(gentle music)
- Hello and welcome to the Hill and Ponton VA video blog.
I'm Matthew Hill.
- I'm Carol Ponton.
- Today we want to talk to you about decisions
from the Board of Veterans appeals.
And just to put the Board of Veterans Appeals
where they are in the VA, you first
file a claim at the local regional office.
They make a decision.
You file an appeal.
They make another decision and then
you appeal again and at that point
it goes to Washington to the Board of Veterans Appeals
also known as the BVA.
And when the BVA makes a decision,
one of three things happens.
It's either a grant, denial or a remand.
And what we want to talk about today
is the difference between a grant and a denial.
- Well, a grant means they're going to give you
some benefit, whether, say, you had not been
service connected for PTSD.
They will say, "I find the veteran service connected
"for PTSD."
So it goes back to the regional office
for them to effectuate that.
What does that mean?
Well, you're granted service connection
but what's your rating?
What's the start date?
So the regional office has to make
additional decisions and then send out a rating decision.
- And that's key, because if you fought
for three years, five years, seven years
to get PTSD, we'll say, service connected,
and the BVA says, "We service connect this,"
well, then the real money if you will
is back when it goes to the regional office
and they get to give you a rating.
If they give you a rating of 30%
going back seven years, that's a huge difference
between 30 or 70 or 100.
And the same thing as the effective date as Carol said.
If you've been fighting for seven years
but somehow they only give you a two year retro, that's --
- Which we find a lot or a one year retro.
I had a veteran who had had a stroke
and they gave him 10% back one year.
He was entitled to 100% back 20 years.
So you really need to watch.
Just because the regional office makes a decision
on the remand, that doesn't mean they do it correctly.
You need to --
- Or the grant.
- The grant, right.
- So it's winning the battle and losing the war.
You win the battle of service connection,
yet it's sent back to the regional office
which had denied you twice.
And they lowball you on the rating or
they shortchange you on the effective date.
That's what to watch out for in a grant.
- And you have to appeal that.
- Yeah, you appeal it all the way back up.
Now, you will see in the BVA decision,
it should specifically say a grant service connection
for PTSD.
If you're already awarded PTSD, then it would say
grant of 70% for PTSD.
And so if you see that, it's a specific rating
where you know you're going to get that rating
when you go back.
But what would you watch out for there?
- I'd watch out for the effective date.
- Exactly.
- Because unless the VA says effective this date,
the BVA says that, then the regional office
has the opportunity to decide what they think is correct.
And we find that they under provide
rather than over provide benefits.
So you need to be really careful.
And a lot of people think well, this is what the BVA said
so I can't appeal it.
That's not true.
The BVA only said probably you're service connected.
It was up to the regional office to make
those other two decisions.
- And the BVA specifically says, "We can't,"
in the first instance, meaning after it's service connected,
"we can't in the first instance make the determination
on rating or effective date."
- Right.
- So let's transition now to remands.
What's the difference between a remand and a grant?
- Well, first of all, the vast majority
of what the BVA does is remand.
So you're more likely to see a remand than anything else.
And the remand is saying we need something more done.
We need you to get more evidence.
We need you to send the veteran out
for a compensation pension exam.
We need you to obtain service medical records.
And so they direct the regional office
to do a number of things.
Now if you have a grant, usually that grant is effectuated.
In other words, you get a rating decision
within two or three months.
If you have a remand, you could be looking at
two or three years.
And you have to be really careful because these get lost.
Say that the BVA said, "I'm gonna
"remand you on four issues."
You may end up in three years getting
a decision on one issue.
- Right.
- You need to make sure, you're going to have to
write in and get them to move.
This happens quite frequently on a number
of the BVA remands.
VA is overwhelmed with paperwork.
It's really easy to lose things and
it's your claim.
You've got to pay attention to
what they're not doing.
- And what she's saying there is
you don't want them to get lost
in that crease or gap between what
the BVA's doing and what the regional office is doing.
And unfortunately a lot of claims do get lost in there.
Regional office say, "Oh, we never got the paperwork."
Or they say, as Carol said, "We're working on
"all this other stuff."
So remand is not a loss but you still
need to be on your toes because
they're sending it back for certain evidence.
You want to get a copy of that evidence
and respond to it so that it goes
back up to the BVA with the most favorable
light as possible.
- This is wonderful because it gives you a chance
to somehow, you didn't get the benefits you want.
This gives you a chance to do that.
So remember, the BVA is saying,
"I want to see all this evidence."
You can't rely on the VA to collect
that evidence for you, even though
they're directed to do that.
Let me give you an instance.
Say you have a private orthopedic doctor
who's been treating you and the BVA
wants to see those records.
Well, the VA will write a letter
to the private doctor and say,
"Send me those records, but I'm not
"gonna pay for 'em."
And most private doctors want to be paid.
And so those records will never end up in the file
and the VA will just show two letters
to the doctor and nobody responded.
So you need to go out and get all the evidence
that's favorable and put it in.
Send it into the VA and make sure they have it.
When you see the decision that the VA makes,
make sure that evidence shows up there.
Okay?
This is also a chance maybe to go out to your doctor
and get the additional evidence which the BVA
feels is missing.
Like, what was the range of motion or
do you have a problem with instability for your knee?
This is a chance to get that proof for your case.
- Thank you for joining us and
we hope to see you soon again on this space.