BVA–PORPHYRIA EQUALS 100% SCHEDULAR

Posted on September 13, 2015 by asknod

VeteransAdministration.12755109_stdIn an important ruling which can be used by other Vets, Veterans Law Judge Vito Clemente made a finding of fact that Porphyria Cutanea Tarda (PCT) can be rated at 100%. The argument is universal and can readily be fashioned to fit other Veterans’ circumstances. All cites are ready for cut and paste. In fact, 38 CFR § 4.20 could not be enunciated more clearly had a panel been convened at the Dead Circus for the subject. You’re going to  like this. I guarantee it.

Here’s the decision and then we’ll bisect and dissect it for useful content. To begin, the problem was VA’s refusal to honor a  Compensation and Pension exam doctor’s statement that clearly and unequivocally stated in no uncertain terms that I was totally disabled. He pointed to the PCT- above and beyond my total disability for Hepatitis C alone- as a total disability in and of itself. This is why VA decided to fight it.

BVA decision on PCT

Over the years, porphyria jurisprudence, be it secondary to Hepatitis C or from the presumptive exposure to Agent Orange, has been spotty and unevenly applied. I’ve even seen a convoluted decision in the obverse where a Vet got service connection for Porphyria within the first year following separation and then Hep C as a secondary decades later. It’s in the Blogs by Subject under porphryia cutanea tarda. For the most part, jurisprudence has corralled it under  38 CFR §4.118 (skin) Diagnostic Code (DC) 7815. VA knows this Diagnostic Code doesn’t encompass the mandatory phlebotomies to control it but regularly assigns a 10% rating based on the amount of exposed skin involved. In my case, the rater said  I didn’t qualify via percentage of skin involved at 10% but they were granting it for the phlebotomies. In essence, they made no effort to find an analogous rating whatsoever. 10% does not incorporate the total disability diagnosed.

Should you appeal, as I did, the raters tend to jump into 38 CFR 4.117 (hemic and  lymphatic systems) and DC 7704 for polycythemia vera. Under 40%, it simply lists phlebotomies.  There is no discussion on frequency. What is missing from the equation is the resultant anemia. In addition, VA views dual ratings for porphyria as pyramiding and took back my 10% for my skin involvement and issued a 0% in its stead. That was CUE. Once issued, a rating cannot be revoked except for fraud or the components of CUE-the correct facts were not before the rater or the laws, as they were at the time, were not followed. Even if one or the other were present, it would also have to manifestly change the outcome. VA ignored all that.

The 10% was restored quietly after I filed my writ, as was an increase from 40% to 60% for  the phlebotomies based on an old 1994 anemia diagnostic code but the elusive 100% was not to be. This is what I sought on appeal. If a doctor, not a rater, mind you, says you are totally disabled, it stands to reason he knows what he’s talking about. For a lowly rater (read VA examiner) to upstage the MD is chutzpah only the VA could orchestrate.

I searched the diagnostic codes throughout Part 4 and strove to find an analogous rating that best described what a phlebotomy accomplished for my PCT. Since the object is to rid the body of heme (iron) that results from the liver failing to filter out the dead red blood cells, the phlebotomy has to throw out the baby with the bath water. There is no way to filter out the heme and return cleansed blood to the body. Dialysis is similar in that it does this to the blood and accomplishes what the kidneys are no longer capable of-filtering out the impurities and returning the blood to the subject. VA stated that analogy was right out. It only allows a 100% rating and they simply refused to even consider it.

The obvious analogy is the removal, by venous access, to the blood. Since there is no perfect analogy to be found, dialysis under 38 CFR §4.115 is the closest diagnostic code available. I have been shouting this from the rooftops since I spotted the doctor’s observation that the PCT was totally disabling several years ago. VA raters in Seattle have been just as adamant that it was only permissible to rate the PCT under one DC to avoid the pyramiding of 38 CFR §4.14.

Obviously, they were wrong and they surreptitiously tried to correct it without drawing any overt attention to it following the filing of the Writ. No mention of CUE was detected-just a ho-hum restoration of the clawback and a 10% rating back on the books. That they can do this with no explanation or Monday morning quarterbacking is disingenuous to say the least. To me, it’s merely part and parcel of the whole sordid, surreal experience. Surely another Veteran has encountered this scenario and been subjected to the same treatment. It may be I was the only one who decided to throw down and call them out. Most Vets haven’t spent a third of their life fighting VA and learning the ropes.

Judge Clemente was more that open-minded on this. Quite obviously, he and his staff attorneys did some true, in-depth analysis of my arguments and concluded they were persuasive. The overarching principle of PCT abatement is one of reducing the heme. To do that entails removing blood-lots of it and frequently. The cure works at the expense of severe anemia. VA raters were unwilling to call it “frequent” phlebotomies, preferring instead to classify it as “intermittent”. As I have mentioned in my book and these blogs, semantics is everything with VA. Therein lies their eventual downfall and defeat on appeal. Read any denial decision and parse the words carefully. Eventually you will run into the conundrum that reveals the word game shenanigans. Trust me when I say there is nothing intermittent about trotting down to the hospital every month for a 1-pint bloodletting. Considering you only have ten pints, it’s only a matter of time before the downloadcheck engine light comes on. Similarly, when you bend over to tie a shoelace and see little black spots clouding your vision and feel like you’re on LSD, you discover there is more afoot than a little anemia. The Seattle VA examiners and the DRO simply would not, or could not, bring themselves to see that and grant what the doctor had stated. Many fellow attorneys have commented that once you attain a 100% rating, be it scheduler or TDIU, the impetus to give you another is blunted. The philosophy is that you’ve been remunerated. It’s time to move on and let others have their shot at VA’s misogynistic justice.

This decision will help innumerable others to attain the same. It’s ability to persuade should be elementary. While it doesn’t have the same cachet of a panel decision at the CAVC, it still enunciates a precept of VA law and regulation. The C&P doctor is presumed competent to understand the instructions to render a valid diagnosis (Sickles v Shinseki). Likewise, §4.20 is clear enough in its language to deter tenuous analogous ratings.

The whizbangs at Fort Fumble in Seattle are hidebound in their devotion to stupidity. For years they have mangled the PCT ratings by relegating them to the the wrong standard. If this were simply an oversight, Veterans could swallow their logic. Once put on notice that the regulations were open to more and different interpretations, they resisted with all they had. Only an Extraordinary Writ that drew the VA Secretary’s attention to it sufficed to move them into new pastures. Moreover, my taking advantage of the offer by our new VA secretary, Big Mac (Call me Bob), was unavailing. Four days later, my DRO, Cheryll Anne Mackey-Rivas merely listened to my theory and issued a Statement of the Case iterating a wholly new concept of the definition incorporated in §4.15 regarding total disability. Ingenuous? Yes, but outlandishly so. That’s the hallmark of the VA. Her answer was probably not what Big Mac envisioned. It was the darnedest denial I’ve yet received. Cherylann Mackey-Rivas’ SOC was a semantic sleight of hand  and she probably got a promotion for this one.

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Posted in AO, Blood info, BvA HCV decisions, CUE, Nexus Information, Porphyria Cutanea Tarda, Presumption of Regularity, research, Tips and Tricks, VA Medical Mysteries Explained | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

BVA–GRAHAMBO RUNS THE ILP TABLE

Posted on September 8, 2015 by asknod

635646931319099161-veterans-administration-logoTwenty one years, six months and eight days ago, on March 31st, 1994, I filed for Porphyria Cutanea Tarda and residuals of Hepatitis. Today, my attorney Bob Walsh emailed me to share the good news. Veteran Law Judge (VLJ) Vito Clemente  granted my 100% for the Porphyria as analogous to dialysis. He also accepted a last minute request for a ratings increase for the scarring due to the Porphyria. VA had taken my 10% back illegally claiming it was pyramiding.

VA has now competently addressed all my issues and will soon be in the greenhouse construction business. What I will do with all my spare time is anyone’s guess. Maybe I should try out a new vocation like helping other Vets.

I set out to obtain a greenhouse and a computer as my ILP goal. It was a test case of sorts to create precedence. VA must have recognized where I was heading and moved swiftly to CYA. At the bottom of the decision, Judge Clemente clearly pointed out that this ‘win’ only applies to one Vet (me) with an extremely large number of disability issues. It’s fairly clear that they don’t want the whole Veterans population charging through the doors at 810 Yellow Brick Lane NW demanding their own greenhouses, woodworking shops and photo studios.

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As for me, I have no more claims up my sleeve to file. VA has given me everything I asked for  and then some. It’s unfortunate that they dawdled for so long.  VA now will have more time on their hands at the Seattle Regional Office.

Here are the two cases decided in two different decisions.

Redacted BVA decision for PCT and skin

BVA grant of greenhouse

While not setting out to achieve any specific rating or entitlement, I have amassed two 100% schedular ratings and an additional 60%,  40%, 30% and my 10%. In VA disability parlance, I’m 100% disabled. Using the math from the 38 CFR 4.25 tables, I’m 100+100+60+40+30+10= 290%. VA is forced to round up from 85% like the IRS so its now 290%.

Along the way, I managed to soak up a lot of VA statutes and regulations. I wish to thank you readers for adding to my knowledge and helping me. An especially warm thank you to Jules, my skin specialist, for his insightful nexus letter/Independent Medical Opinion. It provoked VA into promptly granting an increase from 10% to 30% without a big remand. I also wish to thank James Morgan, MD of QTC for his 2008 accidental declaration of total disability in his VA C&P that enabled me to prevail.

I personally think someone on high told the little people to put it to bed. Whatever the reason, my claims filing days are over. I cannot wait to see the sallow poker face my VR&E minder will be wearing soon.

Win or Die VA

I think his last words were that I would never get VA to grant me a ‘gift’ of this magnitude. He further iterated that funds for ILP were scarce to non-existent. Hoooo, doggies was he blowing smoke. Positive mental attitude is what this is all about. It always helps to be born on April Fool’s Day too. Next up? I’ll be asking for Equitable Relief. That’s always been on the claims bucket list.

P.S. A belated additional thank you to Bruce Almighty, combat medic with 4 tours in Vietnam- the first winner of a mega-greenhouse who coached me on how to do it. I wouldn’t have won without him. Fortunately, he didn’t have to go all the way to the BVA to accomplish it. One small step for asknod; one giant leap for Vetkind. We’re getting there folks. One Vet at a time and one venue at a time.

P.P.S. I spoke far too soon. I was forced to go up to the Big House at the CAVC to make them comply CAVC # 16-2098. More anon.

Posted in Independent Living Program, Vietnam Disease Issues | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

AGENT ORANGE ACT OF 1991 EXPIRING (AGAIN)

Posted on September 8, 2015 by asknod

Helps build strong bodies 12 different ways and include the needed nutrients of Vitamins Blue, Green, Pink, Purple White as well as all the need Orange supplements.

Member John of sunny Florida recently wrote to remind me of a perennial program that will soon die. The Agent Orange Act of 1991, which finally unmasked the hideous effects of the Rainbow defoliants used extensively in SEA and to a lesser degree throughout the military over the years, is once again set to expire. 

One must remember that this impending expiration of the Act on September 30th will automatically cease any further investigation of disease processes heretofore unknown or unsubstantiated. I probably wouldn’t feel so squeamish about this but it was only five short years ago that National Academy of Scientists (NAS) and the Institute Of Medicine (IOM) identified Parkinson’s disease, hairy B cell leukemia and Ischemic Heart Disease as being caused by it. It was less than 16 years ago they linked Diabetes II to the herbicide. Lastly, it was only twenty five years ago that they admitted something was amiss at all and began studying it in earnest.

To be fair to us Vietnam Veterans and others in Korea, Anderson Island, Okinawa et al, it bears repeating that we are only gradually discovering the correlation between Dioxin and long-term effects. There is much speculation that Crohn’s disease and it’s big brother Ulcerative Colitis (UC) may be linked to this. Far too many of us who got a big dose of Orange and Blue have suddenly manifested the disease late in life. Doctors will tell you that is an anomaly as most digestive diseases such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) surface early on in the late teens.

For the Congress to ignore this catastrophe of its own making and abandon Veterans is grossly unfair. HR 3423 deserves to be extended again and again until all diseases are ferreted out and Veterans are informed. Remuneration for it is axiomatic. Had it not been for my wife, I would probably have never filed for Porphyria Cutanea Tarda in 1994. Had I not done so, I would have suffered in ignorance and died equally so.

I hear many in the Veteran community repeat the mantra that VA’s established policy is to Delay, Deny- Until We Die. Nowhere is this more true than the alleged search for AO diseases. VA has subscribed to the OJ Simpson technique on Agent Orange investigations. OJ spent years after murdering his ex-wife Nicole “searching for her killer” as he put it. The obvious problem was searching for her murderer on some of the finest golf courses in America. The National Academy of Sciences, to their credit, are diligent in their search but are hamstrung by a recalcitrant VA and Congress.

It would be a crime to cease research at this late date when our scientific investigatory capabilities are expanding exponentially. A good analogy would be Orville and Wilbur Wright learning how to fly and then returning the aircraft to the hanger with no further flights planned. What little we know about Dioxin and Picloram has all been garnered within the last twenty five years- a mere blink of the eye in medicinal research. To halt now is unconscionable and short-sighted. What’s truly criminal is that by 1958, The Dow folks were reputed to have deduced that all the Chloracne and Porphyria Cutanea Tarda which the production crews suffered in very high numbers was due directly to dioxin. Nobody said a word.

We owe much to the follow on “Greatest Generation” who served valiantly in ignorance in Vietnam and Laos all the while being hosed by this noxious chemical. That generation also includes my Air America brethren who, in all probability stayed far longer in theatre and subsequently ingested far more. I count myself lucky to only have been diagnosed with one recognized disease (so far). Doctors have been perplexed by my “Crohn’s-like” disease for twenty years because, while it mimics Crohn’s, none of the pathology from the five surgeries has revealed the telltale signature they associate with it. In other words, my Crohn’s isn’t true Crohn’s but a strange variant. My son came down with Ulcerative Colitis in a family with absolutely no history of IBS whatsoever. VA thinks this is merely interesting and has no medical significance vis a vis Dioxin.

It  would be a shame to discontinue the search for potential diseases attributable to the various defoliants used on us so long ago. In this day and age of rampant Roundup® use, more and more cases of unique cancers will emerge. The knowledge would be useful for more than just the Vets who were hosed with Orange and Blue. Please ask you congressmen to consider renewing the compact to discover the truth about this. I, for one, do not believe we’ve even scratched the surface on uncovering the truth about Dow’s “gift” to humanity. Perhaps that’s the plan.

Posted in AO, Vietnam Disease Issues | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

SNORKELING NO-NOs IN MAUI

Posted on September 4, 2015 by asknod
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Maui–left click to magnify

In everyone’s claims waiting period, time weighs heavily and dampens one’s spirit. In order to dispel the depression, humor is called for. Humor is important in my VA claims tool pouch. On top of April Fool’s as my birthday and  being an Aries, I’m also impulsive. My thoughts constantly drift these days to my son Buckwheat Junior’s impending wedding next weekend. Doing so brings back memories of one of our trips to Maui when he was young and testosterone had not poisoned his brain yet. You’re gonna like this one. I had more fun than any Veteran alive should be allowed to have.

We caught the afternoon Honalua Bay cheese, wine and snorkel cruise up the coast out of downtown Lahaina. It was a huge catamaran with two bars and no waiting. Both had Stoly 100 proof. To snorkel, you stumbled out of either bar and down a flight of stairs in the center aft and stepped into water. This ship had a lot of planning that went into it.

th (1)We pulled up an hour of so later further north  at the bay. It had delicate “knobs” of coral chimneys that were most sacrosanct and we were admonished not to approach within more than five feet of them. Touching them was a Class C felony. Apparently, my hearing was defective or I was still at the bar or the restroom. At any rate, I missed the preflight briefing. I did get one tidbit from my son that they were somewhat adamant about not feeding any fish. Alcohol, in sufficient quantities alters my hearing. I was pretty sure what they were trying to say was not to feed certain species of fish like sharks and such. That would be bad for tourism. Smaller fish, on the other hand,  eat all the time. If you spoil them every once in a while, there’s no harm done. Kind of like a VA bonus for not doing anything.

Being an intelligent Vet, I figured this was going to be like watching grass grow underwater. Since we home schooled the Son of Cupcake, I felt it would improve our male bonding if I made sure the educational experience included actual fish to observe. Toward that end, I conveniently had a bathing suit just like regular shorts with front pockets –and zippers. There were also holes stitched into the bottoms of the pockets to allow water to drain out-or bread crumbs. The night before, at dinner in the restaurant. I surreptitiously palmed several small pieces of French bread into a paper napkin. We mutually concluded that we didn’t feel the need to discuss all this with Cupcake and get her worried sick.  In retrospect,  I see a lot of flaws in my thinking. I should have just brought the whole napkin full of bread and launched it. Egress would have been uneventful.

Zero Hour was 1423 Local Honolulu time. We launched en famille  into the sunny water. We, being Cupcake, Buckwheats Sr. and Jr. Approaching 5 feet down, Buckwheat tapped my leg from behind and pointed over his shoulder at the now-milky white trail of liquid French Bread, punctuated with small crumbs that led away from my waist like a bright tracer.  None of the few fish in sight made any effort to approach so I pressed on. I was beginning to think the bread was a waste of time.

I’ve never seen so many fish of disparate breeds assemble in a school together so quickly. Buckwheat moved away from me and surfaced. He was forced to by the sheer volume of fish. He paddled away and began looking for Cupcake so she could share our moment. I was beginning to see a very large problem developing and it was metastasizing exponentially by the moment. Five fish turned into 50 and within five seconds to five hundred. In twenty seconds it was conservatively 5,000. I had failed to plot an exit strategy and was trying to get up top for air when I noticed what appeared to be a tree stump a mere 10 feet away that was 2 feet from the surface. How convenient. It was rough as a corn cob and easy to climb, too. Dearest Son quickly swam over as closely as he dared to inform me I was destroying Hawaiian History and that I might want to relocate before I got a demerit from the staff for disobeying. He was right.  The futility of staying where I was became apparent when the fish began jumping up 3 feet out of the water at my pockets. I quickly unzipped both and knelt down to wash out all the bread in one quick, inebriated fluid motion. People on the boat were now beginning to gather at the railing to point at me and grabbing their cameras.

thI’ve never had yellow fish (plural)inside my bathing trunks before. I don’t think I’d ever worried about it- let alone what color- up to that point.  I can’t politely describe it in mixed company but it is dangerous. Fish have those little spears in their fins. I bravely tried to fight my way through an impenetrable wall numbering in the tens of thousands by now. Fish must have some radar tom toms they beat to tell others to come quickly. There wasn’t enough water to hold them all around me.  Everyone underwater in a 50 foot circle was swimming over to witness whether I was going to escape with my suit on or off. Some of those Hawaiian fish are particularly aggressive and have poor upbringing. They acted like starving, uncivilized piranha and they were still trying desperately to get into my suit..

After a brilliantly executed retreat out of the Kill zone, Cupcake Six Actual swam over for a Sit Rep. You know how those things go down. “Do you think you’re setting a good example for your son? That was childish and you could have been severely injured.  What does that teach him? That he doesn’t have to obey any of the rules? Don’t you remember the Cigarette Police at Epcot when you were smoking in the bathroom? A lot of people saw you stand up on the coral node and all the fish attacking you. What are you going to tell them?” Her logic was impeccable-as usual. Droll, humorless and impeccable. That really sucks all the joy and energy out of the moment.

By now, I had a lot of water in my mask and I was laughing so hard I was sucking saltwater in through my nose. That hurts more than Coca Cola. Hell, here I thought I should have been paid for my performance. I figured it made for a great “Vacation Moment” for 30 or 40 lucky folks-some with underwater cameras. You don’t go on very many snorkel cruises and get that kind of action or drama. Buckwheat agreed wholeheartedly and commended me on my innovative escape and evasion techniques. A great Father-Son educational moment was memorialized.  In the early 90s  kids said “Stinky, dude.” instead of ‘cool’. I got three stinkies. Cupcake quit speaking to us for a day. A man has to know his strengths. Too often I hear “There’s no ‘I’ in Team. I try politely to always point out that fortunately there is an ‘I’ in ‘In Charge’. Something always gets lost in trying to make that point to Cupcake.

LZ Grambo TOCTrue Grit prevailed. On the way back to Lahaina, a few guys came over and asked if I used bread. I said Hellllllll, yeah. One said to the other “See. I told you we should have. That was too cool for school.  How many times did you get bit? Looked to me at one point you actually had about twenty of them suckers plum jumpin’ out of your drawers.”  I told them all about it.  We high fived and they bought me a drink. They were Vietnam Marine Vets from Mississippi.  Well, duh. Only Extremely Trashed or Hammered Veterans would be that crazy or appreciate another who was. I introduced them to my son and they told him what a cool dad he had. Junior told them he wanted to grow up and be just like me. Thank God he forgot that part of it.

As we exited the ship, the crew gave me that bleak,  grim, stink-eye look that speaks volumes. I saluted and grinned with a”Sorry, I accidentally had a pop tart in my pocket.” Cupcake drove back to the TOC -in silence. Twenty three years later, even she recognizes the rich humor in this escapade. She eagerly anticipates my graduation into adulthood, too. If fact, she remarks on it fairly regularly with little words of encouragement like “Grow up. You’re almost 65.”

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Posted in Humor | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

VBMS–THE NEW ELECTRONIC FRONTIER PART II

Posted on September 2, 2015 by asknod

thVBMS is truly going to take Veterans Claims up a notch and make them faster than a speeding bullet. VBMS reputedly can jump across town at a single bound-in a day if necessary. The VBMS server is more powerful than a locomotive and can almost accommodate 29 VAROs at once. Soon, it will be nothing short of the derniere cri in computer claims processing.

I get the impression that GEICO® and AllState® are not flocking to 810 Varmint Ave. NW 20420 to get in on the ground floor. Quite the contrary. The automobile claims folks I’ve spoken with, once apprised of how it works, admit it’s the cat’s pajamas from the corporate standpoint. But then the ‘what if’ s begin to crop up like unwanted house guests and the whole construct goes haywire. Trying to emulate the auto insurance model and convert their claims processing technique into Veterans claims is an abject failure. GEICO claims processors occasionally run into handwritten documents and convert them to a format their computers recognize. VA made no provision for this anomaly and their raters are not equipped to do the same.

What if:

you served before 1990? It’s important to know that if you have contemporary hand-written records by a doctor or lab, hell, anything- even military files- then VBMS is a non-starter. Word-searchable .PDFs do not recognize anything but the type-written word. It can be hyphenated, capitalized or lower case-even misspelled occasionally- as long as the mistake is incorporated as a default for another spelling of it. In short, a .PDF is the neatest thing since the wheel for Vets claims right up until it isn’t. The majority of claims coming in now are from the Iraqistan War Games. VA raters only encounter typed documents.

va CLAIMSKnowing how hard it is to get the bait under VA’s nose-let alone  get them to strike- it seems adversarial to older Vets-especially my Vietnam Brethren with Agent Orange Presumptives- to electronically fence us into a pasture with no gates. VA Raters’ proclivity, their very propensity in fact, is to top sheet a claim. The in by Ten and out by Two pressure on them has been to get the backlog down to the magic 125-day duration. Figuring out how to bullshit your way through to a 98% accuracy percentile for a second signature on the denial is the only roadblock. Regional Office Directors have no qualms using this ‘Gimme 2 ratings a day or else” technique on the staff to attain the Holy Grail by the end of 2015. I hate to say it but USB Allison Hickey stepped in that Tar Baby with Rep. Filner and then with  Rep. Miller all over again. She is the inadvertent, unwitting author of the new “develop to deny” assembly line technique. For us old guys now, any claims depending on the written word for a nexus or proof of disease/injury in service are automatically denied because the round evidence doesn’t fit in the square .PDF hole. Knowing this ahead of time gives you the opportunity to repair the probative evidence to make sure it is reviewed.

Conversion Zone

Fortunately for all of us, doctors with atrocious handwriting abound. Whether due to lethargy and sleep deprivation when a resident, or just a laissez faire attitude towards patients in general, their notes often have to be decyphered by wordsmiths and made whole again in typewritten form. But it’ll cost ya. Yep, depending where you live, if you go local (think NY City) it will be steep. Fortunately for us again, in this new electronic VA poker game, we google medical transcription service and voilà! – there you go. A marketplace teeming with competition for your dollar.

We’ve seen this pay-to-play phenomenon developing for years on Veterans claims since Mario Caluza threw his hat in the ring back in 1994.  It’s no secret we have Dr. Craig Bash and  the Dr. Ellis’. They provide a valuable service for us and get remunerated for their work. They are the perfect counterfoil to your win. Not all do. It’s difficult to be a jack of all trades and master of one or two. VA looks on you as a Witch Doctor who unfortunately possesses a valid MD after his name. We have slightly more success with Dr. Ben Cecil on our Hepatitis C claims but that is simply because it’s his specialty. It’s hard for VA to argue with a noted gastroenterologist as well as a pioneer hepatologist in the field of HCV. For AO skin claims, I have my secret PA-C weapon in the Fortress of Solitude on the East Coast. These are real Veterans or sons/daughters of Veterans who pay it forward.

Doctors who you hire for this Independent Medical Opinion  purpose usually have the contemporary service medical records typed and certified as true and correct copies of the originals so help you, God. They are then notarized and given the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. When introduced into the .PDF the VA is building, they finally become probative evidence in your favor.

UCAN2

Thus the teaching moment is simple. All you gomers like me from the stone age are going to pencil whip this computer thing and become VBMS scholars. Sit tight. I have to wait until my appeal is over so I can begin the second book. Nevertheless, there’s certainly no reason I can’t teach this for free in the interim.

Your children or even grandkids are already computer whizzes now by the sixth grade. You’re going to get them to take you where you need to go to send things using the eBenefits platform. Technically, you can sit at home, mail out hand-written records to be converted, or just as easily send them via a cloud service like Hightail or Dropbox electronically. You can pay via credit card the same way- via your new computer knowledge. Next, you can file the new and material documents at the eBennies site or mail them in the old-fashioned way. The important takeaway is that everything be in typewritten format for Mr. Ratings Ranger and his word searchable lasso. It uses no gasoline so if you have Greenpeace in your blood, it’s planet-friendly.

I know it isn’t pleasant to find you have to start paying to get what you need to win at the VA. I get that. The only difference in what I teach and practice versus what a Veterans Service Organization service officer does is how to win. VSOs do it for free and have no knowledge of the ins and outs of VBMS. They are nothing more than the VA’s mailman. You will never be told this simple truth. We’re heading into a new era and every technique VA  utilizes can be turned around and used against them to your benefit.

Think of asknod as the LRRF looking for chinks in the VBMS armor to exploit. What if…….

Posted in VBMS Tricks | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

VBMS–THE NEW ELECTRONIC FRONTIER-PART I

Posted on August 30, 2015 by asknod

VeteransAdministration.12755109_stdAs the title suggests, we’re Boldly Going Somewhere-finally. In fits and spurts, we are dragging, and being dragged, into the new claims frontier known as the Veterans Benefits Management System, or simply VBMS. It has a few other scatological analogies (VBSM) and reflects poorly on whoever dreamed up the moniker. Let’s face it. PR is definitely not VA’s strong point. With that said, let’s focus on what it means henceforth to you-Johnny Sixpack Veteran.

Congress put a gun to VA’s head and told them to go paperless a while back. They weren’t quite as specific as they should have been about when this was going to be required so VA, as usual, took that to mean it had to be done sometime in the 21st century. Great joy and good tidings like this naturally brought grins to all the folks down at 810 Yellow Brick Rd. NW. They relished the idea of adding $30 or $40 billion to to the budget.  Everyone would get new iPhones and big, fat bonuses for being the last federal agency to go electronic. Imagine getting paid handsomely for doing what needed to be done in 1995.

It’s almost time to pay the Pied Piper-Congressman Miller et al-over at the HVAC. Towards that end, VA has engaged in much PR hooplah rather than Marine Ooorahhh in an effort to distract from the obvious. The USS BVA (CF 810) is sinking under the weight of hundreds of thousands of beleaguered appeals and BVA Head Honcho Laura Eskinazi is cowering in place with what? Rocket Dockets. No overtime. Few, if any, new Veterans Law Judges (VLJ) and a plethora of inexperienced “Acting” VLJ’s who are being handed what can best be described as ‘gimme’s or Law Lite decisions which are, for the most part, foregone conclusions legally. They aren’t even beginning to keep up with the incoming appeals.

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My recent article on Butch Long’s plight is a classic example. Let’s look at the 125-day Archimedes principle. Butch went in for total immersion March 30th. Allowing for the VBMS to work it’s magic via Cheeseville, Wisconsin, he was scheduled in for QTC medical (or VA) Compensation and Pension Examinations on July 6th, 8th and 10th. That’s roughly 96 calendar days but in VAland, that ain’t 96 working days. Even so, let’s give them a round of applause despite the fact they chose to use Butch’s old address of June 1970 to notify him. Accidents happen at VA Regional Offices. That’s still a vast improvement over years past in timely scheduling C&P exams- when scheduled at all.

Next, the decision. It was announced July 27th- almost exactly 125 days to the minute. It was 98% accurate based on the dearth of information available. Again, no one can dispute that. The stunning revelation that it could only be arrived at by misfeasance and planned obfuscation is the due process crime. I give them 4 Pinocchios on that one. So how do we outwit these gomers?

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TACTICAL VBMS CLAIMS TECHNIQUES

th (1)2015 is also the first year we have been corralled onto the reservation using VA forms exclusively to the exclusion of paper towels and my favorite- putting the Tickle Me Elmo Stickers on the top right in my personal “In reply, refer to:” area. I see someone industriously peeled them all off before converting it into electronic format on the VR&E file. Quo Vadis,  VA humor? Those days of yore are politically incorrect now. Someone at VA might think you believe VA raters have the IQ of poor Elmo or are humor-challenged. If the rater is a woman, she might feel that was sexual harrassment. That’s grounds for a punitive Fiduciary decision these days at RO LZs.

From now on (March 25th, 2015) , we only get to play this game using their deck of cards. So, how can we improve our odds? Many of you (us) from my generation of Vietnam-era Vets, are not very well-schooled in computers. We have had to work for a living all this time before our bodies disintegrated. We never had the time to sit down and get computer educated. My advice is to pair up with another Vet who is versed in the c-box and can teach/lead you. It’s going to be a life skill soon just for VA claims if nothing else. My Cupcake showed me little more than where to turn it on in 2007. My real education began on Google Search with “Veterans Administration” and “Hepatitis C”. But that doesn’t help you. If you can find me, you can find a VA Form 526EZ at the top of my site as well as all the other forms you may need. The knowledge is here. We’ve been left behind too long and lied to.

VBMS DOCUMENTS ARE .PDF WORD-SEARCHABLE

VBMS documents are word-searchable products. That means you can find anything in them with a little diligence. It also means VA raters can too. Whether they choose to or not will determine the success of this endeavour. Old paper documents converted into word-searchable .pdfs simply will not pick up the written scribblings of a tired doctor. For that you need a new breed of forensic medical sleuths who charge about $40 an hour with a minimum of 5 hours. Starting to get the picture? If you were born after 1990, this all works out fine. Medical records were in typed format by then. Everyone born before undoubtedly has written stuff somewhere and that will never be reviewed by the new Dick Tracys of the 21st Century. You have to be proactive and get them into submittable format or lose them as evidence.

A Form 21-526EZ is now the beginning of the new Frontier. From here on out, it’s a Follow the Yellow Brick Road process-but with a few new twists. It’s fairly simple if you are remotely savvy but again, this assumes you have a computer and a combination printer/scanner/fax machine. If you are going down the pension path rather than the compensation one, you’re going to use the VA 21-527EZ. Pensions are for non-service connected injuries and are available to Vets who served in time of war-even if it was only for one day. If your income is an either/or proposition versus Social Security, it might be more using a VA pension. Check it out.

NO DUTY TO ASSIST WITH FULLY DEVELOPED CLAIMS

The Fully Developed Claim, or FDC, is a new program VA designed to relieve them of mounting a posse and going after all your documents. This consumes a lot of time and is one major reason why our claims have taken so long to accomplish in the past. By arriving with all the ingredients, it becomes a denial based on what you, Johnny Vet, bring to the table. At least you have a better idea of what’s going on.

The 526EZ is going to harvest information you provide. The days of the sacred duty to assist are too cumbersome. We now live in a post-Shafrath DIY world. VA has finally come around to my theory and employed this. Chances are you know where your supporting civilian medical documents are and can obtain them if you have not already. Since most require a payment for the records copying, and the fact that VA refuses to pay anything, we often never get those records into the evidence file. You, on the other hand, can obtain them for free by asking for them. Tell your provider you’re doing it for VA and they fairly jump to the task. I guess they watch the news about VA on TV.

DBQs 

The first thing you notice on a Disability Benefits Questionnaire (DBQ)  is the fact that it is a report on how you are now. Nowhere is there a real place to note the history of the claim. The VA requires us to provide a cohesive, cogent, well-reasoned theory of how we got the problem and when it started. A DBQ is thus a checkup. It’s like a physical where you list all your defects but not how you got them. This  sin of omission effectively prevents your physician from opining on the subject for compensation purposes. It requires a complete, new nexus submission from him if he wishes to. Considering these are electronic documents, how much effort would it be to alter them to permit it? Apparently far too much in the VA’s eyes.

The Disability Benefits Questionnaires are also a slightly bigger obstacle with conflicting rules. VA doctors have been ordered to do them. Not all are smiley and helpful, though. Tough luck. It’s the law. Go to their VA Medical Center (VAMC) superiors and drive a hard bargain. The regulation simply states they must include the truth about your current medical condition but are not allowed to theorize on the cause. Period. That means no nexus letters from VA doctors who are employed at VAMCs by VA. However, doctors who work in research symbiosis with VA like Duke with Winston Salem and UW with Seattle, often allow their doctors to do as they please. I’ve run into a few civilian doctors who are not as amenable either. Face it. Filling out a DBQ can be a long, tedious process and detract from a doctor’s other duties. That can pose a problem. You can’t force them to and bribes are right out. Even my fresh peaches didn’t work.

Independent Medical Opinions

The path to a purchased independent opinion, called an IMO or Independent Medical Opinion, is always for consideration. If you’ve had your personal physician for ages, this is probably going to be easier and no cost. For those who don’t, paying for an opinion that passes muster is a prerequisite. You are going to get this benefit for life. Why not pay the doctor once, get it in the record and chalk it up to the cost of doing business.

HOW TO MEET AND TALK TO YOUR VA RATER AFTER A DENIAL

The next layer of bureaucracy after denial is normally the filing of the Form 21-0958 which I’ll discuss someday soon. Too many rush into this without thinking it through. You lost. Why? What was missing that was needed? Doing claims by rote is a thing of the past. If the denial only takes 125 days, you still have 365 days to tune this puppy up before you push the NOD button. Analyze the denial and repair it. You have a year to do so before the carriage and the horses turn back into a pumpkin and mice.  One of the strongest methods I have discovered is to show up at the front desk of your Regional Office and ask to talk to the rater who authored your denial. They hate this. You can also inform the 827-1000 Prize Redemption clerks that you’re coming in so they can be forewarned on the off chance you cannot convince the rater to call you back. My favorite is to use your celphone outside to tell them all this and then walk into a building with zero signal. Dang. The phone dropped the call. Go figure. Right before I heard Peggy say “But sir, You can’….

The closer you can get to the decision maker, the sooner you can resolve this amicably. In this new day and age, assuming your file is entirely in VBMS and converted into a portable document format (.pdf), the easier it is for the rater to pull it up for review. Now watch closely on what you can do to enunciate a point of important fact. A .PDF is a document with the newest information submitted always at the forefront of the document. Thus, if you are preparing to have a conference, a hearing before a judge or any interaction that will require opening that .PDF, you can ‘pad the record’ by electronically faxing in an existing document in the file to Cheeseville or Newnan- thus placing it at the top of the file and the first to be viewed.

This is an electronic variation of the old ploy I suggested in my book a few years ago when I said to get all the salient facts onto your initial VA Form 21-4138 at filing. In the paper days, that would have the most french fry grease or mustard stains on it than any other document in the claims file (c-file)-and the one a lot of raters would read. Transferring the grease onto an electronic document is more difficult as the rater can only view one page at a time. Ergo, you get the winning Lotto ticket info on the top of the pile to be spotted instantly. There is no law against submitting duplicate documents to VA. Do it at least 10 to 14 days before your sudden, unscheduled appearance so it will be there waiting.

th (2)VA uses ex parte justice to decide claims. Simply put, it’s like a rock/paper/scissors game with a nasty twist. At the count of three you throw out your hand and display your ‘sign’-let’s say, paper. VA analyzes this for 125 days and responds with the appropriate sign to defeat it-in this case scissors. The inherent unfairness is self-explanatory. The only recipe for success is to adhere to the old Caluza/Shedden/Hickson path. You arrive with all the ingredients to win with and a spare Independent Medical Opinion (IMO) up your sleeve. When VA pulls the standard scissors out, you meet them with the extra IMO ‘rock’. It’s in there because you faxed it in. It’s new and material. In the event it is the only IMO you have, getting it up on top of the .PDF claims file makes it unavoidable. It’s still material evidence and indisputable. You have no idea how often VA raters top sheet our claims. This effectively  circumvents their bad habit and rubs their nose in it. Nevertheless, having more ammo is the ticket. Never shoot your gun dry. Don’t you remember you were taught that once in Basic?

I find too many of you ‘oversupervise’ your service representative by trying to ‘lipwhip’ a claim to death. It’s even more so with pro se Veterans.  You want to write endlessly on and on about why you’re right and what VA did wrong. Newsflash. You’re putting them to sleep, folks. The new .pdf paradigm is simple.

  1. Identify what they did wrong.
  2. Describe the normal procedure and what the statute and regulation state. Don’t waste a lot of time citing Fenderson versus West or Gilbert versus Derwinski.
  3. Inform them of what you should have versus what you got.
  4. Be sure to sign it. It’s a legal document.
  5. Fax it to Cheeseville/Newnan.
  6. Show up 12 days later unannounced and politely ask to talk to the guy who f—-ed up.
  7. Tell them you called and told Peggy you were coming. Make them feel guilty.
  8. Bring a day’s worth of loud, messy food and drink that stains carpets, a Tetra game with a loud audio and a friend with a hideous laugh that sounds like a goat.
  9. Keep your hands out of your pockets and in view for the security camera. Hum Kumbaya, My Lord sotto voce every once in a while each hour.
  10. Tap your feet a lot. Tell everyone you filed for restless foot syndrome.

Don’t be surprised at the outset if they say the VA employee you seek audience with is in a Human Resources Training Day  and can’t see you for five hours. Tell them you just drove XX(X) miles, simply have oodles of time and brought lunch and a large container of Pom®.  Eat while you walk around. Make sure the sandwich(es) gets crumbs all over Hell’s half acre. Tip that Pom® over occasionally down between your feet and apologize loudly each time. Make a dilatory effort to mop up. Blow your nose a lot and sniff loudly. Eat really loud potato chips with your mouth open like a front loading washer. Share your mastications with the others. Make frequent eye contact and smile like the Cheshire Cat. Use the bathroom about every 21 minutes religiously using your watch to time it by. Stay in the bathroom for exactly 30 seconds each time. Talk to yourself. Better yet, bring a friend and do a lot of Facebooking with suitably wild, off the wall comments in a loud whisper. Watch how quickly John Q. Rater shows up. Chances are it may be John Q. Rater’s supervisor (with security in tow).

Remember, VA is now ‘VA-centric’. The VA’s employees have been instructed to grin and say cheese. Every phone with a camera is a tool of destruction so they have to be careful what they say now. What happened to Butch recently was a slip-up of unparalleled stupidity and can easily be fixed using this technique.

One other excellent tactical approach is to call your Congressman. I’d do that anyway whether or not it actually has any effect. Here. where Butch is concerned, it’s quite apropos because Congressman Kilmer was responsible for getting Butch his CIB and Purple Heart- and most recently, his c-file.  He has a vested interest in how Butch fares and the Seattle Fort Fumble has been put on notice- again. Now that he’s seen the intransigence of VA in action (again), it takes very little to provoke an appropriate response.

VBMS is a new horizon we must be willing to learn in order to navigate. Each job needs the right tools but that doesn’t mean we are precluded from taking it up a notch and fashioning our own. Every VA scheme is rife with shortcomings, incongruities and misinterpreted statutes. When you try to computerize the process, you have to dum (without the b) it down as the village idiot will eventually gain employment there.  VA hasn’t done that yet with VBMS. Their M 21 adjudication logic looks like IRS law. That will take time to repair and is a different subject.

Why not boldly go where no one has gone before in Vet law and technique? As much as it sounds like a cliché, Win Or Die has great resonance in this argument. Many died waiting. That’s what my skull and crossbones were meant to convey.  Being a trailblazer is my cup of tea. I’m one eighth Ute Indian and part Contrary. I ride to the fight. I do not wait for it to approach me. Tactical approaches are dynamic as opposed to static defense. Sitting in Fort Livingroom doing nothing is unproductive.

VBMS may be a new requirement, but any law or rule can be brought to bear in Our favor by turning it on it’s head. Electronic sleight of hand is just the beginning. Here’s my nexus on Page thirty nine–but wait— here’s my nexus on Page one now.

Win or Die VA

Posted in VBMS Tricks | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

ILP–FALL 2015 PRODUCE

Posted on August 28, 2015 by asknod

foghornAbout this time of the year the weather changes and Monsoon starts. It finally rained and not a minute too soon. I know the tomatoes will suffer  but we haven’t had any appreciable rainfall since May. The good news is a record harvest. This will be of immense interest to the boyz in the VR&Ehood. Ever since they surmised I had three greenhouses and didn’t need any more, I haven’t heard much from them. Nevertheless, it’s incumbent upon me to keep them up to speed and let them know how I’m fairing with what I have.  

 

Life is good post-hepatitis. I’ve managed to divest myself of everything VA and use the VA Choice Card exclusively for dental. Maybe I ought to start presenting it instead of Medicare.

DSC01381The farm is out of control. The big pumpkins we planted turned out to be small, ghostly white ones. Wrong seeds in the wrong package. I suppose if you’re a White Supremacist, they’re just the ticket. The manure pile, on the other hand, is regurgitating pumpkins from some we fed the goat last year. They, oddly, weigh more than a VW bug. The corn’s longer than my forearm. The butternuts need a hand truck to move. And the corn, ahh, what can I say. Thank you yet again to Leigh and Paul Burch for turning me on to Silver Queen. My chest freezer runneth over and we’ve just begun.

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Mark, formerly Hepsick and now, a winner, came by for his graduation present after being cured. Nice Bike, huh?

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This will be a year to remember for many of us. Our numbers have been severely decimated over several decades with Vets dying from worn out liverboxes. It’s refreshing to see more in remission and a future that we never thought possible. To think that a doctor would be satisfied with a 34% remission rate using Interferon/Ribavirin boggles the imagination in light of our more recent 99.999% numbers.

Posted in Food for the soul, HCV Health, Independent Living Program, Medical News, Sofosbuvir | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

VA VANTAGE POINT– PLEASE EXCUSE OUR CENSORSHIP CONSTRUCTION IN PROGRESS

Posted on August 28, 2015 by asknod

Vantage PointOver the years, I wondered how long hiding behind asknod.org would be necessary. When I ‘called Bob’ last September to rescue me, I actually pointed out my blog and a link to it in case he or his little people wanted to research a case study in how not to adjudicate a VA claim. Having a bully pulpit of sorts gives you name recognition-eventually. Today, after numerous hits from a VA Vantage Point article and a heads up from several observant members, I discovered one Mr. David Tomko had attached a link to the article about my good friend and neighbor Butch Long.

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Jason D.

Boy, howdy. That went over like screen doors in submarines. The resultant ill will and uproar toward VA apologist and head firefighter Jason D. NLN (no last name) drafted to contain this was deafening. It’s still pouring in this morning-several days later.

What you will see in the following screen shots is a masterful containment strategy that rivals the spoof film Wag The Dog starring Robert DeNiro. It’s funny how the author prefers anonymity-as do all who work at the VBA.  I share a few of these vignettes as they are priceless.

Jason D. VA Apologist

Does that sound like a blogger? A naive Vet trying to help another? A VSO? How about a VA Examiner?

Jason D. VA fact checker

Scanned-image“Hey, my name’s Jason D. and I’m one of you, guys. VA loves you.” In what alternative universe paralleling ours does the VA grant 70% of claims? True, they do eventually after a ten-year fight but I’m the 21-year old poster child on the telephone pole that refutes this. Butch is now the Poster child for HOW they deny you-in record numbers and in record time using the new VBMS technique. Here, Jason just admitted he works for the Veterans Benefits Administration and does this for a living. I wonder if VA gives him time off to come over to the Vantage Point to spew his propaganda.

Which brings us to censorship. Having observed the Referrers machine revving up with hits on my site,Capture 22 I went to the VP blog and finally found this from Mr. David Tomko. I do not know, nor have I ever met or communicated with Mr. Tomko. Apparently he found us all by himself. I apologize that my snipping device is limited to the on-screen image so I grabbed the beginning and the end of his dialogue needed to enunciate my discussion. I urge you to read the rest. Mr. Tomko is an informed individual.

David Tomko post 1David Tomko post 2That got the ball rolling. I decided to chime in and tell the truth. I’m ecstatic about how VA is prosecuting my claim. After 21 years and some change, I got more bang out of a $50 ticket to the CAVC than I can describe. 45 days to a complete resolution-or damn near. I want VA to know I’m appreciative so I told them as much. VA needs some good PR and I am more than willing to provide it.

Asknod post on hold

When I went on the site today-almost 16 hours later, I noticed it was still “awaiting moderation”. To confirm others were also awaiting this same treatment, I perused every comment posted. Lo and behold, down at the very bottom of the comments are a plethora of new ones submitted and already moderated-and published. What can this mean?

Last post at the bottom 8-28

 

 

 

 

 

Jason NLN now finds himself in a sticky wicket. Publish it and reveal even more VA lies or worse- publish it and allow VA readers to see a Veterans site that doesn’t blow bubbles like YUKU’s “VA-centric” site where their trolls advise you to fold up the claims tent and go home.

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left click to enlarge

It’s fairly clear that if it’s still in moderation by this evening, VA knows who and what the asknod site represents. I don’t doubt it for a minute. I painted a target on my shirt when I set out to write my book. I expected no less. Relinquishing my anonymity was a given after winning the substantial portion of my fight at the CAVC. One thing I didn’t foresee was blatant censorship for all to witness nor the tarring and feathering of my friends and fellow combat Veterans such as Butch.

I had a long heart to heart talk with the wizard who works for Congressman Kilmer and have been assured Butch’s predicament will be swiftly revoked and the C&P exams promptly rescheduled. Most importantly, folks, the fact that VA fears us and our potential for wreaking havoc on the claims system with good advice is a harbinger of things to come. Censorship comes with a host of unwanted baggage. One is that we have the irrefutable evidence and are not afraid to tell you. Another is that VA is not above deploying it to squelch what we all know about the backlog. The timing of Butch’s denial letter and VA’s announcement that they under 100,000 claims is eerie.

 

Posted in VA BACKLOG | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

LZ CORK–VA RUNS THE TABLE ON BUTCH 46 YEARS LATER

Posted on August 26, 2015 by asknod

VeteransAdministration.12755109_stdOver the course of years watching the claims process, rarely have I seen such a desperate gambit to clear the books of all backlogged claims by the magical 2015 date promised several years ago. Read this file closely and see how it comports with my recent write up of Carter v. McDonald. The same comedy of errors is paraded out for display with nary a batted eyelash at the incongruity of sending out all the correspondence to an address used to file a claim in 1970. They even have his VSO listed as AmVets!

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Me and Butch

Butch and I went over his litany of ills and decided to just pick the easy ones. No outlandish theatrics. This was a Joe Friday “just the facts, ma’m.” case. Butch gets blown up by 60 mike mike mortar. Butch files in 1970. C&P diagnoses minor this and thats and gives him 10% doggy bone. His VA Examiner writes in that he has tinnitus but somehow that never made it in to the rating.  He’s pretty much blind in one eye from the SFW that drilled into his eye box. The fact that Butch can’t even hear himself think through his right ear is immaterial. VA says that’s why God gave us two of them. Same for the right eye that had been remodeled by a big chunk of the mortar. TBI? Sorry Butch. We didn’t have TBI in Vietnam. You lose. The same goes for the PTSD. We didn’t invent that until 1981 so you couldn’t possibly have bent brain in 1969. Here’s the cheat sheet.

REDACTED Butch Long denial

Fast forward to 2014 and a nine-month chase for the c-file. Butchmeister finally refiles in March 2015 and what do you suppose happens to the mailed requests for him to show up at his scheduled Comp. and Pen. examinations? Those Einsteins down at the Seattle Puzzle Palace open up the c-file, which has lain in the dust down in St. Louis since June 1970, and rightfully assume that the address therein is the current address of record. They completely ignore that the C&P exams came back as undeliverable. They don’t even hiccup when no one shows up on the appointed time on July Sixth, Eighth or the Fifteenth for the scheduled exams.  No sir. They know Butch is in a bad way in a wheelchair needing Aid and Attendance and proceed to adjudicate his new and reopened claims using the June 7th, 1970 Comp. and Pen. exams because he failed to show up. Nothing nonadversarial about that. He had a chance and this is a two-way street. Maybe he had a change of heart.

No calls, no letters. No correspondence of any kind to rectify this injustice. The new address has been on all correspondence since this began. VA was put on notice that Mr. Long was seeking his c-file as early as December 2013 using the same address they suddenly “discovered” last week. This in no way encompasses Rios v. Mansfield and the Presumption of Regularity. VA clearly knows they cannot contact Butch and proceed to an adjudication full well knowing he has not been apprised of his need to present for the C&P exams. Occam’s Razor doesn’t leave much to surmise except for the village idiot’s observation that if he bothered to file,  then he would probably show up. Add to that the attempts to deliver the denial have been remarkably futile up to now, and you have successfully rebutted the Presumption of Mail Service. This is against the law in 56 states and their respective VAROs.

Now the violations of good taste:

Nowhere is there any mention of the off-chance that the Rater considered whether the Butchster is entitled to a Pension for serving in a time of war

Failure to grant the 38 USC 1154(b) Combat Presumption

Failure to grant equitable tolling to “Find Waldo”

Failure to recognize presumptive of herbicide exposure on IHD claim.

Coming to the conclusion that he most definitely does not have Tinnitus in spite of 1970 VA examiner opining just the opposite.

Cushman due process violation for denial of all claims due to failure to contact Veteran and ascertain his correct address. Being a pro se Vet, he is entitled to many protections and VA is giving him the Bum’s rush for his unwitting ignorance

Can we believe the M21 1MR is responsible for this miscarriage of justice? Can it be a glitch that slipped through the cogs and Butch was a unique anomaly never to be repeated again? Or is this the more nuanced “deny it all and see if he comes back with a NOD” technique VA is so famous for? You have to admit that Butch is the 46-year Perfect Storm for misfortune. It took that long just to get his Purple Heart and a CIB so he could get a seat at this table. Can you imagine the hard road he’d have gotten without? Jez, what am I saying? The road doesn’t get any bumpier than this.

Mr. Long was given an opportunity to present evidence of his injuries in service and to date, he has not.  There’s absolutely no record of him  being injured by a mortar. His testimony is merely presented as history and is not borne out by the record. The STRs go on to describe “SFW injuries” without substantiating what SFW actually stands for. The VA Examiner finds it far too speculatiive to just accept the Veteran’s assurance that SFW indeed stands for “Shell Fragment Wound”. Thus his credibility is rebutted and all his lay testimony is too incredible to be accepted. In fact, there is no record of his injury in his military files and no combat medals to prove what he alleges.

Now who can we pin the medal on for all this incredible investigation and subsequent address searching? Why, we simply look at the decision for the author. Watch closely if you want to learn something. Every VSR (Veterans Service Representative) has to “sign” his decision. VA tries mightily to redact that so as to not embarrass them later when 65% of their decisions come back as incorrect. I’ve even met attorneys who didn’t know this trick.

At the top of the decision on the right is the identifier. Let’s decipher the code. Here’s the “In reply refer to: box:

Capture346 refers to the Seattle Regional Office. No, there are not 350-odd VAROs but perhaps it makes them feel better like getting new checks from the bank and beginning the numbering at 5,001. It’s an ego thing. Next, we see WPS. These are the initials of the VA rater. In this case, they belong to none other than :

wps

left click to magnify it.

Mr. Wendell P. Skiffington (WPS), VA Examiner, GS-12, who recently received a $400 dollar bonus for being such a suuuuuuuper rater, is the progenitor of this abortion. In short order he has denied each and every request for increase or new claim based on…. yessir, the June 7th, 1970 VA C&P.  I find it admirable that they can do this with a straight face. If you’re hiding behind the barricades at Fort Fumble, you’re nameless-or were. This is the new Fully Developed Claim technique.  In their haste to deny him it appears the folks up in Cheeseville Wisconsin also misplaced the Form 21-8940 and that means no more 78 rpm claim. My, how do dey do that?  Here’s the game roster.

Ever since the War of 1812, a claim for compensation has always been a claim for pension. A claim for pension is always a claim for compensation. Look it up. VA even writes as much on their application form.

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Butch has gotten the slap on both cheeks. He isn’t entitled to Agent Orange claim status and, from what we can see, he’s not even being accorded combat status or consideration for a non-service connected pension.

This has just begun. It may be time for General Allison Hickey, who was only 17 when Butch ate the mortar round, to intercede on his behalf. Butch is beginning that path now. He doesn’t have 10 spare years to play the Hamster wheel board game with Wendell P. Skiffington and his friends- nor should he be forced to.

What has America come to? What incredible force of events has led to the arbitrary denial of benefits out of hand with no opportunity to rectify or communicate with the Veteran? Really? This is VA’s new VBMS (Veterans Benefits Management System)-the much vaunted cure-all for the backlog -and it’s the best they can do? We’re in a world of shit, folks.

YOU REPORT 

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WE DENY

Capture

Celebrate a historic low for VA claims. Is that being sarcastic or is it merely a double entendre to imply how much lower they plan to sink?

Questions?

Posted in AO, C&P exams, Earlier Effective dates, Equitable tolling, Presumption of Regularity, Veterans Law, Vietnam Disease Issues, Vietnam War history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

ILP–CORNDOGS AND CREAMSICLE MELONS

Posted on August 25, 2015 by asknod
creamsicles

creamsicle melons (6″ diameter)

No crop circles this year to report but lots of phenomenal success growing the creamsicle melons. We had our first last night. Since I do not use anything but organic fertilizer specially produced by my horses on contract, they did not get nearly as large as their counterparts in the commercial arena.

 

Nevertheless, the fruit is an unparalleled taste sensation akin to a Good Humor creamsicle of yore. The melons even have a light orange hue, The taste is best described as honeydew in texture but that subtle cream flavor one associates with a dairy product.

Corn. What can I say about corn? For two years running, since the invention of Global Warming here in the NW, local corn is beginning to respond normally. This year’s ears are as long as my forearm from the elbow up to my wrist. How that is defies my corn acumen. By rights, they should be identical to last year’s. The only difference is the rain stopped falling in May this year instead of June.

corndogs

Silver Queen (first responders Friday 21 August)

For Mother’s day, I bought (and installed) Cupcake a new Induction cooktop. This baby is manufactured by Binford Tools out of Michigan (Mooooore power!) and brings water to a boil in about 4 minutes from room temperature. I had to run new 6/6/8 ga. copper wire because it sucks up amps. The all-glass surface is impervious to spills and a breeze for even an ignorant, lazy Vet to keep clean. It’s the cat’s pajamas but you can only use iron pots on it.

corndog production facility

 

As I near the decision day for the ILP greenhouse, I feel it is incumbent upon me to provide my VR&E minder with an update on ILP matters so he cannot claim I was remiss in my duties to apprise him of horticultural success.  So, Mr. Holloway, please note the bounty of my harvest re the potential greenhouse grant. I do hope we can do business on an amicable level without all that “It’s not vocational” negative ways business and the concomitant mental roadblock. Let’s practice being a Do bee and not a Don’t bee soon. Call me Bob says we are to now be Veterancentric. Everyone’s a stakeholder in getting this Department of Veterans Affairs’ house in order. There’s no “I” in Team, Kris. Pass that on to David for me if you would.

 

Posted in Food for the soul, HCV Health, Independent Living Program | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment