Our Military Community

00:00:39:17 - 00:00:58:38
Unknown
Hey. Hello, everyone. Gerry Talbot with you with another edition of our military community. And we've got a very special one today. We've got so much information to get into. It's going to deal strictly with veterans under disability claims. And there's a lot of misinformation out there. A lot of people that tell you they know what's going on. But let's face it, we need to talk to an expert.

00:00:58:38 - 00:01:19:15
Unknown
And I have an expert with me today who is actually the director of veterans services, John Diggins, over at the Veterans Service Office on 11th Street there. John, thanks for coming in today. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Let's get right to it. First of all, what is veterans services? Veterans services is a county organization.

00:01:19:24 - 00:01:48:48
Unknown
We work for Bay County and the citizens of Bay County. There is a veterans service office in every county in the state of Florida. We are not the VA. We are basically out there to serve the local veterans and their families in obtaining the best benefits they can from the VA. And I've worked with all of you over there many, many times over the years, and you guys know what to do.

00:01:48:48 - 00:02:06:26
Unknown
You have the answers. And like you told me several years ago, John, don't pay any attention to all these people that know. They think they know what's going on. Talk to the people that are involved with it that help you out. So if I have a disability or I think I have a disability and I'm a veteran, how do I get started to file a claim?

00:02:06:31 - 00:02:35:36
Unknown
All right. First thing is, you want to call our office, set up an appointment with one of our counselors. I have three counselors on staff. I am also a counselor, which makes us four. And I have a very good senior staff assistant that will help guide them through anyone who wants to file a claim. Generally speaking, we need a copy of your discharge paperwork and you come in.

00:02:35:41 - 00:03:08:41
Unknown
We will have a counselor discuss everything with you and get you in our local database here. And send off what's called an intent to file claim. What this is, is it allows the veteran or family member up to one year together all the information they need to file a successful and fully developed claim to the VA. Now that and that's one thing that sometimes can be quite overwhelming for somebody is all of these documents.

00:03:08:41 - 00:03:22:46
Unknown
First of all, I don't know if you would recommend it. I always recommend to the people I talked to that are coming in, getting out of the service is get a copy of your medical records or your medical records, or they do have them. They keep them up where Kansas City or someplace like that. But you need a copy of that.

00:03:22:51 - 00:03:55:44
Unknown
Do you need a medical exam? And who if you need one, John, what type of doctor or what type of physician will be accepted as evidence of a possible claim for you? Okay. So basically, when you're dealing with the VA for a service connected condition, let's say there's a book, a how to book that the VA reps have to go by.

00:03:55:49 - 00:04:31:07
Unknown
It's not the law, right? But it tells them how to look at a claim. Number one, something had to happen during your military service and you have a diagnosis today of it can be your private medical records from your local physician. And you have a what's called a NICS. It's a clinic in between the two, what your diagnosis is today and what occurred during the service, and how those are connected constantly from the time from service to where you are today.

00:04:31:16 - 00:04:54:50
Unknown
Basically, the VA is looking at something happen and you have residuals of that issue today. Now, one thing to I know this was done for me, John, when I retired from the service, they actually started the process of where they would automatically, if you had a medical condition, that you were being treated for in your records, they automatically sent it to the VA for getting their approval or disapproval.

00:04:54:50 - 00:05:24:59
Unknown
I know when I retired, I came out with a 20% disability. This this was true years ago. So what we have is it's called A, B, D, D claim. It's a benefit delivery at discharge. So anyone that is is expecting to be discharged from the military service, they have a timeframe of 180 to 90 days before discharge that they can file their claim.

00:05:25:04 - 00:05:55:59
Unknown
Generally speaking, if they have eight issues or less, they probably will get their decision by discharge date. If it's eight issues or more, it's probably going to take a little bit longer because the VA looks at what the disability claims are and issues and they will set up an examination with a medical physician that's usually a specialist in that field.

00:05:56:04 - 00:06:25:19
Unknown
And then that takes a while. And so if you have quite a few issues that you're claiming, it's going to take more than just that, that 90 days to. All right. Let's say, John, that I got all of my information together now, I got my medical records and even civilian medical records that I need anything that I feel is helpful and I bring it in UK, it came in to you and say, okay, John, I want to file a disability claim.

00:06:25:24 - 00:06:47:15
Unknown
What is the next step after I come to you with all of these records? How do I file that claim? How do I submit it? Okay, that's what we do for you. We take all of that, we will scan your documents in. It goes into our database. We fill out the proper forms to get that into the VA.

00:06:47:29 - 00:07:18:15
Unknown
All of those issues. We will actually do a narrative if necessary, as to how that that claim came about, how that disability came about and what your residuals are today. Right. And then we will because we're in a digital format there, we will punch a button and it goes straight to the VA. There's no no waiting. It goes into the system within about 3 to 5 minutes.

00:07:18:20 - 00:07:52:39
Unknown
It's it's at Janesville, Wisconsin, which is the regional office that gathers all this information from all over the United States. And in about three business days, usually we will see that in the what's called VBA. Ms.. It's the veterans benefit management system, which if that counselor is accredited with the service organization that represents them, then we can look in the VA and see their entire claims folder and what's progressing, what we may need to do.

00:07:52:44 - 00:08:29:55
Unknown
And then from then on it's in the VA's hands. They will order up any examinations necessary and then it progresses through to veterans claims reps, to a veterans rating representative, and then through the different coaches that approve the rating. And eventually we come up with some kind of decision. So it's not a process where you could say, okay, I submitted by claim today and 30 days, I'm going to find out if I have the disability or not, not necessarily right now.

00:08:29:55 - 00:08:57:19
Unknown
I will tell you this. There are some claims that we can put in and within 30 days they will make a decision on it, generally speaking, with a surviving spouse and we have a veteran that dies of a service connected condition or is a contributing factor. By the time it gets to the regional office, which is Philadelphia for that and someone sees it.

00:08:57:19 - 00:09:30:35
Unknown
Now, you got to remember there's a backlog because we've got the entire United States four days average from the time a reviewer looks at it and makes the decision. So it can be anywhere from there on. But generally speaking, on a service connect condition, it's going to be about 6 to 8 months. Okay. If you have under eight issues that you're checking out and here's a big question, and it's something that I still don't fully understand.

00:09:30:35 - 00:09:57:30
Unknown
Let's say you get your claim back from the VA and you've been approved for a we'll say a 30% disability, but they say on that 30% disability, we're also giving you 40% for your hearing. We're giving you 20% for your back. We're giving you 10% for your arthritis. Well, if I put all that together, that's 100%. How do they come up with the fact if they're giving me four different things that add up to 100%, I'm only getting 30%.

00:09:57:35 - 00:10:39:33
Unknown
It doesn't make sense. Okay. So the VA does what's called combined ratings. In other words, they will start with the highest percentage and they look at not what your disabilities are. To compound that, they look at what your abilities are and the VA rates you based on your ability to work. Okay. So if you are at 30% and that's your highest rating over here and the other column says you are 70% able bodied.

00:10:39:38 - 00:11:11:10
Unknown
So then the next one is 20%. So they will take 20% of the 70%, not a 100%. Okay. That's 14. So you add the 14 to the 30 and you come with 44. Correct. But 30 and 20 is 50 because you're under a half a point. Right. You are now at 40% and so is based on able bodied and that's what's so confusing.

00:11:11:10 - 00:11:47:19
Unknown
And hopefully it cleared up some questions on that. Now I've been approved at what percentage do I start receiving a VA disability moneywise in my bank account? Okay. No matter whether you're retired, a retired veteran or you just spent your four years in, you can start you will start receiving a your VA benefit based on the percentage and it starts at 10%.

00:11:47:24 - 00:12:39:44
Unknown
And VA ratings are on 1010 numbers. Yes. Other words, ten, 20, 30 on up. So yeah, at 10%. Now, if you are a a retiree, for example, unless that is a combat related disability, you will receive an offset of your retirement benefit up to the point where you are 50% service connected or greater. And then you fall under what's called concurrent retirement receipt C or D, P, And at that point you will then receive the 50% or greater amount in addition to your retirement.

00:12:39:44 - 00:12:59:27
Unknown
But it still looks kind of freaky on your retirement statement. Exactly. Exactly. And that's one of the things I want to make sure that I that I cleared up and everything on that. Now I've been approved for all of this and everything. And that's good news. Now, I know that at 50% I'll start getting an actual monetary equivalent.

00:12:59:32 - 00:13:23:31
Unknown
What happens when the claim comes back and it says denied? Okay, what do I do? And one of the things I want to I want you to bring out right at the very top, there's too many people out there, John, that say, okay, my VA disability claim has been denied. I'm going to get a lawyer. To me, that's one of the things to do.

00:13:23:31 - 00:13:59:51
Unknown
Well, we will point out that, yes, you are entitled to have a lawyer represent you. When you do, you cut our office out of the process because we can no longer see what's going on in your VA file. Also, when you have an attorney, I don't know. It's basically works the same way as an attorney who represent you in a Social Security disability hearing.

00:13:59:55 - 00:14:26:53
Unknown
They will. And I'm not saying they all do because there are some great attorneys out there that can help you. I can give you the names of national attorneys are great, but they can extend that appeal out to the point where you seem like there is nothing going to happen here and then all of a sudden you get an award and you get a retroactive pay.

00:14:26:57 - 00:15:05:59
Unknown
The attorney is not doing this out of the goodness of their heart that they're going to receive right off the top. You don't pay them as a veteran. The VA pays them 21%. So the longer they can draw out and the more money you can get as a retroactive pay, the greater they're there. Some said. And one of the other things is to clear this up for me, John, I believe I'm right on this is once you retain that lawyer, I as the VA individual that is putting in the claim, I no longer can come and talk to you for advice.

00:15:06:04 - 00:15:33:14
Unknown
I can give you advice, but it's basically not going to help you a bit because that attorney is the guy that's going to represent you. Now, I do want to clear one thing up. There is one phase of the appeals process that is the US Court of Veterans Appeals who deal strictly with the law, and you must be represented by an attorney for that.

00:15:33:19 - 00:16:08:57
Unknown
That is way down the line and you have exhausted everything. It deals mainly with what the VA did not afford you under the law, not necessarily what your disability is. All right. So we've got that cleared up about the lawyer. I've been denied a claim and I come back to you and say, John, help me. What is your steps involved in to resubmit this claim and what additional evidence or documents are needed to try and support this claim?

00:16:09:00 - 00:16:40:04
Unknown
Okay. So the first thing I'm going to want to do is I want to see that rating decision that the VA gave you in that decision. It's going to tell me what they found, why they denied it, what things were not in your favor and what you may need to do to be successful with this claim or go to the next level up on that claim.

00:16:40:09 - 00:17:08:47
Unknown
A lot of times someone will say, Look, this did happen to me in the service and I have these problems, but what happens is you are also going for an examination from a physician that may have only seen you for 15 minutes and they will put an opinion in there that, yes, this is service connected or no, it possibly isn't.

00:17:08:51 - 00:17:42:40
Unknown
Unfortunately, because the Raiders are so backed up with the VA, they just hired 2000 new employees to do this kind of work. They will take shortcuts and look at the opinion of that, that physician. I love that because I love doing appeals, because I like to peel it like an onion. You go through piece by piece by piece.

00:17:42:45 - 00:18:12:02
Unknown
We are in no way, shape or form attorneys, but this is basically how you have to go about that. And opinions are I just irritate me to see an opinion of a a medical professional that has interviewed you for 15 minutes and comes up with something that's going to affect you for the rest of your life right. Not saying they're all bad, right?

00:18:12:02 - 00:18:42:58
Unknown
I've seen some great physicians out there that that are good at this, but occasionally, you got to remember from start to finish through the VA process, you deal with a human factor. Right. And if that doctor left that morning and the dog bidding and the wife says, we need to talk this evening, you're probably not going to get as good an opinion as if she gave him a good kiss and off he went and the dog just chirped after him.

00:18:43:03 - 00:19:04:55
Unknown
I mean, it's frustrating for the individuals and, you know, you know, my case very well. It took me five years to get mine upgraded. But I a lot of people have been talking to me about that. And they say their opinion is is that's one of the reasons why it's drug out over all this time. They hope either number one, the veteran dies.

00:19:04:59 - 00:19:37:35
Unknown
Our number two, they just say, the heck, well, I'm not going to complete the process, is there? What is that? How do you dispel that? Some years ago, a few years back, the VA changed the appeals process and it went to what's called AM A what you were under was the old legacy type of of appeal. And generally speaking, an appeal under the old legacy form would take up to nine years to get through the system.

00:19:37:39 - 00:20:17:24
Unknown
The AMA has streamlined that. There are two forms that you can use for an appeal. One is a supplemental form and the other one is a fully developed where you don't have any information to two, to be successful, you must give them new and relevant evidence. The big deal is that on the the supplemental, it goes back to the VA.

00:20:17:35 - 00:20:49:44
Unknown
Who made your decision before, right on the one where you don't add any information to it goes to a special section called the D Roc. And this is made up of decision review officers who have been around and they know what they're doing pretty much. And on the form that we do there, you can actually ask for an informal phone call from the the officer and he would talk to you.

00:20:49:44 - 00:21:26:36
Unknown
And there may be some just some slight thing they can clear that issue up. But both of those are to be adjudicated within 125 days. Now, if you are still not happy with that, you can go before the Board of Veterans Appeals. And the Board of Veterans Appeals has three avenues there of which are the same thing where it's basically you're not adding any information and let them make the decision on the merits of the case.

00:21:26:41 - 00:21:56:01
Unknown
They have to look at it as if no one has ever seen it before. Number two is you're going to add additional evidence to support that appeal. Right. And number three, you're wanting to have an actual interview with the the law judge. So when you get into that where you have a service organization representing you, they conduct the hearing.

00:21:56:05 - 00:22:23:02
Unknown
And there are two ways that you can have the hearing. One is you can go to a VA facility and it'll be a three way conversation. The the judge is going to be in D.C. Your representative is probably going to be at the local regional office in Saint Petersburg and you're going to be at the clinic or you can do it out of your own home.

00:22:23:02 - 00:22:46:16
Unknown
If you have a computer and sit there and you can talk to them. there's generally two things that maybe are three things that can happen. You could be flat out deny and you could be granted a which time it goes back to the VA to figure out what percentage or it can be remanded back to the VA.

00:22:46:21 - 00:23:20:03
Unknown
If the judge says, Hey, I see that you need more information from the VA, right? And they all always leave you with, I'm going to give you a 90 days to submit any additional evidence you might want to support your claim. The VA law judges in the Board of Veterans Appeals are great. I known about three of them, and they're always out there as advocates for the veterans to try and get them what they deserve.

00:23:20:07 - 00:23:46:50
Unknown
So things are changing. It's now starting to where they're going a little bit easier on how we have to put these claims and things in. All right, let me point this out. Okay? Because I just got an email the other day that right now the Board of Veterans Appeals is working on clearing up all of those older claims that older appeals that were years old.

00:23:46:55 - 00:24:15:36
Unknown
Right. And they are not taking on any of the newer stuff unless it's to be expedited that you're over 75 homeless or low income type of thing, or you have an imminent death. They will expedite those. But they're trying to do those legacy claims. I think they're in the hundreds left to do so. There's not a whole lot.

00:24:15:36 - 00:24:35:34
Unknown
Right. But it still it takes time. They got to go through. And a lot of this stuff they're dealing with, you know, there's there's so much have changed over that past time. And we're going to get into a couple of other things on that. But let's say, John, that okay, Jerry, you're appeal was approved. You're now going to get a 60% disability.

00:24:35:39 - 00:24:59:26
Unknown
And I can look at that and say, that's great. So I'm going to get 60% disability under the Veterans administrations for the rest of my life back. Not true. No, there is. And I want you to talk about that. That 60% doesn't mean I get it forever. There's a time limit. It's what, three or five years that if you are not with the same condition, that could get dropped.

00:24:59:30 - 00:25:31:13
Unknown
This is true. There's generally speaking, there's a ten year rule and a 20 year rule. So once you have a rating decision any time within that ten year period, if the VA sees that there may be an issue, they can sever you. In other words, they can take that completely away any time within 20 years of the effective date of that issue.

00:25:31:18 - 00:26:13:28
Unknown
The VA can reduce you anything. Over 20 years it's been in effect the VA can't touch. So let's say you have a 60%. The one that really is comes out to my mind is you have a 60% service connected condition for a knee and you have a total knee replacement. Well, first off, you're going to get four months of 100% disability pay for convalescence from that knee because medical science is improved, you're going to be up and running marathons that.

00:26:13:34 - 00:26:42:16
Unknown
All right. Well, the VA then will either give you a new examination or automatically reduce you from 60% to 30% because you're fixed, right? But you're not 100% fixed. You're just sort of fixed. Right. Then it's up to you to prove that I need to be back at that 60% because I'm not doing that. Well, yeah, that's that's the thing that's really discouraged in about it.

00:26:42:16 - 00:27:00:58
Unknown
But above all they need if they have questions or anything, John, they need to keep in touch with you guys over there because you know what to tell them and what to do and everything and that's so important is the communication. A lot of people know the two parts of communication. One of them is talking and one is the other one's listening.

00:27:00:58 - 00:27:23:20
Unknown
We all like to talk, but we don't want to listen. We don't want to hear something that we think will make us true. So we've got to keep that. I tried to explain to folks that your claims folder is in a box and there's two keys. You own one and the VA? Yes. And the VA is too busy to use their key to open it.

00:27:23:25 - 00:27:54:09
Unknown
But the minute you file a claim, your key opens that box and exposes everything. We're starting to run short on time here. We only got about 3 minutes left, so a lot of great information. I told you can go quick. But once we have that VA disability and say it's 60, 70% or whatever, what services are available to me that I can get through the VA that I don't have to pay for health care right now, there there are eight priority groups in health care that you may pay.

00:27:54:09 - 00:28:25:57
Unknown
You may not. Right. You have Florida has has a bunch of different benefits and all the state parks you can get in them at no charge. Lifetime pass depending on what your disability rating is. The state has other things available to you. Tax breaks is a big one. Tax breaks at 10%. You get $5,000 extra on your homestead exemption.

00:28:26:02 - 00:28:47:19
Unknown
gosh, there's, there's a whole lot of stuff out there, But if they check with you, you got a full list. That one thing that bothers me and a lot of other people, if you don't have a 100% VA disability rating, they will not see you in the dental services. Is that going to change? Only if you talk to your congressman.

00:28:47:24 - 00:29:22:08
Unknown
Congress makes that law. unfortunately. And okay, I'll tell you what it is. It all has to do with the bottom line money. Right? Right. Okay, good enough. I'm so sorry. All right, John, we got a minute and a half left. It'll be 45 seconds. What? What's the thing that you want to impress right now to the veterans listening about claims my office is there to help you or any family member with any issue that you have with the VA all the way from birth to death.

00:29:22:08 - 00:29:38:53
Unknown
We cover it, and that's what they've got to go see. I mean, you're over there in the government center on 11th Street, walking in the front door and go to where the security guard sits. Just turn to the left and you're that door down on the right. All you got to do is walk in the office. BESLER call and get an appointment, right?

00:29:39:04 - 00:30:01:38
Unknown
Yes. All right, John, thank you so much for coming in today. You have cleared up a lot of stuff. I know it's answered questions, but I know it's brought up other questions, too. So thank you so much, John. All right. It is over with again. We've run through another our military community, but it's something that's very, very important to us is the VA medical system, especially when it comes to the claims.

00:30:01:38 - 00:30:26:42
Unknown
And the other portion of it is and I promise you, I will get something on and we'll talk about that, too, is the actual medical things like appointments and why can't I get stuff done here and why can't the emergency room do this for me now? So there's more things to talk about, but if you have any questions above all, please call an office over there at the Veterans Service office over at the government complex on 11th Street.

00:30:26:47 - 00:31:23:55
Unknown
That'll do it for this edition of our military community. I'm Gerri Tabart. Have a great day, everyone. We'll see you next week.