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- Hello and welcome to the Hill And Ponton Video Blog.
I'm Matthew Hill here with. - Carol Ponton.
- And we're doin' a series right now on what
we call big mistakes with VA claims,
mistakes that we see over and over again
and can be fatal to the claim.
Not just the claim or more importantly to the
Veteran getting the benefits they deserve.
We spoke recently about Veteran's failing to even
make a claim and what that does.
And today we wanna talk about not making all the claims.
- Right, so this is what I will typically see.
I have a Veteran who has hurt his back, clearly
related to service and he continues to try to get
the rating for his back higher.
Now the highest rating that most
Veterans are gonna get is 40%.
- And that's very difficult to get.
- And that's difficult to get.
But what the Veterans aren't realizing is
the way that the VA makes up for that is they
also give you a rating for things related to the back.
So if you have radiculopathy, pain, numbness
running down your leg into your foot for either leg
because of the back, you should file that.
The VA doesn't know what you have unless you tell them.
So what happens with a lot of Veterans, they'll get 40%
for their back and they may get 40 or 60% for each leg.
Say you have Drop Foot, you can't pick up the toe of
your foot as you're walking and that's related to your back.
You need to claim that, incontinence can happen
a lot of times with back problems.
And the other thing I see is Depression.
If you can't sit, stand, walk without pain,
if you can't do your job, you're depressed.
- Or your life as you knew it just doesn't
exist anymore because of that.
- Right, then you need to file because if you don't
file, then you can't get any benefits.
And that's how you get a complete, that's how you get
complete benefits for the problem that you've encountered.
If you're only getting 40% and you can't work because
of your back, that's really depressing.
You need to file for everything that's related
to that service connected problem.
- Ya know, and I'd say almost a cheat sheet on where
to look for that because what Carol's talking about
radiculopathy for the legs, ya know, radiculopathy
in the arms due to Cervical Spine, some of that
stuff is medical mumbo jumbo but if you're treating with
the VA, you can ask for your latest records
and they will have a sheet on there that shows
all the problems you have and the medical diagnosis.
- Yes. - And, ya know,
those are the ones that you should apply for if
you feel like one's related to the other
or if you're Doc is tellin' you, hey, the pain in your
leg is due to the problem you have in your lumbar spine.
But as she said, it's important to make sure you've
documented and you've filed for all these claims
because it's all the claims together that's gonna get
you the highest rating possible.
- And ya know, in the past, you could file,
you could file a 4138 form and just say, my back is
causing me to have problems with
my legs and I'm really depressed.
Now you have to actually file a 526 form.
So what will happen is people will send in a 4138,
this form that outlines, it's sort of like a story
about what's going on with a Veteran.
The Veteran sends it and then the VA, instead of processing
a claim, they'll send back, did you want to file a claim?
If you did, you have to file it on this form.
So if you're not filing on the form,
you're not filing a claim so make sure
you list every one of those problems.
- Right and back to listing those problems,
you do not have to list the medical term.
If your leg hurts, it's going numb, you can put that.
- Right.
- If you know the word radiculopathy, great.
But if you don't, you need to just describe what you're
feeling, sensation, ya know, if you feel depressed,
you know know, ya know, the correct medical condition,
mental health condition that is, you can say, ya know,
I have no motivation, I don't wanna be around people.
Just, whatever it is, don't be frightened by
havin' to use the right words, just put it down
so that the burden then goes on the VA to
develop the evidence to grant you the outline.
- If you can't work, make sure you put,
I can't work because of this.
- Right, well thank you all for joining us this time.
This is our small series on big mistakes we see.
And this was mistake number two, not filing all
your claims, thanks. (pleasant music)