Tips on VA Comp : Veterans

I got 100 Permanent and never used a lawyer or any organization; also never did an appeal and no mental claim.

• go through the nearly thousand word list of disabilities that the VA currently has and apply for every single one that is appropriate for you. When writing it down in the application, write the specific name of the ailment even if not on the list; e.g. instead of pinky toe hurts put right fifth metatarsal stress fracture. Improves accuracy, probability for approval, and time for decision claim.

• Research the VA rating schedule for how they measure the rating of each disability claim and write a letter explaining in detail how your disability fits into that description. Also google VA board case decisions (publicly available) for the level of granular wording that made the court find in favor of the Vet. Oftentimes they reference specific case law sections that you can write down on your letter and is basically a step-by-step guide for the evaluator to approve your disability.

• get a sleep apnea test ASAP in service or as a vet. I suffered for way too long and didn’t know it was even a thing until I did step 1 in this list.

• once you have service connected condition, put everything you can as secondary to it; the rating will compute to your overall rating just the same and the bar for secondary is much lower that primary. e.g, if you have GERD, secondary hiatal hernia, voice loss, LPR, hepatomegaly, esophageal, ulcer etc, you can get an easily get 60-70% from secondaries even if the primary is 0%

• you can also find peer reviewed studies about side affects of medication prescribed and use that to get secondaries guaranteed.

• right and left appendages get rated as whole number for the first condition of those appendages. This one is crucial. If you have a knee problem on each leg of 10% they get added to the total as 10% each instead of 10% merged with 10% and then merged with the total rating.

-use the compound calculator at https://www.hillandponton.com/va-disability-calculator/

Edit: someone asked me for an example of peer reviewed research to include, so here’s an example. At the link below is a peer reviewed research study that basically says GERD medication PPIs “more likely than not” causes liver problems. This is all the nexus for a secondary that a comp rater needs.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-00796-x.pdf