Hello Jim,
I have been following your advice with all my claims & find the DIY is the way to go. You have helped me in the past with my claims and have been successful.
I am asking for advice for a good friend of mine who was Air Force, discharged in 1992 with a 10% rating for his left knee. I believe it involved and ACL tear. He has never messed with the VA all these years, didn’t feel like he should put in for an increase with guys coming back more injured from Iraq/Afghanistan than him. Over the years his knee has been getting worse & his quality of life with regard to his hobbies of bike riding, running,martial arts have finally come to an end. His job has suffered as well because he is an aircraft mechanic and works a lot on the knees & tight spaces. I have been working with him to finally get this done with the advice I have received from you and your website. He has recently had a XRAY & MRI done of his knee at the VA and he received the MRI report and it states he does have a lot going on that needs attention. He said it mentioned arthritis & bursitis with tears also. He plans to put in for an increase after he meets with the VA Ortho Dr. this week on Thursday. Is there anything that you recommend he should do prior to going in & seeing the VA Dr. or anything he should tell the VA Dr. when he is in there. Should he ask the VA Dr. to write a letter stating his worsening knee conditon is more than likely as a result of his SC Knee condition? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks again for all your help and advice for us Vets!
Reply:
I'm pleased to hear that efforts by VAWatchdog have been helpful to you and now a friend. That's the sort of feedback that keeps us going here.
Your friend should apply for an increase.
The law provides that we are compensated for injuries and illnesses that are caused by or aggravated by our military service. That law says that we should be compensated for the current state of our condition. If there is an improvement, VA can and often does rate us as less severely disabled. If the rated condition gets worse, VA should rate us as more disabled.
To not seek a rating because of the younger vets coming in who need help is a sort of false economy of resources. I hear that a lot. The way VA works is that the more veterans who are filing claims, the harder VA must work and the more budget they must demand from Congress. If 100,000 Vietnam era veterans decided that they wouldn't file claims so that our younger brothers and sisters could get help, all that would happen is that VA would cut the budget by an amount equal to 100,000 old vets.
When we force them to get to work for all of us, they will get the job done. If we allow them to become slackers, they will.
Your friend should proceed to file. He can do that by writing a simple letter. As you know, there are no forms to complete, all he needs to do is to inform his VA regional office in writing that he wants an increase.
http://www.vawatchdog.org/how-to-increase-an-existing-benefit--.html
As he does that he should first look at the Schedule for Rating Disabilities here
http://www.benefits.va.gov/warms/docs/regs/38CFR/BOOKC/PART4/S4_45.DOC
and here
http://www.benefits.va.gov/warms/docs/regs/38CFR/BOOKC/PART4/S4_71a.DOC
On that last page link, scroll down to 4.71a-28...The Knee and Leg.
There he'll find the descriptions of how the knee is rated. He should match his symptoms and restrictions of the use of his knee to what he finds there.
I don't recommend that he tell his VA doctor that he is seeking an increase in his disability award. That doctor doesn't really have much to do with it at this point and talking of an increase may put him on guard.
He should stress to the doctor that his knee has gotten worse. He should describe in detail, similar to the language he'll learn on the Schedule, exactly what is troubling him. The doctor will record that into the VA medical record. That's better than any letter.
Once he files, that will trigger VA to begin the process of considering his request for an increase. He will get a C & P exam. The C & P exam is so important that I've dedicated 4 pages of my blog to it...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/c---p-exams.html
Although it's a lot of work, I advise veterans who are serious about winning their claim to read and be familiar with all of that.
That's all there is to it. The process seems daunting but it really only takes a few hours of the veterans time to prepare for the ratings process. The payback for the time spent is worth it.
Finally...I salute you for helping a buddy. I've long said that this is how it works best for us...one vet helping one other vet. If everyone did what you're doing, veterans lives would be much improved across the country.