geauxtigers77 t1_je9zhrj wrote on March 30, 2023 at 2:25 PM

Lol as someone going through the VA claim process right now, I feel that last part of the timeline hard

Late_Sink_1576 OP t1_jeavhlk wrote on March 30, 2023 at 5:58 PM

My dude, KEEP YOUR RECORDS! You can appeal a VA rating decision within a year of it’s posted date. Compensation will backdate to the date of initial rating instead of the date of appeal if your rating is increased.

Also, it’s an absolutely pain in ye’ ol’ donk-oh-donk, but go through the process of setting up your access to ebenefits and iPERMS. You can access a lot of records there the vVA won’t bother to include in your case

ramblingrelic t1_jeb1wsi wrote on March 30, 2023 at 6:39 PM

Hijacking. Meet with your VA advocate too. The VA hospitals have an advocate and they can hook you up with the VFW or the Legions. They can, and will, do the heavy lifting for you if you ask when it comes to paperwork and appeals.

Late_Sink_1576 OP t1_jeb30pj wrote on March 30, 2023 at 6:46 PM

THIS! I was fortunately enough to be hand carried from office to office by my VA Advocate when I was enrolling in the VA. That system is a labyrinth, and they are your guide.

fresh_haggis t1_jeb70kr wrote on March 30, 2023 at 7:12 PM

Note: Evaluations for service connection are performed by the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) not the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Folks in the VHA are the front line clinicians providing clinical care to Veterans. A service connection assessment by the VBA is explicitly NOT treatment, it is an eval to determine whether disability, injury, condition, etc is least as likely as not to be related to service. The clinical services provided by the VHA is an easy thing to crap on because who would disagree with the statement that we need to take care of Veterans. I work in addiction treatment in the VA and I wish civilians had the immediate and continuous access to addiction treatment that the Veterans at my VA are able to use. Sometimes it takes multiple 21 day residential intensive outpatient treatment episodes to achieve something that resembles recovery. It isn't perfect but a helluva lot better than private insurance (at least for MH and addiction treatment from my perspective).