Benefits | Stateside Legal

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Silent Partner: All Clauses Considered - Writing the Frozen Benefit Award

The Silent Partner series of info-letters is a project of the military committees of the American Bar Association’s Family Law Section and the North Carolina State Bar.

VA Disability - Step 7: Filing A Court Appeal

This step-by step guide will walk you through the process of a VA Disability claim. This step will explain how to file an appeal on your claim's denial.

VA Disability - Step 5: Getting the Initial Decision on Your Claim

This step-by step guide will walk you through the process of a VA Disability claim. This step will explain the initial decision on your claim.

VA Disability - Step 6: When the initial decision finds no "nexus"

This step-by step guide will walk you through the process of a VA Disability claim. This step explains what it means when the initial decision finds no "nexus".

VA Disability - Step 3: Gather and submit evidence

This step-by step guide will walk you through the process of a VA Disability claim. This step will give you information on how to gather and submit evidence that will help you with your claim.

VA Disability - Step 4: The C & P Exam

This step-by step guide will walk you through the process of a VA Disability claim. This step will explain the Compensation and Pension Examination (C & P exam).

VA Disability - Step 2: The VA Response

This step-by step guide will walk you through the process of a VA Disability claim. This step will give you information on the VA's response to a filed claim or an "Intent to File a Claim" filing.

VA Disability - Step 1: File your claim

This step-by step guide will walk you through the process of a VA Disability claim. This step will give you information on when and how to file a claim.

PTSD & OSA

December 16, 2020

Question:

Hello and good day. I am a veteran who is currently receiving 70% disability for PTSD. While in service I was treated for the PTSD and had many issues including sleep issues. After I was out of the military, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea. My VA rep told me not to claim it because of there being no service related connection. However I now see that the VA does see a link between PTSD and sleep apnea. Do you know if its worth trying to make a claim for the sleep apnea? And will making a claim for this impact my current disability negatively?

Jim's Reply:

The VA doesn't automatically recognize a cause and effect link between PTSD and OSA. To establish such a link requires that an expert disability doctor make the connection for you by reviewing your records, medications and so on. This sort of action won't negatively affect any existing benefits. You can learn more about Independent Medical Opinions here.

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CHAMPVA

December 16, 2020

Question:

When my husband first became eligible for CHAMPVA due to my being designated 100% P&T .. we gathered up about 9 months of EOBs from his doctor's visits and hospital stays and sent them to CHAMPVA and then got a letter back that we needed a form from each doctor's office. We gathered those up, calling each doctor's office, etc. When we resubmitted them, we sent them to the address for resubmission that we'd been given. Since then we've got a small amount, and then we got a letter saying the other things were submitted too late. I've been calling CHAMPVA for over a year now, and supposedly the items have been resubmitted with an explanation. Today I got 'they weren't submitted in a timely fashion.' They've been pulling that for over 2 years. OR 'the documentation needed is not present' when a clerk answering the phone found it without any problem.

Jim's Reply:

I'm pretty sure that in every inquiry I've had about CHAMPVA over the years, each reply will have the word 'persistence' in it. My wife has used CHAMPVA for a lot of years and we think it's as good as it gets...when it works. It's when there's a glitch that CHAMPVA really shows the dark side of your VA. Telephones and voice mail boxes don't work, calls get dropped, messages aren't returned, faxes aren't received or they're somewhere but can't be found.

CHAMPVA is bureaucracy, defined.

The only answer to the problem is persistence. You may have to spend and entire week or month or year calling and calling again to resolve problems. There is no other solution...Congress isn't fixing this and VA leadership is so scattered nobody is in position long enough to change the way the CHAMPVA system works.

Good luck.

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