearing disputing the denial.

Ol’ Emanuel is heavily medicated for pain so you could excuse him if he was a tad confused. When they called him again in July 2024, he thought they were trying to file him for hearing loss and told him he didn’t want that hearing shit-just the a&a please. They took that to mean he didn’t want the formal hearing, cancelled it and put the whole shiteree on pause. That’s about the time I pulled his POA and began trying to unravel this fustercluck.

First off,  the whole thing didn’t sit well with me. They’re not supposed to treat us severely disabled Vets this way. To impress upon VA that I wasn’t going away, I filed him in November for everything that should have been in the hopper- Parkie’s, IHD, Stage 4 Chronic Kidney disease, loss of use of the lower extremities, increase for PTSD, a&a etc. I filled in the Homeless section on the 526 but plastered my name, rank and tail number all over the contact data and figured that would get the ball rolling. Not.

Second off, I held the hearing with a LA Regional Office hearing officer. He insisted he wouldn’t do the hearing if the Vet wasn’t there so I had read him the regulation. I asked if we needed to get clarification from the OAR and he folded immediately. I had to point out that the denial of a&a in the January 2024 rating decision was reviewed in August and they DEFERRED it. So, right off, the claim was not a CUE. CUE begins 366 days after it’s done. It was still pending. VA promptly established an EP 930 claim for this and noted it was about 600-ish days old and conceded it needed to be looked at not as a CUE but as a live claim.

To be safe, since Emanuel had been an inpatient here and there for so long, I needed to get wheels on this pronto. Em was homeless. His landlord, having not seen hide nor hair of him for almost a year, took what few possessions he owned, set them on the curb in front of his apartment covered w/ visqueen and made the eviction complete. Emanuel found out about that several months later. To get this moving, I asked to have him flashed for homeless. They ignored me.

Wonder of wonders, about that time a psychologist from Loyal Health c&p calls me up trying to schedule the c&p because he can’t contact him. They’d scheduled 4 c&ps and he was a no-show for them all. The poor guys is so accustomed to the VA crew sending a meat wagon by to take him to the VAMC for regularly scheduled  visits, that he expected the Loyal Health guys were, too. I mean it’s not exactly a state secret that Emanuel is in a nursing home. So it follows that he doesn’t have transportation himself. How, exactly, they expected him to walk or wheelchair 36 miles wasn’t discussed.

So me and this psychologist feller set and talked a spell. We talked about all manner of things regarding my boy. Since I’ve probably read more shrink DBQs that this dude has ever written, I segued into a familiar patois of poor hygiene, persistent hallucinations and delusions, angry outbursts that occasionally required the elephant tranquilizer gun, lottsa pain meds for the blown knees/ankles, suicidal ideation and how he just wished it would all end. We talked about his divorce and estrangement from all his children. I told him I did 2 tours in Viet Nam, I knew what bugf*cky looked like, and ol’ Emanuel was certifiable. Bingo 100%.

Now mind you, all of this was true but depending on how you phrase the psychiatric symptoms, a judging crew of VA-hired psychologists would rate this like Dancing with the Stars- 50%-70%- 30%- 50%- 50%. This Doogie Houser Shrink decided I was credible as the POA and was adding a “wow”, “yesssss” and “oh I expect so” after about everything I cited to. Here’s the kicker. Emanuel had been at 70% since he filed in 1998. DAV had been telling him “don’t poke the Bear or they’ll reduce you” for the last 27 years. Shut the Front Door.

The formal VA hearing on the claim was about December 10 and I conveyed the emergent situation to Mr. K at that time. 600-odd days pending was a wee bit more than your standard 125-day claim time. Nevertheless, it was pure silence. After the December 20 chat with Emanuel’s shrink, the Homeless Flash finally popped up in VBMS but still no action. That Shrink I talked to never did talk to Emanuel. He gave him a 100% sight unseen.

I emailed the hearing officer on the 25th and asked whazzup? Crickets. Big huge, loud, Merry f**king Christmas crickets. Most folks who know me real well could probably predict the next suggestions. Yep. You don’t tug on Superman’s cape. You don’t piss into the wind. You don’t pull the mask off the ol’ Lone Ranger and you don’t wanna mess with me. Here’s how it began. As you can see, I shotgunned this on December 30th to the hearing officer (Mr. K RVSR) who was writing the rating. But I also cc:’d his Coach, the AVSCM, the VSCM, the 344 Regional Officer Director and… Secretary Doug…

Email to Secretary_Redacted

I got this the next morning when I logged in.

email answer_redacted

Right about here you’ll see what Wes and I are talking about and why the appeals numbers have skyrocketed through the roof. The EP 930 fully recognized that the claim for a&a went back to a rating for his kidneys in March 2024. Why, I have no idea. The August 5, 2024, rating deferred it but the actual request for a&a was January 24, 2024. I filed on November 7th and threw the a&a in again because I still had to do the hearing. So which one do you figure they’d choose for a date entitlement arose? See page 8.

RD 12.30.2025_Redacted

A quick look at his code sheet shows he’ll get bumped up to N½ anyway on Barry bumps but they didn’t even do that. This case is just one of many I’m doing right now that illustrates what Wes is discussing in his blog. Did you look closely and read that part where they say “We couldn’t give you the a&a because you didn’t have a single rating at 100% but shucks! Now you do so here’s your a&a bubba. ”

VA is so self-conscious about making errors that they can’t bring themselves to just admit their mistake. They’d rather make up some hokum VA M 21 quote and declare their hands were tied behind their backs right up to November 7th. Unfortunately, this little boner would cost Mr. Emanuel about 24 months times $500 per month worth of retro.  So that’s my Happy New Year Story for 2026. Emanuel thinks I shit ice cream and walk on water. I hate to say it’s just that after 36 years of this nonsense, I’ve seen every trick in the book. This one is older than the rater.

P.S. As FACs, you have no idea how much fun it was to get a “Troops in Contact” (TIC) call for Nape and hear things like…

Posted in Aid and Attendance, All about Veterans, Barry Bumps in SMC, Food for the soul, Tips and Tricks, VA Agents | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

VA-YOU KEEP ME HANGIN’ ON

Posted on December 28, 2025 by asknod

I loved that song by Vanilla Fudge. It sure describes VA law. I do so wish I had a better commo channel to Secretary Collins. I feel I could save the VA millions of dollars and speed up the claims process one hundred-fold. But this Blog is not a Santa Claus wish list for VA reform. It’s a weather report of what’s happening in real time to my clients, other clients of my good friends who share my vision of actually helping Vets and a seventeen-year ongoing report of purposeful VA delay and obfuscation. Yep. I started asknod in ’08. Time flies when you’re litigatin’.

I don’t bitch. I don’t complain. I don’t get mad. I get even. I win where others don’t- or can’t. I’m not sure why that is other than my proclivity to never give up. One complaint I hear from virtually every one of my Veterans is ” I gave up in ____ when I came home. I got my teeth kicked in and walked away. I’ve been to ___  VSOs and never got anywhere. After I managed to eek out a TDIU, I couldn’t interest an attorney to take my case for SMC. They all tell me I’m at 100% and there’s no money in it for them.” Sound familiar? That was me on trip #3 in 1994.

One thing in the new world of the Appeals Management and Improvement Act (AMA) of 2019 is what appears to be a big thrust into Artificial Intelligence (AI) to accomplish what should rightfully be a case-by-case investigation by a warm body. No two cases- nor two hundred or two thousand- will ever be alike. There simply is no template in existence which can accurately determine service connection for your disease/injury. Of course, every article written by AI also carries a disclaimer to the effect that you shouldn’t depend on this because AI is known to invent shit.

VA has taken to sending out for Acceptable Clinical Evidence (ACE) reviews of claims and purposefully asking for inane medical opinions which are a waste of time. How many times have I filed a claim for Aid and Attendance “due solely to PTSD” only to have VA send it out to VES/QTC/ Loyal Health and ask ” Is the Veteran’s need for a&a due to the combined synergistic effects of toxic exposure risk assessment to oil wells or other contaminants associated with his work environment or MOS? Please be sure to state you reviewed the entire claims file.”

The answer, as expected, is always a ‘no’. Burning human waste does not cause the need for a&a. $750 dollars spent on a FNP-BC to state the obvious. Bingo. Denied. If you’d like to disagree, please feel free to file a 996 HLR and wait 5 months for a phone call conference (informal) and another month for a new rating decisions saying “Hmm. You’re right, We see a duty to assist error and we’re going to send this out for another ACE A&A opinion.” Three months later, you get a shiny new denial based on the fact that you don’t qualify for it because… you do not qualify for it.

One of their latest ploys is simply to deny you based on what appears to be the ‘Thursday rule’- you weren’t born on a Thursday. They don’t send you out for an exam. They do not complete a VAF 21-2680 with you there at the c&p in person. Your denial simply says “A review of your files show you do not qualify for a&a.”

Or the newest one yet- “Please submit a VAF 21-2680 signed by your personal care physician or an RN after their name saying you need a&a. If we do not hear back from you in 60 days, we will be forced to close out your claim.” You go to your VA doctor and ask him to fill it out and he says “No way, dude. We’re forbidden to do that.” Problem solved, right?

I could go on but you get the idea. Here’s a classic example. Kenny has been denied more times than he can count on one hand for a&a. The reasons he didn’t qualify are a moving target. Most times, as here, VA simply says he missed it by thaaaaat much. But what, exactly, is ‘that’? It reminds me of “It all depends on what the meaning of “is” is.

VA errs when they fail to comply with §3.103(f)(5) and tell him what he does need- not what he doesn’t have that he needs. You’ll see this technique most of the time. The opposite conundrum is the “Favorable Findings” at the end of your denial saying “Dude, you like totally require a&a so you got that going for you.”

a&a brief redacted

The BVA granted because, well, Kenny is entitled to a&a. Nobody can deny that. But the Board doesn’t even discuss the illegality of the previous denials. They don’t acknowledge he’s been screwed since 2016. They don’t point out the only SMC rating requiring a true 100% is SMC S. They tell him the evidence is “in equipoise” as to whether he qualifies or not. Nine years wasted pursuing a chimera. It’s not that I have a silver tongue. It sure isn’t my good looks or my winning track record. All I asked for was that the Board give Kenny what he is due. And they did. Merry Christmas Kenny. Any comment as to why they screwed him for nine years? Crickets.

SMC A&A for Christmas_Redacted

Amazing, isn’t it? Nine years of denial and refusal to admit Kenny needed a&a was fixed in 8 short months with an 18-page, long-winded diatribe by a former Backseater FAC who graduated 59th in a class of 64. I’m not going to divulge the name of the attorney before me who had this for three years and accomplished zilch. He works for a well-known firm and has a killer reputation for winning tinnitus and hemorrhoids claims. You’d easily recognize his name.

As I’m fond of saying in my briefs, “But that is not the end of the matter”, check this one out. I’ve been working this in the same manner for a few years. I collect all my denials below at the Fort Fumble like a good little ignorant slut and go to the Board. Since them yahoos get about $131,700.00 (FNG) up to $183,400.00 (Senior SES) per year and have an actual Juris Doctorate (JD) from a name brand law school, you’d expect them to be proficient in the law. If they somehow aren’t well-versed, they still have about ten staff attorneys with JDs who are supposed to cover up their Judge’s ignorance with the latest updates on “how to” guidance issued by the CAVC.

Imagine my surprise when I got to the Board and VLJ John J. Crowley steps on his necktie, totally ignores Amy Odom’s masterful year-old Laska vs. McDonough precedence and denies Jimbo his SMC T because (wait for it)… he doesn’t qualify for SMC R 2. Once again, justice is thwarted and it’s off to the CAVC to beg for sanity. I guess I wouldn’t be so upset if Judge Crowley was an FNG but he’s a former USAF JAG. I’ve done a few rodeos with him in the past and he’s generally on point. How this one ended up going south beats me.  Here’s his Bio and Jimbo’s SMC T denial:

John Crowley

SMC T denied_Redacted

The truth is often stranger than fiction. The actual number of Veterans Law Judges (VLJs) at the BVA who are well-versed in SMC are an unknown. One thing for sure is that they’re rarer than hens’ teeth. They all talk a good spiel but the truth is evident in their (and their staff attorneys’) decisions. By rights, if you ask for loss of use of the lower extremities, they are supposed to grant (or deny) under §3.350(b)(1). I just got one back where they decided my Veteran was entitled not to loss of use bilaterally but to aid and attendance for his loss of use of his lower extremities under §3.350(b)(3). Go figure. How did dey do dat?

Merry Christmas

So, in my own inimitable way, I gave the Board all four rounds of #00 SMC buckshot I had in my trusty sawed off Remington Model 12- loss of use of the bilateral upper extremities, loss of use of the bilateral lower extremities, A&A due solely to Chronic Kidney disease (CKD) and A&A due solely to Multiple Sclerosis. Take your pick, bubba. Since Roger already had an a&a for his heart, this was a turkey shoot. One more L for any of the above listed SMC requests would automatically bump him up to O and from there to R1  lickityspit. This is  Kindergarten SMC 101 under §3.350(e)(1)(ii). Breniser v. Shinseki has been around since 2011.

2nd L for R1 _Redacted

BVA Veterans Rocket Scientist (VRS) Dustin L. Ware managed to stumble through what I was asking for but only came up with the SMC O. In all my thousands of trips to the BVA, every last VLJ has completed the project and awarded the kicker up to R 1- well, every one up to now but VRS Ware. Is it something in the water in DC? Is it gross ignorance at their staff attorney level? Are they smoking that high-test Mantanuska Thunderf*ck? Don’t they occasionally wander over next door to, say, Jedi Master Jonathon Hager’s office and  ask “Does this sound right to you, Jon?” If not, why not? Jez, no quality control at the BVA?

Now granted, the SMC Calculator has been broken since they inaugurated the new AMA in ’19. The VAOIG has already spilled the beans on that. But the same VAOIG explained the old Legacy SMC Calculator was, and still is, viable and works like a charm. The truth is simple. SMC hasn’t changed since it was created by Congress in 1946. You read that right. The problem is VA suddenly began reading it in an adversarial manner beginning in ’19. Funny thing is that was about the time I began filing SMC Ls and Rs in mass quantities. They had to purposefully set out to reconstruct it in the M 21 to say something entirely different than what it’s said for seventy three years.

Someone authorizes these SMC fig newtons of the imagination-but who? Remember that they told ol’ Roger he only gets one a&a so asking for another was a Bozo No-No? Someone also had to invent an M 21 cite that said you “generally” have to have a 100% rating for Parkinson’s or IHD in order to qualify for a&a. Not to actually win the SMC A&A, mind you, but just to qualify and get in line. So who’s in charge of writing the M 21? Inquiring minds wish to know.

In other words, someone in authority has to be making these pronouncements and their supervisors have to second the decision with an additional signature. If it goes over a buck and a quarter, it takes three signatures- one of which has to be at least the AVSCM. That kinda implicates a lot of supervisors, coaches, Veterans Service Center Managers (VSCMs) and Assistant Veterans Service Center Managers (AVSCMs) in an obvious coverup. As for the Quality Control Senior RVSRs, SMC errors speak volumes to their ignorance as well-or purposeful collusion in the error. We’ll discuss the mental paralysis above the neck of Quality Control folks on Barry bumps another day.

LS 15 Ban Ban July 1970

As I said at the beginning, I wish I could convey some of this accumulated knowledge harvested over the last 36 years to our new Secretary. He’s tasked with an ugly job of trying to accomplish more with less each succeeding day. I get that. Every day we read headlines telling us of VA orgies at VAMCs in Tennessee and disenfranchising homeless Veterans at the West LA  campus in order to accommodate a parking lot for a private school (Brentwood), the UCLA baseball diamond(s) and space to store all those Hertz Rental Cars. https://taskandpurpose.com/military-life/west-la-va-housing-veterans-appeals-court/

Let us all hope for a better New Year in 2026 and a SMC epiphany at the VA and BVA. And that’s all I’m gonna say about that.

  Adult VA humor:

Posted in Aid and Attendance, BvA Decisions, Higher Level of Review (HLR), How to Qualify for VA SMC, M-21 info, Special Monthly Compensation, Tips and Tricks, VA Agents, VA special monthly compensation, Veterans Law | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments