Matthew Hill: Hello and welcome to another Hill and Ponton via video blog. I’m Matthew Hill. This is Carol Ponton. And today we want to talk to you about the complexities of a claim and what becomes an appeal. And we’re going to do it through the example of diabetes.
Matthew Hill: Typically when diabetes is granted, the diagnosis itself ends up getting the veteran award of 20%.
Carol Ponton: 20%.
Matthew Hill: With the insulin. And in what we see, is veterans are more greatly affected than what a 20% rating would be because they have a lot of what’s called secondary issues due to the diabetes.
Carol Ponton: Right.
Matthew Hill: And what happens, what do you see?
Carol Ponton: Well, they can have peripheral neuropathy. They can have diabetic retinopathy, their eyes. They can have a problem with their kidneys. There are all sorts of things they can have. But they have to appeal so that the VA knows what they’re appealing.
Matthew Hill: Right.
Carol Ponton: So I will see people given 20% for diabetes and they want peripheral neuropathy.
Matthew Hill: Which is tingling, numbness in the arms and the legs.
Carol Ponton: But instead of saying that, what they say is, I want a higher rating for diabetes. So you need to be a little clearer. You need to say diabetic peripheral neuropathy, whether there’s a problem with your eyes, a problem with your kidney. Any of the problems that diabetes is causing, you need to let them know, “That’s what I’m appealing for.”
Matthew Hill: And you don’t have to say the specific name, right? Neuropathy or-
Carol Ponton: Right. Peripheral neuropathy, you can say tingling in my hand.
Matthew Hill: Right, but you want to put that out there because the way the VA system works is you have a 20% rating for the diabetes itself. Yet if you get rated for, you know, your arms, your legs, your kidneys sometimes, you could get up to 100% rating. You can get a 60% rating.
Carol Ponton: You can get a 60% rating just if you have a problem with your kidneys because of the diabetes.
Matthew Hill: And so, you know, what Carol is saying is that you want to list all these things and the best person to probably help you list these would be your doctor. To say, “Hey doc, do I have any secondary problems?”
Matthew Hill: The heart can be a secondary problem.
Carol Ponton: Right.
Matthew Hill: And you’d want them to list that on your medical records so then you can turn around and put that on your appeal.
Carol Ponton: Exactly.
Matthew Hill: Or your claim for the first time.
Carol Ponton: Right.
Matthew Hill: Well, thank you for joining us today and we look forward to seeing you soon.
