Alright, for all of the experienced and informed on this matter. I was just medically retired, TDRL, in October. I received my official VA rating letter last week. I do not agree with some of the percentages, and I have medical evidence to back up (plus lay evidence) the reason for an increase. Now, I had part of this question answered in another thread, but I didn't want to hijack the guys thread anymore so this is a continuation, as I'm learning all of the little secret "grassy noles" that the VA has.
The questions:
1) Should I request increases to the disabilities that have gotten worse (or were worse than evaluated at that point) individually through the claims process (don't quite know how that works yet)?
or
2) Should I submit my NOD with the medical and lay evidence for the disability ratings that I disagree with? A secondary question to that (which will sort of answer the first) can I submit medical evidence from after my C&P or am I only allowed to submit things for those dates back?
*Note: They also dropped some of the disabilities off that the C&P examiner placed, and the VA evaluated for the initial proposal, since I didn't claim them, it was found during the examination. Do I need to start a new claim on those, or provide information in my NOD for those?
Thanks guys for your help. This is almost a full time job trying to get this right the first time.
The questions:
1) Should I request increases to the disabilities that have gotten worse (or were worse than evaluated at that point) individually through the claims process (don't quite know how that works yet)?
or
2) Should I submit my NOD with the medical and lay evidence for the disability ratings that I disagree with? A secondary question to that (which will sort of answer the first) can I submit medical evidence from after my C&P or am I only allowed to submit things for those dates back?
*Note: They also dropped some of the disabilities off that the C&P examiner placed, and the VA evaluated for the initial proposal, since I didn't claim them, it was found during the examination. Do I need to start a new claim on those, or provide information in my NOD for those?
Thanks guys for your help. This is almost a full time job trying to get this right the first time.