Question:
Jim,
I am currently rated at 30% for PTSD, I was told that to increase my disability that I would have to receive treatment, is this true?
Answer:
Yes. In order to provide evidence that your PTSD is worse, you need to show that you've been trying to improve your situation. That requires a steady and continuing series of treatment, medication and records.
If you aren't in treatment, you likely have no evidence of increasing problems and VA will assume you're getting along well and don't need an increase.
Jim Strickland's Mailbag: Volume #29 for 2008
NOTE: Letters in my mailbag are reprinted just as they come to me. Spelling and grammar are left as is and only small corrections are made to improve readability, ensure anonymity or delete expletives that may offend some readers. This is not legal advice. You should always seek the advice of an attorney who is qualified in Veterans' law before you make any decisions about your own benefits.
04.28.30
Question:
Jim,
I found out about the University of Detroit going around helping Vets with their VA claims.I found out about them being in Houston.Tx. after the fact or I would have been there.Also was told they had a attorney training for lawyers in Houston whom will be willing to help Veterans.I have tried to get infomation on this with no luck.have you heard any thing about this and whom I might be able to find out?
Answer:
Have a look here and see if what you need is in there...
To contact the Veterans Law Clinic for assistance, please call 313.596.0262.
Question:
Jim,
I am writing this letter to see if you know any way of helping me. my boy friend is 54 years old and has had hepatitis c since 1995. he is a viet nam vet he has va medical but is a non service connected vet. he has cirrosis and liver canccer. the va sent him to a teaching hospital they sent him there for a scan the found liver cancer and told him that he was not a candidate for surgery and n not eligible for a transplant.
now what I truly believe in this case is that the teaching hospital takes their instructions from va of what they will pay for and what they wont.n they told him because he had cirrosis he was not eligible for trans plant this is not always the case I have researched and find that most liver transplants arte performed for cirrosis and liver cancer. is is true that va will n ot pay for transplant because the surgery is so costly and the anti rejection drugs.
I even offered to be tested to be a living donor if I matched they still said no. they say they don’t want to put a healthy liver in a diseased body. this is crazy. my boy friend recently started receiving social security disabilty but does not yet have medicare. he believes in va and a lot of people have tried to convince him to get a second opinion but he believes in va and thinks that they are trying to help him but with all the news about how vets are not being taken care of properly I don’t think va cares about his life one bit.they had him on a chemo drug that was approved in 2005 for renal cancer and just approved for liver cancer in early 2007 for liver cancer which they have now taken him off of saying it is not working.
he is jaundiced and va did nothing to help him or made any suggestions it is like they just don’t care. the fda info says it is n ot good to give the drug nexavar to patients with liver disease. all I want is the truth and if you could please give me any information you can find on this issue I would be ally eternally grateful if you could help me .I don’t want to see him die because of the va. please write me back
Answer:
I'll start by telling you that I'm a health care professional. I spent 35 years in hospitals and I understand how they work.
Today I'm deeply involved with many veterans...patients in the health care system. My best friend here is sick with a cancer and in the last few years I've seen him get his care from our VA hospital in Charleston, SC. That VA is connected to the Medical University of South Carolina much like your VA is to the local teaching hospital.
My friend has had 5 periods of remission and relapse. Each time he has to have chemo and radiation. He's been taken to Vanderbilt in Nashville for a bone marrow transplant. He's had numerous hospitalizations, CT scans, MRI scans, PET scans and much more.
The VA system has never batted an eye at the expense. When it comes to those vets who are very sick, the budget isn't considered. The bad press that you heard of wasn't about the medical care for veterans, it was about matters like convenience and sometimes things moving too slow.
The VA health system is maybe the best in the world. If he had private insurance the company may be trying to cancel it because he's too expensive and they need to make a profit. The VA has no such worries, they don't ever think of a profit.
It's unfortunate but the best medicine on the planet sometimes doesn't cure everyone. I can promise you that if a transplant would help, he would be on the list no matter any expense.
There is a reason other than money that he isn't being considered. It may be the Hep C...that can be a bad disease.
I'm afraid all you can do is trust that the system knows best. Again, I'm confident he isn't being denied anything because of any budget.
Question:
Jim,
I am a Vietnam veteran with a 80 % rating for Agent Orange Diabetes ( Now type 1 and on an insulin pump) and other related Diabetes problems. I had a hearing with an RO in 2003 , concerning a claim for unemployabilty. During the hearing , I advised the RO that I had a part time 16 hour a week job.
She later commented the following "The only thing that I have to add is that entitlement to Individual Unemployability is that it pays 100 per cent rate so that it would pay you the same rate as though you were 100 percent. And marginal employment is considered anything under this years poverty level, and 16 hours a week would certainly be considered marginal and would not preclude entitlement to this benefit." I was later awarded the benefit.
Because of declining health, I had to leave the 16 hour a week job on October 1, 2005 and I remain totally unemployed. In 2004 I earned 16 thousand dollars and until October 2005, I earned nearly 14 thousand dollars that year. In the middle of 2007, I received a form the VA asking for the amount of money I earned in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007. I informed them of my earnings for 2004 and 2005 and of no earnings for 2006 and 2007. I now learn that I earned in excess of the poverty level for those years. Up until that time I had no clue as to what the poverty level was and had went on the assumption that the RO knew what she was talking about when she told me "16 hours a week would certainly be considered marginal and would not preclude entitlement to this benefit.
The VA now has cut my benefits to 80 per cent and are asking for 55 thousand dollars in back benefits covering those nearly 4 years. Had I known I was not eligible for unemployability benefits, I would not have applied for them. That is why I asked the RO the question. Not once did she ask about what I earned. Now the benefit money was spent with no expectation of having to repay it.
I guess my question is, since the mistake was made by the VA and not me, do I have an argument. It sure doesn't seem fair that I would have to suffer when I tried to do everything by the book.
Thank You for your time.
Answer:
If VA errs, it's usually your problem, not theirs. In this case "marginal employment" refers to dollars, not hours. You know that now.
However, you do have an argument that I believe is likely winnable. One of the things you have to love about the system is that almost every step of the way has an appeal.
You must immediately write a Notice of Disagreement (NOD) to your VARO pointing out that it was their error. You begin by asking that the amount be waived entirely due to the hardship it would cause you. Then you ask for your 100% rating back. Many of these issues are resolved favorably if you timely reply and engage them with a logical argument.
