Hey everyone, I am new to the forum so bear with me as I have what may be an easy question to answer. I have been told that since I take Abilify to treat my MDD, Anxiety, and PTSD I will be referred to an MEB. I was told that this process would take a year from the time the eCase is opened and the MEB starts. I am an AGR Soldier with 12.5 years of active duty time and 24 years of overall service. I was diagnosed with my condition while on active duty by my civilian doctor and have documentation as such. My question is, if for some reason, I am determined unfit due to a non-duty-related issue, would they allow me to resign from my AGR position and retire as an M-day soldier or would they still medically discharge me? Either way, what is the outcome of something like that?
AGR MEB Question
- Thread starter david147
- Start date
You don't be referred non duty related. It isn't possible as you have 8+ years of AD and are AGR. It won't even come up. FYI, my wife was AGR with 17 AFS and 20 good years when she was medically retired.
By law everything is duty related in your case.
Now to answer your question. If your unfitting conditions are rated 30% or higher then you are immediately medically retired. However, any VA compensation would offset your medical retirement pension. You can apply for CRSC after you are out if you qualify and that can help you claw back some of the offset lost but the cap for compensation is based on your longevity pension earned + VA compensation. If no CRSC then its VA compensation and if there is anything left over after offset you get that from DFAS for your medical retirement + you get Tricare for you and your family. At age that you qualify for your 20 good year retirement you get all of your longevity pension and VA compensation.
If for some reason your unfitting conditions are 20% or lower you decline the severance (This is automatic). Then you get VA compensation and apply for your non regular retirement at age 60 or slightly less if reduced due to qualified deployments..
You claim everything with the VA. The military will say which ones are unfitting. If you have other health conditions that prevent you from doing your job then you can fight to add them during the process. Make sure to have profiles for those other conditions and to have them mentioned in the commander's impact statement. I strongly recommend hiring a dedicated private IDES attorney from the start. That is what my wife did and she was able to get the best outcome because of it.
If you know that only mental health will be referred then you want to work on stuff now to build your case to add another condition. Normally conditions are added via a FPEB but its possible to add them during the NARSUM stage. Thanks to my wife's attorney she was able to have mental health added at the NARSUM stage. That meant that when the NARSUM doc read everything such as her commander's impact statement, medical files etc it was clear that she should have that as unfitting. So at the NARSUM stage without any appeals at that point she was automatically issued a new P3 profile for mental health and that condition in the NARSUM was labeled unfitting. Most of the time whatever the NARSUM says the IPEB will have the same findings.
I will send you some references for attorneys. I think its well worth it to pay extra $$$ out of pocket to ensure you get the best results since the outcome of this is so huge!
Wow, ok so that is awesome information. I have begun collecting everything. I already have a P2 for my back but it has gotten worse over the years. As expected with age and such. I would love a list of those attorney's to help with this process. Thank you!