Okay, using GenX vernacular, let’s unpack this puppy. What in Sam Hill is Alex talking about? In VA land, as litigators, we get to see your Code sheet. Lotsa you Veterans, especially all the Commando Kraig™s and that city slicker with the cute ascot around his neck on U-tube, seem to think the drivel VA hands you on va.gov actually is your code sheet. I’ll plant one here directly so you can see how this TDIU bait and switch happens. The VA game plan is simple and I’ll also lay out the why of that punji pit for you as well. The long and the short of it is a shit ton of you fellers out there are getting short-sheeted on SMC S. Read on.
This all begins in a carefully orchestrated manner where you advance (slowly) up VA’s percentage ladder (unless you’re plumb totaled from the git go like a car in the junkyard). You usually begin this when you separate these days via BDD (Benefits Delivery at Discharge) by getting a 30% for bent brain, some 10% and 20% Mardi Gras beads for flat feet and tinnitus and the like adding up to 50 or 60%. Most of you won’t even notice you deserve lots more in percentage until you go on Readit® and discover all the folks laughing at you for being so naïve.
Mr. Willy Pete
Of course, everyone there (on Readit), including the VA employee experts, admonish you not to poke the bear. That’s an old wives’ tale from the 1980s DAV/AmLeg/VFW camp. How are you supposed to get to permanent and total? Go to church on Sunday and pray to the VA Gods of Good Fortune to smile on you? Obviously, there are those of us who walk erect among you who are P&T so the bear-poking story is obvious bearshit. Right? Shoot, look at me. I experimented after I got my first 100% and fiddlefarted my way to 100+100+60+40+30+30+ 10+0+0 just to see if I could. Could be there ain’t no bears in the woods to poke hereabouts but I tried.
The VSO technique is to eventually file you for anything and everything in hopes that enough shit sticks to you to get TDIU and get you out of their in-basket permanently. In all my years of doing this, I disremember seeing guys with Parkinson’s get better. Or DM II with all the peripheral neuropathy improve. Or the lung cancer or the Ischemic heart disease go into remission. The fact is, you’ll just gradually get there via age or from jumping out of perfectly good C 130s with 90 pounds of shit on your back or… eating too much Agent Orange for breakfast. Or your PTSD gives you megaroad rage. Or you enjoyed warming yourself next to a burn pit in the evening.
So, fast forward to your shiny new TDIU. You’re looking good in the neighborhood, right? Got that 70% P&T in your pocket and the $4044 per month married. The only hitch so far is you are forbidden to work for the most part. If you had your code sheet like the one above, you’d see you have one of two scenarios. Either you have at least one 40% and others adding up to equal 70% or more TOTAL… or a single disability rated at 60% or more. You might have some other nothing burgers for 10 or 0% but this is the basic TDIU scenario.
Now, let’s add on a few new ones or increase one of your existing ratings. Let’s say your heart takes a gigantic shit on you and the IHD makes your Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction (LVEF) drop to about 33%. The c&p says 3-5 METs. VA grants 60% and you’re thinking “wow, I wonder if I’m entitled to a higher rating?” You’ve heard through the grapevine about Special Monthly Compensation but your VSO says that’s for Winky not working any more or a masectomy for breast cancer. He’ll tell you there’s no such thing as SMC and you’re getting the max award as it is. Don’t be poking the bear.
All your Readit buddies are telling you to file for SMC S- what VA used to call the “Corvette Payment”. Actually, it won’t cover a Kia now due to the cost of living. It works out to about 4 Benjamin coupons extra per month. VA says “No dice.” If you had the code sheet, you’d see your TDIU has metamorphosed into what VA calls a “combined” 100% rating disability. TDIU is in the rearview mirror now. Gone with the Wind. But it ain’t, cowboy. That TDIU still exists. By rights, in the above scenario, you should get SMC S.
Once you get TDIU, it’s a “finding of fact” that you are unemployable. Fact is, your Bent Brain Syndrome would probably have you telling potential Time-Share condo customers if you want any shit out of them you’ll squeeze their heads if they ask too many questions. No sir. No $12 K a month in your spare time for you from the comfort of your own home.
But… what if you get more ratings, say, a bright shiny 100% for your ticker on account of the METs sinking down to 1-3 METs and the LVEF down to 20%? That would technically mean you have a single disability of Bent Brain at TDIU (70%=100%) and a new 100% solely for the Ischemic Heart Disease. VA will add the 70% for the brainbox to the 100% for the heart and give you… yep…100% total (combined). This is what we call VA “math”. Your SMC S just flew out the window. The only way to fix it is to go up to the BVA and demand they grant the SMC S based on one single rating of TDIU plus additional rating(s) of 60% or more separate and distinct from the bent brain. You’ll win every time.
You can read all about this in Buie vs. Shinseki here: https://asknod.org/2011/09/27/cavc-buie-5-v-shinseki-0-2011/
VA, for some reason, never got the email on this one or it just slipped through the cracks and they forgot to revise the M 21. Mighty convenient how their memories get a gigantic brain fart when it comes to SMC anything higher than K. Either way, you’re never going to see them suddenly see the light, CUE themselves and grant you the SMC S without some serious bitching. Now, just imagine how many of you might have been hornswoggled by this crap and are deprived of the one document that could spill the beans? It sucks and I see it every day. But my clients don’t get to see the implied denial.
Possibly even worse is Johnny Vet who actually gets the additional award of a total 100% and VA actually remembers to give him the SMC S. He figures he’s in high cotton thinking ‘right on, dude.’ But the truth is they should be trying to figure out if they can line him out on SMC L for aid and attendance. That’s Akles v Derwinski (1991) and the Court’s holding that if you get a total rating, it automatically demands they examine you for the highest and best possible SMC. You have a better chance of winning the Powerball Lotto than getting VA to be proactive on SMC.
People ask me how they can get their code sheets and I have two suggestions. Go see your VSO or attorney (or VA Agent) and beg them to go online in VBMS and print one for you. Even then, you may need a Sherpa to lead you up the SMC Mountain because VA sure as hell ain’t going to take you there on an all-expenses- paid guided safari. Or, you can request a copy of your entire C file on a CD and wait about six months for it to arrive.
I had a VBA Decision Review Officer once swear to me that VA’s motto was “Grant if you can. Deny if you must.” Considering the M 21 makes this decision regardless of your best intentions as a rater, his credibility is in the basement. His bosses are bearshitting him. I really don’t think VA employees are taught to have a negative attitude about it. Think of it like one of those old Magic Eight Balls where you ask it a question and turn it over to get your answer. Trouble is, VA’s M 21 Eight Ball is gonna say “No way, José. ” one hundred times out of one hundred. It’s VA’s M 21 computer programming- garbage in-garbage out.
And to all the folks who have emailed me saying they expect the absolute worst of the new Administration vis-à-vis the VA system? Relax. I did a longitudinal review of which party was in power during my compensation journey from 1989 to 2016. It was dead equal. I got denied equally by both persuasions and conversely won equally during the period in question. So that tells me there must be two versions of that Magic Eight Ball. The fact is, our government needs to convert over to drones RFN and end this stupidity.
Happy New Year’s. Thank you all for allowing me to bore you to tears with my blog. Keep sending in the pictures. Let us never forget what we raised our right hands for… or regret doing so.
asknod
Bethanie Spangenberg
kcraveiro
robinhoodesqvetsatty
Wesley McCauley
Veterans Claims Help 
Interestingly, Mr. Sanderson inadvertently made an astute observation. He posited that we should be on guard for any attempt to take away our benefits by one specific political party but fails to see we’ve been getting the dirty end of the punji stick over and over again for seven decades from BOTH parties every time they “revise” Part IV of the VA Schedule of Rating Disabilities. Democrats have been adamant about doing away with OSA and combining it with MDD for years. Ditto tinnitus with hearing loss. The list is endless. Granted, Obama gave us “choice” but Trump cemented it as a right rather than an available option. Biden promptly eviscerated it by refusing to pay Veterans’ bills to the local doctors as promised in the Mission legislation.
I do know the VA is populated by some seriously progressive AFGE types who keep trying to prevent any of their own from being fired- for any transgression large or small. Prepare to see the Tennessee Orgy participants’ actions being classified as Line Of Duty soon. I’m guessing the new administration will do away with sex-change surgery, too, if for no other reason than America cannot afford it.
Lastly, if anyone thinks VA does quality medical work, look no further than my abdomen after four surgical mishaps, an OD on Heparin, an undetected myocardial infarction, a bodacious MRSA infection and a few other bummers. The only reason I’m alive is I qualified for Medicare and escaped Seattle’s VAMC before they killed me.
Why would I want to go to a VAMC 46 miles away across a toll bridge ($7.50) to wait 2 hours past my appointment every time to find out I have a new doctor each time because they keep quitting? And only get reimbursed at 41.5 cents a mile and have them deduct $6.50 for the first four trips? I need Entresto and Eliquis but they say it isn’t in the formulary and I’ll have to get speshull permission to get it. Sounds like third world medicine right out of Africa. No thanks.
Thank you for the response! I’m sorry for your poor care.
The VAMC I use now is really pretty good, but it wasn’t always that way. When I first went to them in 74, I had never been there before and it scared the hell out of me, so much so I didn’t go back for many years, only when I had no other choice.
What I observed was yelling and screaming coming from some of the wards. I also observed vets tied to their wheelchairs and tied to the railings in the halls and it appeared they were drugged out of their skulls. I didn’t go back until I had no other choice. It was very bad.
Now the care is pretty good. My most recent stay was for heart ablation.(third time for two different problems) The doctor that did it was a VA doctor at the local for profit hospital. He actually had an office at that hospital and the VAMC. He did these procedures for both vets and regular patients. A lot of doctors I’ve found out are VA trained.
Many vets don’t have the access I have to a good VA. Actually many years ago people were traveling hundreds of mile to get to this one I use rather than go to one that was near. Some of these vets I talked to were from your area, at least near. They’re actually going to build a new one that’s very close to my home.
I’m all for Choice and am glad Trump saw fit to make it the way it is now. My original comment was about the TDIU and what I remembered. At that time I was veterans advocate trying to help vets with their exposure cases. Actually I believe some of the research I did was in the PACT Act. I was writing to both sides of the isle as early as the early 1990’s. The person that helped me the most was Senator Reid. Before him was a wonderful lady Congresswoman Barbara Vucanovich. She retired and turned my case over to Reid who was also following my case.
Thank you also for this site.
The thing is if I remember correctly in Trump’s first budget of 2018 they went after our TDIU benefits. There was a question as to how many but I believe that it was somewhere between 200,000 and 450,000. These people weren’t able to get it on, but I suspect they’ll try again.
I believe Trump actually does think were suckers and losers. We may be, but not in the way he believes!
I’ve heard a lot of stories about that but I never saw any Congressional Bills that came up for a vote- democrat or republican. But I do remember the fight over the Mission Act to let Veterans go to a doctor near them instead of having to drive 70 miles and use only a VA hospital. The Democrats said the President was trying to get rid of VA hospitals and privatize it all. All this Trump doom and gloom sounds a little bit like Chicken Little trying to explain how the sky is falling.
Here’s what was proposed.
Under one of many possible scenarios, disabled veterans could have seen their annual disability benefits fall from around $35,000 to around $13,000 under Donald Trump’s budget proposal to cut “individual unemployability” for disabled veterans who were old enough to receive Social Security payments.
That is from Snopes. Never got traction and apparently was taken out after it was exposed!
The IU issue was brought up by the VA, not Trump. The act was brought to Congress through the House VO Committee. It was also put on the table in 2022, and 2023, both under the Biden Administration.
If you never noticed, the VA is run by Left wing politics. You all jump on Snopes to validate a lie, but if thats all the deeper your look, fogetaboutit. We only remain as ignorant as we want to be!
The IU issue was brought up by the VA, not Trump. The act was brought to Congress through the House VO Committee. It was also put on the table in 2022, and 2023, both under the Biden Administration.
If you never noticed, the VA is run by Left wing politics. You all jump on Snopes to validate a lie, but if thats all the deeper your look, fogetaboutit. We only remain as ignorant as we want to be!
So Biden is responsible for what went on in his budget but not Trump.
I have no idea what political persuasion the VA is or was. I’m Conservative and no longer belong to either party. Nixon drove me out because of the war and the Gainesville 8. Reagan put the finishing touches with what he did to the Vets and the socalled AO settlement lawsuit! I voted for Nixon.
My doctor at the VA for over 20 years was a combat medic in country. He’s now retired. Some of the other doctors were also vets of the war but they indicated no politics as has been the case with just about all.
People like you like to pigeonhole people and truth and facts don’t get in the way.
That’s what’s wrong in our country, people not caring about the country as a whole but just their tribe is right.
I would imagine you don’t use the VA.
I use my name and you use a handle!
The Obama era rule was Choice. That allowed you to go into your community if you lived farther than 40 miles from a VAMC But you could petition the VA for care in your community if you lived a long ways away long before the Choice Act.
The other thing is the right has wanted to get rid of the VAMC’s for a very long time. They haven’t been shy about it. That wouldn’t serve us very well. They’ve expressed that. I get good care at my VAMC. I could never get the care I receive from the for profit non profit system. Too many health issues from my time in during the Viet Nam War! It cost me dearly.
If you don’t believe me then do a little research on these issues.