u/Blue_Oysters

TL;DR - how can one tell conclusively what evidence was used by a rater in a decision? Where or how can one find that information?

Husband's recent denial does not show any of the new evidence submitted in the Evidence block, and in the decision narrative section, there is no mention of any of the new evidence, although the first paragraph in the narrative states "...In support of your claim, new and relevant evidence has been received and your claim is now reconsidered."

We are assuming the evidence was missed/not reviewed, but we don't want to assume anything before moving forward with an HLR or another supplemental.

He had a VERA call and the VA rep said sometimes all the new evidence is not listed under the Evidence block, but wasn't much more helpful than that.

Is there any way to tell for sure what evidence was in the supplemental claim file? Like is each claim its own bucket and everything used for decision dumped in the bucket? Or is new evidence submitted and dumped among the hundred other documents previously submitted and the rater has to fish for it?

Would a VSO have this information? Unfortunately my husband's VSO is very new and does not have much experience or knowledge. Where can husband go to get this answer? TIA.

Husband submitted a supplemental claim with quite a few new pieces of evidence on April 4. He had a C&P on May 4. Received a denial letter May 13.

In the evidence considered block, the C&P exam was listed, but none of the new pieces of evidence were listed.

In the reason for decision section, it looks like the rater cut & pasted the exact same reason for the denial he received in 2025, and even referenced his 2025 exam. There was no mention of his recent exam.

Husband saw his VSO yesterday and there are apparently two claims in the system with the same submission date. One claim is the one he uploaded with all of his new evidence and has his wet signature on. The other claim had an electronic signature and a few more conditions added to it. There also didn’t appear to be any evidence associated with that claim. His VSO thinks the rater used the second claim to make his decision.

Does anyone have any clue where that second claim could’ve come from? Obviously there’s a huge mistake here. His VSO filed a HLR, but it seems ridiculous to have to wait 3 to 4 months to point out the errors that were made on his claim.

He does have a VERA call scheduled for Monday.

My husband just received his denial letter for a supplemental claim filed April 4. There are some crazy errors in it that I've never seen mentioned here before so not sure what to do about it to get it corrected expeditiously.

Issue #1. He was being rated 10% for IBD however, he had some lab work by his treating gasterinterologist recently that ruled out IBD. In the past he's been diagnosed with IBD, colitis, IBS depending on symptoms. With IBD being ruled out, he requested to have his diagnosis changed to IBD as per his treating physician's latest exam.

Evidence submitted were the lab reports and doctor's report from his last exam.

Issue #2 is degenerative arthritis in all four lower major joints, starting with his right knee, which was totally replaced last year. He also had his rip hip totally replaced, and will be having his left joints replaced in the near future. He had no specific injury but he was in towed artillery for 10 years and is trying to service connect through repetitive and joint load-bearing occupational demands.

Evidence submitted was a nexus letter from his treating orthopedic surgeon, list of his occupational duties, a narrative of those occupational duties but with more description and more detailed experiences in the field, performance assessment standards for his MOS from the USMC website, another medical study that defined repetitive and load-bearing activities with matched with the performance assessment standards for artillery.

He had a new C&P exam early last week. The examiner completed four DBQs, including one for scarring from his knee replacement, which he didn't even claim. Not sure why the examiner would provide a scarring DBQ unless she was going to service connect his knee that was replaced.

Forward to today when husband received a denial for everything!

In the evidence considered section there were his four new DBQs, his DD214, his STR and his personal medical records. That's it. Not one single other piece of evidence submitted with the claim is listed.

Here's where it gets even better: When listing the reason for denial of his right knee, left knee and right hip, the rater quoted the opinion of the examiner (verbatim) from his 2025 exam, which this supplemental claim was challenging! Not one single mention of anything from the new exams. The denial letter was completely silent on the exams last week.

Husband (with me tagging along) has an appointment tomorrow morning with his VSO to see how those new DBQs read. In the meantime, his VSO already filed an HLR with IC this morning.

So with this obvious error, is there anyway to get the claim expedited? Or does he have to wait the typical four months to get his file looked at again by a senior rater in a HLR?

This is so ridiculously frustrating. It is no wonder so many deserving veterans just give up. And that just pisses me off.