The VA Rule That Punishes Veterans for Getting Better? | Disability Claims

Part 1 of 3

DECLASSIFIED: THE VA MEDICATION TRAP

Did you know the VA almost implemented an "interim final rule" that would rate your disability based on how you function after medication? In other words—you get punished for managing your pain.

In this session of the SCIIF, we are breaking down the ultimate "Civilian Armor" tactic for your medical records. We discuss the stigma of going on profile, why long-term "Vitamin M" (Ibuprofen) is a silent threat, and how to avoid the deadly "Good Day Trap" at your next C&P exam.
Whether you are Active Duty, Guard, Reserve, or a military spouse managing the family's bdd  (Benefits Delivery at Discharge), you need this intel before your  va claims  get denied. Nobody cares about you more than YOU. Follow the money, document everything, and protect your legacy.



#vadisability  #militaryspouse  #veteranadvocacy  #claimdenied  #MedicalReadiness #CivilianArmor #sciif #military

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Punished by the Department of Veterans Affairs for getting better? Imagine this. You served as one of the 1% who was willing and able to serve the United States military. You broke your body, you broke your mind, you finally swallow your pride, you go to the VA, take the meds, or get the treatment and try to heal. And then the government says, since the meds are working, ah, we might pay you less. Yeah. How would you feel about that? Do you feel better then? Now, that wasn't a conspiracy theory, ladies and gentlemen. That was almost policy. Obviously, this was not received very well by the veterans and the active duty military members went viral across the world. People were claiming that the Departments of Veterans Affairs were not taking veterans' medical conditions seriously. But do not take my word for it. Lorray, can you please provide the lit rep that had Beyonce's internet going crazy?

SPEAKER_05 0:52

Going crazy. Going crazy. The behind. Right. And I'm so glad we touched on the fact that it was almost policy. But the fact that it was almost policy is what makes it scary. So the VA really tried a flank on your disability checks. And it's important for us to know exactly what happened. It's called the interim final rule. So pretty much they want to change how they rate your disability. So instead of rating you on your injury, your unmedicated baseline, they want to start rating you on how you function after you take your medication, how you respond to that medication, and then decide do we need to either lower or higher your rating? So let's just think about the danger of that. Let's think about our veterans who are taking meds for severe PTSD. The pills work. They stop shaking, they have less episodes, for example. But under the specific rule, the VA could say, Oh, you look fine now. You seem like you're doing better. So we're going to go ahead and cut your rating from 70% to 10%. I don't know about you, but that would make me very upset. So it would have forced veterans into a corner, right? So do I treat my condition or or excuse me, and lose my income, or do I stay sick to keep my benefits? And that's not a question that we should even have to answer, right? So thankfully, as of last month, the VA formally rescinded the rule because the veteran community raised health as they should have. But the fact that they even tried it, that is the warning shot that the process is under continuous evaluation. So going even further into this, according to the VA, they stated their intent is to gain more consistency and accuracy. They said if a veteran is functioning better, right? You gotta tell the real chief. You gotta tell the real. If a veteran is functioning better because of meds, their ratings should reflect that real world earning capacity. They also claimed they were fixing a legal issue from the Ingram versus Collins court case. So on a whiteboard, right? On the hill, it looked clean. But on the ground, it forces a veteran to choose health or wealth. And in one of our last main episodes, right, we talked about that wealth aspect, and now we're talking about health. So you're telling me that if I take my meds, right, I'm doing well, it's possible I can lose my rating. If I stop my meds, I crash, but I keep my check. Like where does the line fall here? So it's a dangerous game that no one who has served our country should have to deal with.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

How in the world is this real life? I I don't know if you guys remember. We we previously had a conversation about veterans and veteran ratings, and we had people faking the funk and getting 100% and all this other stuff. And, you know, we were like, hey, they're not gonna take any benefits and things like that. That was the going out the door consensus between the crew. And then all of a sudden, in the middle of the night, and oh dark 30, when everybody's sleeping and all eyes are closed and everybody's dreaming in Dreamland, Candyland, they drop us with this damn, oh, if you take medazine, you get better, you good. Now, let me let you know. Let me uh, you know, I'm gonna dox myself real quick. Now, the the military I've been in for a long time, and throughout my career, they have literally prescribed me ibuprofen from everything from a I had a fracture in my back to a fracture in my elbow to twisted ankles to headaches to you name it. I've had it so many times. I mean, look, you can look at my charts. So, not too long ago, as I'm preparing, you know, to transition to retirement, um, the flight doc he ran a gang of stuff. He was just like, all right, let me run all your blood tests, let me do all this. Because, you know, as flyers, you have a higher standard of uh medical readiness. You have to make sure, you know, you're at the top notch. Okay, cool. So he runs my blood test and he said, Hey man, um, your kidneys ain't coming back a hundred percent, but you know, you're a muscular dude, you this, that, and the third, so you might be good, but you know what, let's be extra cautious. Got the granular details back. He was like, I don't know, man. This is not looking right. You know, I'm a senior specialist. I go to the specialist, the kidney specialist, they they called me in, they're like, hey man, um yeah. Kidneys ain't working at 100% like they used to be. And they were like, hey, um, you better not take ibuprofen again. Period. I don't care. I don't care if you got a headache, I don't care if you need blood thin. I don't care what I do, just do don't take it. Don't ingest it into your body because your stuff is wrecked. And I'm like, are you freaking kidding me? Ibuprofen? And he's like, Yeah. Yeah. Your stomach is probably messed up. I was like, Yeah. And you know, your back be hurting every now and again. I was like, Yeah, outside of the slip disc, yeah. He's like, Yeah, that's your kidneys, bro. You better stop. I said, really? So ain't no medicine for that. But what I mean, what do you want me to do? The medicine that you prescribe me is gonna also mess me up and mask the you know, the symptoms. The symptoms, yeah, to make me feel good for right now, but in the future, I'm gonna be laid up in the hospital.

SPEAKER_03 6:52

How'd that work? I'm gonna jump right on this part right here because you got the the the fact that you, for example, your particular case, you take ibuprofen in order to mass the symptoms. Okay, now the symptoms go away, and then they decide, let's say, based on this policy that was rescinded, we're gonna go ahead and reduce you. I might not be taking this stuff anymore. I'm still mentally chained to it. My my mind is still chained to the fact that I'm I'm hurting. Okay, maybe I'm cool right now, but what if it comes back? Which it in your case it does. That's telling that's to me is a gap. Just because it's temporarily, you know, cured, even if let's say we we healed it, let's say we quote unquote cured it or cancer went to recession, right? Let's say it went to the recession, what is the probability that it may come back? I am still mentally chained to that. I still got to go in every year to make sure that that has not come back more aggressively. So it's not just a physical thing, it's a mental thing. I'm chained to it for the rest of my life. So I'm always checking to make sure, and I know that's an extreme version, but you're kind of scaling it back to B's version where ibuprofen was taking care of the thing, but it was only temporary. I'm still mentally a slave to that, to that pain. I get what the intent was, but I don't think it was necessarily the right way.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

And docs, and I'm pretty sure all of us have this kind of sane narrative. They didn't tell me any risk associated with ibuprofen back in the day. I'm talking back in the day. They're like, bro, take some ibuprofen. Bro, I used to take ibuprofen before I ran five miles. Running five miles, yeah, I'm good. Hey, ooh, baby, I feel good. I'm good to go. But guess what? I'm not good to go. Now I didn't permanently damage my kidneys. And what do I have to show for it? How are you gonna make that back? Because you prescribed me this. I told you I had this pain. You said for this pain, take this and then come back and see me if it doesn't work. Take it every time you feel the pain. Okay. And now what? Now I am damaged. I can't, I can you cannot reverse damaging your kidneys based off of taking ibuprofen because that's what they prescribe. So, what are they gonna do for me? They're gonna be like, hey, hey, Chief, I'm sorry, man. It is what it is. Keep taking ibuprofen. I mean, because bro, like you cannot realistically put this out as a policy when it does not heal the person and bring them back to hold. The policy is you're masking the symptoms, you're not actually taking care of the issue because you want that person worldwide deployable, um, able to handle their business, you know, do their job, and that is the at the forefront of everybody's mind. And then you know when you get into these cycles of competition for promotion, you know what you gotta do. Bro, you think I'm about to sit there and get on profile? No, I have not been on a profile one time in my career. Why? Not because I'm not hurt, not because I'm not feeling bad, because I know the stigma that's associated with that. I know what I need to do. Hey, I gotta just take it on the chin. And now you tell me I've taken it on the chin for 20 plus years, and now you're like, I don't care if you took it on the chin, take this too. Oh no. Mm-mm. It was a it's gonna be an uproar, man. It ain't gonna work.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

The the only thing that I want to say, right? I don't do anything with the VA, I work with active duty, I don't have any part of the disability determination process. But the point that I want to make, especially for our younger viewers, is exactly this point that Chief was making. There's a stigma, there's uh this expectation. If you want to achieve XYZ rank, if you want to achieve XYZ award or whatever, like you just you you're gonna have to suffer. You have to consistently always put yourself second. And yes, the mission always comes first, but there's got to be a balance. And I think that that's something in medical, as far as like primary care. We're kind of in a place where we're reckoning with the attitudes and the perceptions of our younger airmen who do want to prioritize themselves. They do want to prioritize their health. Because Chief, you're right, after 20 plus years, you've been taking it on the chin, you're gonna walk away. And, you know, some policymaker on the hill is going to impact the rest of your life and your financial readiness. So we we have to take care of ourselves. So the one thing that I want to say, I know we're talking about VA benefits today and we're talking about um disability ratings, but before you get to the point in your career where you have to worry about your disability rating, take care of yourself because 100% disability, even if you get to make all that money, like you're living the rest of your life without full health. And that, in my opinion, is not worth it. Um, so yeah, get the mission done, do your thing, achieve all of your dreams and your goals, but you have to understand that there are some sacrifices, there's there's a balance to it, and you got to be prepared to either accept the consequences of those sacrifices or you don't make the sacrifices, and there are other consequences that come with that. But you gotta value, value your health, value your well-being because you you can get that back.

SPEAKER_04 12:15

Always take the check, you know. No, we concerned about our health, and you have to be more concerned about it than anyone else because no one cares about you the way that you care about you. I mean, we get in, we should just get our money, and we should just get out. Because at the end of the day, all you have is your money and your family, you know, your career worked, you've done all these things, but those doctors are being paid to prescribe you with medication. Every policy is driven by finance. It's driven by money. And once you understand that, follow the money. I'm speaking from my civilian stats now, because like I'm not active duty like you guys, I'm a reservist, right? Just always get take the money because what you'll have to spend, you know, recuperating your health afterwards, you're gonna need money to pay for you know, those things. So always take the check and do what's best for you and your family, you know, at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

Nobody cares about you more than you. And we need to adopt that same mantra when it comes to your health care. When it comes to how healthy you are, nobody, no doctor, no uh physician's assistant, no nurse, no, you name it, is gonna care more about you than you. So you need to start putting yourself first. Think about the second, third quarter effects for the decisions you make today, for tomorrow. So we gotta, we gotta put ourselves first and think about the long-lasting impacts to Patricia's point of making the wrong decision for today. You're making a decision for today without thinking about tomorrow, but you're probably gonna intercept tomorrow and then be half of who you are.

SPEAKER_04 14:05

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 14:06

B, I know you looked in uh into this, you know, as far as the policy is going. I want to deep dive into that. So, what were some of the gaps that you saw that, you know, they they may or may not have seen and made the call on uh the decision makers, that is. But what did you see?

SPEAKER_02 14:23

The first gap that I saw, um, I like to call it the quote unquote good day trap. We all have the good day trap. I alluded to it earlier. You know, you you kind of wake up and you feel good, man. I mean, some days I wake up, my back isn't hurting, my knees are hurting, my ankle isn't hurting, no headaches. I'm gravy, baby. My vision's 2020. I'm, you know, I'm like, damn, bruh. Like, what is up with your boy? Ice cube, you see. Ice cube, you ice cube. Hey, bruh, today is a good day. And you know what? Here's the deal. The next two, three days later, crash down. Oh, shoot. Everything. And guess what? Just my luck, you evaluated me on that day where I was feeling like he man, I was gravy. And now that I'm not, then what? So it's a snapshot. So don't go into your VA appointment or medical evaluation, whatever you got going on. Don't go into it with rose-colored glasses saying, I'm the best thing ever. No, honestly look over the last 30 days, 30, 60, 90 days of your health, and then take a, you know, a synopsis of that and take an average. You know, like I'm not telling you to don't game the system. We talked about that. Don't lie. Don't, don't teach her integrity. Have integrity, be a man of your word, man, woman of your word, be honest. But then also look at honestly the totality of the last 30, 60, 90 days, and then say, no kidding, like, all right, this is where I'm at. The other thing that I have, side effects are disabilities, right? Take in account what I just went through with the ibuprofen. What's my side effect from taking ibuprofen? Bad kidneys, effed up stomach. Okay, so now from taking the ibuprofen that you gave me, which healed my other symptoms, but then caused cascading effects dealing with my stomach and my kidneys, that I cannot change retroactively. So though the side effects are real. Those are things that you have to take into account when you're taking these medications. And then lastly, the active duty ripple. If troops know what they're seeking now hurts their future rating, they will stop seeking help. This becomes a readiness issue. Because if I if I look at it, I'm like, all right, you know, people measure things in different ways and they weigh and they balance and they say, okay, this is the best way forward for me. I said, I'm commute, I'm competing for promotion. I'm doing these things, I'm not getting on profile. I don't care how bad my back hurts. I don't care how bad my knees hurt, my ankles hurt, I don't care. I'm going out there, I'm going to run. I don't care. I'm going to do what I got to do. I'm locking in. So, hey, I'm going to get that. I can I can grit through anything for 10 minutes, 10, 10 minutes and 45 seconds. I get through it. It'll be over before you know it. And then I'm just, I'll rest the rest of the day, I'll ice my knees, ice my back, you know, get a massage, do some other stuff, and I will take care of myself. And then I'll kind of get back to net negative 50, you know, versus I'm minus 100. And that's and that's the thought process that a lot of troops go through.

SPEAKER_03 17:42

So we talked about this before. I feel better. So what? Again, whether it's it's cancer or it's just back pain or whatever the case may be, you give me a treatment, I am still mentally chained to my diagnosis. If it's still present or if there's a possibility that it is present, it is not ethical, in my opinion. What do I what do I know? But being 20 plus years in the military, oh, I don't know, Iraq, Afghanistan, Qatar, and about to do it again, that would be my credentials. That's my authority where I feel like that should not be an ethical means in order to, you know, say, hey, you're feeling better. So we're gonna go ahead and reduce that. I'm still mentally chained to that. So don't freaking forget that. I still have to go through that. I have to live in this body for the rest of my life. So I get what the intent is, but that needs, in my opinion, needs to be evaluated a little bit more. To all the veteran and active duty members out there, just know this was rescinded because the veterans and active duty soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, guardian spouses can not only read, but analyze and implement critical thinking when it was needed the most. You actually spoke up with overwhelming concern. But now that we know this is where they or we are today, I want you guys to evaluate how that really makes you feel. We often talk about people trying to scam the VA, because we had that conversation before, but it's not often talked about when there's a new policy that's perceived to do the opposite. It goes both ways there. Perception goes a long way in the military. So put your thoughts in the comments. Let's get some discussions going. We're gonna discuss more of this later on in part two's uh Skiff Warrior Wellness Week.