June 17, 2025 • 53 mins
Leah teams up with VA attorney Rebecca Deming to break down the often overwhelming process of filing a VA disability claim. Drawing on their extensive experience, they walk viewers through everything from basic eligibility, required documentation, and types of claims, to practical tips for filling out forms and what to expect after filing. The discussion highlights common mistakes, recent changes in VA procedures, and why it’s important to ask for help from free accredited sources like VSOs rather than paying unnecessary fees. With straightforward explanations, clear examples, and a focus on demystifying the system, this video is an invaluable guide for veterans who want to confidently start or improve their VA disability claim process.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Leah Bucholz (00:06):
Guys. It's Leah Bee from Prestige Veteran
Medical Consulting. I'm a USArmy veteran, physician
assistant, and formercompensation and pension
examiner. Today I have RebeccaDeming from ProVet Legal on to
kind of go over some reallyimportant topics about filing VA
disability claims. So for thoseof you that don't know her,
she's done a lot of greatcontent with us and brings a
wealth of knowledge to the tablefrom the legal and
(00:30):
administrative side of VA claimsrelated matters.
Rebecca, do you want to justgive them a quick intro to who
you are and your experience?
Rebecca Deming (00:40):
Rebecca Deming, I own ProVet Legal. It's a law
firm that specializes in helpingveterans and their dependents
access VA disability benefits. Iam married to a Navy veteran and
I spent about a decade, a littlebit longer, working with
military in different capacitiesoverseas and in The U. S. So
(01:04):
happy to be here supporting ourveterans and helping you guys
navigate this very complexsystem.
Leah Bucholz (01:10):
Yeah. So let's just jump right in. So filing a
disability claim can be supercomplex and confusing because
there's different things thatyou can file for, whether it's
an appeal or a new claim or anincrease or whatever. There's
different ways that you can filefor a claim and so Rebecca is
gonna try to make this a littlebit easier to like take in and
(01:34):
make it maybe less overwhelmingfor some of you guys because
there are a lot of tools outthere if you can access them and
know where to access them thatcan kind of take this burden a
little bit and make it a littlebit lighter for you. So I think
the first thing that we wantedto go over was about
eligibility.
So how can someone determinetheir eligibility for even
filing a claim?
Rebecca Deming (01:54):
So first of all, obviously you have to be a
veteran and you have to havedischarge that is other than
dishonorable. So even sometimesan OTH and other than honorable
discharge might qualifydepending on the circumstances
and VA will look into that.That's called a character of
discharge determination. So ifyou have a general or an
(02:17):
honorable discharge, you're goodto go. Administrative discharge,
if you have an other thanhonorable, there's going be some
extra level of scrutiny, butit's not a total bar.
If you have a dishonorabledischarge, you want to try to
find, I mean, you might, itmight be a full bar, but if
there's circumstances aroundthat related to your PTSD or,
misunderstandings with yourcommand or, something else,
(02:38):
there are attorneys whospecialize in helping people get
their discharge upgraded. Sothat might be worth spending
some money on because thelifetime of benefits that you
can get from accessing this ifyou're eligible is well worth
the upfront investment.
Leah Bucholz (02:53):
For sure.
Rebecca Deming (02:54):
So that's the first thing. And then the second
thing is you have to have adisability, which is really kind
of any sort of medical conditionfor the most part. I mean,
obviously there's exceptions toeverything, but it doesn't have
to be like an amputation or aserious head injury. It could
be, but it could also begastroesophageal reflux
(03:15):
disorder, GERD, or migraines, orIBS, or arthritis. So you have
to have a current disability.
Know a lot of people say like,Oh, had COVID in the military,
so therefore I should claim thatnow or something. I was exposed
to something in the military, soI get an automatic claim. Have
(03:38):
to have a current disability.The fact that something might
develop later down the linedoesn't entitle you to benefits.
You don't have to have all ofthe proof.
Some people are like, Well, Ineed to have everything lined
up. It's like, no, you just kindof have to, you know, there's
some companies out there thatwill tell you just throw
everything against the wall andsee what sticks. I think people
should do some internal personalaudit on do they have a
(04:00):
disability and do theylegitimately think that there's
some reason why this might beconnected to service? Could be
wrong. You you don't have to beright on the first application,
but, you know, if you were in acar accident last week, and
you're trying to claim that yourinjuries from that car accident
are related to your service tenyears ago, like.
That's not gonna pass the SNFtest.
Leah Bucholz (04:22):
Right, and everything's sort of in context.
There's no black and whiteanswer for everything. And I
actually just did a video onthis a few days ago, sort of
unrelated, but you made me thinkof it, the presumptive within
one year stuff. So people seemto think that if they were
diagnosed with anything withinone year, that's gonna
automatically get serviceconnected, and that's just not
(04:43):
true. So for example, if Iseparated from service three
months ago and I break my leg ina car accident tomorrow, that's
clearly not related to service.
Right? So, there's not not analways or never situation, and
you have to really look into thecontext of that disability.
Presumptive within one year hasits own list anyways that I've
got a video on if you'd like togo take a look at it. But not to
(05:07):
get too far off track, but justas you were saying, Rebecca,
everything has context. Right?
Rebecca Deming (05:12):
Right. And if existing condition, like, those
are usually not serviceconnected unless they were
aggravated during service. Andso, yeah, like you said, there
is nuance there. And so I don'tthink veterans need to get too
bogged down in the weeds on, youknow, is my claim going to win?
I think you just have to havesome kind of like, I put some
(05:33):
thought into this and I thinkthere's a decent chance that
this was caused or aggravated byservice and that I actually have
a condition right now.
You may not have a diagnosis,but you're having these
symptoms. So like, you know, Ihaven't gone to the doctor yet,
but my back hurts a whole lot.Like that may not be enough to
win the claim, but that's enoughto initiate a claim and kind of
trigger VA to look into stufffor you sometimes.
Leah Bucholz (05:56):
So what kind of supporting documentation do you
think is important when you'regetting ready to file a claim?
Rebecca Deming (06:02):
So that's kind of a double edged sword. I mean,
the more prepared that you canbe the better. So if you have
copies of your militarypersonnel records, your medical,
your service treatment records,your post service treatment
records, those statements frombuddies that something happened
(06:25):
in service, your D-two 14, whichwould be part of your military
personnel records. If you haveall of that, you kind of want to
pull together the key piecesthat show that you're eligible,
that you're a veteran witheligible service and an
honorable or general dischargetypically, and as much
supporting evidence to show thatsomething happened in service
(06:47):
and that you have a currentdisability and the two are
related. Like, that would be thekind of the gold standard, but I
think people get bogged down bythat standard and they don't
know where to begin to findtheir DD214.
And so filling out the formitself, you don't have to have
the copy of your DD214. VA has aduty to go get that. And so if
you give them your socialsecurity number and some of the
information on the questions inthe form, they'll go get that
(07:09):
information for you. They'llalso get your service treatment
records, your military personnelrecords. They can also help you
find personal private doctorrecords, but you have to flag
those for VA.
Like, they don't automaticallyknow where you treated. But if
you need help getting thoserecords, I don't think that I
think people get paralyzed bylike, I don't even know where to
(07:30):
begin to find all these records.And so they just don't start
their claims. So if you havethem, that's great. If you
don't, don't worry too muchabout it.
Start with just filling out theform and then if there's holes
that VA can't find stuff,they'll let you know and then
you can focus on getting thoserecords that VA can't find.
Leah Bucholz (07:47):
So I know we've done other videos before on the
different types of appeals buttoday we're gonna kind of focus
on those new claims. So we'retalking about filing, when
you're talking about filing aclaim, whether you're doing it
on behalf of a veteran or aveteran's doing it themselves, I
guess it's important todetermine what type of claim
(08:07):
that they're gonna file becausethere are a few different ones.
Can you touch on that a littlebit?
Rebecca Deming (08:12):
Sure. So there are a few different ones and it
kind of depends on where youare. If you're still in service
and you're within a few monthsof getting out, you can file a
BDD claim, which is basicallyjust giving VA a head start.
(08:33):
Those are great because assumingyour active duty, anything that
gets diagnosed during activeduty service time is almost
automatically going to beconnected. I mean, obviously
there's some of those nuances,but it gives you a head start
and helps kind of develop thatevidence.
If you've already gotten out ofservice, the question is, you
(08:53):
filing your original claim,which is the very first claim
that you've ever filed? Or areyou filing if you filed a claim
like maybe you filed initiallyfor your knees and your back and
then a couple years later you'relike, oh I didn't realize I
could file for sleep apnea andGERD and headaches. So that's a
(09:16):
new claim. It's going be on the526EZ, which we're going to go
over, but it's not your veryfirst original claim. For those,
you don't have to kind of provethat you're a veteran again, you
just have to prove the stuffrelated to those claims.
Or do want do it as well, right?Then there's, you're filing,
(09:37):
like let's say that you'realready service connected for
your knee, but your knee'sgotten a lot worse in the past
ten years, And so you want tofile a new claim for an
increased rating. You're stillgoing use the 526EZ, the new
claim form to file for thatincreased rating, which is
different than if you're, youknow, if you're appealing
something and saying, I disagreewith VA's rating on this because
(09:58):
they missed that it's worse thanit was. If VA got something
wrong, you know, ten years ago,and you want to reopen it
because you've got new evidencethat shows that it's surface
connected or that it's worse,then you're going to file it on
a 20 dash nine ninety five,which is the supplemental claim
form. And so it kind of feelslike a new claim because you're
(10:20):
reopening something, you'restarting from scratch, but
because it's previously beendenied, it's a different form.
And so sometimes people I thinkforget like, hey, you know, they
got out, they filed a wholebunch of stuff. They don't
remember what was granted, whatwas denied. And then ten years
later, they're going to file forstuff again. And so they might
put it on a 5.6EZ, the new claimform and be able to kick it
back. And we see this a lot inveterans like, didn't, you know,
(10:42):
why did I get this kicked back?
It's because you had, you know,ten years ago you'd filed for
headaches, you filed again forheadaches. Can't put that on the
new claim form, you have to putit on a supplemental claim form
and you need new and relevantevidence. So a piece that VA was
missing from the originaldenial.
Leah Bucholz (11:00):
And I don't wanna go too far off on a tangent
here, but I see and I hear, Imean, don't get involved in
this, but I hear veterans often,maybe they filed a claim for
sleep apnea related to burn pitexposure, right? And they get
denied and then they say, oh,I'm gonna file it to my PTSD.
And they think because they'vechanged the theory of the
(11:21):
connection that they're gonnafile another new claim, but
that's not the case. Right,Rebecca? It's it doesn't matter
if the reason or the rationalethat you believe condition x is
related to your service is nowto something else.
It's still not a new claimbecause
Rebecca Deming (11:38):
Right. That would be a supplemental claim.
So the new evidence there mightbe a new theory of service
connection. So, you know, youoriginally thought it was from
your TBI and now you think it'sfrom your burn pits or whatever.
So you're going to send inmedical literature that shows
that it's related to burn pitsor you know, whatever it is.
That's a new theory but it's nota new claim.
Leah Bucholz (11:58):
Right. So what are the ways that, what are the
methods that people can file newclaims?
Rebecca Deming (12:04):
So there's a few ways that you can go about
filing a new claim. You can gointo your VSO and in person
they'll sit down with you and gothrough the paperwork and
whether they'll kind of pull upthe app online and walk you
through it, or give you thepaper and kind of make sure look
over your work and make surethat you're doing it correctly.
That is a great option for a lotof people, especially if this
(12:28):
system just seems overwhelming.They don't charge anything. You
should never pay somebody tohelp you with filing a new
claim.
VA actually prohibits peoplefrom charging money for filing
for new claims. So if someone ischarging you or if they're
saying, I'm going get pushedinto the back pay for filing a
new claim, that's not ethicaland you should look for somebody
(12:50):
who will help you file the newclaim for free. And the reason
for that, at least right now, isthat VA has a duty to assist
Veterans. And there's timeswhere VA gets gets it wrong and
then you need to hire aprofessional to help you correct
VA's errors and you're gonna payfor that, that's fine. If VA is
doing their job and kind ofdoing all the legwork to help
(13:12):
the veteran improve their case,and then there's some claims
agency on the side that'sgetting paid.
That's just not ethicallycorrect. So, you can work with
somebody, an accredited claimsagent of to help you fill out
your initial application. Youcan also do it online. There's
an online form that, not even aform, it's kind of like an
(13:36):
application or, you know, stepby step. It'll walk you through
and answer one question at atime and do drop down boxes and
fill out the form that way.
You can also go online and printout the form and I think we can
walk through that and kind ofanswer some of the common
questions about that form. Andthen if you print that out, can
(13:58):
drop it off at the VSO's office,you can mail it in, you can fax
it in. So you have a fewdifferent options, your kind of
level of tech savvy andcomfortability is, and how much
help you kind of need filling itout. If you're more comfortable
just doing it at 2AM in yourpajamas on your bed, then the
(14:18):
online version might be the bestoption for you.
Leah Bucholz (14:21):
Yeah, so I'm gonna pull that up so veterans can see
sort of where they can go tolook at some of these options.
Not only where they can go tothe options, but a lot of what
Rebecca and I have justdiscussed. Va.gov I think does
an amazing job of having healthdocuments that basically break
down step by step what you needto do. It is so overwhelming,
and I understand that. But,like, if you just use the
(14:42):
resources and go and read it,it's actually pretty simple.
So they break it down like whatwe call Barney style, right, for
those of you old school peoplelike me. So let me add this. So
this is from va.gov. Okay? Sothis website is
va.gov/disability/howto file aclaim.
(15:05):
If you just simply Google how tofile a claim va.gov, right, it's
gonna you're gonna it's gonna beone of your first things that
pop up. Now a lot there's a lotof these agencies out there that
try to use the keywords to getyou sucked into their website.
Just make sure it's a va.govwebsite that is showing you this
information.
Rebecca Deming (15:23):
Great. Thanks for pulling this up, Leah,
because I think, you know,people can see this and, like,
it depending on which landingpage you hit on it might be a
little bit different, but you'reseeing the actual VA emblem.
This is what VA sites look like.
Leah Bucholz (15:38):
Yeah, and then you can even sign in like if you've
got a va.gov account, you cansign in and, start your
application, actually. So we'regonna go over the paper form,
but I think it's reallyimportant for you to understand
that this I'm not gonna read allthis stuff, but just a lot of
what we talked about, learningabout eligibility, learning
(15:59):
about different forms. There's avideo here that VA has made on
YouTube. I haven't checked itout, but it might be helpful.
Evidence, like Rebeccamentioned.
So the online option I havepersonally done because I'm a
veteran, it is superstraightforward. I know it can
seem overwhelming to do it butthey do a really good job of
(16:21):
like step by step. It's not like500 things on the same page.
It's like here's step one and itasks you some basic questions.
It's gonna be the same questionsthat are basically on the paper
application, but don't be afraidto to use it.
You can always hit pause on theapplication also. Once you start
that intent to file, I think youhave, like, three hundred and
sixty five days or whatever tofinish it. Right.
Rebecca Deming (16:43):
Yeah. You don't have to you don't have to have
everything lined up. You cankinda start the application and
then be like, okay. And I'mgonna go gather my medical
evidence or, think through stuffbefore I finish the application.
Leah Bucholz (16:58):
Right. So I'm gonna pull up that form here so
we can so there was a hyperlinkto the paper form. Okay? And
then it takes you here and ittells you when to use the form.
It also gives you a link back tothe online tool, but let's
download this form.
(17:19):
Hang on one second. Let me jumpto Okay, I'm on the fifteenth
page here. Alright. Okay. SoRebecca, I don't know if you
(17:39):
wanna jump in and sort of talkabout just some of these basic
instructions.
It's super important to go over.
Rebecca Deming (17:48):
I'm not gonna read the instructions to people,
but I think the first eightpages of the form are
instructions and they have linksto the sections that they
reference. So some of it'sgeneral information that's kind
of helpful and the differencebetween the different options,
instructions on where to submitit. And then it's got specific
(18:09):
instructions for the differentsections on how to answer the
questions or what they're reallyasking for in those questions.
So, you know, it's eight pagesof super small print, where to
mail it, but it is divided up.You can kind of like reference
back.
I'd probably print that out. Ifyou're working on the paper
(18:31):
form, I'd print it out and putit to the side and then
reference back. If you run intoa section where you're like, how
am I supposed to answer this? Dowe really need that information?
Leah Bucholz (18:40):
Spend like ten minutes, twenty minutes reading
over those parts as necessary.
Rebecca Deming (18:46):
And hopefully this video will sort of I'm not
going to tell you not to readthe instructions, but hopefully
this video will answer a lot ofthe questions so that you can
kind of get through readingthose instructions a lot more
quickly. So, the first questionup at the top, now, upper right
hand corner is for VA. So don'twrite anything where they tell
you not to write stuff.Obviously. The first one is
(19:11):
whether you're doing an FDCprogram standard claim process
IDES or BDD, and that isdescribed up in the
instructions.
IDES is when you're doing amedical board separation, you'll
be instructed if that's the onefor you. The program, like, were
(19:33):
talking about is really great ifyou're still active duty, but
you're getting ready to separatefrom service because they'll
help you develop the evidence. Imean, there's nothing better
than developing the evidence andsending you to medical exams
while you're still in servicebecause how can they say that's
not connected unless it waspreexisting. Most of the time
you're going to want to click.If you're already out of
(19:55):
service, most of the time you'regoing to want to click the fully
developed Claim program thatjust means that.
Either you'll send VA records oralert them to where they are. If
you're the standard claimprocess, VA will kind of go out
of its way a little bit more tohelp you collect your private
(20:16):
medical records, but that'sgoing to add a lot more time to
the processing. Even if youdon't have everything or you
need VA's help getting certainthings, the fully developed
claim program typically is goingto speed stuff up for you.
Leah Bucholz (20:28):
Sure.
Rebecca Deming (20:31):
Okay, then this is kind of your identifying
information. It kind of goeswithout saying you do need to
put your social security numberon this page and then at the top
of every page below. The onequestion that I think is really
important to answer there iswhether this is your first time
filing a claim or not. Becauseit was your first time filing a
(20:52):
claim, You're going to need toput more information in there
because you're triggering. It'sthe first time you're triggering
VA to go find your DD214, findyour service treatment records,
find your personnel records.
And so they need a little bitmore help locating that stuff.
And so there's more questionsdown below that you're going to
have to answer. If you'vealready filled out one of these
forms for your first claim, andnow you're filing claims for
(21:13):
something else, you know, yearor two later, it's okay to skip
over some of the stuff becauseVA already has your branch of
service and where you served andthat kind of stuff. It's when I
keep scrolling down. Change ofaddress that's if you have
changed your address, you wantto add that in.
(21:33):
If your first claim, thenobviously that doesn't even
apply. It's important to keep VAup to date on your address.
There's that box at the top toenter your social security
number. The homelessness sectionVA will process your claim more
quickly if you are homeless orat risk of becoming homeless
because of their commitment tomake sure that all veterans have
(21:57):
stable housing. So, you know,being at risk of homeless could
be you're sleeping on a friend'scouch or you don't have stable
housing or whatnot.
It doesn't have to mean likeyou're, you know, you're living
in a homeless shelter, you know,on the streets. If you're not at
risk of being homeless, youdon't even have to click no to
the top box. You can just skipover the section entirely. The
(22:21):
next section is new. They'veadded this to the form since the
PACT Act came into effect in2022.
I believe I just started seeingthis in the past few months.
Definitely within the past yearthat they've added this on, but
this is because VA willpresumptively link certain
(22:41):
conditions to certain exposures,and even beyond presumptive,
they'll go above and beyond tokind of look into whether on a
facts found basis, certaintoxins caused certain
conditions. They want your help.They'll have your military
personnel records, but they wantyour help identifying if you
served in certain areas. And ifyou did what dates, the more
(23:05):
specific you can be better.
Think you have to be a 100, youknow, you're like, oh, was it
June or July of twenty seventeenthat we deployed? Know, VA is
not going to sit there and go,oh, you lied because you said
July and was actually June. Dothe best you can to fill this
out, But I think with witheverything here, you want to be
(23:27):
honest, but I don't think trap.I think people get paralyzed
because they can't find all thedetails. So they just kind of
start and then stop.
I wouldn't put a note in theresay to the best of my knowledge
or approximately 50 to thisdate, or leave the month empty
and put the year or something ifit was a while ago and you just
(23:48):
don't remember. Have you beenexposed to any of the following?
If you think you have, I wouldclick yes. Most people know
they've been exposed to it to acertain extent. You may not know
what was burning in the burn pitor which chemicals you were
(24:09):
exposed to.
But do your best to answer thesebecause it will help VA do the
extra development to get stuffconnected.
Leah Bucholz (24:15):
Yeah. And if there's if there's other things,
they have a other block. Right?So if you have, you know, like,
Rebecca Deming (24:22):
Fire fighting film, I think, isn't on there.
Leah Bucholz (24:26):
Fast exposure or if maybe there's some paints or
toxins, you know, paints orchemicals that you were using on
a daily basis or different fuelsor, you know, whatever. Right?
You can indicate it there sothat they know maybe they're
gonna do that PERA exam and theyknow to, like, kind of address
(24:46):
some of those things rather thanjust guess.
Rebecca Deming (24:50):
Then they have that tiny box for those of you
who had multiple deployments.You know, like, well, which one
should I list? List your extradates at the bottom. Okay. And
then here they've got anexample.
This is getting into how to listyour claims on there and they
have examples. I don't know thatit's an exact science. You list
(25:13):
your condition and we'll talk alittle bit about what to list as
a condition. Then you listexamples the exposure type and
examples of how the disabilityis related to service. So here
they have hearing loss, it wascaused by noise, and then how
was noise related to service?
Well, they were heavy equipmentoperators in service. I went to
(25:33):
the firing range in service thendate of onset. And this is for
most people is going be kind ofa guess or a best estimate,
especially for conditions thatare progressive or gradual. It's
not like you woke up one day andhad ringing in your ears unless
unless there was one incidentwhere you woke up. But yeah, you
(25:55):
want to kind of show when, whenthe condition began.
So you're listing your currentso you're listing your current
disabilities and. And so theseare, I have had this question
asked before, like, I have tolist all my disabilities? These
are your disabilities that havenot already been service
(26:17):
connected. The new ones that youwant me to consider on this
claim form. If you're if you'vealready filled this out for most
of your claims, and now you justwant to add your knees, you
don't have to list all yourother conditions.
This claim form is just for thenew ones that you want to able
to look at. So you're just goingput your knees on here. You
don't have to relist everything.In terms of how to describe your
(26:42):
condition, you want to be bothas specific as possible, but
also cast as broad of a net asyou can. So if you don't know
exactly what's going on in yourback, if you write back
condition, that's enough totrigger VA to look at your back
and is it intervertebral discsyndrome?
Is it degenerative arthritis? Isit low back pain? Excuse me, low
(27:07):
back strain? You know, it couldbe some combination of those. If
you put low back pain VA isgoing to look at all of those
and they might give you multipleratings for, you know, depending
on which part of your back isinjured or whatever.
The flip side is you want to tryto direct VA. So if you know
what's wrong with you, you wantto direct VA to look at that
(27:29):
thing. You're not, you know, ifyou know that you've got a
herniated disc at. L4 L5 andthat's the main thing that's
wrong with your back and you'vegot medical records to support
that, you may want to sayherniated disc at L4 L5. Will
(27:51):
sometimes I know you'd said it'snot a separate claim if you have
different theories of serviceconnection for something.
If there's space, I willsometimes list them on separate
lines though on the sameapplication form, just because
that very clearly triggers VA tolook at the different theories
of service connections. They'renot separate claims, but I'm
(28:13):
asking VA to look at, was mysleep apnea caused by burn pits?
Was my sleep apnea caused byobesity secondary to PTSD and my
knees? Sleep apnea caused byjust by PTSD and tinnitus? So
each one that I don't knowexactly what caused it, but I
(28:34):
want to able to look at each oneof those theories.
I might list it, you know, threetimes here. You don't need to do
that. I'm just trying to make.Make it as kind of simple for VA
personnel to follow my train ofthought as possible. VA does
have a duty to assist, so if youwrite something on there in a
confusing way they should getclarification or if you kind of
(28:57):
cast too broad of a net theyshould do some exams to try to
narrow it down and help you helpfigure out what exactly is
wrong.
You want to steer them in theright direction while giving
them enough room to. To captureeverything that's actually going
on with you. And then you justyou don't have a whole lot of
(29:19):
space to write in here howsomething is related to service.
So it's just a sentence or a fewwords of Agent Orange in
Vietnam. Yeah.
Noise exposure. On the range.
Leah Bucholz (29:33):
Hurt me in 1994, you know, lifting a wall locker,
whatever.
Rebecca Deming (29:44):
Okay. So this part is if treatment began from
2005 to present, you do not needto provide the date. So if
you're treating at a VAfacility, VA has access to
(30:04):
those. If you treated at a VAfacility prior to 2005 and you
want VA to try to access thoserecords, you wanna to tip them
off like, Oh yeah, I wastreating at the Hampton VA in
1996. Okay.
So you want to give them thedates or, you know, I don't have
the dates. But again, you'retrying to if they're doing
(30:25):
record searches for you, youwant to steer them in the right
direction as much as possible.Okay, and this is the section if
you've already on page 12. Ifyou've already filled out an
application, this is your secondor third application for
(30:46):
different conditions. I usuallyleave most of this blank.
I probably would fill out thebranch of service, but mean VA
already has this. They'vealready gone and gotten your
DD214. They already have a fileopen for you. So they don't need
this information again. Butlike, like we talked earlier,
should I get my DD214 before Ifile a claim?
(31:07):
If you have it, that's great. Ifnot, filling out this
information is what's going totrigger VA to be able to put in
those records requests to findyour, your service information
and your service treatmentrecords. Okay, this section is
kind of interesting the serviceretired pay and we won't go into
(31:32):
detail on this right now, but wecan definitely do another talk
about the combat related specialcompensation and concurrent
retirement disability pay. And Ibelieve Congress is
contemplating some new billsthat would allow veterans under
any circumstances to receive allof their retired pay and all of
their VA disability. But as itstands right now, are some
(31:54):
offsets under certaincircumstances.
So you want to fill this outhonestly, because, and this is
just your, your VA or your, DODretirement pay or separation pay
or severance pay. They're notasking you if have a pension
from working at the firedepartment for twenty years
after you got out of service,like, don't care about all of
(32:14):
your assets. They're just tryingto see if there's an offset
between the DOD retirement payand and VA disability pay.
Leah Bucholz (32:24):
Sure. Is that Richard Sarrat? Is that one of
the ones that are
Rebecca Deming (32:28):
they're kinda looking at right now? Mhmm.
Leah Bucholz (32:31):
Yeah. Pretty interesting. We won't go over
it, but if you guys have time,go Google the Richard Star Act.
Rebecca Deming (32:39):
Yeah. And if if you have the time to lobby for
with your representatives on itor reach out to your
representatives, mean, Ipersonally think it's. It's BS
that your retirement paysomething you earn based on the
amount of time that you spent inservice and your rank and the
service that you provide to thiscountry. Your disability pay is
(33:01):
to compensate you based on theamount of injury and disability
that you succumbed duringservice or because of service.
So to offset them, I just thinkis I think it's morally wrong,
but obviously legally right now,it's still possible under
certain circumstances.
(33:25):
Okay, so this one, you just wantto kind go through an answer. If
you answer it incorrectly and VAoverpays you, they can generate
a debt and go after you fordebt. And it could be a small
amount each month. But if I'vehad situations where VA didn't
realize they were overpayingsomeone and then ten or fifteen
years later, they try to go backand collect it. Now we're
(33:46):
talking $30,000 debt orsomething.
You want to be honest with thisstuff.
Leah Bucholz (33:51):
Yeah. Especially if you are someone who received
like a severance for, you know,maybe you got chaptered for out
of the military for, you know,you took the chapter, I think
it's chapter eight forpregnancy, right? You decided to
get out because you wanna be amom or maybe you got chaptered
for whatever the reason, they'regonna in a lot of circumstances,
they're gonna take that out ofyour earnings. Right? They're
(34:14):
gonna recoup that money.
Again, we won't get into thattoo much today, but that's sort
of what that severance sectionis separation severance pay is
about. Right?
Rebecca Deming (34:27):
Yep. And then the next section is super
important. You don't want VAmailing you paper checks,
especially with the state of theU. S. Postal Service recently.
And if start this claim, andthen it takes two years between
(34:47):
different appeals or whatever toget paid and by then you've
moved. You don't want themailing. I mean, they can mail
you a paper check and I've hadplenty of clients who receive
paper checks and it's fine, but.It's much smoother if. The money
gets deposited into your bankaccount automatically.
(35:08):
Will say I've learned recentlyit actually has to be an FDIC
insured bank. So I've had ahandful of clients that bank
with these, like, they're notreally banks like Chime or like
the online, like Venmo is theironly form of banking, like these
electronic payment things. Andthe U. S. Department of Treasury
(35:31):
cannot deposit and VA throughDepartment of Treasury cannot
deposit money into a Chimeaccount.
So you actually have to have abank account with a banking
institution. That makes sense.
Leah Bucholz (35:45):
So then just
Rebecca Deming (35:46):
here's And then the here's where you sign and
just look at it carefully. Ifyou are the veteran sign where
it says veteran's signature anddate there, and then you don't
need a witness unless you areincapable of signing. So if you,
you know, if the veteran isparalyzed and can only sign or
illiterate whatever, and canonly sign with an X, then you
(36:07):
need a witness. It's very rarethat you're going need a witness
for signing this. On the, ifit's your very first, if your
original claim, initial claimwith VA, the veteran does have
to sign it.
After they filed one, if theyfile for new conditions down the
(36:27):
line, then their representativecan sign on their behalf. If you
scroll down, there's otherplaces for the or an attorney to
sign. So you just want to makesure you actually have a wet
signature. You don't want totype your signature in VA will
frequently reject applications.They just if you just type in
(36:48):
your name, You can do a drawnsignature on the computer, but
you actually do want to havesomething that looks like a
signature on there.
Then there's extra pages if youdon't have enough disabilities
on the first one. I will say,you you want to cast a broad
(37:14):
net, you want to file for thingsthat you actually have, but like
all of the things that youactually have that could
possibly be related to service.But you don't want to cast such
a broad net that you're kind oflogging the VA system and VA is
trying to figure out, like, youknow, they're sending you for 20
(37:35):
exams. I know there's in somecircles, there's been bad
guidance where they say, oh,well, if we're supposed to burn
kits, you automatically have aclaim. If you don't have a
current disability, you don'thave a claim right now.
So you want to put some thoughtinto this. I see this extra page
with another 20 lines on it andit kind of makes my head spin
(37:55):
like, if it's the first timeyou're filing a claim and you're
very disabled, you might have 20or 40 conditions because you
might have three conditions onyour right knee and three
conditions on your left knee andmultiple things related to
respiratory and multiple thingsrelated to gastrointestinal and
each joint might be messed up.Like there are some Veterans
(38:16):
that legitimately have a lot ofstuff. Just be mindful that
listing 40 things on here islikely to delay the processing
of the claim if they're notlegitimate. So you wanna stick
to the stuff that's that's got alegitimate reason that that
could be service connected.
Leah Bucholz (38:38):
Well, I have just a couple more questions for you.
So that was the end of theapplication. I just have a
couple more questions for you.So let's talk about so after
that's filed, I think my nextquestion was about C and P
exams.
Rebecca Deming (38:54):
Right? So, so VA has, like I said, VA has the
duty to assist you. They'regoing to spend some time before
they even schedule C and Pexams. Going to spend some time
pulling together your servicetreatment records, getting some
whatever medical records, yourVA records, if you're treating
at a VA hospital. And thenthey'll look at it and they'll
kind of see, is there enoughhere for us to trigger our duty
(39:19):
to assist?
And so if you list stuff and youhave no records of anything
happening in service, you didn'tput anybody statements that
anything happened in service,you don't have any records of a
current diagnosis, you just putit on the form, it's not going
to trigger VA's duty to assistand they're not going to send
you to a C and P exam. But ifthere's kind of just enough
there that, Hey, somethinghappened in service or, I have a
(39:41):
current diagnosis. I think it'srelated to service. VA will send
you to a C and P exam and thoseare usually done through
contracted examiners. I believeLeah, you're qualified as a C
and P examiner for some of thecompanies, right?
Leah Bucholz (39:56):
Yeah, so I previously worked for several of
the exam companies and I think Idon't wanna say a 100% of them
are being contracted out now,but most of them are being
contracted out. So, I've got alot of videos on what happens in
a C and P exam. So if you have aparticular condition that you'd
like to go, you know, the formatis generally the same. They're
(40:18):
gonna send you a packet in themail, tell you about who your
examiner is, the date and thetime, you know, how long the
person has been a C and Pexaminer, what their specialty
is. And that's that's prettymuch it.
Then you just show up and theygo through the DBQ with you, the
the individualized disabilitybenefit questionnaires for
whatever that condition is. Andthen they submit that
(40:41):
information back to VA so thatthe adjudicators can review that
along with the rest of yourevidence. Right?
Rebecca Deming (40:47):
Yep. And we do get questions a lot like, do I
have to go to the C and P exam?I mean, it's a nuanced question.
You should probably talk to yourVSO or representative, but if
you're doing this on your own,it's important to understand
that VA essentially, at least atthe initial levels, they need
(41:08):
some guidance on both. Is itservice connected?
And if it is, what, what areyour symptoms in a way that
aligns with how the rates it sothey're going to need that. If
you're you're just sending inyour treatment notes and
somebody letters or something,and then you say, I don't want
(41:28):
to go to. A C and P exam becauseI don't trust VA or something.
VA is going to deny that claim.Even if you have a nexus letter,
very often if you don't have adisability benefit questionnaire
that kind of says, yes, yourrange of motion was 45 degrees
(41:49):
on this joint and 23 degrees inthat direction or whatever, or
you've got very frequent andprolonged migraines, productive
of severe economic andadaptability, you know, like if
those boxes aren't checked forVA, not, they might say, well,
yeah, we think they have acondition because we see a
(42:10):
diagnosis and we see that it'sconnected, but for all we know
it's rated 0% because we don'thave this disability benefit
questionnaire.
You really, in the verybeginning, I'd say it's a rare
circumstance and there are someveterans that will develop the
stuff and kind of get those DBQsfilled out and get the nexus
letters and then just say, Hey,I don't want anyone else to look
at this. But for the most part,it's usually good in the
(42:34):
beginning to go to these exams.And if you get a bad examiner or
you've got an issue, I'm sure wecould do a whole another. You've
done many on them on how to dealwith the C and P exams. But in
the beginning, yeah, you want tohelp VA help you get the
evidence they need to do agrant.
Then you're sort of narrowingdown the issues that you might
need to appeal on. So, you know,maybe they'll grant three out of
(42:55):
five. Now you're just working ongathering evidence or gathering
some legal theories on the finaltwo conditions.
Leah Bucholz (43:04):
So can you submit additional evidence while the
claim is still open? Can aveteran do that?
Rebecca Deming (43:09):
Yes, you can. And VA is required by law to
review it depending on when yousend it in. You know, examiner
may not have time to see it. Ifyou send it in after the exam
was, or after the decision waswritten, before it was
finalized, they may not havetime to re review it and change
(43:31):
the decision. But yeah, at anypoint that an exam that a claim
is pending, can add inadditional evidence and VA is
supposed to consider it.
Leah Bucholz (43:41):
So what happens after your C and P exam while
you're waiting for your VA'sdecision?
Rebecca Deming (43:46):
Deep breaths and meditation. It's VA and it's a
bureaucratic system. And so itkind of your claim file gets
bounced from kind of employee toemployee with different checks
and balances throughout. So, youknow, you've got the initial,
you file your claim. Soinitially they're going to
gather the evidence and thenthey're going to determine
(44:09):
whether there's enough to sendyou to a C and P exam.
And then they're going to sendyou to the C and P exam. Then
they're going to wait for thatexam company or that examiner to
upload the exam results into thesystem. They can review them to
see if those exams meet theircriteria or are adequate or if
they need to send them back forany kind of revisions or
additional questions. Oncesomebody signs off that those
CMPs are adequate for ratingpurposes, then your claim gets
(44:31):
marked as ready for decision,which means like VA's got all
the evidence that it thinks itneeds to make a decision. It may
be a good decision or a baddecision.
It doesn't mean they think theyhave everything they need to
grant. It just means they've gotenough to make a decision on it.
Then that file gets put intokind of a queue to be assigned
to a rating officer. That ratingofficer could look at the
(44:52):
evidence and say, actually weneed, you know, additional
clarification on this exam thatcould kind of re trigger
something to go back. So it'shard from the outside to know
like how long something's goingto take, But there are different
stages and I think people willsee that or, you know, the stuff
that we see on our end on theveteran benefit management
system as a representative is alittle bit different than the
(45:12):
veteran facing portals.
And so sometimes you're like, myclaim file's on the reviewer's
desk. Like, well, you don't knowwhich reviewer or how long they
have to review that file orwhich pieces they're looking at.
So it could be that they'remaking a decision that day. It
could be that it's gonna beanother couple months. It's
really hard to kind of predictexactly where you are in the
(45:33):
system after you have that exam.
Leah Bucholz (45:35):
Yeah, it's just so variable. So from my
perspective, which is a littlebit different, know, va.gov, I
think you and I looked at itearlier said that their average
turnaround time on these claimsis a hundred and thirty five
days right now. That's for newclaims. I don't know about for
supplemental claims or differentappeals, but, you know, and
that's information you can lookat on va.gov, but that doesn't
(45:55):
mean you know, I've seen peopleget their claims approved in a
week. Right?
I've seen, you know, exactly ifthey're I think they're testing
out this AI and these thesedifferent automated systems to,
like I think those are more sofor, increases than necessarily
brand new claims, which anincrease can be a new claim
essentially, but not a new newclaim. It's a new anyways, I'm
(46:17):
going down rabbit hole there.But I've also seen where from
the examiner standpoint, like,you know, maybe somebody in my
office did an exam on somebody.They submitted it, and quality
control sent it you know, wentto VA, and VA said, oh, there's
an issue with this. Send it backto the examiner.
So maybe the rater had it. Andlike you said, they said, oh,
this is not, sufficient, youknow, for rating purposes. We
(46:39):
need to ask an additionalquestion. So they send it back
to the examiner. Maybe theexaminer's on vacation.
Maybe the examiner quit. Maybethe examiner died. And then
guess what? They're probablygonna have to order a whole
brand new exam because theycan't get clarification on the
exam, you know, or perhaps theysend it to a third examiner or a
second examiner to review whatthe first one did. So there's so
(47:00):
many what ifs that it's likeYeah.
Rebecca Deming (47:03):
And the question could be did the examiner not
answer the question right or wasthe question written so poorly
that no one in their right mindcould ever answer that question
in a way that would give anykind of clarity on the claim? So
they have to rewrite the examrequest and then have someone
answer that different examrequest. So there's a lot of
bureaucracy and I think peoplekind of want the simple answer,
(47:25):
like, you know, from start tofinish, how long is it going to
take? And, you know, VAestimates one hundred and thirty
five days, you know, like yousaid, like, I had another client
who was their claim wasincorrectly flagged for terminal
illness. And so they decidedthat it was an appeal, but they
decided it in like a couple ofdays.
She's like, you're amazing. Youmove so fast. I'm like, you
(47:45):
know, VA thinks you'reterminally ill. And she's like,
Am I? I'm like, No, it's justsomebody clicked the wrong box.
I mean, not that I know of, youknow. But for whatever reason
that one got moved reallyquickly. And then there's others
that you're like, this should bereally simple, like I've got all
the evidence and it's justsitting on someone's desk and
they're not clicking the nextbox to move it to the next stage
(48:05):
or you know they're taking thefull amount of time before they
move it to the next stage. Orsomething needs to be reviewed.
Yeah, there's just so manyreasons why stuff could take
longer that's really outside ourcontrol.
Leah Bucholz (48:18):
All right, so I just have a couple more
questions for you before we wrapup. So once you, so you're
waiting for that decision andthen you finally receive a
decision. So what happens afteryou receive the decision or how
do you receive it?
Rebecca Deming (48:29):
So you'll receive the decision in the
mail. If you're working with aVSO, they might get an
electronic copy and be able totell you before you receive it
in the mail. And if you'remonitoring it online, I think
you have some access toinformation, but I don't think
you have the full rationale onwhy something was granted or why
it was denied or, you know, soyou're waiting until you get
(48:52):
that decision in the mail. Andthen you have a year from the
date of that decision typicallyto file an appeal. So if you
think that they denied somethingthat they should have granted,
or if they rated something, butthey rated it too low, you want
to look at the reasons why theydenied it.
You don't want to just refile.At that point, that'd be a good
time to, if you're not alreadyworking with a VSO, Accredited
(49:15):
Claims Agent or an Accredited VAAttorney, it might be a good
time to reach out to somebodybecause you're not just throwing
something like, Oh, that didn'twork. Let me try again. You want
to kind of look at what waswrong. Was I missing something
that VA needed or was VA juststupid or was the examiner?
(49:35):
And you're not going get a copyof that exam. But an accredited
claims agent or an accreditedattorney will be able to see the
C and P exam. And so we'll beable to see if there was
something wrong in the way thatthat exam was written that might
trigger a duty to assist erroror we'll say, hey, at this point
it really makes sense to get aprivate medical opinion and so
we'll send them to Leah orwhoever the expert is that's
(50:00):
best suited for that kind ofopinion.
Leah Bucholz (50:03):
Wouldn't it be wonderful if at some point VA
starts putting claims relateddoc I mean, I know they started
adding rating decision letters,which I think is really cool.
But if they start putting likethe C and P exams, I mean,
course, if you had a C and Pexam at the VA, that will likely
be in your VA blue buttonmedical records. But like those
outside exams, if they startmaking those and they're
(50:26):
accessible if you, you know,request your claims file, but it
takes a while. Right?
Rebecca Deming (50:29):
It takes a year and then by then you I mean, it
often takes a year or more toget those claim files and you
only have a year to appeal. Soby the time you get access to
those records, you've alreadyhad to make the strategic
decision of what kind of appealto file or whether to file an
appeal. Yeah, I think theyshould be made available to
veterans. I mean, I think thatthey're worded so poorly so
(50:51):
often, and they're reallyconfusing that I understand VA's
concern that if we make theseavailable in the way that
they're currently formatted,it's just going to cause more
confusion. So if you're going toaccess it, you should access it
through someone who has moreexperience kind of understanding
what this means and is thisfavorable and, you know, what
but it's your information.
(51:12):
So I think veterans should haveaccess to it. Probably the the
long term answer would be tomake the forms less confusing
and more understandable. Yeah.
Leah Bucholz (51:22):
Do a better doing a better job, making sure that
there aren't a bunch ofinaccuracies and, mistakes. But
again, like you mentionedearlier, it's like a
bureaucratic system and it'sjust a challenge, but we're all
working through it together. AndI think VA is doing its best to
try to make improvements forveterans. So I don't have any
(51:48):
more questions for you. I hopethis was informative for you
guys out there watching.
Maybe it can ease some of thestress and tension on doing
these types of things. And ifnot, you know there are people
out there, VSOs, like Imentioned earlier, I have a
great video on how to access youknow, va.gov search criteria for
(52:09):
any kind of accredited claimsagent, attorney or VSO. You can
go watch my video on that or youcan just jump over to va.gov and
look for the accreditationsearch tool. Rebecca is an
amazing attorney if you needhelp with appeals. You know, I'm
gonna put her information in thecomment sec or not the comments,
in the description of thisvideo, but it's ProVet legal.
(52:32):
And if you haven't caught any ofour other videos, you might
wanna go and check some of thoseout, especially the one about
when to hire a VA attorney.That's a really great video we
did together. But outside ofthat, thank you so much for
being here with us again today,Rebecca. It's always amazing
when you're on, so thanks foryour time.
Rebecca Deming (52:52):
Yeah, thanks for having me, Leah. Yeah, like you
said, hopefully this sort of wasa soft dive into it and eases
some of the anxiety about justthe paralyzation of just getting
started and so more people cankind of get started with the
process and get the benefits youguys deserve.
Leah Bucholz (53:09):
All right. Well, thanks again for watching guys.
Please drop some comments andlike subscribe and we'll talk to
you guys later. Thanks.
Rebecca Deming (53:15):
Thanks, bye.
Guys. It's Leah Bee from Prestige Veteran
Medical Consulting. I'm a USArmy veteran, physician
assistant, and formercompensation and pension
examiner. Today I have RebeccaDeming from ProVet Legal on to
kind of go over some reallyimportant topics about filing VA
disability claims. So for thoseof you that don't know her,
she's done a lot of greatcontent with us and brings a
wealth of knowledge to the tablefrom the legal and
(00:30):
administrative side of VA claimsrelated matters.
Rebecca, do you want to justgive them a quick intro to who
you are and your experience?
Rebecca Deming (00:40):
Rebecca Deming, I own ProVet Legal. It's a law
firm that specializes in helpingveterans and their dependents
access VA disability benefits. Iam married to a Navy veteran and
I spent about a decade, a littlebit longer, working with
military in different capacitiesoverseas and in The U. S. So
(01:04):
happy to be here supporting ourveterans and helping you guys
navigate this very complexsystem.
Leah Bucholz (01:10):
Yeah. So let's just jump right in. So filing a
disability claim can be supercomplex and confusing because
there's different things thatyou can file for, whether it's
an appeal or a new claim or anincrease or whatever. There's
different ways that you can filefor a claim and so Rebecca is
gonna try to make this a littlebit easier to like take in and
(01:34):
make it maybe less overwhelmingfor some of you guys because
there are a lot of tools outthere if you can access them and
know where to access them thatcan kind of take this burden a
little bit and make it a littlebit lighter for you. So I think
the first thing that we wantedto go over was about
eligibility.
So how can someone determinetheir eligibility for even
filing a claim?
Rebecca Deming (01:54):
So first of all, obviously you have to be a
veteran and you have to havedischarge that is other than
dishonorable. So even sometimesan OTH and other than honorable
discharge might qualifydepending on the circumstances
and VA will look into that.That's called a character of
discharge determination. So ifyou have a general or an
(02:17):
honorable discharge, you're goodto go. Administrative discharge,
if you have an other thanhonorable, there's going be some
extra level of scrutiny, butit's not a total bar.
If you have a dishonorabledischarge, you want to try to
find, I mean, you might, itmight be a full bar, but if
there's circumstances aroundthat related to your PTSD or,
misunderstandings with yourcommand or, something else,
(02:38):
there are attorneys whospecialize in helping people get
their discharge upgraded. Sothat might be worth spending
some money on because thelifetime of benefits that you
can get from accessing this ifyou're eligible is well worth
the upfront investment.
Leah Bucholz (02:53):
For sure.
Rebecca Deming (02:54):
So that's the first thing. And then the second
thing is you have to have adisability, which is really kind
of any sort of medical conditionfor the most part. I mean,
obviously there's exceptions toeverything, but it doesn't have
to be like an amputation or aserious head injury. It could
be, but it could also begastroesophageal reflux
(03:15):
disorder, GERD, or migraines, orIBS, or arthritis. So you have
to have a current disability.
Know a lot of people say like,Oh, had COVID in the military,
so therefore I should claim thatnow or something. I was exposed
to something in the military, soI get an automatic claim. Have
(03:38):
to have a current disability.The fact that something might
develop later down the linedoesn't entitle you to benefits.
You don't have to have all ofthe proof.
Some people are like, Well, Ineed to have everything lined
up. It's like, no, you just kindof have to, you know, there's
some companies out there thatwill tell you just throw
everything against the wall andsee what sticks. I think people
should do some internal personalaudit on do they have a
(04:00):
disability and do theylegitimately think that there's
some reason why this might beconnected to service? Could be
wrong. You you don't have to beright on the first application,
but, you know, if you were in acar accident last week, and
you're trying to claim that yourinjuries from that car accident
are related to your service tenyears ago, like.
That's not gonna pass the SNFtest.
Leah Bucholz (04:22):
Right, and everything's sort of in context.
There's no black and whiteanswer for everything. And I
actually just did a video onthis a few days ago, sort of
unrelated, but you made me thinkof it, the presumptive within
one year stuff. So people seemto think that if they were
diagnosed with anything withinone year, that's gonna
automatically get serviceconnected, and that's just not
(04:43):
true. So for example, if Iseparated from service three
months ago and I break my leg ina car accident tomorrow, that's
clearly not related to service.
Right? So, there's not not analways or never situation, and
you have to really look into thecontext of that disability.
Presumptive within one year hasits own list anyways that I've
got a video on if you'd like togo take a look at it. But not to
(05:07):
get too far off track, but justas you were saying, Rebecca,
everything has context. Right?
Rebecca Deming (05:12):
Right. And if existing condition, like, those
are usually not serviceconnected unless they were
aggravated during service. Andso, yeah, like you said, there
is nuance there. And so I don'tthink veterans need to get too
bogged down in the weeds on, youknow, is my claim going to win?
I think you just have to havesome kind of like, I put some
(05:33):
thought into this and I thinkthere's a decent chance that
this was caused or aggravated byservice and that I actually have
a condition right now.
You may not have a diagnosis,but you're having these
symptoms. So like, you know, Ihaven't gone to the doctor yet,
but my back hurts a whole lot.Like that may not be enough to
win the claim, but that's enoughto initiate a claim and kind of
trigger VA to look into stufffor you sometimes.
Leah Bucholz (05:56):
So what kind of supporting documentation do you
think is important when you'regetting ready to file a claim?
Rebecca Deming (06:02):
So that's kind of a double edged sword. I mean,
the more prepared that you canbe the better. So if you have
copies of your militarypersonnel records, your medical,
your service treatment records,your post service treatment
records, those statements frombuddies that something happened
(06:25):
in service, your D-two 14, whichwould be part of your military
personnel records. If you haveall of that, you kind of want to
pull together the key piecesthat show that you're eligible,
that you're a veteran witheligible service and an
honorable or general dischargetypically, and as much
supporting evidence to show thatsomething happened in service
(06:47):
and that you have a currentdisability and the two are
related. Like, that would be thekind of the gold standard, but I
think people get bogged down bythat standard and they don't
know where to begin to findtheir DD214.
And so filling out the formitself, you don't have to have
the copy of your DD214. VA has aduty to go get that. And so if
you give them your socialsecurity number and some of the
information on the questions inthe form, they'll go get that
(07:09):
information for you. They'llalso get your service treatment
records, your military personnelrecords. They can also help you
find personal private doctorrecords, but you have to flag
those for VA.
Like, they don't automaticallyknow where you treated. But if
you need help getting thoserecords, I don't think that I
think people get paralyzed bylike, I don't even know where to
(07:30):
begin to find all these records.And so they just don't start
their claims. So if you havethem, that's great. If you
don't, don't worry too muchabout it.
Start with just filling out theform and then if there's holes
that VA can't find stuff,they'll let you know and then
you can focus on getting thoserecords that VA can't find.
Leah Bucholz (07:47):
So I know we've done other videos before on the
different types of appeals buttoday we're gonna kind of focus
on those new claims. So we'retalking about filing, when
you're talking about filing aclaim, whether you're doing it
on behalf of a veteran or aveteran's doing it themselves, I
guess it's important todetermine what type of claim
(08:07):
that they're gonna file becausethere are a few different ones.
Can you touch on that a littlebit?
Rebecca Deming (08:12):
Sure. So there are a few different ones and it
kind of depends on where youare. If you're still in service
and you're within a few monthsof getting out, you can file a
BDD claim, which is basicallyjust giving VA a head start.
(08:33):
Those are great because assumingyour active duty, anything that
gets diagnosed during activeduty service time is almost
automatically going to beconnected. I mean, obviously
there's some of those nuances,but it gives you a head start
and helps kind of develop thatevidence.
If you've already gotten out ofservice, the question is, you
(08:53):
filing your original claim,which is the very first claim
that you've ever filed? Or areyou filing if you filed a claim
like maybe you filed initiallyfor your knees and your back and
then a couple years later you'relike, oh I didn't realize I
could file for sleep apnea andGERD and headaches. So that's a
(09:16):
new claim. It's going be on the526EZ, which we're going to go
over, but it's not your veryfirst original claim. For those,
you don't have to kind of provethat you're a veteran again, you
just have to prove the stuffrelated to those claims.
Or do want do it as well, right?Then there's, you're filing,
(09:37):
like let's say that you'realready service connected for
your knee, but your knee'sgotten a lot worse in the past
ten years, And so you want tofile a new claim for an
increased rating. You're stillgoing use the 526EZ, the new
claim form to file for thatincreased rating, which is
different than if you're, youknow, if you're appealing
something and saying, I disagreewith VA's rating on this because
(09:58):
they missed that it's worse thanit was. If VA got something
wrong, you know, ten years ago,and you want to reopen it
because you've got new evidencethat shows that it's surface
connected or that it's worse,then you're going to file it on
a 20 dash nine ninety five,which is the supplemental claim
form. And so it kind of feelslike a new claim because you're
(10:20):
reopening something, you'restarting from scratch, but
because it's previously beendenied, it's a different form.
And so sometimes people I thinkforget like, hey, you know, they
got out, they filed a wholebunch of stuff. They don't
remember what was granted, whatwas denied. And then ten years
later, they're going to file forstuff again. And so they might
put it on a 5.6EZ, the new claimform and be able to kick it
back. And we see this a lot inveterans like, didn't, you know,
(10:42):
why did I get this kicked back?
It's because you had, you know,ten years ago you'd filed for
headaches, you filed again forheadaches. Can't put that on the
new claim form, you have to putit on a supplemental claim form
and you need new and relevantevidence. So a piece that VA was
missing from the originaldenial.
Leah Bucholz (11:00):
And I don't wanna go too far off on a tangent
here, but I see and I hear, Imean, don't get involved in
this, but I hear veterans often,maybe they filed a claim for
sleep apnea related to burn pitexposure, right? And they get
denied and then they say, oh,I'm gonna file it to my PTSD.
And they think because they'vechanged the theory of the
(11:21):
connection that they're gonnafile another new claim, but
that's not the case. Right,Rebecca? It's it doesn't matter
if the reason or the rationalethat you believe condition x is
related to your service is nowto something else.
It's still not a new claimbecause
Rebecca Deming (11:38):
Right. That would be a supplemental claim.
So the new evidence there mightbe a new theory of service
connection. So, you know, youoriginally thought it was from
your TBI and now you think it'sfrom your burn pits or whatever.
So you're going to send inmedical literature that shows
that it's related to burn pitsor you know, whatever it is.
That's a new theory but it's nota new claim.
Leah Bucholz (11:58):
Right. So what are the ways that, what are the
methods that people can file newclaims?
Rebecca Deming (12:04):
So there's a few ways that you can go about
filing a new claim. You can gointo your VSO and in person
they'll sit down with you and gothrough the paperwork and
whether they'll kind of pull upthe app online and walk you
through it, or give you thepaper and kind of make sure look
over your work and make surethat you're doing it correctly.
That is a great option for a lotof people, especially if this
(12:28):
system just seems overwhelming.They don't charge anything. You
should never pay somebody tohelp you with filing a new
claim.
VA actually prohibits peoplefrom charging money for filing
for new claims. So if someone ischarging you or if they're
saying, I'm going get pushedinto the back pay for filing a
new claim, that's not ethicaland you should look for somebody
(12:50):
who will help you file the newclaim for free. And the reason
for that, at least right now, isthat VA has a duty to assist
Veterans. And there's timeswhere VA gets gets it wrong and
then you need to hire aprofessional to help you correct
VA's errors and you're gonna payfor that, that's fine. If VA is
doing their job and kind ofdoing all the legwork to help
(13:12):
the veteran improve their case,and then there's some claims
agency on the side that'sgetting paid.
That's just not ethicallycorrect. So, you can work with
somebody, an accredited claimsagent of to help you fill out
your initial application. Youcan also do it online. There's
an online form that, not even aform, it's kind of like an
(13:36):
application or, you know, stepby step. It'll walk you through
and answer one question at atime and do drop down boxes and
fill out the form that way.
You can also go online and printout the form and I think we can
walk through that and kind ofanswer some of the common
questions about that form. Andthen if you print that out, can
(13:58):
drop it off at the VSO's office,you can mail it in, you can fax
it in. So you have a fewdifferent options, your kind of
level of tech savvy andcomfortability is, and how much
help you kind of need filling itout. If you're more comfortable
just doing it at 2AM in yourpajamas on your bed, then the
(14:18):
online version might be the bestoption for you.
Leah Bucholz (14:21):
Yeah, so I'm gonna pull that up so veterans can see
sort of where they can go tolook at some of these options.
Not only where they can go tothe options, but a lot of what
Rebecca and I have justdiscussed. Va.gov I think does
an amazing job of having healthdocuments that basically break
down step by step what you needto do. It is so overwhelming,
and I understand that. But,like, if you just use the
(14:42):
resources and go and read it,it's actually pretty simple.
So they break it down like whatwe call Barney style, right, for
those of you old school peoplelike me. So let me add this. So
this is from va.gov. Okay? Sothis website is
va.gov/disability/howto file aclaim.
(15:05):
If you just simply Google how tofile a claim va.gov, right, it's
gonna you're gonna it's gonna beone of your first things that
pop up. Now a lot there's a lotof these agencies out there that
try to use the keywords to getyou sucked into their website.
Just make sure it's a va.govwebsite that is showing you this
information.
Rebecca Deming (15:23):
Great. Thanks for pulling this up, Leah,
because I think, you know,people can see this and, like,
it depending on which landingpage you hit on it might be a
little bit different, but you'reseeing the actual VA emblem.
This is what VA sites look like.
Leah Bucholz (15:38):
Yeah, and then you can even sign in like if you've
got a va.gov account, you cansign in and, start your
application, actually. So we'regonna go over the paper form,
but I think it's reallyimportant for you to understand
that this I'm not gonna read allthis stuff, but just a lot of
what we talked about, learningabout eligibility, learning
(15:59):
about different forms. There's avideo here that VA has made on
YouTube. I haven't checked itout, but it might be helpful.
Evidence, like Rebeccamentioned.
So the online option I havepersonally done because I'm a
veteran, it is superstraightforward. I know it can
seem overwhelming to do it butthey do a really good job of
(16:21):
like step by step. It's not like500 things on the same page.
It's like here's step one and itasks you some basic questions.
It's gonna be the same questionsthat are basically on the paper
application, but don't be afraidto to use it.
You can always hit pause on theapplication also. Once you start
that intent to file, I think youhave, like, three hundred and
sixty five days or whatever tofinish it. Right.
Rebecca Deming (16:43):
Yeah. You don't have to you don't have to have
everything lined up. You cankinda start the application and
then be like, okay. And I'mgonna go gather my medical
evidence or, think through stuffbefore I finish the application.
Leah Bucholz (16:58):
Right. So I'm gonna pull up that form here so
we can so there was a hyperlinkto the paper form. Okay? And
then it takes you here and ittells you when to use the form.
It also gives you a link back tothe online tool, but let's
download this form.
(17:19):
Hang on one second. Let me jumpto Okay, I'm on the fifteenth
page here. Alright. Okay. SoRebecca, I don't know if you
(17:39):
wanna jump in and sort of talkabout just some of these basic
instructions.
It's super important to go over.
Rebecca Deming (17:48):
I'm not gonna read the instructions to people,
but I think the first eightpages of the form are
instructions and they have linksto the sections that they
reference. So some of it'sgeneral information that's kind
of helpful and the differencebetween the different options,
instructions on where to submitit. And then it's got specific
(18:09):
instructions for the differentsections on how to answer the
questions or what they're reallyasking for in those questions.
So, you know, it's eight pagesof super small print, where to
mail it, but it is divided up.You can kind of like reference
back.
I'd probably print that out. Ifyou're working on the paper
(18:31):
form, I'd print it out and putit to the side and then
reference back. If you run intoa section where you're like, how
am I supposed to answer this? Dowe really need that information?
Leah Bucholz (18:40):
Spend like ten minutes, twenty minutes reading
over those parts as necessary.
Rebecca Deming (18:46):
And hopefully this video will sort of I'm not
going to tell you not to readthe instructions, but hopefully
this video will answer a lot ofthe questions so that you can
kind of get through readingthose instructions a lot more
quickly. So, the first questionup at the top, now, upper right
hand corner is for VA. So don'twrite anything where they tell
you not to write stuff.Obviously. The first one is
(19:11):
whether you're doing an FDCprogram standard claim process
IDES or BDD, and that isdescribed up in the
instructions.
IDES is when you're doing amedical board separation, you'll
be instructed if that's the onefor you. The program, like, were
(19:33):
talking about is really great ifyou're still active duty, but
you're getting ready to separatefrom service because they'll
help you develop the evidence. Imean, there's nothing better
than developing the evidence andsending you to medical exams
while you're still in servicebecause how can they say that's
not connected unless it waspreexisting. Most of the time
you're going to want to click.If you're already out of
(19:55):
service, most of the time you'regoing to want to click the fully
developed Claim program thatjust means that.
Either you'll send VA records oralert them to where they are. If
you're the standard claimprocess, VA will kind of go out
of its way a little bit more tohelp you collect your private
(20:16):
medical records, but that'sgoing to add a lot more time to
the processing. Even if youdon't have everything or you
need VA's help getting certainthings, the fully developed
claim program typically is goingto speed stuff up for you.
Leah Bucholz (20:28):
Sure.
Rebecca Deming (20:31):
Okay, then this is kind of your identifying
information. It kind of goeswithout saying you do need to
put your social security numberon this page and then at the top
of every page below. The onequestion that I think is really
important to answer there iswhether this is your first time
filing a claim or not. Becauseit was your first time filing a
(20:52):
claim, You're going to need toput more information in there
because you're triggering. It'sthe first time you're triggering
VA to go find your DD214, findyour service treatment records,
find your personnel records.
And so they need a little bitmore help locating that stuff.
And so there's more questionsdown below that you're going to
have to answer. If you'vealready filled out one of these
forms for your first claim, andnow you're filing claims for
(21:13):
something else, you know, yearor two later, it's okay to skip
over some of the stuff becauseVA already has your branch of
service and where you served andthat kind of stuff. It's when I
keep scrolling down. Change ofaddress that's if you have
changed your address, you wantto add that in.
(21:33):
If your first claim, thenobviously that doesn't even
apply. It's important to keep VAup to date on your address.
There's that box at the top toenter your social security
number. The homelessness sectionVA will process your claim more
quickly if you are homeless orat risk of becoming homeless
because of their commitment tomake sure that all veterans have
(21:57):
stable housing. So, you know,being at risk of homeless could
be you're sleeping on a friend'scouch or you don't have stable
housing or whatnot.
It doesn't have to mean likeyou're, you know, you're living
in a homeless shelter, you know,on the streets. If you're not at
risk of being homeless, youdon't even have to click no to
the top box. You can just skipover the section entirely. The
(22:21):
next section is new. They'veadded this to the form since the
PACT Act came into effect in2022.
I believe I just started seeingthis in the past few months.
Definitely within the past yearthat they've added this on, but
this is because VA willpresumptively link certain
(22:41):
conditions to certain exposures,and even beyond presumptive,
they'll go above and beyond tokind of look into whether on a
facts found basis, certaintoxins caused certain
conditions. They want your help.They'll have your military
personnel records, but they wantyour help identifying if you
served in certain areas. And ifyou did what dates, the more
(23:05):
specific you can be better.
Think you have to be a 100, youknow, you're like, oh, was it
June or July of twenty seventeenthat we deployed? Know, VA is
not going to sit there and go,oh, you lied because you said
July and was actually June. Dothe best you can to fill this
out, But I think with witheverything here, you want to be
(23:27):
honest, but I don't think trap.I think people get paralyzed
because they can't find all thedetails. So they just kind of
start and then stop.
I wouldn't put a note in theresay to the best of my knowledge
or approximately 50 to thisdate, or leave the month empty
and put the year or something ifit was a while ago and you just
(23:48):
don't remember. Have you beenexposed to any of the following?
If you think you have, I wouldclick yes. Most people know
they've been exposed to it to acertain extent. You may not know
what was burning in the burn pitor which chemicals you were
(24:09):
exposed to.
But do your best to answer thesebecause it will help VA do the
extra development to get stuffconnected.
Leah Bucholz (24:15):
Yeah. And if there's if there's other things,
they have a other block. Right?So if you have, you know, like,
Rebecca Deming (24:22):
Fire fighting film, I think, isn't on there.
Leah Bucholz (24:26):
Fast exposure or if maybe there's some paints or
toxins, you know, paints orchemicals that you were using on
a daily basis or different fuelsor, you know, whatever. Right?
You can indicate it there sothat they know maybe they're
gonna do that PERA exam and theyknow to, like, kind of address
(24:46):
some of those things rather thanjust guess.
Rebecca Deming (24:50):
Then they have that tiny box for those of you
who had multiple deployments.You know, like, well, which one
should I list? List your extradates at the bottom. Okay. And
then here they've got anexample.
This is getting into how to listyour claims on there and they
have examples. I don't know thatit's an exact science. You list
(25:13):
your condition and we'll talk alittle bit about what to list as
a condition. Then you listexamples the exposure type and
examples of how the disabilityis related to service. So here
they have hearing loss, it wascaused by noise, and then how
was noise related to service?
Well, they were heavy equipmentoperators in service. I went to
(25:33):
the firing range in service thendate of onset. And this is for
most people is going be kind ofa guess or a best estimate,
especially for conditions thatare progressive or gradual. It's
not like you woke up one day andhad ringing in your ears unless
unless there was one incidentwhere you woke up. But yeah, you
(25:55):
want to kind of show when, whenthe condition began.
So you're listing your currentso you're listing your current
disabilities and. And so theseare, I have had this question
asked before, like, I have tolist all my disabilities? These
are your disabilities that havenot already been service
(26:17):
connected. The new ones that youwant me to consider on this
claim form. If you're if you'vealready filled this out for most
of your claims, and now you justwant to add your knees, you
don't have to list all yourother conditions.
This claim form is just for thenew ones that you want to able
to look at. So you're just goingput your knees on here. You
don't have to relist everything.In terms of how to describe your
(26:42):
condition, you want to be bothas specific as possible, but
also cast as broad of a net asyou can. So if you don't know
exactly what's going on in yourback, if you write back
condition, that's enough totrigger VA to look at your back
and is it intervertebral discsyndrome?
Is it degenerative arthritis? Isit low back pain? Excuse me, low
(27:07):
back strain? You know, it couldbe some combination of those. If
you put low back pain VA isgoing to look at all of those
and they might give you multipleratings for, you know, depending
on which part of your back isinjured or whatever.
The flip side is you want to tryto direct VA. So if you know
what's wrong with you, you wantto direct VA to look at that
(27:29):
thing. You're not, you know, ifyou know that you've got a
herniated disc at. L4 L5 andthat's the main thing that's
wrong with your back and you'vegot medical records to support
that, you may want to sayherniated disc at L4 L5. Will
(27:51):
sometimes I know you'd said it'snot a separate claim if you have
different theories of serviceconnection for something.
If there's space, I willsometimes list them on separate
lines though on the sameapplication form, just because
that very clearly triggers VA tolook at the different theories
of service connections. They'renot separate claims, but I'm
(28:13):
asking VA to look at, was mysleep apnea caused by burn pits?
Was my sleep apnea caused byobesity secondary to PTSD and my
knees? Sleep apnea caused byjust by PTSD and tinnitus? So
each one that I don't knowexactly what caused it, but I
(28:34):
want to able to look at each oneof those theories.
I might list it, you know, threetimes here. You don't need to do
that. I'm just trying to make.Make it as kind of simple for VA
personnel to follow my train ofthought as possible. VA does
have a duty to assist, so if youwrite something on there in a
confusing way they should getclarification or if you kind of
(28:57):
cast too broad of a net theyshould do some exams to try to
narrow it down and help you helpfigure out what exactly is
wrong.
You want to steer them in theright direction while giving
them enough room to. To captureeverything that's actually going
on with you. And then you justyou don't have a whole lot of
(29:19):
space to write in here howsomething is related to service.
So it's just a sentence or a fewwords of Agent Orange in
Vietnam. Yeah.
Noise exposure. On the range.
Leah Bucholz (29:33):
Hurt me in 1994, you know, lifting a wall locker,
whatever.
Rebecca Deming (29:44):
Okay. So this part is if treatment began from
2005 to present, you do not needto provide the date. So if
you're treating at a VAfacility, VA has access to
(30:04):
those. If you treated at a VAfacility prior to 2005 and you
want VA to try to access thoserecords, you wanna to tip them
off like, Oh yeah, I wastreating at the Hampton VA in
1996. Okay.
So you want to give them thedates or, you know, I don't have
the dates. But again, you'retrying to if they're doing
(30:25):
record searches for you, youwant to steer them in the right
direction as much as possible.Okay, and this is the section if
you've already on page 12. Ifyou've already filled out an
application, this is your secondor third application for
(30:46):
different conditions. I usuallyleave most of this blank.
I probably would fill out thebranch of service, but mean VA
already has this. They'vealready gone and gotten your
DD214. They already have a fileopen for you. So they don't need
this information again. Butlike, like we talked earlier,
should I get my DD214 before Ifile a claim?
(31:07):
If you have it, that's great. Ifnot, filling out this
information is what's going totrigger VA to be able to put in
those records requests to findyour, your service information
and your service treatmentrecords. Okay, this section is
kind of interesting the serviceretired pay and we won't go into
(31:32):
detail on this right now, but wecan definitely do another talk
about the combat related specialcompensation and concurrent
retirement disability pay. And Ibelieve Congress is
contemplating some new billsthat would allow veterans under
any circumstances to receive allof their retired pay and all of
their VA disability. But as itstands right now, are some
(31:54):
offsets under certaincircumstances.
So you want to fill this outhonestly, because, and this is
just your, your VA or your, DODretirement pay or separation pay
or severance pay. They're notasking you if have a pension
from working at the firedepartment for twenty years
after you got out of service,like, don't care about all of
(32:14):
your assets. They're just tryingto see if there's an offset
between the DOD retirement payand and VA disability pay.
Leah Bucholz (32:24):
Sure. Is that Richard Sarrat? Is that one of
the ones that are
Rebecca Deming (32:28):
they're kinda looking at right now? Mhmm.
Leah Bucholz (32:31):
Yeah. Pretty interesting. We won't go over
it, but if you guys have time,go Google the Richard Star Act.
Rebecca Deming (32:39):
Yeah. And if if you have the time to lobby for
with your representatives on itor reach out to your
representatives, mean, Ipersonally think it's. It's BS
that your retirement paysomething you earn based on the
amount of time that you spent inservice and your rank and the
service that you provide to thiscountry. Your disability pay is
(33:01):
to compensate you based on theamount of injury and disability
that you succumbed duringservice or because of service.
So to offset them, I just thinkis I think it's morally wrong,
but obviously legally right now,it's still possible under
certain circumstances.
(33:25):
Okay, so this one, you just wantto kind go through an answer. If
you answer it incorrectly and VAoverpays you, they can generate
a debt and go after you fordebt. And it could be a small
amount each month. But if I'vehad situations where VA didn't
realize they were overpayingsomeone and then ten or fifteen
years later, they try to go backand collect it. Now we're
(33:46):
talking $30,000 debt orsomething.
You want to be honest with thisstuff.
Leah Bucholz (33:51):
Yeah. Especially if you are someone who received
like a severance for, you know,maybe you got chaptered for out
of the military for, you know,you took the chapter, I think
it's chapter eight forpregnancy, right? You decided to
get out because you wanna be amom or maybe you got chaptered
for whatever the reason, they'regonna in a lot of circumstances,
they're gonna take that out ofyour earnings. Right? They're
(34:14):
gonna recoup that money.
Again, we won't get into thattoo much today, but that's sort
of what that severance sectionis separation severance pay is
about. Right?
Rebecca Deming (34:27):
Yep. And then the next section is super
important. You don't want VAmailing you paper checks,
especially with the state of theU. S. Postal Service recently.
And if start this claim, andthen it takes two years between
(34:47):
different appeals or whatever toget paid and by then you've
moved. You don't want themailing. I mean, they can mail
you a paper check and I've hadplenty of clients who receive
paper checks and it's fine, but.It's much smoother if. The money
gets deposited into your bankaccount automatically.
(35:08):
Will say I've learned recentlyit actually has to be an FDIC
insured bank. So I've had ahandful of clients that bank
with these, like, they're notreally banks like Chime or like
the online, like Venmo is theironly form of banking, like these
electronic payment things. Andthe U. S. Department of Treasury
(35:31):
cannot deposit and VA throughDepartment of Treasury cannot
deposit money into a Chimeaccount.
So you actually have to have abank account with a banking
institution. That makes sense.
Leah Bucholz (35:45):
So then just
Rebecca Deming (35:46):
here's And then the here's where you sign and
just look at it carefully. Ifyou are the veteran sign where
it says veteran's signature anddate there, and then you don't
need a witness unless you areincapable of signing. So if you,
you know, if the veteran isparalyzed and can only sign or
illiterate whatever, and canonly sign with an X, then you
(36:07):
need a witness. It's very rarethat you're going need a witness
for signing this. On the, ifit's your very first, if your
original claim, initial claimwith VA, the veteran does have
to sign it.
After they filed one, if theyfile for new conditions down the
(36:27):
line, then their representativecan sign on their behalf. If you
scroll down, there's otherplaces for the or an attorney to
sign. So you just want to makesure you actually have a wet
signature. You don't want totype your signature in VA will
frequently reject applications.They just if you just type in
(36:48):
your name, You can do a drawnsignature on the computer, but
you actually do want to havesomething that looks like a
signature on there.
Then there's extra pages if youdon't have enough disabilities
on the first one. I will say,you you want to cast a broad
(37:14):
net, you want to file for thingsthat you actually have, but like
all of the things that youactually have that could
possibly be related to service.But you don't want to cast such
a broad net that you're kind oflogging the VA system and VA is
trying to figure out, like, youknow, they're sending you for 20
(37:35):
exams. I know there's in somecircles, there's been bad
guidance where they say, oh,well, if we're supposed to burn
kits, you automatically have aclaim. If you don't have a
current disability, you don'thave a claim right now.
So you want to put some thoughtinto this. I see this extra page
with another 20 lines on it andit kind of makes my head spin
(37:55):
like, if it's the first timeyou're filing a claim and you're
very disabled, you might have 20or 40 conditions because you
might have three conditions onyour right knee and three
conditions on your left knee andmultiple things related to
respiratory and multiple thingsrelated to gastrointestinal and
each joint might be messed up.Like there are some Veterans
(38:16):
that legitimately have a lot ofstuff. Just be mindful that
listing 40 things on here islikely to delay the processing
of the claim if they're notlegitimate. So you wanna stick
to the stuff that's that's got alegitimate reason that that
could be service connected.
Leah Bucholz (38:38):
Well, I have just a couple more questions for you.
So that was the end of theapplication. I just have a
couple more questions for you.So let's talk about so after
that's filed, I think my nextquestion was about C and P
exams.
Rebecca Deming (38:54):
Right? So, so VA has, like I said, VA has the
duty to assist you. They'regoing to spend some time before
they even schedule C and Pexams. Going to spend some time
pulling together your servicetreatment records, getting some
whatever medical records, yourVA records, if you're treating
at a VA hospital. And thenthey'll look at it and they'll
kind of see, is there enoughhere for us to trigger our duty
(39:19):
to assist?
And so if you list stuff and youhave no records of anything
happening in service, you didn'tput anybody statements that
anything happened in service,you don't have any records of a
current diagnosis, you just putit on the form, it's not going
to trigger VA's duty to assistand they're not going to send
you to a C and P exam. But ifthere's kind of just enough
there that, Hey, somethinghappened in service or, I have a
(39:41):
current diagnosis. I think it'srelated to service. VA will send
you to a C and P exam and thoseare usually done through
contracted examiners. I believeLeah, you're qualified as a C
and P examiner for some of thecompanies, right?
Leah Bucholz (39:56):
Yeah, so I previously worked for several of
the exam companies and I think Idon't wanna say a 100% of them
are being contracted out now,but most of them are being
contracted out. So, I've got alot of videos on what happens in
a C and P exam. So if you have aparticular condition that you'd
like to go, you know, the formatis generally the same. They're
(40:18):
gonna send you a packet in themail, tell you about who your
examiner is, the date and thetime, you know, how long the
person has been a C and Pexaminer, what their specialty
is. And that's that's prettymuch it.
Then you just show up and theygo through the DBQ with you, the
the individualized disabilitybenefit questionnaires for
whatever that condition is. Andthen they submit that
(40:41):
information back to VA so thatthe adjudicators can review that
along with the rest of yourevidence. Right?
Rebecca Deming (40:47):
Yep. And we do get questions a lot like, do I
have to go to the C and P exam?I mean, it's a nuanced question.
You should probably talk to yourVSO or representative, but if
you're doing this on your own,it's important to understand
that VA essentially, at least atthe initial levels, they need
(41:08):
some guidance on both. Is itservice connected?
And if it is, what, what areyour symptoms in a way that
aligns with how the rates it sothey're going to need that. If
you're you're just sending inyour treatment notes and
somebody letters or something,and then you say, I don't want
(41:28):
to go to. A C and P exam becauseI don't trust VA or something.
VA is going to deny that claim.Even if you have a nexus letter,
very often if you don't have adisability benefit questionnaire
that kind of says, yes, yourrange of motion was 45 degrees
(41:49):
on this joint and 23 degrees inthat direction or whatever, or
you've got very frequent andprolonged migraines, productive
of severe economic andadaptability, you know, like if
those boxes aren't checked forVA, not, they might say, well,
yeah, we think they have acondition because we see a
(42:10):
diagnosis and we see that it'sconnected, but for all we know
it's rated 0% because we don'thave this disability benefit
questionnaire.
You really, in the verybeginning, I'd say it's a rare
circumstance and there are someveterans that will develop the
stuff and kind of get those DBQsfilled out and get the nexus
letters and then just say, Hey,I don't want anyone else to look
at this. But for the most part,it's usually good in the
(42:34):
beginning to go to these exams.And if you get a bad examiner or
you've got an issue, I'm sure wecould do a whole another. You've
done many on them on how to dealwith the C and P exams. But in
the beginning, yeah, you want tohelp VA help you get the
evidence they need to do agrant.
Then you're sort of narrowingdown the issues that you might
need to appeal on. So, you know,maybe they'll grant three out of
(42:55):
five. Now you're just working ongathering evidence or gathering
some legal theories on the finaltwo conditions.
Leah Bucholz (43:04):
So can you submit additional evidence while the
claim is still open? Can aveteran do that?
Rebecca Deming (43:09):
Yes, you can. And VA is required by law to
review it depending on when yousend it in. You know, examiner
may not have time to see it. Ifyou send it in after the exam
was, or after the decision waswritten, before it was
finalized, they may not havetime to re review it and change
(43:31):
the decision. But yeah, at anypoint that an exam that a claim
is pending, can add inadditional evidence and VA is
supposed to consider it.
Leah Bucholz (43:41):
So what happens after your C and P exam while
you're waiting for your VA'sdecision?
Rebecca Deming (43:46):
Deep breaths and meditation. It's VA and it's a
bureaucratic system. And so itkind of your claim file gets
bounced from kind of employee toemployee with different checks
and balances throughout. So, youknow, you've got the initial,
you file your claim. Soinitially they're going to
gather the evidence and thenthey're going to determine
(44:09):
whether there's enough to sendyou to a C and P exam.
And then they're going to sendyou to the C and P exam. Then
they're going to wait for thatexam company or that examiner to
upload the exam results into thesystem. They can review them to
see if those exams meet theircriteria or are adequate or if
they need to send them back forany kind of revisions or
additional questions. Oncesomebody signs off that those
CMPs are adequate for ratingpurposes, then your claim gets
(44:31):
marked as ready for decision,which means like VA's got all
the evidence that it thinks itneeds to make a decision. It may
be a good decision or a baddecision.
It doesn't mean they think theyhave everything they need to
grant. It just means they've gotenough to make a decision on it.
Then that file gets put intokind of a queue to be assigned
to a rating officer. That ratingofficer could look at the
(44:52):
evidence and say, actually weneed, you know, additional
clarification on this exam thatcould kind of re trigger
something to go back. So it'shard from the outside to know
like how long something's goingto take, But there are different
stages and I think people willsee that or, you know, the stuff
that we see on our end on theveteran benefit management
system as a representative is alittle bit different than the
(45:12):
veteran facing portals.
And so sometimes you're like, myclaim file's on the reviewer's
desk. Like, well, you don't knowwhich reviewer or how long they
have to review that file orwhich pieces they're looking at.
So it could be that they'remaking a decision that day. It
could be that it's gonna beanother couple months. It's
really hard to kind of predictexactly where you are in the
(45:33):
system after you have that exam.
Leah Bucholz (45:35):
Yeah, it's just so variable. So from my
perspective, which is a littlebit different, know, va.gov, I
think you and I looked at itearlier said that their average
turnaround time on these claimsis a hundred and thirty five
days right now. That's for newclaims. I don't know about for
supplemental claims or differentappeals, but, you know, and
that's information you can lookat on va.gov, but that doesn't
(45:55):
mean you know, I've seen peopleget their claims approved in a
week. Right?
I've seen, you know, exactly ifthey're I think they're testing
out this AI and these thesedifferent automated systems to,
like I think those are more sofor, increases than necessarily
brand new claims, which anincrease can be a new claim
essentially, but not a new newclaim. It's a new anyways, I'm
(46:17):
going down rabbit hole there.But I've also seen where from
the examiner standpoint, like,you know, maybe somebody in my
office did an exam on somebody.They submitted it, and quality
control sent it you know, wentto VA, and VA said, oh, there's
an issue with this. Send it backto the examiner.
So maybe the rater had it. Andlike you said, they said, oh,
this is not, sufficient, youknow, for rating purposes. We
(46:39):
need to ask an additionalquestion. So they send it back
to the examiner. Maybe theexaminer's on vacation.
Maybe the examiner quit. Maybethe examiner died. And then
guess what? They're probablygonna have to order a whole
brand new exam because theycan't get clarification on the
exam, you know, or perhaps theysend it to a third examiner or a
second examiner to review whatthe first one did. So there's so
(47:00):
many what ifs that it's likeYeah.
Rebecca Deming (47:03):
And the question could be did the examiner not
answer the question right or wasthe question written so poorly
that no one in their right mindcould ever answer that question
in a way that would give anykind of clarity on the claim? So
they have to rewrite the examrequest and then have someone
answer that different examrequest. So there's a lot of
bureaucracy and I think peoplekind of want the simple answer,
(47:25):
like, you know, from start tofinish, how long is it going to
take? And, you know, VAestimates one hundred and thirty
five days, you know, like yousaid, like, I had another client
who was their claim wasincorrectly flagged for terminal
illness. And so they decidedthat it was an appeal, but they
decided it in like a couple ofdays.
She's like, you're amazing. Youmove so fast. I'm like, you
(47:45):
know, VA thinks you'reterminally ill. And she's like,
Am I? I'm like, No, it's justsomebody clicked the wrong box.
I mean, not that I know of, youknow. But for whatever reason
that one got moved reallyquickly. And then there's others
that you're like, this should bereally simple, like I've got all
the evidence and it's justsitting on someone's desk and
they're not clicking the nextbox to move it to the next stage
(48:05):
or you know they're taking thefull amount of time before they
move it to the next stage. Orsomething needs to be reviewed.
Yeah, there's just so manyreasons why stuff could take
longer that's really outside ourcontrol.
Leah Bucholz (48:18):
All right, so I just have a couple more
questions for you before we wrapup. So once you, so you're
waiting for that decision andthen you finally receive a
decision. So what happens afteryou receive the decision or how
do you receive it?
Rebecca Deming (48:29):
So you'll receive the decision in the
mail. If you're working with aVSO, they might get an
electronic copy and be able totell you before you receive it
in the mail. And if you'remonitoring it online, I think
you have some access toinformation, but I don't think
you have the full rationale onwhy something was granted or why
it was denied or, you know, soyou're waiting until you get
(48:52):
that decision in the mail. Andthen you have a year from the
date of that decision typicallyto file an appeal. So if you
think that they denied somethingthat they should have granted,
or if they rated something, butthey rated it too low, you want
to look at the reasons why theydenied it.
You don't want to just refile.At that point, that'd be a good
time to, if you're not alreadyworking with a VSO, Accredited
(49:15):
Claims Agent or an Accredited VAAttorney, it might be a good
time to reach out to somebodybecause you're not just throwing
something like, Oh, that didn'twork. Let me try again. You want
to kind of look at what waswrong. Was I missing something
that VA needed or was VA juststupid or was the examiner?
(49:35):
And you're not going get a copyof that exam. But an accredited
claims agent or an accreditedattorney will be able to see the
C and P exam. And so we'll beable to see if there was
something wrong in the way thatthat exam was written that might
trigger a duty to assist erroror we'll say, hey, at this point
it really makes sense to get aprivate medical opinion and so
we'll send them to Leah orwhoever the expert is that's
(50:00):
best suited for that kind ofopinion.
Leah Bucholz (50:03):
Wouldn't it be wonderful if at some point VA
starts putting claims relateddoc I mean, I know they started
adding rating decision letters,which I think is really cool.
But if they start putting likethe C and P exams, I mean,
course, if you had a C and Pexam at the VA, that will likely
be in your VA blue buttonmedical records. But like those
outside exams, if they startmaking those and they're
(50:26):
accessible if you, you know,request your claims file, but it
takes a while. Right?
Rebecca Deming (50:29):
It takes a year and then by then you I mean, it
often takes a year or more toget those claim files and you
only have a year to appeal. Soby the time you get access to
those records, you've alreadyhad to make the strategic
decision of what kind of appealto file or whether to file an
appeal. Yeah, I think theyshould be made available to
veterans. I mean, I think thatthey're worded so poorly so
(50:51):
often, and they're reallyconfusing that I understand VA's
concern that if we make theseavailable in the way that
they're currently formatted,it's just going to cause more
confusion. So if you're going toaccess it, you should access it
through someone who has moreexperience kind of understanding
what this means and is thisfavorable and, you know, what
but it's your information.
(51:12):
So I think veterans should haveaccess to it. Probably the the
long term answer would be tomake the forms less confusing
and more understandable. Yeah.
Leah Bucholz (51:22):
Do a better doing a better job, making sure that
there aren't a bunch ofinaccuracies and, mistakes. But
again, like you mentionedearlier, it's like a
bureaucratic system and it'sjust a challenge, but we're all
working through it together. AndI think VA is doing its best to
try to make improvements forveterans. So I don't have any
(51:48):
more questions for you. I hopethis was informative for you
guys out there watching.
Maybe it can ease some of thestress and tension on doing
these types of things. And ifnot, you know there are people
out there, VSOs, like Imentioned earlier, I have a
great video on how to access youknow, va.gov search criteria for
(52:09):
any kind of accredited claimsagent, attorney or VSO. You can
go watch my video on that or youcan just jump over to va.gov and
look for the accreditationsearch tool. Rebecca is an
amazing attorney if you needhelp with appeals. You know, I'm
gonna put her information in thecomment sec or not the comments,
in the description of thisvideo, but it's ProVet legal.
(52:32):
And if you haven't caught any ofour other videos, you might
wanna go and check some of thoseout, especially the one about
when to hire a VA attorney.That's a really great video we
did together. But outside ofthat, thank you so much for
being here with us again today,Rebecca. It's always amazing
when you're on, so thanks foryour time.
Rebecca Deming (52:52):
Yeah, thanks for having me, Leah. Yeah, like you
said, hopefully this sort of wasa soft dive into it and eases
some of the anxiety about justthe paralyzation of just getting
started and so more people cankind of get started with the
process and get the benefits youguys deserve.
Leah Bucholz (53:09):
All right. Well, thanks again for watching guys.
Please drop some comments andlike subscribe and we'll talk to
you guys later. Thanks.
Rebecca Deming (53:15):
Thanks, bye.
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