Post by slunkyNow you're posting what to say to do it too, and to a much larger
audience than VBN ever could. Good going ruining for the vets.
Veterans and the Tax Payers have a right to know the truth and the
bigger the audience the better. I encourage everyone to warn other
newsgroups and tax payers of the coaching network so that they will be
aware how their tax dollars are being scammed and we can make changes
and fix the system so that newtorks like this are not able to hurt
those are really disabled and in need of earned benefits. Those who
can do a claim the honest way, and not cheap, or be provided examples
of what to say, as the scammers on THE VETERANS BENEFIT NETWORK" have
done below and in hundreds of other postings.
Scamming and Fraud must cease and desist!
*******************
Here is a typical "VETERANS BENEFIT NETWORK" posting on how they coach
and teach people how to cheat the system. Please pass this on to all
your newgroups, Fraud hotlines, your Congressman, and to the President
so that we can end this type of fraud coaching that is an every day
occurance on VBN.
Please notice the disclaimer VBN put on the bottom of this scam
teaching message as though that means anything. The VETERANS BENEFIT
NETWORK teaches veteran how to scam the system, tells them to write
down symptoms they do not have and give it to ther doctor to put in a
medical record just as they coach below. VBN teaches veterans to lie
and cheat with their disability claims.
Please note the " example statement" they even provided. VBN is the
largest Veterans Disability scam network on the internet and has been
exposed as such.
http://vets.yuku.com/topic/15846
05/08/08 10:03:30
Tags : None
I believe we are our worst enemy by making it too easy to get our
claims denied. No one in the process is going to assume anything, but
the VA will decide the claim on "medical evidence" for the most part
(after service connection established of course). If you want to
ensure your claim has a much better chance to make it through on the
first pass, make the medical evidence undeniable by having your
physician say the right things in your medical record.
To do that, start out by first taking a good hard and honest look at
what condition or illness you have that you feel should be compensated
in some way. Many others on this forum have indicated how to pass the
first hurdle of service connection so brush up on those posts because
I won't go into service connection here - I will assume you have it
along with a diagnosis. After you have taken that look at your
symptoms, pain and/or other debilitating conditions for a proposed
claim where you have a diagnosis, see how they apply to the Schedule
of Rating Disabilities (38 CFR Part 4 or "SRD"). The SRD has some very
specific language to classify your disability into a level of
incapacity. Often your disability will not fit into one specific level
but will have aspects primarily in one, but also present symptoms that
may be in higher levels than this one primary category. If you don't
understand the words being used, look them up in a medical dictionary
or Google them on the Internet. Once you understand the wording,
compose a written paragraph to provide to your VA Primary Care
Physician asking them if they can medically support placing a
statement in your record that you have composed THAT USES LANGUAGE
EXACTLY AS WRITTEN IN THE SRD to describe your condition for the
symptoms you have. Here is an example statement you might show your VA
Pyschologist or Primary Care Physician for PTSD that spans different
levels of the SRD:
"The patient has demonstrated through documentation or observation
flattened effect, suicideal ideation, grossly inappropriate behavior,
memory loss, chronic sleep impairment, panic attacks of frequent
duration that result in a severe disability linked to stress caused in
service. This condition will make it very difficult or impossible for
this patient to obtain or maintain employment."
Ask the doctor if they can medically support placing this statement in
your medical record - you are not asking them to lie, just asking them
if they can medically support placing in your medical record some of
the exact wording that can be found in the SRD (remember, the words
above are just an example and will probably not apply directly to your
PTSD claim if you have one). By knowing ahead of time which words need
to be placed in your medical records that are reflective of your
condition, and then having your physician place them there if they
agree, it makes it harder for a C&P examiner not to provide favorable
wording for your claim or a VA rater to not provide a rating closer to
the top end of the SRD words used and if nothing else will provide you
a case for a Benefit of the Doubt appeal defense if the final rating
provided is not what you feel is fair with the words you had medically
documented. Too many times I have seen BVA decisions I researched turn
adversely to the veteran because the wording in the SRD did not
"exactly" match medical opinion/comments from a physician even though
it appeared the physician comments were saying essentially the same
thing, just using different words. Make it hard for anyone to
misunderstand and you will get a rating that more fairly represents
your condition. Preparation for crafting the statement for your
physician is key. Your C&P examination is too late to do this. Often
the C&P examiner will only report what they find in the previous
medical record/claim file and make no attempt to provide their own
medical opinions. You should start on this immediately after getting a
diagnosis. Enlist the help of a VSO to help you with crafting the
statement you want to appear in your medical records.
Another thing to do is search BVA decisions for the last year on other
BVA cases having the same diagnosis as yours to see the reasons any of
those appeals were denied. Make sure that those same situations are
not in your medical records, or if they are, make sure the statement
you are asking your doctor to provide, uses some additional wording
than what is indicated above to counteract any reason for denial you
found in those BVA cases if you can. Again, don't ask your physician
to lie, just ask them if they can medically support the statement you
have already written out for them and wish to have them include in
their care notes for the visit. If your physician does not want to
place those statements in their care notes, you can also go to a
private physician for a 2nd opinion with the statements you have
crafted to ask them if they can medically support putting them in
their medical notes for that visit if you truly feel the statements
you are asking them to support are true.
You can find the SRD here:
http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=d741c52f7d5b47cff93ecd0ec686fc0a&rgn=div5&view=text&node=38:1.0.1.1.5&idno=38.
BVA decisions can be found at this link:
http://www.index.va.gov/search/va/bva.html.
Any research you do up front will be time well spent. You are your
best VSO. If you don't do it, complaining on how bad the system is
won't do anything for your complaint - be proactive.
The above is not meant to provide you a way to scam the system - I
just believe you may need to make it harder to be misunderstood in
order to get fairness out of the VA system. Besides scammers already
know all of the above anyway if they are any good so I haven't
probably given them anything new anyway.