May 8, 2025 • 60 mins
Selecting the right representative for your VA claim can determine whether you spend years fighting denials or receive timely approval and the benefits you've earned.
• Veterans have three main options for representation: Veterans Service Officers (VSOs), accredited VA appeals agents, or attorneys
• VSOs provide free services but vary greatly in quality and accessibility
• Ensure your representative has proper accreditation and access to the Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS)
• Don't hesitate to change representation if you're receiving inadequate service
• Learn to navigate VA.gov yourself to monitor your claim status and submit evidence if needed
• High-Level Reviews (HLR) don't allow new evidence submission, while Supplemental Claims do
• Direct service connection claims are possible even when you don't qualify for presumptive connection
• Some VSOs may give incorrect advice about appeals options after a denial or reduction
If your VA rating is reduced, request a hearing rather than just filing an appeal. Your benefits continue at the current level until the hearing occurs, and you can present new medical evidence during the hearing process.
Tune in live every Thursday at 7 PM EST and join the conversation! Click here to listen and chat with us.
Visit J Basser's Exposed Vet Productions (Formerly Exposed Vet Radioshow) YouTube page by clicking here.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
J Basser (00:00):
And today is the eighth day of May 2025.
Of course, mr Ray Cobb, he willjoin us shortly.
He's kind of tied up in someright now.
So I want to thank everybodyfor listening, tuning in and
watching on the old YouTube.
We appreciate you very much.
You can also listen to the showon other venues, such as Apple
(00:21):
Podcasts and some other places.
We decided to do a differenttype of show today.
I belong to several groups anda couple of Facebook groups, and
I keep seeing a lot of stuff onsome of these groups that kind
of cringes you a little bit.
(00:41):
It's about representation andthings like that, and you know
what happens if this happens indifferent scenarios, and we're
going to do a show and basicallytalk about that representation.
And I think Ray just made it in.
Give me a second, folks, let'sput him in here.
Put him in here.
I believe he's here.
(01:03):
I think he's getting all workedup.
I believe he's here.
I think he's getting all workedup.
I believe he's coming in.
Anyhow, we're going to discussdifferent issues about
representation and how to choosea representative and what to do
in case you get one that you'renot satisfied with.
I want to start off the firstthing I want to do is explain
what representation is.
(01:25):
When you file a VA claim, youknow you file it yourself.
If you want to.
On a 21-5-26 EZ, you file yourinitial claim and they'll ask
you would you like to haverepresentation?
You know, in the VSO, which isthe Veterans Service Officer,
there's a list of them they canchoose from and you can pick.
You know you can pick theAmerican Legion or the DAV or
whoever you know that you wantto use.
(01:46):
Usually it doesn't take long todo it at all.
It's just giving them the powerof attorney over your claim so
they can run interference foryou and help you do stuff.
Their services are cost free.
They don't charge you nothing,which is good.
You're starting out with thiscrap and you got a lot of.
You know if you're a regularvet and you're disabled, you're
(02:08):
pretty sure you got.
You know your financialsituation may not be the best in
the world, so it kind of givesyou a free alternative to get
some help.
And but there are certainthings that I want to recommend
you do before you select one ofthese organizations to help you.
To help you, and it'll make youa lot happier in the long run.
I know it'll make me a lothappier and my partner Ray there
, speaking of Ray, how you doing, ray?
Ray Cobb (02:30):
I'm doing good.
How are you?
J Basser (02:32):
I'm doing good, buddy, I'm doing really good.
We should get started on theshow here.
I'm going into therepresentation part now.
Vso Veterans Service Officerswho work for the state level or
for the American Legion or theDisabled American Veterans.
They are service officers, okay, and they're accredited through
(02:53):
their different entity, likethe American Legion or the DAV
or whatever, and they have toknow what they're doing to a
certain extent and they have beable to.
You know, do your claim andknow how to track your claim.
Uh, biggest thing that I lookat is accreditation.
(03:13):
Make sure they're credited,make sure that they do that.
You know if they have theireducation credits.
They're supposed to have somany done per year, but uh,
really don't worry about it toomuch.
But the biggest issue that Isee and that I see veterans face
is uh, once you get theaccreditation, the VA's got a
system called the VeteransBenefit Management System, or
VBMS, that allows yourrepresentative to actually look
at your claim in real time and,instead of everybody wondering,
(03:36):
you know what's going on with myclaim or this and that you know
, as long as you have goodrepresentation, who's willing to
look at it, then you know theycan look at it and tell you
where it's at in real time.
Some do and some, you know,won't do it.
It all depends on, because ifyou put two and two together and
you look at the services, youlook at it and say, okay, this
(03:57):
guy's the FO, he's pretty goodat what he does, but you look at
his workflow, he's probablybusy.
Because I mean, if you're goodlike that and you've got that
service, you're probably poundedbecause their veterans told
their buddies about you.
And next thing you know, you'reprobably buried in VA claims.
You ever heard that, ray?
I have, yeah.
(04:18):
So when you get buried in VAclaims, that's not a good thing.
So I see a lot of issues on theboards too, to where somebody
says I don't need to be a soul,I'm going to do this all by
myself.
That's good and well and fineand dandy.
But if you're going to do thisby yourself, you need to do one
of two things.
First thing you need to do islearn VA law to a certain extent
(04:42):
.
Second thing you need to do islook at Title 38, part 3 and
Part 4, and you need to figurethat out and know what's wrong
with you and what the VA does toadjudicate it.
Because if you go in here andyou don't understand this, then
they're going to make short workof you and it's supposed to be
non-adversarial.
But, as I said last week, thefirst thing you look at is your
(05:03):
character discharge.
That's kind of an automaticline.
You know you've got a bad paperdischarge and that's about
auto-denial.
Same thing Social Security.
If you find a Social Securitydisability still working, that's
kind of a no-no too.
So you know, I've never seenanybody get approved still
working.
I've seen some people getapproved that were working out
(05:24):
of desperation but not actuallyworking.
But anyhow, that covers that.
So if you select your VSO andyour representative you need to
write this down you make surethey're accredited, that's first
and foremost.
Make sure they have access toBVMS.
If they don't fund somebodyelse, because you're going to be
(05:44):
stuck in the mud if you don't.
And some places got some prettydeep mud, quicksand mud or
whatever, and if somethinghappens to your claim and
something happens that gets itoff the rails, say it's a little
bit, has a little issue ofcomplexity with it and it gets
off the rails, I'm going to tellyou it could take you years to
(06:04):
get it back on the rails.
And if you get a denial and youappeal to the denial and you
get another denial and you go toa supplemental claim to get
another denial and you go to theBoard of Vets to appeal and
you're a younger person thatdoesn't have an ability to
advance on the docket, you canwait up to four or five, six
years or longer, depending onyour you know certain you know
situation longer depending onyour you know certain you know
(06:27):
situation.
So I know some folks have saidI know one guy just got ready
last year.
It was going since 2002.
So you know that's a long timeand it took me 14 years to go
get my current level.
Okay.
But the accreditation is veryimportant.
Make sure your claim is ontrack.
You know your VA SO should beable to tell you what you need
(06:48):
and things like that.
He has access to your record.
He can help you find stuff.
Let's go with disagreements.
Say you got a VA, so that'sreally busy and work, work, work
.
And you know you've got alittle bit of computer knowledge
.
You know you can go into VAgovand you can navigate around a
little bit to see what's goingon.
I suspect if you don't know howto do it, learn it.
(07:08):
And if you're up in your 60s,like I am, you know you can
still learn it, especially ifyou've got a grandchild or
someone in the house that is ateenager, and teenagers can make
a computer talk and they canhelp you right through it.
You know, get you through it.
But anyhow, make sure younavigate a little bit and say
you got a disagree.
Say you filed a claim, you tookthe claim into your VSO and you
(07:32):
had six issues, six items, andyou want to file the claim.
It's okay.
Well, you were.
Basically, you had an intent tofile and you gave it to him,
you started filing the claimsand then you find out later on
down the road, maybe six, sevenmonths later, they only followed
one of the six and the otherfive had been touched.
I saw this the other day on oneof the boards I'm not going to
say which one, but I'm like ohno, that's what I mean.
(07:56):
Oh no.
And one guy wanted to put extraevidence in on a supplemental
claim and he said the VSO wasused to do it.
And that's another red flag forme.
You know if you've got buddystatements and things like that
or different things you want toput in to help support that
claim.
On a supplemental claim you canadd new evidence.
(08:17):
So if you don't want to do it orthe VSO don't want to do it, I
would sit back and send an emailto your VSO and say, here,
here's what I'm doing.
I'll go on to VAgov and I'lllog up and you can get into the
claim and you can actuallysubmit evidence.
You can click on that.
You can have your stuff scannedin and send it right in.
You can.
It's not hard to do.
Tell your VSO you did it.
You know those other six issuesand those six items that
(08:39):
wouldn't submit it, I'd do ityourself.
Do whatever it takes.
You know, because regardless ofhow the VSO, you know if they
make a mistake or whatever,regardless if it gets past the
appeal date or the appeal periodand you miss it, you're out of
luck, even though, because whatthey're saying, if you don't
appeal a claim to the ACN, youagree with me.
(09:00):
That's what they're saying.
You know, and that's kind oflike a.
You know, it's a silent.
No, you know, and that's whatthey're saying and you don't
want that to happen.
I don't want to happen either,you know.
I mean, we're looking out forthe veteran, I'm looking out for
other stuff.
Just what you do If you have todo it.
You know you tell your bitch,oh sorry, where.
(09:26):
I'm going back 30 years doingthis.
Okay, I've seen certaininstances where VSO gets just
totally discombobulated, comesin, glued, something happens,
whether it's a medical problemor something like that, and they
just fall off the face of theearth.
You know it happens a lot.
You know A lot of organizationsuse these VSOs.
(09:47):
Some of these guys are elderly,some of them have, you know,
health conditions.
The same things happen.
You know I've known three orfour of this.
You know they passed away andleft a whole bunch of climates
around not knowing what's what,and it takes a while to catch
back up.
So but then if you don't getalong with the VSOs, you have
(10:11):
got options.
The VAgov website maintains alist of all VSOs and all
attorneys, updated to a certainextent, you know, because they
have to keep updating.
It might be two months behind,but still they're there.
It's got contact information,phone numbers.
You can do VSOs from anyorganization as long as you know
, like I said, as long as you dothe qualifications on them and
they're accredited for theinitial claim, they can take
(10:33):
over and the VA will take careof the paperwork.
You know you don't have to haveone removed.
They can take over the document, takes over and does auto
removal.
But you can still cast the ageand remove them and tell them
why.
There's no money involved witha VSO.
Or you can do basically what Idid and what some other folks
(10:54):
have done.
You can go through this Ifyou're in the pill process and
you've got a VSO and you don'tthink he's doing what he's
supposed to be doing.
It wouldn't matter if you're inthe HLR lane, supplemental lane
, heading to the BVA or whatever.
You go down that list and lookat all the certified, accredited
appeals agents.
There's several of them outthere now but basically it's all
(11:17):
they do and I know several ofthem.
We've had them on the showbefore and that's what these
people do full time.
That's their livelihood.
You know, if they don't wintheir claim, they're had them on
the show before and that's whatthese people do full-time.
That's their livelihood.
You know, if they don't wintheir claim, they're not getting
paid with your pills and sothey've got a little more skin
in the game and you know.
Plus, they know a lot ofdifferent things.
You know we've got some peoplethat have a lot of specialty
(11:38):
areas like high-level specialmonthly compensation and things
like that and you know theythrive in those settings and of
course they pick and choose alittle bit on their clientele
because you know they kind ofwork a lot more with veterans
that are eternally ill or in badshape that their spouses will
be.
You know basically thebeneficiary, the DIC and accrued
(11:59):
benefits, because a lot of it'smorbid in that situation.
But there's several of them outthere and I know a couple
that's retiring.
Go down the list to find you agood one.
You can ask on the sites.
You know who's who Look them up.
We've got you know each state'sgot a few of them now and you
(12:20):
know they're busy.
But still you know if you're inthe appeal process and you
really want to see what's goingon, talk to them.
They'll look at yourinformation documentation.
They'll make a decision whetherto accept you or not and you'll
talk to them and see it mightcost you 20% of your back pay
but it depends on where you'reat and what level you're at as
(12:40):
far as how much back pay you'llget or whatever your claim.
If you've got something goingback years and years.
It might be beneficial to do it.
But some people say don't everget a paid representative.
Well, I see no problem with it.
It's just 20%.
If you do it and you don't win,then you get nothing.
(13:01):
I'd rather get 20, you know, 80percent of nothing, 80 percent
of an award, than get nothing,then have to fight back 10 more
years and get it.
Of course it makes the moneydifferent.
You know, that's my personalopinion.
I mean other people can.
Then you know that everybody'sgot their own opinion.
What do you think right?
What do you think about agents?
(13:22):
Do you think it's beneficial?
Ray Cobb (13:23):
well, I think today now not necessarily when, when I
won my case, which is now 15years ago, but I think today,
with the way the va is handlingthings, I think you have no
choice.
I mean, I've seen guys this thelast two weeks been denied.
(13:44):
Their denial letter comes in.
It's not the type, it's just abunch of cut and paste and
garbage that doesn't even relateto their case and they don't
even give them the reason as towhy they didn't qualify or why
they were denied.
And when you get into thosetype of things, that's when you
need to reach out and get you anagent to represent you, and I
(14:07):
agree with you, it needs to besomeone that's a part of NOVA.
They'll take 20%.
I think that's a good ongoingtype thing.
Don't go out and get some ofthese guys, like we call them,
long sharks, you know, or anyway, they come up and they try to
say well, we charge six monthsback pay.
(14:30):
That's not right.
You know you do a 20 percent or25 percent based on how hard it
is and how much work's got tobe done.
But you know, even just thelast 48 hours, I've had two guys
call me that have been deniedand yet they don't know why
they're denied because theyreally didn't tell them.
(14:51):
And I had one guy call me andhe had been reduced from 70% to
50% and he had to go to thefield service office.
And folks, they're going to tryto talk you out of getting an
adage.
They're going to try to talkyou.
You know they want to handle itbut they're not trained to
handle it.
They really don't know what inthe world is going on.
(15:12):
One localist told the gentlemantoday that he didn't need to
file an appeal.
Well, let me tell you somethingIf you really know that you
have that condition, there's noreason you cannot file,
shouldn't file, not an appeal,but a file for a hearing.
(15:32):
And if you were saying, oh,appeal it, appeal it, it'll be
faster.
Hearings are taking two orthree years, yeah, but with a
hearing it's not reduced.
Until you have that hearing, ifit's reduced at all, and if
you've got the medicaldocumentation that your
condition still exists and isthe same or has worsened, then
(15:55):
you go and you ask for a hearing.
I don't care if it takes twoyears or not.
The gentleman I was working withtoday the reason that it looks
like he has not seen a VA doctorin over a year.
So they assumed that he wasdoing better and that's why they
reduced him.
But he has been seeing localdoctors and paying for it out of
(16:17):
his company's insurance.
Now that brings up anothertopic when it comes to this type
of thing.
Now that brings up anothertopic when it comes to this type
of thing, because the VA todaynot when I was there, but the VA
today they are not allowed totake an outside doctor's
information and put it into yourmedical records unless that
(16:38):
doctor had been approved andgone through the VA community
care program.
So this guy has gone to adoctor, he's gone to an
orthopedic, he's gone to achiropractor, has letters from
both.
He sees a chiropractor twice amonth.
He's on a bunch of medication.
But they reduced him because hehad not been going to see a VA
(17:00):
doctor.
So the county service officertoday told him no, no, you don't
need a hearing, you need toappeal.
He doesn't need to appealbecause when you do an appeal
you cannot add any additionalevidence.
So if that evidence is going tothe other doctor, he's not in
his file.
He can't submit it.
(17:21):
He can only submit it if hedoes a supplemental claim.
You can't do it.
He can only submit it, if hedoes a supplemental claim.
J Basser (17:27):
You can't do it in hlr , you know, you know.
I mean, you don't have tochoose hlr, you can go straight
to supplemental.
Yeah, that's your choice right,exactly, exactly.
Ray Cobb (17:35):
So you know.
My instruction to him was toask for a hearing to start with.
It's taking three to four yearsto be able to have the hearing.
He will stay at that same levelfrom then.
And she told him well, if youlose, you're going to have to
pay it back, I told him.
I said don't worry about it,because you got all the
documentation and you'll havemore by the time you get to that
(17:56):
hearing.
And the conditions go to worsenby then.
I said so don't you know?
Don't worry about payinganything back.
And even if you do, the maximumthat they can hold is 25% of
what you're receiving.
I don't know if you were awareof that or not, but in any case,
(18:17):
let's say he's receiving $500.
They can only keep back $100 amonth until the bill is caught
up in breaking even.
So there's more reasons to gofor the hearing.
Your chances are better to winand you can present the evidence
to which, if you do an appealor if you do some other type of
(18:43):
a higher level review, you'renot allowed to add any
additional evidence.
But you can walk in there andshow them the doctor's notes,
you can show them x-rays, youcan show them doctor's
appointments and you can havethe doctor's write a 4138, a
(19:03):
letter of statement of what yourcondition is, and you can
present all of that at thehearing.
And you cannot do that if youfile due to the other.
Yeah, go ahead.
J Basser (19:14):
Go ahead, Ray.
I'm motioning something else.
Go ahead.
Ray Cobb (19:18):
I'm just keeping track of your questions.
Okay, so it's going to benefithim because he gets to stay at
his existing level and he getsto go back and have a hearing
and present evidence where hewas seeing his chiropractor and
a local orthopedic in order toprove that his condition has
(19:43):
worsened.
Now, what I did recommend tohim he has a primary care doctor
.
She sees her twice a year.
I said you need to get yourprimary care doctor to send you
for evaluation with anorthopedic to see if anything
could be done to help that kneeor see a physical therapy or you
know where they may send you tophysical therapy or something.
(20:05):
I said you need that in yourrecords, in your VA records,
because when they're looking atthis they're not going to pay
any attention to any outsiderecords.
They're only going to payattention to VA records and I
think you and I discussed theother day between us that they
have about 10 to 15 minutes oneach claim that they work.
(20:26):
So in my case I have more than6,000 pages of notes.
You know, not tests, not otherthings, just notes.
There's no way in the worldthey can go back and read those
notes or search that many notesand make a decision in 10 or 15
minutes.
So my recommendation to himtoday and keep that in mind,
(20:46):
guys.
But to go back to what you weresaying earlier, john, I feel
that in today's world that it'sbest that if you've been denied
that the next thing you need todo is get you a good agent and
quit fooling with it and appealit.
You can go from a straightdenial straight to the board.
(21:08):
You don't have to ask for ahigher level of view.
You don't have to ask for anyof that.
You can appeal directly to theboard, and I'm not for sure
that's you know you might.
Here's what an agent can dothat you and I couldn't do.
Here's what an agent can dothat you and I couldn't do, or
what a regular veteran can't do.
An agent can call the regionaloffice and talk to the manager
(21:32):
over that section and if he seeswhere some things have been
done incorrectly, they can getthat manager to agree that those
were done incorrectly.
Now you need to file asupplemental claim because that
manager is aware of it and it'sgoing to go a lot faster than
(21:52):
going before the board.
But if you haven't got an agent, you cannot do that.
J Basser (22:02):
So yeah, I've been on my soapbox for a little while
here well, listen, guys, if youdo get a proposed reduction,
okay, keep in mind, depends onhow long you held that rating.
That didn't include increases.
I'm talking about the originalrating.
Say, say you had hypertensionand uh.
(22:23):
Or let's go heart disease andsay you've had the 30 percent of
heart disease for 20 years.
Okay, so you filed an increase10 years ago and got an increase
of 60 percent.
Well, that 30 percent increase,that can be reduced even though
you haven't 10 years.
So there's protections forratings involved.
I mean 20 years.
They cannot reduce you for yourrating unless there's been
(22:47):
fraud involved, and that I'vehardly ever seen it happen.
It does happen.
Basically, there's a 10 yearprotection too.
You know, one exam is not goingto get you reduced.
You have to do several exams.
But in his situation Ray'stalking about this guy saw
outside providers and the VAdidn't have documentation.
So I'd been to a VA provider so.
So they looked at it and did alittle review on him.
(23:08):
Now did he file a claim, ray,or an increase or something like
that, to get his file to beopened back up, or was it just
an automatic review?
Ray Cobb (23:17):
Yeah, here's another thing he did.
He filed a claim for ruptureddisks military connected.
Now, when he was in the MarineCorps he actually jumped off the
back of a tank and hurt hisback, sprained his back, twisted
it, and he's been havingproblems ever since.
(23:38):
Now here was a catcher theysent and in their remarks of
that they said there's noevidence that this is military
connected.
However, he has his medicalrecords from when he was in the
Marine Corps and he was actuallyput on bed rest for five days
during that time before he wasallowed to return to light duty
(24:03):
for two weeks before he went toheavy duty.
And all this, along with thex-rays and everything is in his
medical records while he wasstill on active duty.
So how they said that thiswasn't related to active duty is
just flack.
They didn't look for it.
J Basser (24:21):
How long did they have the rating?
You know?
Ray Cobb (24:24):
Well, he hadn't had that rating, he had never turned
in that rating, the previousrating he had had for four or
five years.
He had never turned in this newrating for his back.
J Basser (24:35):
Now listen, guys, if you have a rating that's not
permanent total, what they'regoing to do is they're going to
schedule you a re-examinationafter like five years and
they're going to send you backfor a re-examination.
They're going to open your fileand look at it your department
probably won't do it unless youinitiate the claim and ask for
an increase or something elseand it opens up your entire
record to be reviewed.
(24:55):
I've seen a lot of reductionsbased off that.
Now, this guy he needs to goahead and do a supplemental
claim.
This guy he needs to go aheadand do a supplemental claim.
He don't need to be in the queuefor an HLR because HLR, you're
not allowed to add evidence.
He does not need to go to theBoard of Veteran Appeals and do
a direct docket review because,again, you cannot add evidence.
(25:17):
If you do that, you're just.
You know you're out of luck,but you're going to have to
either go through a full boardhearing or a full board panel,
or you're going to have to do asupplemental claim.
You can't have that evidence inthe supplemental, you can send
it in and that will probably fixthe problem, right, uh and that
should be a lot faster process.
Um, remember that guys.
Uh, if you're doing high levelreview hlr you guys especially
(25:40):
you guys are especially the hansolos that are doing solo If you
have to go to appeal processand you want to do an HLR, make
sure you got a pretty tightclaim.
You can't submit no newevidence or they're going to use
the same exact evidence theydenied you on you know that case
.
If you got new evidence, gosupplemental lane.
If you've got all your evidence, you think you're going to win.
(26:05):
I would skip the whole processand go straight to the direct
docket review.
That's the fastest BVA route,even though sometimes it works,
sometimes it doesn't.
I had a failure here back lastyear and we're still at the
court, so we'll see how thatgoes and I'll let everybody know
.
But that's kind of an issueLike again, your agents and your
BSOs that are accustomed todoing this should be able to
(26:28):
help you and advise you what todo and tell you what's what you
know.
They should be able to help you.
It's OK, we have to do this.
You know that's something I canexplain to you.
It kind of gets both doors backin the water because if you got
a VA claim.
You got one on the water.
You're going to go aroundcircles back in the water
because if you got a va, claimyou get one on the water.
Ray Cobb (26:48):
You're gonna go around circles.
That's true, right, yeah,you're right.
And one thing that you know italways depends, as you will know
, as to where you live.
There's some places where yourvso's are very, very good.
They not only go through theirstraight training, they a lot of
times will actually get someinformation and do some reading
(27:09):
and research on their own, andthose type of guys are very
helpful.
I know that we have one likethat in bedford, county
tennessee.
Uh, he's very, very good, he'svery thorough and he knows what
he's doing.
But he has learned it on hisown and seeing what has taken
(27:31):
place over the years.
Then you have others that followthe direct words that are put
into their mouth from the stateservice office and say, like
we're not supposed to takeanyone over 100 percent, or well
, you don't need to appeal, youneed to do this.
(27:53):
You know you need to ask for ahigher level review first.
That's the way to go, thosetype of information.
Let me ask you if you gotsomebody just think about this
If you are working for somebodyand you make a decision and
somebody outside of your officecalls your boss and says you
(28:18):
know you need to review this guy.
He's not doing his job.
Don't you think that manager isgoing to support you first
Unless it's pretty obvious inBlayton but that manager is
going to support you so withthat high-level review.
All you're doing is going to themanager of the guy that made
(28:41):
the decision.
Now, that's a high-levelreviewer.
J Basser (28:46):
They've got a system, now right, that's a high-level
reviewer.
Yeah, they may talk about it.
They've got a system now right,You've got a high-level
reviewer.
They move it to a differenttotal, different RO.
Now they go to Jacksonville orsomewhere in Florida and
somewhere else.
They don't stay in the same ROanymore.
It goes to a high-levelreviewer, which basically is a
DRO.
Ray Cobb (29:11):
That's the process now , but, if I understand correctly
, that individual calls theagent that made that decision
and discusses where and why hecame up with that decision
before he returns it, or changesit Right.
J Basser (29:20):
And that situation you guys, the DROs are pretty.
I mean, they're pretty good,you know.
And fortunately I mean thatsituation, the DROs are pretty
good, fortunately.
I'm just going through theprocess myself, but they moved
to another location and kickedin a bunch more exams.
That process is not too bad,even if you go supplemental and
(29:41):
you get denied a supplementalclaim.
You can kick that back over toan HLR.
The DRO will look at it again.
If you follow me, you know somepeople.
They see the wait times at theBoard of Veterans Appeals and
they shriek it's six, sevenyears before I can get there,
you know.
And what's going to happen?
(30:01):
You're going to go throughthere as a board and you're
going to wait six or seven years, right?
All of a sudden, boom, it'syour hearing day.
Yeah they're going to defer itback to the region anyway.
You're going to get a remand.
Yeah, they're going to remandit back, guess where.
They're going to remand it backto Same guy that did it before,
if he's still employed.
That's what we call the hamsterwheel.
(30:22):
Ain't that right, ray?
That's it, that's a hamsterwheel.
You're like a little mouse in acage.
Back in the day, before westarted dealing with the AMA, we
had the old appeals and oldlegacy system.
You had the BBA and then youhad the appeals management
center.
They'd send the claim overthere and they'd remand it there
(30:43):
.
They'd stack them up in thisroom right there and they'd sit
there and all of a sudden theywould take it from the Pills
management center and they'dtake it back and forth to the
BBA.
It's just like they're throwingbaseball.
I know one guy was back andforth 12 different times.
You believe that 12 times I do?
I do yeah.
(31:04):
Of course you believe that 12times I do, I do yeah.
And so of course they.
You know I mean it's.
They say it's improvedtremendously.
I'm going to say the wait timehas actually never improved.
As a matter of fact, they'vegotten worse With, especially
when they piled on the PACT Actand the Blue Water Navy Act and
(31:25):
all this other stuff and allthese other veterans came into
the limelight.
Then they came up with adirective.
They had to.
You know they wanted to do allthe legacy things first before
the AMA stuff got done.
And I know a couple guys arestill waiting on board decisions
from legacy claims, you know.
So it can be a pain in the buttExcuse my French, but the
derriere, I'll say it that waybut your agent again, or your
(31:50):
BSO, should be able to help youwith this and advise you
correctly on where it's layingto go.
Now.
The third group that we haven'ttalked about yet is say you
don't want to use an agent, sayyou don't want to use a PSO, say
somebody told you well, I usethis attorney here man.
(32:10):
He's a high-powered guy, he'sgoing to help me out.
Yeah, take care of it, send himyour stuff.
Well, you have that option touse an attorney.
When you contact the attorney,first thing they do they look at
your claim.
They can look at it.
You give them permission tolook, they'll look at it.
They can pull it up.
(32:33):
They give them three or fourdays to look at it and they'll
contact you.
I've seen this so many times.
Everybody gets excited Well,I've got this attorney, I'm
going to get this attorney.
All of a cannot represent you atthis time, and it's not because
you got a bum claim or a badclaim, you know, and there's
attorneys out there left andright, believe me.
You file a case to the FederalCircuit, to the CAVC or CDAC
(32:56):
court.
You're going to be bombarded.
Your mailbox is going to bebent over double with mailers
from the attorney groups.
I'm talking.
Everyone in the country isgoing to be bent over double
with mailers from the attorneygroups.
I'm talking.
Everyone in the country isgoing to be emailing you or
sending you stuff and you talkto them, see if they want to
help you out.
But attorneys have an issue to,where a lot of them look at the
whole thing.
They look at the big picture.
(33:17):
You know agents don't reallylook at the big picture because
they know they're going to get20% or whatever.
Well, attorneys usually get 33%of stuff.
You know that's what they do,but it depends too.
Now, if this is a BBA case,yeah, you know, you see, that
stuff Court's a little bitdifferent.
Now they look at all your stuffand they look at how far back
you can go and they say, well, Idon't know If this guy wins,
he's only going to get so muchmoney and worth our while doing
(33:46):
this.
You know, and it happensBasically.
We call it cherry picking.
You ever heard of that term,ray?
Ray Cobb (33:50):
Yeah, that's a term.
I like to look, you know theother thing on that same.
You know, going on with that,you got to remember that
attorney.
He may be doing some things,not just with VA.
He may be doing some thingswith Social Security.
He may be working with aninsurance company.
(34:13):
He may be on their payroll asan advisor.
There's other things that he'sdoing.
So, unlike an agent, heprobably is not going to pay a
whole lot of attention to yourcase unless it's pretty old and
he thinks you're going toreceive a considerable amount of
(34:36):
back pay.
So that's the kind of way thatkind of falls into Just be aware
of that.
J Basser (34:45):
It reminds me of the movie I filmed back in Tennessee
years ago with Matt Damon andDanny DeVito.
That's this young guy who wasan attorney and his interest
couldn't approve this guy'streatment for leukemia and he
died.
He got him sued.
Devito was not really anattorney, he hadn't passed the
bar exam yet, but he was trying.
He was the front man.
Every time there was a wreck.
(35:05):
He'd go to the wreck because hehad the police radio and he'd
be at the hospital waiting onthe guy to get there.
Ray Cobb (35:15):
They got those all over California and Florida,
don't they?
J Basser (35:19):
Everywhere, man Everywhere.
But that's one thing.
You can find an attorney tohelp you, you know.
I mean, you got a lot of yourgroups out there, you know, but
it's just up to them whetherthey say they'll represent you
or not.
You know, it's kind of acrapshoot.
Now say you get past the BVAand you get a BVA denial.
(35:42):
Okay, who do you select as arepresentative then?
Okay, you do the same thingwith court.
You do pay the dollar figure orwhatever, and they'll do it and
they'll send you stuff by thetime you find you an attorney.
They are.
There are a few okay, accreditedVA appeals agents.
(36:03):
I know two.
Both are pretty good friends ofmine Mr Alex Graham.
He's an accredited VA appealsagent, non-attorney practitioner
, so he can practice at thecourt.
He's pretty good at what hedoes too.
Alex comes on the show all thetime and just listen to him.
You guys really enjoy it.
That one is Wes McCauley out ofGeorgia.
Same thing, you know they bothlined up with the law group and
(36:25):
they both, you know they'repretty good.
You know they're both on the.
You know they know what they'redoing.
Wes is a young guy but he'shell on wheels.
He's my friend, I know himpretty well, you know, and he's
good at what he does.
We've had them both on the show.
We'll name you more often,right, ray?
(36:45):
There you go.
No, I'm just kidding.
Anyhow, they can actually dothe same thing.
So if they're yourrepresentative, they can help
you in court.
Same thing they have anattorney working with them, so
you're not losing any power toyour claim.
Maybe he can explain a littlebetter.
It's always good to get help.
(37:06):
Do not go to court by yourselfBecause, they said, the man who
represents himself in court is afool.
That's what the old saying is,right, ray?
Ray Cobb (37:19):
I've heard that all my life.
J Basser (37:22):
Yep, and you've been around a few years Longer with
me.
Ray Cobb (37:26):
I have more than you.
J Basser (37:28):
Okay.
So you get that situation done.
You go to court.
You know the court's prettycool, I mean, you'll get to sit
there and they'll file it andthey'll file.
Your group will file a briefand the VA will file a brief and
you file a rebuttal and theyfile a rebuttal and you file a
secondary brief and they file abrief.
Then you file a rebuttal andthey file a rebuttal.
Then you file a secondary briefand they file another brief.
It's all a bunch of briefs.
They got more briefs than thiswhole mess and a bag of Hanes
(37:48):
underwear.
So that's what it is and it's anegotiation.
You know they try to figuresomething out and they try to
work it out before it goes tosee the judge and the judge will
make a decision.
In my case, the judge must makea decision and I know I'm right
, so it doesn't matter.
But that's the fun part aboutthe court.
(38:08):
That same thing.
Get back on the main subject forrepresentation of your agents.
Make sure you like your agentsand things like that and you
guys get along.
I think the better you getalong and the more that you guys
keep each other abreast ofwhat's going on.
Make sure that you're on thesame page If you're on the same
(38:29):
page and you guys know what'sgoing on and the agent is
willingly working your claim andhe knows what to look at.
Or the VSO he's got access toVBMS.
He keeps you abreast of what'sgoing on.
Hey, you got a decisionyesterday.
You're not going to see it justyet, but you got denied.
We're working on it right nowto see what we can do.
(38:49):
Before you even get on to VAgovand look at it, or before you
get the letter of mail probably10 or 15 days ahead of time, you
already know what you've gotLiving gadgets better today than
what it was 20 years ago.
20 years ago you'd go out tothe mailbox and drop that full
Form 526 in.
We're talking about that stackof thick paper, all your stuff
on hand written out.
(39:09):
You stick that sucker in a bigenvelope, you take it, you know,
and you put it in the mailbox.
It sends it off.
Personally I wouldn't do itanyway, but you know some people
do that.
It's on Friday.
On Monday afternoon, before themailman runs, you put your
rocking chair on the porch andyou sit there with binoculars
(39:30):
and start watching the mailbox.
We call that bird dog in themailbox.
I've seen people do that formonths at a time before they got
their paperwork.
Had you, ray.
Ray Cobb (39:41):
I have.
Matter of fact, I know it tookyou a while, but before I won my
first claim, my first decisionwas eight years, yeah, and
several appeals and several.
Finally, back then, we had atraveling medical board and I
ended up going to the travelingmedical board in order to win my
(40:03):
first case of Agent Orangeexposure at Fort McKillop,
alabama.
J Basser (40:15):
You won number two, Ray.
Ray Cobb (40:18):
Yeah, number two in the country.
J Basser (40:20):
I called him number two.
I won at.
Ray Cobb (40:21):
Fort McKillop.
I call him number two.
He won at Fort McClellan.
J Basser (40:24):
The first veteran to be awarded for aging orange
exposure based on exposureinside the continent of the
United States, Mr James Cripps.
He was a game warden down inFort Jackson.
Is that where he's at?
He's in Fort Jackson, wasn't he?
No, Fort Gordon, Fort Gordon,okay, Fort Gordon, Okay.
(40:44):
Ray was number two.
He was awarded out of FortMcFarland and James was a game
warden.
Ray was a photographer and theyhad a little Vietnamese-looking
village.
I guess they bought and theywere practicing you know doing
stuff in that village.
(41:05):
Guess they bought and they werepracticing you know doing stuff
in that village and they werespraying it all the time.
And that's how he got.
That's how he got that intraining.
And so he got it and he had togo to bva to win his and, uh, he
had a bad agent guys, bad rep,and one word just about caused
him to not get it.
They were sitting there in thehearing and the judge asked
(41:32):
directly are you talking aboutpresumptive exposure or are you
talking about direct exposure?
That representative just aboutsaid presumptive and that would
have stopped it right there,said presumptive and that would
have stopped it right there.
Ray Cobb (41:45):
Yeah, if James and I had not spoken up, we both, at
the same time, said no directexposure, Because what I had to
prove was the old saying thatthey had in journalism, which I
had a background in, was who,what, when, where, why and how?
And that's what I had to provewith direct exposure in order to
(42:08):
win the case.
I had no choice but to do that,just because there was no
evidence that Agent Orange wasbeing used at Fort McKellips
except for those of us thatactually saw it used, because
they kept it pretty well underwrap.
J Basser (42:28):
We didn't use Agent Orange outside Vietnam, Ray.
Ray Cobb (42:31):
Right, I know that I've heard that so long, but if
it hadn't have been for acaptain.
When I was about to photographone of the exercises at that
village, the captain said oh, webacked up.
They're fixing to spray AgentOrange and that's some bad stuff
.
So we backed up on the hillside.
These two guys came in wearingthree tanks.
(42:53):
Both of them were and they werespraying on the ground in the
area of and then it was my jobto get to the angle and to get
photographs that that captainwanted.
It was my job to go down andwalk through the area where I
(43:17):
was sprayed and it got on mypants leg, it got on my shoes
and it was obvious that it wasthere.
I just didn't know what it was,nor did I know the effect it
would have back then.
J Basser (43:36):
That leads me to a good point.
Ray, you go for vets, you know,I mean there's a lot of you out
there, listen up If you havegot an issue and say are going
for air that, but you never wentto the sandbox or you know,
play with Miss Kitty over thereand so you were in training here
and say you were exposed to abunch of stuff.
(43:58):
So you and you come down withsomething.
You can't use the presumptivebecause you weren't over there.
You can't use presumptive.
You still got an avenue.
You still file a direct serviceconnection claim.
Basically your burden's more.
You have a harder burden toprove because you got to prove
it, but you can do it.
It doesn't tell you you can'tfile a claim.
(44:21):
You just make sure that you gotto understand just from
presumptive and basically directservice connected.
And if, say, you file a claimfor a presumptive issue and you
meet the criteria, the VAschedules you for a C&P exam and
(44:42):
they start looking at becausethere's different C&P exams
You've got C&P exams for a levelof severity and you've got
initial C&P exams they startasking crazy questions about
where you're at and things likethat and what you're exposed to
and things like that.
Is it service connected?
It could be a no-no Because ifyou have a presumptive condition
, I think they can concede thatexposure on there and do a level
(45:05):
of severity.
And I've seen a lot of thatstuff challenged lately.
I've seen some crazy stuff, alot of it's confusion and things
like that, I think.
But we don't want everything tobe as discombobulated as it can
be and sometimes it gets prettybad shape.
Remember, even though youweren't in the sandbox or the
(45:27):
same thing, you weren't inVietnam and you exposed the
agent orange, you can directservice connection Any agent
orange issue direct serviceconnection.
Ray Cobb (45:36):
That was an interesting part of mine, john.
I remember I had diabetes.
I've been diagnosed withdiabetes.
I was under the VA care becauseI didn't have any other medical
insurance and I'm in the ER andmy blood sugar is over 300.
And they're trying to get itdown.
And this doctor comes in and hesays where were you in Vietnam?
(45:59):
I said I wasn't in Vietnam.
He said you weren't in Vietnam.
I said no.
So he sat there and he flippedthrough several pages of my
charts for the previous severalmonths and he said well, let me
ask you a question when did youget exposed to Agent Orange?
(46:20):
I said oh, that's easy toanswer.
I was at Fort McKellar Mountain, bama, the chemical training
center.
It's not only where theytrained officers how to use it,
terry, and then they showed themhow to use it and they used it.
And he said well, you need togo back to Building 8 and file a
claim for direct exposure toAgent Orange at Fort McKellips,
alabama.
(46:41):
As soon as I let you go, andthat's what I did.
I didn't really know what I wasdoing.
J Basser (46:49):
That's the guy that put you in touch with the Ashton
City Terror no, that wasanother doctor up at Vanderbilt
I had.
Ray Cobb (47:02):
My claim has been in for about, oh, I guess, three or
four years and I've been deniedthe pill, denied the pill and
everything.
And I was up in Vanderbilt totalk with this doctor, who
specialized in chemicals, and Itried to get which I did a
(47:24):
letter stating that it was aslikely as not that my diabetes
was caused by my exposure toAgent Orange while on active
duty at Fort McKellar.
And that's exactly the way heworded it.
Key words there was as likelyas not.
He wasn't going to say it did,but he wasn't going to say that
(47:44):
it didn't.
We left his office and he toldme there's a guy I want you to
talk with, his first name's,james.
I'm going to try to get him tocall you.
Well, supposedly just a fewminutes later he walked out and
went down the elevator and theelevator door opened and there
(48:05):
stood James and James says hegrabbed him and brought him in
and says you need to talk tothis guy and gave him my name
and my number and James calledme that night and that's how we
met and that's how it all gotstarted.
J Basser (48:19):
A small world, isn't it?
Yeah, a small world.
Ray Cobb (48:23):
Yeah, same place same time it happened mysteriously,
mm-hmm.
J Basser (48:27):
Sure do.
You wouldn't believe how ithappens about Tennessee.
I don't know why, but it does.
I could tell you the story.
You wouldn't believe it aboutTennessee.
But now here comes the milliondollar question and I've been
(48:48):
talking to James and other folksand this is also.
Now here comes themillion-dollar question.
I've been talking to James andother folks and this is also in
Tennessee.
I'm not going to say names andlocations but I know rumor has
it.
There's a certain VSO countyVSO that gave some bad
information out and done somenefarious stuff to a couple of
vets, that didn't do the rightsubmissions and held on to some
claims and things like that, andfrom what I understand, that
(49:12):
veteran's got him sued.
Have you heard that, ray?
Ray Cobb (49:15):
Well, I have.
I think that it was yesterdayor maybe the day before
yesterday.
There's steps you've got to gothrough.
First you have to notify themthat they're going to be sued
got to go through.
First, you have to notify themthat they're going to be sued
and I think the day beforeyesterday the mayor in that
county, around 4 o'clock when itwas signed for, received a
(49:37):
letter stating that they wereabout to be sued.
But if they wanted to settleout of court they could with a
certain figure, and now it's await to see what they're going
to do.
That happens all the time, butso far this is the first time
I've known of that.
(49:59):
from the beginning, this veteranand a couple of his buddies
made sure that they kept properdocumentation so that this VSO
cannot say I didn't say that orI didn't do that, and I'm
talking telephone callrecordings and emails and other
(50:20):
people that happen to be presentwhen things were said.
And most of the time that theseVSOs they'll tell you something
, like the gentleman today.
When I asked him, I said wasanybody in the office when this
lady told you that you would bebetter off to file an appeal
than to do a hearing?
(50:43):
He said no, it's just her, andI and I just flat told her I
wanted a hearing.
He said no, it's just her, andI and I just flat-toed her I
wanted a hearing.
He said she finally filled outthe paperwork but she tried
three or four times to talk himout of it.
Now I don't know really why.
It's nothing off of her back.
They get an idea.
(51:07):
It's their thinking method orwhatever.
J Basser (51:08):
They get an idea.
You know it's their thinkingmethod or whatever.
They get an idea and it couldbe wrong.
I mean, probably is.
But you know the human factor indealing with claims has a big
effect on veterans because youknow they're only human, they're
going to make mistakes.
Now they blame a lot of stuffon mistakes and training and
(51:28):
things like that, and you know Ican see that as far as your sex
period, I can't see it, youknow.
I mean, because you have a lotof mistakes, you're supposed to
have a certain group in place tohelp alleviate those mistakes
and improve, continuousimprovement.
That's the game, the name ofthe game for QS, right?
So I think a lot of mistakesthey make are, how do you say,
(51:53):
evisceral type mistakes.
I don't know if they're thingsthat are blamed on, mistakes
that are not, and you never know.
I mean, of course you get theright people and do the right
investigation and figure it out,but somebody's holding the
purse strings.
As I always say, it's not newmoney, it mean, of course you
get the right people and do theright investigation, figure it
out, but somebody's holding thepurse strings.
As I always say, it's not newmoney, it's.
You know, just go toIndianapolis and count the cars
(52:16):
on the racetrack as they comedown around the track.
They're going to get inaccidents and things like that
and they're going to get kickedoff.
Well, if somebody gets back onthe track, everybody keeps the
same number of cars.
But you know it's the samething.
One gets off, one gets on.
Only difference you're going tohave is the DIC payments,
things like that, you know.
So I mean it's not totally newmoney, you know the smaller
(52:36):
portion of it is.
So I don't know what they'recomplaining about.
You know, the only budgetissues I've got to worry about
is health care, the VBA budget,building, maintenance and things
like that, you know, and otherstuff, salaries.
But the veterans' money itselfis a little bit different.
So you understand that.
(52:56):
You know they make a lot ofmoney.
They make a lot of money backon insurance too.
You know charging co-pays andstuff like that, you know.
Or charging veterans insurancefor stuff and we'll do a show in
a couple weeks on chargingveterans for co-pays or car
charging or insurance forservice conditions too.
They come to a halt.
They don't do that.
(53:17):
I didn't use Agent Orders in theUS either, but you know how
that works out right.
Don't get me wrong, I'm notanti-VA guys.
I enjoy it.
I've got a good team.
It's actually not anti-VA guys.
I mean you know I enjoy it.
I've got a good team.
It's actually helped me a lot.
Va, I appreciate everything youdo for me.
Some of these are old regionaloffices.
I mean you know you can pickone.
I like to see a grading scalethat the veterans can have and
(53:38):
have it publicized.
You know, as the reviews ofeach regional office as far as
what they do, and regionaloffice as far as what they do,
and you know timeless and thingslike that and how far behind
they are.
And you know their success rateand Social Security judges have
it.
Why can't they?
You know they've got their ownlittle.
You know they've got their ownlittle bit of scale out there.
You know this guy here is 22%,this guy here is 15%.
(54:01):
You know how it is.
So I mean it's all you knowwe've.
So I mean it's all you know wegot to keep score somehow, some
way and we don't want to betreated like mushrooms.
But remember something, guys Inclosing I want to say this you
know you got the right to selectrepresentation, whether it be
VSO agent, attorney or whateveryou have the right to fire one
(54:24):
too.
Before you fire an attorney, becareful, because they got any
skin in the game and they workedat it and you fire them, then
they're still going to get theirmoney, so you might be paying
double.
You know what I mean, right?
I do so, remember that I'mserious.
(54:44):
You know these guys, they'revery inept at getting their
money and so, but you can firethem.
I've done it.
Of course, I haven't doneanything since AMA, but I've had
to get rid of some stuff and dosome changes.
My first claim I thought I didit myself.
After I spent two yearslearning all the regs and
(55:06):
reading and memorizing stuff, Iwon my first claim using my ref
as a secretary.
That's basically how I did it.
You know, if I need somethingturned in, I'll let them do it.
But the first go-around waskind of rough.
I had a really, really, reallygood in there and it cost me 14
years, and so I still have a badtaste in my mouth about that
(55:31):
bunch.
I'll still never support them,and ray knows who I'm talking
about.
Do what, you're right so do yeah, well, other than that, you
know, that's one thing.
Ray Cobb (55:41):
going back to what you said earlier at the beginning
of the show guys, I don't knowhow you can do it.
If you're my age 76, you knowI'm just learning still new
stuff today about a computer.
I have somebody helping me onmy web page to getting it set up
properly.
But the most important thing isthat you need to get yourself
(56:04):
informed.
You need to know about whatyour rights are.
You need to know about whatyour rights are.
You need to know about whatyour disability is.
You need to make sure you havethe diagnosis, not just what you
say or what your wife says, butyou have a doctor's medical
diagnosis.
You've got to put all of thattogether and understand how that
works and understand the 38 CFRcode that regulates your
(56:29):
condition.
And you also need to takeanother step further and
understand what the percentageof disabilities that that should
give you.
Don't go thinking you're goingto get a hundred percent from
diabetes, because you won't.
You're lucky if you get 60.
J Basser (56:46):
You're lucky to get 20 .
Ray Cobb (56:47):
And you're very, very lucky for those few that get 100
.
So you know, usually the onesthat get 100 are the ones who,
if I remember, reading the 38CFR code I haven't read it
recently, but you have to belimited to your amount of
movement after taking a minimumof three shots a day.
(57:13):
So you have three shots a day.
Then the doctor says you can'tget up and move more than this
or you can't do more than thatextreme limitation activities.
J Basser (57:25):
Speaking of these, I fired a letter off today, guys,
to our 6th District Congressmantoday.
I wore that we did some stuffwith the letter.
I explained to him that if youhave diabetes, especially if
you're service-connected and youhave hypoglycemic events and
say you have a Dexcom or aFreestyle on your arm, it's got
(57:48):
alarms on it and say you dropdown at nighttime, whatever, and
you drop down in the 30s or 40sor 50s or whatever, and the
alarm goes off that allows yourwife or significant other,
spouse or caregiver to take careof you, to help get some food
down your throat or drink orwhatever, in order to bring it
back up a little bit to get yougoing.
Well, back in the day there wasno alarms, okay, before these
things came out.
And what happened?
(58:09):
The veteran would get lower andlower and lower and by the time
they'd get there they'd be inthe hospital.
That's one of the criteria forthe veteran for a higher rating
for diabetes is hospitalizationsbecause of hypoglycemia.
Now, with the devices that arehere right now, the VA is saving
a whole lot of money becausethey're saving a lot of
(58:29):
veterans' lives not going to thehospital, it's keeping them out
of the hospital, because ifyou're a service-next-free
diabetes, the VA is probablygoing to pay for it, but if
you're not in the hospital,they're not paying that big bill
.
They might have to go to thehospital.
But so I sent a letter out toCongress.
We're going to ask them to lookinto it and see if they can do
something about it, because eventhough those things are keeping
(58:50):
you out of the hospital, you'restill having the issues.
It's about health, not aboutnumbers.
You follow me.
Ray Cobb (58:57):
I do, because you and I both have experienced being
awakened in the middle of thenight.
J Basser (59:04):
Oh yeah, More than one time.
Ray Cobb (59:05):
We're talking dozens of times You're supposed to go
get coke.
Yeah.
Yeah, it happens a lot so.
J Basser (59:12):
I mean best thing to do is don't ever get diabetes
folks.
You'd be a whole lot better off.
And if your doc tells you thatyou're borderline diabetic,
start eating right, stay awayfrom it, because once you get it
and once you get it bad we knowa lot of folks that's got it
bad, and I tell you what I mean.
It's something new every weekgoing on with these folks.
(59:32):
You know what I mean, right, Ido, especially when they start
whittling you, especially whenthey start cutting off your feet
and your toes.
So listen, guys, we're out oftime.
I do want to appreciate youlistening and watching.
I want to thank you for joiningus.
I do appreciate you listeningand watching.
I want to thank you for joiningus.
We'll be back again next weekand we'll have another show.
We'll probably bring an agenton, maybe James Cripps.
(59:52):
We can bring him on and pick it.
Bring a little bit.
He's always interesting tolisten to.
I want to thank Ray for comingon and helping to be our co-host
and I want to thank you guysfor listening and we appreciate
everything you do.
And with that, this will beJohn J Basher, on behalf of Mr
Ray cup.
We'll be signing off for now.
And today is the eighth day of May 2025.
Of course, mr Ray Cobb, he willjoin us shortly.
He's kind of tied up in someright now.
So I want to thank everybodyfor listening, tuning in and
watching on the old YouTube.
We appreciate you very much.
You can also listen to the showon other venues, such as Apple
(00:21):
Podcasts and some other places.
We decided to do a differenttype of show today.
I belong to several groups anda couple of Facebook groups, and
I keep seeing a lot of stuff onsome of these groups that kind
of cringes you a little bit.
(00:41):
It's about representation andthings like that, and you know
what happens if this happens indifferent scenarios, and we're
going to do a show and basicallytalk about that representation.
And I think Ray just made it in.
Give me a second, folks, let'sput him in here.
Put him in here.
I believe he's here.
(01:03):
I think he's getting all workedup.
I believe he's here.
I think he's getting all workedup.
I believe he's coming in.
Anyhow, we're going to discussdifferent issues about
representation and how to choosea representative and what to do
in case you get one that you'renot satisfied with.
I want to start off the firstthing I want to do is explain
what representation is.
(01:25):
When you file a VA claim, youknow you file it yourself.
If you want to.
On a 21-5-26 EZ, you file yourinitial claim and they'll ask
you would you like to haverepresentation?
You know, in the VSO, which isthe Veterans Service Officer,
there's a list of them they canchoose from and you can pick.
You know you can pick theAmerican Legion or the DAV or
whoever you know that you wantto use.
(01:46):
Usually it doesn't take long todo it at all.
It's just giving them the powerof attorney over your claim so
they can run interference foryou and help you do stuff.
Their services are cost free.
They don't charge you nothing,which is good.
You're starting out with thiscrap and you got a lot of.
You know if you're a regularvet and you're disabled, you're
(02:08):
pretty sure you got.
You know your financialsituation may not be the best in
the world, so it kind of givesyou a free alternative to get
some help.
And but there are certainthings that I want to recommend
you do before you select one ofthese organizations to help you.
To help you, and it'll make youa lot happier in the long run.
I know it'll make me a lothappier and my partner Ray there
, speaking of Ray, how you doing, ray?
Ray Cobb (02:30):
I'm doing good.
How are you?
J Basser (02:32):
I'm doing good, buddy, I'm doing really good.
We should get started on theshow here.
I'm going into therepresentation part now.
Vso Veterans Service Officerswho work for the state level or
for the American Legion or theDisabled American Veterans.
They are service officers, okay, and they're accredited through
(02:53):
their different entity, likethe American Legion or the DAV
or whatever, and they have toknow what they're doing to a
certain extent and they have beable to.
You know, do your claim andknow how to track your claim.
Uh, biggest thing that I lookat is accreditation.
(03:13):
Make sure they're credited,make sure that they do that.
You know if they have theireducation credits.
They're supposed to have somany done per year, but uh,
really don't worry about it toomuch.
But the biggest issue that Isee and that I see veterans face
is uh, once you get theaccreditation, the VA's got a
system called the VeteransBenefit Management System, or
VBMS, that allows yourrepresentative to actually look
at your claim in real time and,instead of everybody wondering,
(03:36):
you know what's going on with myclaim or this and that you know
, as long as you have goodrepresentation, who's willing to
look at it, then you know theycan look at it and tell you
where it's at in real time.
Some do and some, you know,won't do it.
It all depends on, because ifyou put two and two together and
you look at the services, youlook at it and say, okay, this
(03:57):
guy's the FO, he's pretty goodat what he does, but you look at
his workflow, he's probablybusy.
Because I mean, if you're goodlike that and you've got that
service, you're probably poundedbecause their veterans told
their buddies about you.
And next thing you know, you'reprobably buried in VA claims.
You ever heard that, ray?
I have, yeah.
(04:18):
So when you get buried in VAclaims, that's not a good thing.
So I see a lot of issues on theboards too, to where somebody
says I don't need to be a soul,I'm going to do this all by
myself.
That's good and well and fineand dandy.
But if you're going to do thisby yourself, you need to do one
of two things.
First thing you need to do islearn VA law to a certain extent
(04:42):
.
Second thing you need to do islook at Title 38, part 3 and
Part 4, and you need to figurethat out and know what's wrong
with you and what the VA does toadjudicate it.
Because if you go in here andyou don't understand this, then
they're going to make short workof you and it's supposed to be
non-adversarial.
But, as I said last week, thefirst thing you look at is your
(05:03):
character discharge.
That's kind of an automaticline.
You know you've got a bad paperdischarge and that's about
auto-denial.
Same thing Social Security.
If you find a Social Securitydisability still working, that's
kind of a no-no too.
So you know, I've never seenanybody get approved still
working.
I've seen some people getapproved that were working out
(05:24):
of desperation but not actuallyworking.
But anyhow, that covers that.
So if you select your VSO andyour representative you need to
write this down you make surethey're accredited, that's first
and foremost.
Make sure they have access toBVMS.
If they don't fund somebodyelse, because you're going to be
(05:44):
stuck in the mud if you don't.
And some places got some prettydeep mud, quicksand mud or
whatever, and if somethinghappens to your claim and
something happens that gets itoff the rails, say it's a little
bit, has a little issue ofcomplexity with it and it gets
off the rails, I'm going to tellyou it could take you years to
(06:04):
get it back on the rails.
And if you get a denial and youappeal to the denial and you
get another denial and you go toa supplemental claim to get
another denial and you go to theBoard of Vets to appeal and
you're a younger person thatdoesn't have an ability to
advance on the docket, you canwait up to four or five, six
years or longer, depending onyour you know certain you know
situation longer depending onyour you know certain you know
(06:27):
situation.
So I know some folks have saidI know one guy just got ready
last year.
It was going since 2002.
So you know that's a long timeand it took me 14 years to go
get my current level.
Okay.
But the accreditation is veryimportant.
Make sure your claim is ontrack.
You know your VA SO should beable to tell you what you need
(06:48):
and things like that.
He has access to your record.
He can help you find stuff.
Let's go with disagreements.
Say you got a VA, so that'sreally busy and work, work, work
.
And you know you've got alittle bit of computer knowledge
.
You know you can go into VAgovand you can navigate around a
little bit to see what's goingon.
I suspect if you don't know howto do it, learn it.
(07:08):
And if you're up in your 60s,like I am, you know you can
still learn it, especially ifyou've got a grandchild or
someone in the house that is ateenager, and teenagers can make
a computer talk and they canhelp you right through it.
You know, get you through it.
But anyhow, make sure younavigate a little bit and say
you got a disagree.
Say you filed a claim, you tookthe claim into your VSO and you
(07:32):
had six issues, six items, andyou want to file the claim.
It's okay.
Well, you were.
Basically, you had an intent tofile and you gave it to him,
you started filing the claimsand then you find out later on
down the road, maybe six, sevenmonths later, they only followed
one of the six and the otherfive had been touched.
I saw this the other day on oneof the boards I'm not going to
say which one, but I'm like ohno, that's what I mean.
(07:56):
Oh no.
And one guy wanted to put extraevidence in on a supplemental
claim and he said the VSO wasused to do it.
And that's another red flag forme.
You know if you've got buddystatements and things like that
or different things you want toput in to help support that
claim.
On a supplemental claim you canadd new evidence.
(08:17):
So if you don't want to do it orthe VSO don't want to do it, I
would sit back and send an emailto your VSO and say, here,
here's what I'm doing.
I'll go on to VAgov and I'lllog up and you can get into the
claim and you can actuallysubmit evidence.
You can click on that.
You can have your stuff scannedin and send it right in.
You can.
It's not hard to do.
Tell your VSO you did it.
You know those other six issuesand those six items that
(08:39):
wouldn't submit it, I'd do ityourself.
Do whatever it takes.
You know, because regardless ofhow the VSO, you know if they
make a mistake or whatever,regardless if it gets past the
appeal date or the appeal periodand you miss it, you're out of
luck, even though, because whatthey're saying, if you don't
appeal a claim to the ACN, youagree with me.
(09:00):
That's what they're saying.
You know, and that's kind oflike a.
You know, it's a silent.
No, you know, and that's whatthey're saying and you don't
want that to happen.
I don't want to happen either,you know.
I mean, we're looking out forthe veteran, I'm looking out for
other stuff.
Just what you do If you have todo it.
You know you tell your bitch,oh sorry, where.
(09:26):
I'm going back 30 years doingthis.
Okay, I've seen certaininstances where VSO gets just
totally discombobulated, comesin, glued, something happens,
whether it's a medical problemor something like that, and they
just fall off the face of theearth.
You know it happens a lot.
You know A lot of organizationsuse these VSOs.
(09:47):
Some of these guys are elderly,some of them have, you know,
health conditions.
The same things happen.
You know I've known three orfour of this.
You know they passed away andleft a whole bunch of climates
around not knowing what's what,and it takes a while to catch
back up.
So but then if you don't getalong with the VSOs, you have
(10:11):
got options.
The VAgov website maintains alist of all VSOs and all
attorneys, updated to a certainextent, you know, because they
have to keep updating.
It might be two months behind,but still they're there.
It's got contact information,phone numbers.
You can do VSOs from anyorganization as long as you know
, like I said, as long as you dothe qualifications on them and
they're accredited for theinitial claim, they can take
(10:33):
over and the VA will take careof the paperwork.
You know you don't have to haveone removed.
They can take over the document, takes over and does auto
removal.
But you can still cast the ageand remove them and tell them
why.
There's no money involved witha VSO.
Or you can do basically what Idid and what some other folks
(10:54):
have done.
You can go through this Ifyou're in the pill process and
you've got a VSO and you don'tthink he's doing what he's
supposed to be doing.
It wouldn't matter if you're inthe HLR lane, supplemental lane
, heading to the BVA or whatever.
You go down that list and lookat all the certified, accredited
appeals agents.
There's several of them outthere now but basically it's all
(11:17):
they do and I know several ofthem.
We've had them on the showbefore and that's what these
people do full time.
That's their livelihood.
You know, if they don't wintheir claim, they're had them on
the show before and that's whatthese people do full-time.
That's their livelihood.
You know, if they don't wintheir claim, they're not getting
paid with your pills and sothey've got a little more skin
in the game and you know.
Plus, they know a lot ofdifferent things.
You know we've got some peoplethat have a lot of specialty
(11:38):
areas like high-level specialmonthly compensation and things
like that and you know theythrive in those settings and of
course they pick and choose alittle bit on their clientele
because you know they kind ofwork a lot more with veterans
that are eternally ill or in badshape that their spouses will
be.
You know basically thebeneficiary, the DIC and accrued
(11:59):
benefits, because a lot of it'smorbid in that situation.
But there's several of them outthere and I know a couple
that's retiring.
Go down the list to find you agood one.
You can ask on the sites.
You know who's who Look them up.
We've got you know each state'sgot a few of them now and you
(12:20):
know they're busy.
But still you know if you're inthe appeal process and you
really want to see what's goingon, talk to them.
They'll look at yourinformation documentation.
They'll make a decision whetherto accept you or not and you'll
talk to them and see it mightcost you 20% of your back pay
but it depends on where you'reat and what level you're at as
(12:40):
far as how much back pay you'llget or whatever your claim.
If you've got something goingback years and years.
It might be beneficial to do it.
But some people say don't everget a paid representative.
Well, I see no problem with it.
It's just 20%.
If you do it and you don't win,then you get nothing.
(13:01):
I'd rather get 20, you know, 80percent of nothing, 80 percent
of an award, than get nothing,then have to fight back 10 more
years and get it.
Of course it makes the moneydifferent.
You know, that's my personalopinion.
I mean other people can.
Then you know that everybody'sgot their own opinion.
What do you think right?
What do you think about agents?
(13:22):
Do you think it's beneficial?
Ray Cobb (13:23):
well, I think today now not necessarily when, when I
won my case, which is now 15years ago, but I think today,
with the way the va is handlingthings, I think you have no
choice.
I mean, I've seen guys this thelast two weeks been denied.
(13:44):
Their denial letter comes in.
It's not the type, it's just abunch of cut and paste and
garbage that doesn't even relateto their case and they don't
even give them the reason as towhy they didn't qualify or why
they were denied.
And when you get into thosetype of things, that's when you
need to reach out and get you anagent to represent you, and I
(14:07):
agree with you, it needs to besomeone that's a part of NOVA.
They'll take 20%.
I think that's a good ongoingtype thing.
Don't go out and get some ofthese guys, like we call them,
long sharks, you know, or anyway, they come up and they try to
say well, we charge six monthsback pay.
(14:30):
That's not right.
You know you do a 20 percent or25 percent based on how hard it
is and how much work's got tobe done.
But you know, even just thelast 48 hours, I've had two guys
call me that have been deniedand yet they don't know why
they're denied because theyreally didn't tell them.
(14:51):
And I had one guy call me andhe had been reduced from 70% to
50% and he had to go to thefield service office.
And folks, they're going to tryto talk you out of getting an
adage.
They're going to try to talkyou.
You know they want to handle itbut they're not trained to
handle it.
They really don't know what inthe world is going on.
(15:12):
One localist told the gentlemantoday that he didn't need to
file an appeal.
Well, let me tell you somethingIf you really know that you
have that condition, there's noreason you cannot file,
shouldn't file, not an appeal,but a file for a hearing.
(15:32):
And if you were saying, oh,appeal it, appeal it, it'll be
faster.
Hearings are taking two orthree years, yeah, but with a
hearing it's not reduced.
Until you have that hearing, ifit's reduced at all, and if
you've got the medicaldocumentation that your
condition still exists and isthe same or has worsened, then
(15:55):
you go and you ask for a hearing.
I don't care if it takes twoyears or not.
The gentleman I was working withtoday the reason that it looks
like he has not seen a VA doctorin over a year.
So they assumed that he wasdoing better and that's why they
reduced him.
But he has been seeing localdoctors and paying for it out of
(16:17):
his company's insurance.
Now that brings up anothertopic when it comes to this type
of thing.
Now that brings up anothertopic when it comes to this type
of thing, because the VA todaynot when I was there, but the VA
today they are not allowed totake an outside doctor's
information and put it into yourmedical records unless that
(16:38):
doctor had been approved andgone through the VA community
care program.
So this guy has gone to adoctor, he's gone to an
orthopedic, he's gone to achiropractor, has letters from
both.
He sees a chiropractor twice amonth.
He's on a bunch of medication.
But they reduced him because hehad not been going to see a VA
(17:00):
doctor.
So the county service officertoday told him no, no, you don't
need a hearing, you need toappeal.
He doesn't need to appealbecause when you do an appeal
you cannot add any additionalevidence.
So if that evidence is going tothe other doctor, he's not in
his file.
He can't submit it.
(17:21):
He can only submit it if hedoes a supplemental claim.
You can't do it.
He can only submit it, if hedoes a supplemental claim.
J Basser (17:27):
You can't do it in hlr , you know, you know.
I mean, you don't have tochoose hlr, you can go straight
to supplemental.
Yeah, that's your choice right,exactly, exactly.
Ray Cobb (17:35):
So you know.
My instruction to him was toask for a hearing to start with.
It's taking three to four yearsto be able to have the hearing.
He will stay at that same levelfrom then.
And she told him well, if youlose, you're going to have to
pay it back, I told him.
I said don't worry about it,because you got all the
documentation and you'll havemore by the time you get to that
(17:56):
hearing.
And the conditions go to worsenby then.
I said so don't you know?
Don't worry about payinganything back.
And even if you do, the maximumthat they can hold is 25% of
what you're receiving.
I don't know if you were awareof that or not, but in any case,
(18:17):
let's say he's receiving $500.
They can only keep back $100 amonth until the bill is caught
up in breaking even.
So there's more reasons to gofor the hearing.
Your chances are better to winand you can present the evidence
to which, if you do an appealor if you do some other type of
(18:43):
a higher level review, you'renot allowed to add any
additional evidence.
But you can walk in there andshow them the doctor's notes,
you can show them x-rays, youcan show them doctor's
appointments and you can havethe doctor's write a 4138, a
(19:03):
letter of statement of what yourcondition is, and you can
present all of that at thehearing.
And you cannot do that if youfile due to the other.
Yeah, go ahead.
J Basser (19:14):
Go ahead, Ray.
I'm motioning something else.
Go ahead.
Ray Cobb (19:18):
I'm just keeping track of your questions.
Okay, so it's going to benefithim because he gets to stay at
his existing level and he getsto go back and have a hearing
and present evidence where hewas seeing his chiropractor and
a local orthopedic in order toprove that his condition has
(19:43):
worsened.
Now, what I did recommend tohim he has a primary care doctor
.
She sees her twice a year.
I said you need to get yourprimary care doctor to send you
for evaluation with anorthopedic to see if anything
could be done to help that kneeor see a physical therapy or you
know where they may send you tophysical therapy or something.
(20:05):
I said you need that in yourrecords, in your VA records,
because when they're looking atthis they're not going to pay
any attention to any outsiderecords.
They're only going to payattention to VA records and I
think you and I discussed theother day between us that they
have about 10 to 15 minutes oneach claim that they work.
(20:26):
So in my case I have more than6,000 pages of notes.
You know, not tests, not otherthings, just notes.
There's no way in the worldthey can go back and read those
notes or search that many notesand make a decision in 10 or 15
minutes.
So my recommendation to himtoday and keep that in mind,
(20:46):
guys.
But to go back to what you weresaying earlier, john, I feel
that in today's world that it'sbest that if you've been denied
that the next thing you need todo is get you a good agent and
quit fooling with it and appealit.
You can go from a straightdenial straight to the board.
(21:08):
You don't have to ask for ahigher level of view.
You don't have to ask for anyof that.
You can appeal directly to theboard, and I'm not for sure
that's you know you might.
Here's what an agent can dothat you and I couldn't do.
Here's what an agent can dothat you and I couldn't do, or
what a regular veteran can't do.
An agent can call the regionaloffice and talk to the manager
(21:32):
over that section and if he seeswhere some things have been
done incorrectly, they can getthat manager to agree that those
were done incorrectly.
Now you need to file asupplemental claim because that
manager is aware of it and it'sgoing to go a lot faster than
(21:52):
going before the board.
But if you haven't got an agent, you cannot do that.
J Basser (22:02):
So yeah, I've been on my soapbox for a little while
here well, listen, guys, if youdo get a proposed reduction,
okay, keep in mind, depends onhow long you held that rating.
That didn't include increases.
I'm talking about the originalrating.
Say, say you had hypertensionand uh.
(22:23):
Or let's go heart disease andsay you've had the 30 percent of
heart disease for 20 years.
Okay, so you filed an increase10 years ago and got an increase
of 60 percent.
Well, that 30 percent increase,that can be reduced even though
you haven't 10 years.
So there's protections forratings involved.
I mean 20 years.
They cannot reduce you for yourrating unless there's been
(22:47):
fraud involved, and that I'vehardly ever seen it happen.
It does happen.
Basically, there's a 10 yearprotection too.
You know, one exam is not goingto get you reduced.
You have to do several exams.
But in his situation Ray'stalking about this guy saw
outside providers and the VAdidn't have documentation.
So I'd been to a VA provider so.
So they looked at it and did alittle review on him.
(23:08):
Now did he file a claim, ray,or an increase or something like
that, to get his file to beopened back up, or was it just
an automatic review?
Ray Cobb (23:17):
Yeah, here's another thing he did.
He filed a claim for ruptureddisks military connected.
Now, when he was in the MarineCorps he actually jumped off the
back of a tank and hurt hisback, sprained his back, twisted
it, and he's been havingproblems ever since.
(23:38):
Now here was a catcher theysent and in their remarks of
that they said there's noevidence that this is military
connected.
However, he has his medicalrecords from when he was in the
Marine Corps and he was actuallyput on bed rest for five days
during that time before he wasallowed to return to light duty
(24:03):
for two weeks before he went toheavy duty.
And all this, along with thex-rays and everything is in his
medical records while he wasstill on active duty.
So how they said that thiswasn't related to active duty is
just flack.
They didn't look for it.
J Basser (24:21):
How long did they have the rating?
You know?
Ray Cobb (24:24):
Well, he hadn't had that rating, he had never turned
in that rating, the previousrating he had had for four or
five years.
He had never turned in this newrating for his back.
J Basser (24:35):
Now listen, guys, if you have a rating that's not
permanent total, what they'regoing to do is they're going to
schedule you a re-examinationafter like five years and
they're going to send you backfor a re-examination.
They're going to open your fileand look at it your department
probably won't do it unless youinitiate the claim and ask for
an increase or something elseand it opens up your entire
record to be reviewed.
(24:55):
I've seen a lot of reductionsbased off that.
Now, this guy he needs to goahead and do a supplemental
claim.
This guy he needs to go aheadand do a supplemental claim.
He don't need to be in the queuefor an HLR because HLR, you're
not allowed to add evidence.
He does not need to go to theBoard of Veteran Appeals and do
a direct docket review because,again, you cannot add evidence.
(25:17):
If you do that, you're just.
You know you're out of luck,but you're going to have to
either go through a full boardhearing or a full board panel,
or you're going to have to do asupplemental claim.
You can't have that evidence inthe supplemental, you can send
it in and that will probably fixthe problem, right, uh and that
should be a lot faster process.
Um, remember that guys.
Uh, if you're doing high levelreview hlr you guys especially
(25:40):
you guys are especially the hansolos that are doing solo If you
have to go to appeal processand you want to do an HLR, make
sure you got a pretty tightclaim.
You can't submit no newevidence or they're going to use
the same exact evidence theydenied you on you know that case
.
If you got new evidence, gosupplemental lane.
If you've got all your evidence, you think you're going to win.
(26:05):
I would skip the whole processand go straight to the direct
docket review.
That's the fastest BVA route,even though sometimes it works,
sometimes it doesn't.
I had a failure here back lastyear and we're still at the
court, so we'll see how thatgoes and I'll let everybody know
.
But that's kind of an issueLike again, your agents and your
BSOs that are accustomed todoing this should be able to
(26:28):
help you and advise you what todo and tell you what's what you
know.
They should be able to help you.
It's OK, we have to do this.
You know that's something I canexplain to you.
It kind of gets both doors backin the water because if you got
a VA claim.
You got one on the water.
You're going to go aroundcircles back in the water
because if you got a va, claimyou get one on the water.
Ray Cobb (26:48):
You're gonna go around circles.
That's true, right, yeah,you're right.
And one thing that you know italways depends, as you will know
, as to where you live.
There's some places where yourvso's are very, very good.
They not only go through theirstraight training, they a lot of
times will actually get someinformation and do some reading
(27:09):
and research on their own, andthose type of guys are very
helpful.
I know that we have one likethat in bedford, county
tennessee.
Uh, he's very, very good, he'svery thorough and he knows what
he's doing.
But he has learned it on hisown and seeing what has taken
(27:31):
place over the years.
Then you have others that followthe direct words that are put
into their mouth from the stateservice office and say, like
we're not supposed to takeanyone over 100 percent, or well
, you don't need to appeal, youneed to do this.
(27:53):
You know you need to ask for ahigher level review first.
That's the way to go, thosetype of information.
Let me ask you if you gotsomebody just think about this
If you are working for somebodyand you make a decision and
somebody outside of your officecalls your boss and says you
(28:18):
know you need to review this guy.
He's not doing his job.
Don't you think that manager isgoing to support you first
Unless it's pretty obvious inBlayton but that manager is
going to support you so withthat high-level review.
All you're doing is going to themanager of the guy that made
(28:41):
the decision.
Now, that's a high-levelreviewer.
J Basser (28:46):
They've got a system, now right, that's a high-level
reviewer.
Yeah, they may talk about it.
They've got a system now right,You've got a high-level
reviewer.
They move it to a differenttotal, different RO.
Now they go to Jacksonville orsomewhere in Florida and
somewhere else.
They don't stay in the same ROanymore.
It goes to a high-levelreviewer, which basically is a
DRO.
Ray Cobb (29:11):
That's the process now , but, if I understand correctly
, that individual calls theagent that made that decision
and discusses where and why hecame up with that decision
before he returns it, or changesit Right.
J Basser (29:20):
And that situation you guys, the DROs are pretty.
I mean, they're pretty good,you know.
And fortunately I mean thatsituation, the DROs are pretty
good, fortunately.
I'm just going through theprocess myself, but they moved
to another location and kickedin a bunch more exams.
That process is not too bad,even if you go supplemental and
(29:41):
you get denied a supplementalclaim.
You can kick that back over toan HLR.
The DRO will look at it again.
If you follow me, you know somepeople.
They see the wait times at theBoard of Veterans Appeals and
they shriek it's six, sevenyears before I can get there,
you know.
And what's going to happen?
(30:01):
You're going to go throughthere as a board and you're
going to wait six or seven years, right?
All of a sudden, boom, it'syour hearing day.
Yeah they're going to defer itback to the region anyway.
You're going to get a remand.
Yeah, they're going to remandit back, guess where.
They're going to remand it backto Same guy that did it before,
if he's still employed.
That's what we call the hamsterwheel.
(30:22):
Ain't that right, ray?
That's it, that's a hamsterwheel.
You're like a little mouse in acage.
Back in the day, before westarted dealing with the AMA, we
had the old appeals and oldlegacy system.
You had the BBA and then youhad the appeals management
center.
They'd send the claim overthere and they'd remand it there
(30:43):
.
They'd stack them up in thisroom right there and they'd sit
there and all of a sudden theywould take it from the Pills
management center and they'dtake it back and forth to the
BBA.
It's just like they're throwingbaseball.
I know one guy was back andforth 12 different times.
You believe that 12 times I do?
I do yeah.
(31:04):
Of course you believe that 12times I do, I do yeah.
And so of course they.
You know I mean it's.
They say it's improvedtremendously.
I'm going to say the wait timehas actually never improved.
As a matter of fact, they'vegotten worse With, especially
when they piled on the PACT Actand the Blue Water Navy Act and
(31:25):
all this other stuff and allthese other veterans came into
the limelight.
Then they came up with adirective.
They had to.
You know they wanted to do allthe legacy things first before
the AMA stuff got done.
And I know a couple guys arestill waiting on board decisions
from legacy claims, you know.
So it can be a pain in the buttExcuse my French, but the
derriere, I'll say it that waybut your agent again, or your
(31:50):
BSO, should be able to help youwith this and advise you
correctly on where it's layingto go.
Now.
The third group that we haven'ttalked about yet is say you
don't want to use an agent, sayyou don't want to use a PSO, say
somebody told you well, I usethis attorney here man.
(32:10):
He's a high-powered guy, he'sgoing to help me out.
Yeah, take care of it, send himyour stuff.
Well, you have that option touse an attorney.
When you contact the attorney,first thing they do they look at
your claim.
They can look at it.
You give them permission tolook, they'll look at it.
They can pull it up.
(32:33):
They give them three or fourdays to look at it and they'll
contact you.
I've seen this so many times.
Everybody gets excited Well,I've got this attorney, I'm
going to get this attorney.
All of a cannot represent you atthis time, and it's not because
you got a bum claim or a badclaim, you know, and there's
attorneys out there left andright, believe me.
You file a case to the FederalCircuit, to the CAVC or CDAC
(32:56):
court.
You're going to be bombarded.
Your mailbox is going to bebent over double with mailers
from the attorney groups.
I'm talking.
Everyone in the country isgoing to be bent over double
with mailers from the attorneygroups.
I'm talking.
Everyone in the country isgoing to be emailing you or
sending you stuff and you talkto them, see if they want to
help you out.
But attorneys have an issue to,where a lot of them look at the
whole thing.
They look at the big picture.
(33:17):
You know agents don't reallylook at the big picture because
they know they're going to get20% or whatever.
Well, attorneys usually get 33%of stuff.
You know that's what they do,but it depends too.
Now, if this is a BBA case,yeah, you know, you see, that
stuff Court's a little bitdifferent.
Now they look at all your stuffand they look at how far back
you can go and they say, well, Idon't know If this guy wins,
he's only going to get so muchmoney and worth our while doing
(33:46):
this.
You know, and it happensBasically.
We call it cherry picking.
You ever heard of that term,ray?
Ray Cobb (33:50):
Yeah, that's a term.
I like to look, you know theother thing on that same.
You know, going on with that,you got to remember that
attorney.
He may be doing some things,not just with VA.
He may be doing some thingswith Social Security.
He may be working with aninsurance company.
(34:13):
He may be on their payroll asan advisor.
There's other things that he'sdoing.
So, unlike an agent, heprobably is not going to pay a
whole lot of attention to yourcase unless it's pretty old and
he thinks you're going toreceive a considerable amount of
(34:36):
back pay.
So that's the kind of way thatkind of falls into Just be aware
of that.
J Basser (34:45):
It reminds me of the movie I filmed back in Tennessee
years ago with Matt Damon andDanny DeVito.
That's this young guy who wasan attorney and his interest
couldn't approve this guy'streatment for leukemia and he
died.
He got him sued.
Devito was not really anattorney, he hadn't passed the
bar exam yet, but he was trying.
He was the front man.
Every time there was a wreck.
(35:05):
He'd go to the wreck because hehad the police radio and he'd
be at the hospital waiting onthe guy to get there.
Ray Cobb (35:15):
They got those all over California and Florida,
don't they?
J Basser (35:19):
Everywhere, man Everywhere.
But that's one thing.
You can find an attorney tohelp you, you know.
I mean, you got a lot of yourgroups out there, you know, but
it's just up to them whetherthey say they'll represent you
or not.
You know, it's kind of acrapshoot.
Now say you get past the BVAand you get a BVA denial.
(35:42):
Okay, who do you select as arepresentative then?
Okay, you do the same thingwith court.
You do pay the dollar figure orwhatever, and they'll do it and
they'll send you stuff by thetime you find you an attorney.
They are.
There are a few okay, accreditedVA appeals agents.
(36:03):
I know two.
Both are pretty good friends ofmine Mr Alex Graham.
He's an accredited VA appealsagent, non-attorney practitioner
, so he can practice at thecourt.
He's pretty good at what hedoes too.
Alex comes on the show all thetime and just listen to him.
You guys really enjoy it.
That one is Wes McCauley out ofGeorgia.
Same thing, you know they bothlined up with the law group and
(36:25):
they both, you know they'repretty good.
You know they're both on the.
You know they know what they'redoing.
Wes is a young guy but he'shell on wheels.
He's my friend, I know himpretty well, you know, and he's
good at what he does.
We've had them both on the show.
We'll name you more often,right, ray?
(36:45):
There you go.
No, I'm just kidding.
Anyhow, they can actually dothe same thing.
So if they're yourrepresentative, they can help
you in court.
Same thing they have anattorney working with them, so
you're not losing any power toyour claim.
Maybe he can explain a littlebetter.
It's always good to get help.
(37:06):
Do not go to court by yourselfBecause, they said, the man who
represents himself in court is afool.
That's what the old saying is,right, ray?
Ray Cobb (37:19):
I've heard that all my life.
J Basser (37:22):
Yep, and you've been around a few years Longer with
me.
Ray Cobb (37:26):
I have more than you.
J Basser (37:28):
Okay.
So you get that situation done.
You go to court.
You know the court's prettycool, I mean, you'll get to sit
there and they'll file it andthey'll file.
Your group will file a briefand the VA will file a brief and
you file a rebuttal and theyfile a rebuttal and you file a
secondary brief and they file abrief.
Then you file a rebuttal andthey file a rebuttal.
Then you file a secondary briefand they file another brief.
It's all a bunch of briefs.
They got more briefs than thiswhole mess and a bag of Hanes
(37:48):
underwear.
So that's what it is and it's anegotiation.
You know they try to figuresomething out and they try to
work it out before it goes tosee the judge and the judge will
make a decision.
In my case, the judge must makea decision and I know I'm right
, so it doesn't matter.
But that's the fun part aboutthe court.
(38:08):
That same thing.
Get back on the main subject forrepresentation of your agents.
Make sure you like your agentsand things like that and you
guys get along.
I think the better you getalong and the more that you guys
keep each other abreast ofwhat's going on.
Make sure that you're on thesame page If you're on the same
(38:29):
page and you guys know what'sgoing on and the agent is
willingly working your claim andhe knows what to look at.
Or the VSO he's got access toVBMS.
He keeps you abreast of what'sgoing on.
Hey, you got a decisionyesterday.
You're not going to see it justyet, but you got denied.
We're working on it right nowto see what we can do.
(38:49):
Before you even get on to VAgovand look at it, or before you
get the letter of mail probably10 or 15 days ahead of time, you
already know what you've gotLiving gadgets better today than
what it was 20 years ago.
20 years ago you'd go out tothe mailbox and drop that full
Form 526 in.
We're talking about that stackof thick paper, all your stuff
on hand written out.
(39:09):
You stick that sucker in a bigenvelope, you take it, you know,
and you put it in the mailbox.
It sends it off.
Personally I wouldn't do itanyway, but you know some people
do that.
It's on Friday.
On Monday afternoon, before themailman runs, you put your
rocking chair on the porch andyou sit there with binoculars
(39:30):
and start watching the mailbox.
We call that bird dog in themailbox.
I've seen people do that formonths at a time before they got
their paperwork.
Had you, ray.
Ray Cobb (39:41):
I have.
Matter of fact, I know it tookyou a while, but before I won my
first claim, my first decisionwas eight years, yeah, and
several appeals and several.
Finally, back then, we had atraveling medical board and I
ended up going to the travelingmedical board in order to win my
(40:03):
first case of Agent Orangeexposure at Fort McKillop,
alabama.
J Basser (40:15):
You won number two, Ray.
Ray Cobb (40:18):
Yeah, number two in the country.
J Basser (40:20):
I called him number two.
I won at.
Ray Cobb (40:21):
Fort McKillop.
I call him number two.
He won at Fort McClellan.
J Basser (40:24):
The first veteran to be awarded for aging orange
exposure based on exposureinside the continent of the
United States, Mr James Cripps.
He was a game warden down inFort Jackson.
Is that where he's at?
He's in Fort Jackson, wasn't he?
No, Fort Gordon, Fort Gordon,okay, Fort Gordon, Okay.
(40:44):
Ray was number two.
He was awarded out of FortMcFarland and James was a game
warden.
Ray was a photographer and theyhad a little Vietnamese-looking
village.
I guess they bought and theywere practicing you know doing
stuff in that village.
(41:05):
Guess they bought and they werepracticing you know doing stuff
in that village and they werespraying it all the time.
And that's how he got.
That's how he got that intraining.
And so he got it and he had togo to bva to win his and, uh, he
had a bad agent guys, bad rep,and one word just about caused
him to not get it.
They were sitting there in thehearing and the judge asked
(41:32):
directly are you talking aboutpresumptive exposure or are you
talking about direct exposure?
That representative just aboutsaid presumptive and that would
have stopped it right there,said presumptive and that would
have stopped it right there.
Ray Cobb (41:45):
Yeah, if James and I had not spoken up, we both, at
the same time, said no directexposure, Because what I had to
prove was the old saying thatthey had in journalism, which I
had a background in, was who,what, when, where, why and how?
And that's what I had to provewith direct exposure in order to
(42:08):
win the case.
I had no choice but to do that,just because there was no
evidence that Agent Orange wasbeing used at Fort McKellips
except for those of us thatactually saw it used, because
they kept it pretty well underwrap.
J Basser (42:28):
We didn't use Agent Orange outside Vietnam, Ray.
Ray Cobb (42:31):
Right, I know that I've heard that so long, but if
it hadn't have been for acaptain.
When I was about to photographone of the exercises at that
village, the captain said oh, webacked up.
They're fixing to spray AgentOrange and that's some bad stuff
.
So we backed up on the hillside.
These two guys came in wearingthree tanks.
(42:53):
Both of them were and they werespraying on the ground in the
area of and then it was my jobto get to the angle and to get
photographs that that captainwanted.
It was my job to go down andwalk through the area where I
(43:17):
was sprayed and it got on mypants leg, it got on my shoes
and it was obvious that it wasthere.
I just didn't know what it was,nor did I know the effect it
would have back then.
J Basser (43:36):
That leads me to a good point.
Ray, you go for vets, you know,I mean there's a lot of you out
there, listen up If you havegot an issue and say are going
for air that, but you never wentto the sandbox or you know,
play with Miss Kitty over thereand so you were in training here
and say you were exposed to abunch of stuff.
(43:58):
So you and you come down withsomething.
You can't use the presumptivebecause you weren't over there.
You can't use presumptive.
You still got an avenue.
You still file a direct serviceconnection claim.
Basically your burden's more.
You have a harder burden toprove because you got to prove
it, but you can do it.
It doesn't tell you you can'tfile a claim.
(44:21):
You just make sure that you gotto understand just from
presumptive and basically directservice connected.
And if, say, you file a claimfor a presumptive issue and you
meet the criteria, the VAschedules you for a C&P exam and
(44:42):
they start looking at becausethere's different C&P exams
You've got C&P exams for a levelof severity and you've got
initial C&P exams they startasking crazy questions about
where you're at and things likethat and what you're exposed to
and things like that.
Is it service connected?
It could be a no-no Because ifyou have a presumptive condition
, I think they can concede thatexposure on there and do a level
(45:05):
of severity.
And I've seen a lot of thatstuff challenged lately.
I've seen some crazy stuff, alot of it's confusion and things
like that, I think.
But we don't want everything tobe as discombobulated as it can
be and sometimes it gets prettybad shape.
Remember, even though youweren't in the sandbox or the
(45:27):
same thing, you weren't inVietnam and you exposed the
agent orange, you can directservice connection Any agent
orange issue direct serviceconnection.
Ray Cobb (45:36):
That was an interesting part of mine, john.
I remember I had diabetes.
I've been diagnosed withdiabetes.
I was under the VA care becauseI didn't have any other medical
insurance and I'm in the ER andmy blood sugar is over 300.
And they're trying to get itdown.
And this doctor comes in and hesays where were you in Vietnam?
(45:59):
I said I wasn't in Vietnam.
He said you weren't in Vietnam.
I said no.
So he sat there and he flippedthrough several pages of my
charts for the previous severalmonths and he said well, let me
ask you a question when did youget exposed to Agent Orange?
(46:20):
I said oh, that's easy toanswer.
I was at Fort McKellar Mountain, bama, the chemical training
center.
It's not only where theytrained officers how to use it,
terry, and then they showed themhow to use it and they used it.
And he said well, you need togo back to Building 8 and file a
claim for direct exposure toAgent Orange at Fort McKellips,
alabama.
(46:41):
As soon as I let you go, andthat's what I did.
I didn't really know what I wasdoing.
J Basser (46:49):
That's the guy that put you in touch with the Ashton
City Terror no, that wasanother doctor up at Vanderbilt
I had.
Ray Cobb (47:02):
My claim has been in for about, oh, I guess, three or
four years and I've been deniedthe pill, denied the pill and
everything.
And I was up in Vanderbilt totalk with this doctor, who
specialized in chemicals, and Itried to get which I did a
(47:24):
letter stating that it was aslikely as not that my diabetes
was caused by my exposure toAgent Orange while on active
duty at Fort McKellar.
And that's exactly the way heworded it.
Key words there was as likelyas not.
He wasn't going to say it did,but he wasn't going to say that
(47:44):
it didn't.
We left his office and he toldme there's a guy I want you to
talk with, his first name's,james.
I'm going to try to get him tocall you.
Well, supposedly just a fewminutes later he walked out and
went down the elevator and theelevator door opened and there
(48:05):
stood James and James says hegrabbed him and brought him in
and says you need to talk tothis guy and gave him my name
and my number and James calledme that night and that's how we
met and that's how it all gotstarted.
J Basser (48:19):
A small world, isn't it?
Yeah, a small world.
Ray Cobb (48:23):
Yeah, same place same time it happened mysteriously,
mm-hmm.
J Basser (48:27):
Sure do.
You wouldn't believe how ithappens about Tennessee.
I don't know why, but it does.
I could tell you the story.
You wouldn't believe it aboutTennessee.
But now here comes the milliondollar question and I've been
(48:48):
talking to James and other folksand this is also.
Now here comes themillion-dollar question.
I've been talking to James andother folks and this is also in
Tennessee.
I'm not going to say names andlocations but I know rumor has
it.
There's a certain VSO countyVSO that gave some bad
information out and done somenefarious stuff to a couple of
vets, that didn't do the rightsubmissions and held on to some
claims and things like that, andfrom what I understand, that
(49:12):
veteran's got him sued.
Have you heard that, ray?
Ray Cobb (49:15):
Well, I have.
I think that it was yesterdayor maybe the day before
yesterday.
There's steps you've got to gothrough.
First you have to notify themthat they're going to be sued
got to go through.
First, you have to notify themthat they're going to be sued
and I think the day beforeyesterday the mayor in that
county, around 4 o'clock when itwas signed for, received a
(49:37):
letter stating that they wereabout to be sued.
But if they wanted to settleout of court they could with a
certain figure, and now it's await to see what they're going
to do.
That happens all the time, butso far this is the first time
I've known of that.
(49:59):
from the beginning, this veteranand a couple of his buddies
made sure that they kept properdocumentation so that this VSO
cannot say I didn't say that orI didn't do that, and I'm
talking telephone callrecordings and emails and other
(50:20):
people that happen to be presentwhen things were said.
And most of the time that theseVSOs they'll tell you something
, like the gentleman today.
When I asked him, I said wasanybody in the office when this
lady told you that you would bebetter off to file an appeal
than to do a hearing?
(50:43):
He said no, it's just her, andI and I just flat told her I
wanted a hearing.
He said no, it's just her, andI and I just flat-toed her I
wanted a hearing.
He said she finally filled outthe paperwork but she tried
three or four times to talk himout of it.
Now I don't know really why.
It's nothing off of her back.
They get an idea.
(51:07):
It's their thinking method orwhatever.
J Basser (51:08):
They get an idea.
You know it's their thinkingmethod or whatever.
They get an idea and it couldbe wrong.
I mean, probably is.
But you know the human factor indealing with claims has a big
effect on veterans because youknow they're only human, they're
going to make mistakes.
Now they blame a lot of stuffon mistakes and training and
(51:28):
things like that, and you know Ican see that as far as your sex
period, I can't see it, youknow.
I mean, because you have a lotof mistakes, you're supposed to
have a certain group in place tohelp alleviate those mistakes
and improve, continuousimprovement.
That's the game, the name ofthe game for QS, right?
So I think a lot of mistakesthey make are, how do you say,
(51:53):
evisceral type mistakes.
I don't know if they're thingsthat are blamed on, mistakes
that are not, and you never know.
I mean, of course you get theright people and do the right
investigation and figure it out,but somebody's holding the
purse strings.
As I always say, it's not newmoney, it mean, of course you
get the right people and do theright investigation, figure it
out, but somebody's holding thepurse strings.
As I always say, it's not newmoney, it's.
You know, just go toIndianapolis and count the cars
(52:16):
on the racetrack as they comedown around the track.
They're going to get inaccidents and things like that
and they're going to get kickedoff.
Well, if somebody gets back onthe track, everybody keeps the
same number of cars.
But you know it's the samething.
One gets off, one gets on.
Only difference you're going tohave is the DIC payments,
things like that, you know.
So I mean it's not totally newmoney, you know the smaller
(52:36):
portion of it is.
So I don't know what they'recomplaining about.
You know, the only budgetissues I've got to worry about
is health care, the VBA budget,building, maintenance and things
like that, you know, and otherstuff, salaries.
But the veterans' money itselfis a little bit different.
So you understand that.
(52:56):
You know they make a lot ofmoney.
They make a lot of money backon insurance too.
You know charging co-pays andstuff like that, you know.
Or charging veterans insurancefor stuff and we'll do a show in
a couple weeks on chargingveterans for co-pays or car
charging or insurance forservice conditions too.
They come to a halt.
They don't do that.
(53:17):
I didn't use Agent Orders in theUS either, but you know how
that works out right.
Don't get me wrong, I'm notanti-VA guys.
I enjoy it.
I've got a good team.
It's actually not anti-VA guys.
I mean you know I enjoy it.
I've got a good team.
It's actually helped me a lot.
Va, I appreciate everything youdo for me.
Some of these are old regionaloffices.
I mean you know you can pickone.
I like to see a grading scalethat the veterans can have and
(53:38):
have it publicized.
You know, as the reviews ofeach regional office as far as
what they do, and regionaloffice as far as what they do,
and you know timeless and thingslike that and how far behind
they are.
And you know their success rateand Social Security judges have
it.
Why can't they?
You know they've got their ownlittle.
You know they've got their ownlittle bit of scale out there.
You know this guy here is 22%,this guy here is 15%.
(54:01):
You know how it is.
So I mean it's all you knowwe've.
So I mean it's all you know wegot to keep score somehow, some
way and we don't want to betreated like mushrooms.
But remember something, guys Inclosing I want to say this you
know you got the right to selectrepresentation, whether it be
VSO agent, attorney or whateveryou have the right to fire one
(54:24):
too.
Before you fire an attorney, becareful, because they got any
skin in the game and they workedat it and you fire them, then
they're still going to get theirmoney, so you might be paying
double.
You know what I mean, right?
I do so, remember that I'mserious.
(54:44):
You know these guys, they'revery inept at getting their
money and so, but you can firethem.
I've done it.
Of course, I haven't doneanything since AMA, but I've had
to get rid of some stuff and dosome changes.
My first claim I thought I didit myself.
After I spent two yearslearning all the regs and
(55:06):
reading and memorizing stuff, Iwon my first claim using my ref
as a secretary.
That's basically how I did it.
You know, if I need somethingturned in, I'll let them do it.
But the first go-around waskind of rough.
I had a really, really, reallygood in there and it cost me 14
years, and so I still have a badtaste in my mouth about that
(55:31):
bunch.
I'll still never support them,and ray knows who I'm talking
about.
Do what, you're right so do yeah, well, other than that, you
know, that's one thing.
Ray Cobb (55:41):
going back to what you said earlier at the beginning
of the show guys, I don't knowhow you can do it.
If you're my age 76, you knowI'm just learning still new
stuff today about a computer.
I have somebody helping me onmy web page to getting it set up
properly.
But the most important thing isthat you need to get yourself
(56:04):
informed.
You need to know about whatyour rights are.
You need to know about whatyour rights are.
You need to know about whatyour disability is.
You need to make sure you havethe diagnosis, not just what you
say or what your wife says, butyou have a doctor's medical
diagnosis.
You've got to put all of thattogether and understand how that
works and understand the 38 CFRcode that regulates your
(56:29):
condition.
And you also need to takeanother step further and
understand what the percentageof disabilities that that should
give you.
Don't go thinking you're goingto get a hundred percent from
diabetes, because you won't.
You're lucky if you get 60.
J Basser (56:46):
You're lucky to get 20 .
Ray Cobb (56:47):
And you're very, very lucky for those few that get 100
.
So you know, usually the onesthat get 100 are the ones who,
if I remember, reading the 38CFR code I haven't read it
recently, but you have to belimited to your amount of
movement after taking a minimumof three shots a day.
(57:13):
So you have three shots a day.
Then the doctor says you can'tget up and move more than this
or you can't do more than thatextreme limitation activities.
J Basser (57:25):
Speaking of these, I fired a letter off today, guys,
to our 6th District Congressmantoday.
I wore that we did some stuffwith the letter.
I explained to him that if youhave diabetes, especially if
you're service-connected and youhave hypoglycemic events and
say you have a Dexcom or aFreestyle on your arm, it's got
(57:48):
alarms on it and say you dropdown at nighttime, whatever, and
you drop down in the 30s or 40sor 50s or whatever, and the
alarm goes off that allows yourwife or significant other,
spouse or caregiver to take careof you, to help get some food
down your throat or drink orwhatever, in order to bring it
back up a little bit to get yougoing.
Well, back in the day there wasno alarms, okay, before these
things came out.
And what happened?
(58:09):
The veteran would get lower andlower and lower and by the time
they'd get there they'd be inthe hospital.
That's one of the criteria forthe veteran for a higher rating
for diabetes is hospitalizationsbecause of hypoglycemia.
Now, with the devices that arehere right now, the VA is saving
a whole lot of money becausethey're saving a lot of
(58:29):
veterans' lives not going to thehospital, it's keeping them out
of the hospital, because ifyou're a service-next-free
diabetes, the VA is probablygoing to pay for it, but if
you're not in the hospital,they're not paying that big bill
.
They might have to go to thehospital.
But so I sent a letter out toCongress.
We're going to ask them to lookinto it and see if they can do
something about it, because eventhough those things are keeping
(58:50):
you out of the hospital, you'restill having the issues.
It's about health, not aboutnumbers.
You follow me.
Ray Cobb (58:57):
I do, because you and I both have experienced being
awakened in the middle of thenight.
J Basser (59:04):
Oh yeah, More than one time.
Ray Cobb (59:05):
We're talking dozens of times You're supposed to go
get coke.
Yeah.
Yeah, it happens a lot so.
J Basser (59:12):
I mean best thing to do is don't ever get diabetes
folks.
You'd be a whole lot better off.
And if your doc tells you thatyou're borderline diabetic,
start eating right, stay awayfrom it, because once you get it
and once you get it bad we knowa lot of folks that's got it
bad, and I tell you what I mean.
It's something new every weekgoing on with these folks.
(59:32):
You know what I mean, right, Ido, especially when they start
whittling you, especially whenthey start cutting off your feet
and your toes.
So listen, guys, we're out oftime.
I do want to appreciate youlistening and watching.
I want to thank you for joiningus.
I do appreciate you listeningand watching.
I want to thank you for joiningus.
We'll be back again next weekand we'll have another show.
We'll probably bring an agenton, maybe James Cripps.
(59:52):
We can bring him on and pick it.
Bring a little bit.
He's always interesting tolisten to.
I want to thank Ray for comingon and helping to be our co-host
and I want to thank you guysfor listening and we appreciate
everything you do.
And with that, this will beJohn J Basher, on behalf of Mr
Ray cup.
We'll be signing off for now.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!