While many forum members routinely post questions or exchange thoughts on timelines, there is a vital topic that I do not see being addressed in these timeline questions- what to do while awaiting your initial findings, post-IPEB appeal findings, or VARR results. This time is rather crucial to each of you and needs to be well-spent developing all aspects of your pending IDES claim, and post-service VA claims. Here is the best way to use that time:
1. If you and your counsel are trying to add conditions at an FPEB hearing, you should use the time while the hearing is pending to further develop your case regarding these conditions by continuing treatment. After each appointment, you should log into your Tricare online account, download these treatment notes, and review them with your counsel. In doing so, you will look for any inaccuracies in these notes or points that need to be further explained to help your case. In some cases, your providers can draft an amendment to the treatment notes that are inaccurate or incomplete. In other cases, it may be easier for them to draft a letter clarifying these points. For outside providers, you should obtain copies of these treatment notes as well and review them in a similar manner for inaccuracies or points that need to be clarified.
2. For conditions you raised on your VA claim that are not well-documented and for which the examiner found "no diagnosis", this is the time to seek treatment for these conditions with your PCM or to obtain referrals to specialty providers to do so. This will provide the evidence needed to appeal a denial of service-connection or an increased rating post-service.
3. For conditions that you raised on your VA claim in which the exam was inaccurate or incomplete, this is the time to develop and submit new medical and non-medical evidence via your MSC to correct these errors. This can result in the VA D-RAS disregarding inaccurate exams and is especially important to do with respect to your referred conditions. However, it would be best if you did so with any claimed conditions in which the exams are inaccurate or incomplete in order to try to obtain the best initial VA rating decision.
4. Finally, although it should go without saying, a critical tip is not to discontinue treatment for referred conditions while your initial findings are depending, as there may be a need for further medical evidence to support an IPEB reconsideration request, a summary decision request, or to have the best possible case at an FPEB. The same holds true for post-FPEB proceedings as well.
Key point: Thus, while many of you are understandably focused on timelines, please use the time that you are waiting to further develop the evidence needed to support your goals in this process. After all, you do not want to be the person who pursues a formal hearing to add conditions or to obtain a combat-related or PDRL finding only to have members now find that a condition found unfitting on the IPEB level is no longer unfitting simply because you stopped treatment. Because yes, you can have favorable findings reversed merely because you did not continue the treatment needed to support your case.
1. If you and your counsel are trying to add conditions at an FPEB hearing, you should use the time while the hearing is pending to further develop your case regarding these conditions by continuing treatment. After each appointment, you should log into your Tricare online account, download these treatment notes, and review them with your counsel. In doing so, you will look for any inaccuracies in these notes or points that need to be further explained to help your case. In some cases, your providers can draft an amendment to the treatment notes that are inaccurate or incomplete. In other cases, it may be easier for them to draft a letter clarifying these points. For outside providers, you should obtain copies of these treatment notes as well and review them in a similar manner for inaccuracies or points that need to be clarified.
2. For conditions you raised on your VA claim that are not well-documented and for which the examiner found "no diagnosis", this is the time to seek treatment for these conditions with your PCM or to obtain referrals to specialty providers to do so. This will provide the evidence needed to appeal a denial of service-connection or an increased rating post-service.
3. For conditions that you raised on your VA claim in which the exam was inaccurate or incomplete, this is the time to develop and submit new medical and non-medical evidence via your MSC to correct these errors. This can result in the VA D-RAS disregarding inaccurate exams and is especially important to do with respect to your referred conditions. However, it would be best if you did so with any claimed conditions in which the exams are inaccurate or incomplete in order to try to obtain the best initial VA rating decision.
4. Finally, although it should go without saying, a critical tip is not to discontinue treatment for referred conditions while your initial findings are depending, as there may be a need for further medical evidence to support an IPEB reconsideration request, a summary decision request, or to have the best possible case at an FPEB. The same holds true for post-FPEB proceedings as well.
Key point: Thus, while many of you are understandably focused on timelines, please use the time that you are waiting to further develop the evidence needed to support your goals in this process. After all, you do not want to be the person who pursues a formal hearing to add conditions or to obtain a combat-related or PDRL finding only to have members now find that a condition found unfitting on the IPEB level is no longer unfitting simply because you stopped treatment. Because yes, you can have favorable findings reversed merely because you did not continue the treatment needed to support your case.
