AGR MEB process

C

Chelle9779

PEB Forum Regular Member
Registered Member
Hello,

I am hoping to gain some knowledge as well as some insight into what to expect during the MEB process. I have a good understanding of most of the process however, my situation is going to be a bit more unique that I have yet been able to find someone that could give me clear understanding on what to have ready. I am currently AGR with 5420 points. Those are a mixture of AD time, M-day, ADOS and AGR time which on RPAM it shows that I have 19 years 8 months. Based on the calculations that I am seeing it would equal 15 years of active time. I was recently diagnosed with narcolepsy type I w/o cataplexy while within my AGR contract. I have other conditions that I will claim once I go into the MEB process. Based on the C&P I have found for narcolepsy I am able to answer the questions. What I have also found is that even with being on medication I will experience 9-10 "sleep attacks" in a week. From the research I have found that will be 60%. I know that narcolepsy is a condition that will not get better over time. It will stay the same or get worse. With this being said will this qualify me to be medically retired and placed on the PDRL? Will I receive retirement pay along with disability once I am placed into a retired status? I do not have any deployments so I know that I will not qualify for CRSC. I am currently on my initial tour as AGR with an end of orders date of Feb of next year. If the MEB takes longer than a year to finish can the Guard not retain me on AGR orders and move me to M-day status or will they have to keep me on AGR orders until the MEB is complete?

I know it's a lot of information, but I want to make sure that I am prepared.

Thank you.
 
Chelle9779 said:
Hello,

I am hoping to gain some knowledge as well as some insight into what to expect during the MEB process. I have a good understanding of most of the process however, my situation is going to be a bit more unique that I have yet been able to find someone that could give me clear understanding on what to have ready. I am currently AGR with 5420 points. Those are a mixture of AD time, M-day, ADOS and AGR time which on RPAM it shows that I have 19 years 8 months. Based on the calculations that I am seeing it would equal 15 years of active time. I was recently diagnosed with narcolepsy type I w/o cataplexy while within my AGR contract. I have other conditions that I will claim once I go into the MEB process. Based on the C&P I have found for narcolepsy I am able to answer the questions. What I have also found is that even with being on medication I will experience 9-10 "sleep attacks" in a week. From the research I have found that will be 60%. I know that narcolepsy is a condition that will not get better over time. It will stay the same or get worse. With this being said will this qualify me to be medically retired and placed on the PDRL? Will I receive retirement pay along with disability once I am placed into a retired status? I do not have any deployments so I know that I will not qualify for CRSC. I am currently on my initial tour as AGR with an end of orders date of Feb of next year. If the MEB takes longer than a year to finish can the Guard not retain me on AGR orders and move me to M-day status or will they have to keep me on AGR orders until the MEB is complete?

I know it's a lot of information, but I want to make sure that I am prepared.

Thank you.
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If found unfit and unfitting condition or conditions total 30% or higher you will be medically retired. Since you have been in a while and are AGR you don't have to worry about LOD's etc. My wife was medically retired with just over 6,000 points and she was AGR too. The one tip would be to keep an eye on how many good years you have. If you are close to 20 good years delay if necessary to ensure you hit 20 good years. That 20 year letter will allow you to qualify for CRDP at age 60. Any immediate medical retirement earned will be offset by VA compensation. So if your chapter 61 pension is $3,000 a month and you receive $3,000 a month from the VA you don't get anything except VA compensation and tricare. With the 20 year letter you can get more possibly. You can get your earned longevity guard pension + VA compensation which is the max compensation allowed by law. Chances are with how many points you have you will net more compensation later on in life if you can make sure to qualify for your 20 year letter before being medically retired.

If you haven't been deployed or injured stateside while performing simulated combat you probably won't qualify for CRSC. CRSC is great because it acts like CRDP and can claw back some of that VA offset instead of waiting until you hit age 60 to get CRDP.

Lastly, I strongly recommend hiring a private dedicated attorney. There are a handful of them who only do IDES and since you are not active duty you will be on an island navigating it all by yourself and just going along with whatever your PEBLO says. Your free assigned legal won't be local to you and they aren't proactive. They can help you but in my opinion you don't get the needed time commitment and planning needed to ensure you get the best possible outcome. I will send you some recommendations via direct message.

Good Luck!
 
Chelle9779 said:
Hello,

I am hoping to gain some knowledge as well as some insight into what to expect during the MEB process. I have a good understanding of most of the process however, my situation is going to be a bit more unique that I have yet been able to find someone that could give me clear understanding on what to have ready. I am currently AGR with 5420 points. Those are a mixture of AD time, M-day, ADOS and AGR time which on RPAM it shows that I have 19 years 8 months. Based on the calculations that I am seeing it would equal 15 years of active time. I was recently diagnosed with narcolepsy type I w/o cataplexy while within my AGR contract. I have other conditions that I will claim once I go into the MEB process. Based on the C&P I have found for narcolepsy I am able to answer the questions. What I have also found is that even with being on medication I will experience 9-10 "sleep attacks" in a week. From the research I have found that will be 60%. I know that narcolepsy is a condition that will not get better over time. It will stay the same or get worse. With this being said will this qualify me to be medically retired and placed on the PDRL? Will I receive retirement pay along with disability once I am placed into a retired status? I do not have any deployments so I know that I will not qualify for CRSC. I am currently on my initial tour as AGR with an end of orders date of Feb of next year. If the MEB takes longer than a year to finish can the Guard not retain me on AGR orders and move me to M-day status or will they have to keep me on AGR orders until the MEB is complete?

I know it's a lot of information, but I want to make sure that I am prepared.

Thank you.
Click to expand...
One last thing. you don't have near as much to lose if found unfit and kicked out with less than 30% since you have at the very least 15 good years. With 15 good years you can get a 15 year letter and it acts the same way as a 20 year letter except for all the perks of getting CRDP at retirement age. That and you lose out on getting tricare right away. Still that's much better than AD. They have no safety nets!
 
Provis said:
One last thing. you don't have near as much to lose if found unfit and kicked out with less than 30% since you have at the very least 15 good years. With 15 good years you can get a 15 year letter and it acts the same way as a 20 year letter except for all the perks of getting CRDP at retirement age. That and you lose out on getting tricare right away. Still that's much better than AD. They have no safety nets!
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Thank you. This helps a lot. I just recently had my RPAM evaluated to add my time I was on COVID orders to show my retired eligibility date. The date on the RPAM is Jan 24, 2024, that shows 19 years, 8 months and 14 days of creditable service. So, I only have to hold off 4 more months, correct? Does that include the time of G1 Med notifying my RNCO that they need to gather the documents for the packet and the Deputy State Surgeon sign it and submit it to MEB to be assigned a PEBLO?
 
Chelle9779 said:
Thank you. This helps a lot. I just recently had my RPAM evaluated to add my time I was on COVID orders to show my retired eligibility date. The date on the RPAM is Jan 24, 2024, that shows 19 years, 8 months and 14 days of creditable service. So, I only have to hold off 4 more months, correct? Does that include the time of G1 Med notifying my RNCO that they need to gather the documents for the packet and the Deputy State Surgeon sign it and submit it to MEB to be assigned a PEBLO?
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You need to make sure you will have 20 good years. If you are only 4 months from reaching that then you should get it easy. The process takes 6-12 months.
 
Okay. I will hold on for another 4 months. So, if I am able to make it to that 20-year mark how can I determine what I will get along with when?

Thank you.
 
Chelle9779 said:
Okay. I will hold on for another 4 months. So, if I am able to make it to that 20-year mark how can I determine what I will get along with when?

Thank you.
Click to expand...
take your points. Divide by 360. That is your longevity percentage. Then if found unfit with DOD% at 30% or higher to get the higher of those percentages. So if DOD is 30% and you have 35% longevity earned then you multiply by 35%. If you get 60% instead of 30% for DOD that is higher so your multiply by 60%. High 3 is calculated by taking your highest 36 months of base earnings and adding it together and then dividing by 36. If you use your base salary now it will estimate your pay higher than what it really is because you might hit benchmarks for more pay such as years in service or going up in rank. So if your HIGH 3 is $6,000 then you take 60% times that number which equals = $3,600 per month. If your VA compensation is 100% and $3,000 then it would look like this. $3,600 - $3,000 VA offset = $600 from chapter 61 pension + $3,000 from VA compensation and of course tricare insurance.

That offset can reduce your pension to zero. That's why I said to check to see how close you are to getting 20 year letter. Because then at age 60 you may have higher compensation. Your goal is to get the highest DOD% since that will be your floor for earnings. For example if your VA compensation went away for some reason then at 60% you would get all $3,600 from your chapter 61 pension. That is the lowest compensation you can get in any scenario.
 
Provis said:
take your points. Divide by 360. That is your longevity percentage. Then if found unfit with DOD% at 30% or higher to get the higher of those percentages. So if DOD is 30% and you have 35% longevity earned then you multiply by 35%. If you get 60% instead of 30% for DOD that is higher so your multiply by 60%. High 3 is calculated by taking your highest 36 months of base earnings and adding it together and then dividing by 36. If you use your base salary now it will estimate your pay higher than what it really is because you might hit benchmarks for more pay such as years in service or going up in rank. So if your HIGH 3 is $6,000 then you take 60% times that number which equals = $3,600 per month. If your VA compensation is 100% and $3,000 then it would look like this. $3,600 - $3,000 VA offset = $600 from chapter 61 pension + $3,000 from VA compensation and of course tricare insurance.

That offset can reduce your pension to zero. That's why I said to check to see how close you are to getting 20 year letter. Because then at age 60 you may have higher compensation. Your goal is to get the highest DOD% since that will be your floor for earnings. For example if your VA compensation went away for some reason then at 60% you would get all $3,600 from your chapter 61 pension. That is the lowest compensation you can get in any scenario.
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Okay. I will have to look at all my LES's to see with the pay rates change. Since I will have 20 years and 15 of that is active I still will not be able to collect my retirement until I am 60?
 
Chelle9779 said:
Okay. I will have to look at all my LES's to see with the pay rates change. Since I will have 20 years and 15 of that is active I still will not be able to collect my retirement until I am 60?
Click to expand...
if you have 20 year letter it just means at age 60 there is no VA offset. The max you can get by law is your longevity earned pension which in your case is your guard/reserve retirement + VA compensation. For those who have a lot of points there is typically a lot left on the table that you are missing out on due to the VA offset. That goes away when you qualify for a different retirement at age 60 due to getting CRDP which is basically the entirety of your longevity earned pension + all of your VA compensation (As long as your VA rating is 50% or higher)

My wife had 17 years AFS and even with maxing out DOD% at 75% she is getting $1,600 a month less compared to the total she would receive from getting her smaller Reserve retirement + VA compensation. Unless you can get approved for CRSC after medically retiring you will be missing out on getting max compensation until you reach the age to apply and receive your earned guard/reserve pension because then there is no offset. You get all of your pension in that case and all of your va compensation. CRSC acts just like CRDP where it helps restore money lost due to VA offset but if you haven't deployed or been injured in combat or combat simulations you won't be eligible for CRSC.
 
Provis said:
if you have 20 year letter it just means at age 60 there is no VA offset. The max you can get by law is your longevity earned pension which in your case is your guard/reserve retirement + VA compensation. For those who have a lot of points there is typically a lot left on the table that you are missing out on due to the VA offset. That goes away when you qualify for a different retirement at age 60 due to getting CRDP which is basically the entirety of your longevity earned pension + all of your VA compensation (As long as your VA rating is 50% or higher)

My wife had 17 years AFS and even with maxing out DOD% at 75% she is getting $1,600 a month less compared to the total she would receive from getting her smaller Reserve retirement + VA compensation. Unless you can get approved for CRSC after medically retiring you will be missing out on getting max compensation until you reach the age to apply and receive your earned guard/reserve pension because then there is no offset. You get all of your pension in that case and all of your va compensation. CRSC acts just like CRDP where it helps restore money lost due to VA offset but if you haven't deployed or been injured in combat or combat simulations you won't be eligible for CRSC.
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Okay. Thank you. This helps a ton!!! Now I just have to wait. Last question, do I need to wait until I have that letter in actual hand until I say something for the MEB?
 
Chelle9779 said:
Okay. Thank you. This helps a ton!!! Now I just have to wait. Last question, do I need to wait until I have that letter in actual hand until I say something for the MEB?
Click to expand...
Typically you don't get the 20 year letter right away so you just want to confirm with whoever the person is in your unit. For the Reserves its a 1405 point statement. Not sure for national guard. My wife didn't get her letter uploaded until after she retired. As you know the military isn't quick so even if you hit 20 good years your 20 year letter may not show up right away. My wife's 20 year letter populated in iPERMS and she could still access it with her DS Login.
 
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