The VA Medical Claims Process -Insider Tips
Join USMC veteran Clayton Simms as he delves into the VA medical claims process in this must-watch video. Clayton shares his expertise and provides actionable steps and advice to help navigate this often complicated process. From timing to the easiest and hardest claims to get, Clayton covers it all. Don't miss this informative episode and take control of your VA medical claims.
In This Episode We Cover:
Navigating the system
VA Math!
That infamous jump from 90-100%
The best time to file a claim.
Three things to know to win your claim
How long a C&P exam takes
Easiest and most common claims
Most difficult to get claims
Battle Buddy Podcast Guest Links:
Transcript from Episode 90 with Clayton Simms:
Keith McKeever 0:01
Welcome back to another episode of the Battle Buddy Podcast. If you have a service connected disability or you think you might have a service connected disability then today you need to pay attention to what my guest has to say. We all know that the VA system can be a little clunky to navigate. And that might be the understatement of the year. But today, I've got a guest on who is a Veteran Service Officer, we're going to just dive right into all kinds of things about going through the claims process and all kinds of things you need to know. So if you think that you need to file a claim, or you're going through a claim or you're just interested in this information, you want to hang on and check out this podcast episode. Welcome to the battle buddy podcast with Keith McKeever. Welcome to show Peyton. I appreciate you coming on.
Clayton Simms 0:49
Thanks for having me, Dean. Yeah.
Keith McKeever 0:51
So go ahead and give us a little bit of a backstory of who you are.
Clayton Simms 0:54
Yeah, so my name is Clay Sims. I started the seductive YouTube channel. Prior to that I was in the Marine Corps for 10 years, did in the tree, my first five years, then my next five years, I moved into psychological operations. I've been out since 2019. And pretty much been working for the government in different capacities, and doing my own thing.
Keith McKeever 1:16
Awesome. And so how did you get into, you know, the VSO types? You know, all that stuff? How did that all come about? For you?
Clayton Simms 1:24
Yeah, so I started the YouTube first, I was like, Hey, I had some friends that had some bad personal experiences with for profit companies. So yeah, I was like, You know what, I think I could do that. But for free. And one of the things I pride myself on is veteran benefits. We've already earned them, right? They're already earned. Now you just have to get them adjudicated. And so at this, I had a sour taste in my mouth hearing that companies were taking advantage of, I guess, veteran ignorance to the process. And so I started the YouTube. Once I started a YouTube, a veteran service organization called dokay. Graham, they ended up reaching out to me. And I became a volunteer for an accredited VSO. And so I can help. I can help veterans process claims, I submit their claim to a claims writer who then submits that claim. And then I also create content for not just seductive, but I also create content for Dell Kay Graham, social media page as well. And it's all around informing and educating veterans for free. Awesome, well,
Keith McKeever 2:35
kind of like what I said in the opening, like, the VA is a system, it is clunky, it is a mess. It is, like you said, like we've earned it as veterans. So sometimes it's kinda like to paint a picture. It's like connecting the dots. Yeah, exactly. You've heard it. You just kind of have to connect the dots and navigate through the system. And it sucks. It's painful. Like, there's no other way to put it. Like there's no, there's no way to spin it into a positive
Clayton Simms 3:08
experience. Not at all. So the VA is bound. There's a reason for that, right? We can't. Every veteran can't claim PTSD. Okay, it has to be based in grounded in evidence. And so what law, the VA is guided by law and public policy, and every decision they make is by the 38 CFR. And so you have to abide by policy and kind of say, Hey, I have this disability, I had this ailment, it's connected to service because of XY and Z. And you kind of have to draw the dots, you know, you have to connect the dots for the VA for that to happen. And the issue is, no one goes to medical while they're in service, right? You don't want to beat that guy, okay? You don't want to be that guy that lets your squad down. Because if you don't show up to the field exercise, your responsibilities don't go away, right, they just get put on someone else. And so now there's that stigma of not going to medical, and that's where just that one factor is where you see a lack of medical evidence start to take over. And now you have trouble connecting the dots so to speak.
Keith McKeever 4:15
Absolutely. Yeah. Well, you know, you know, in both systems have in place, right, like the mission has to continue when you're in the military. The system is there for a reason. The mission has to continue the job has to be done. Oh, yeah. It's just like the VA, like, you have to have guidelines, we should all understand that as veterans. There should be some guide rails, right. Think about the e4 Mafia, right. You know, like, there should be some sort of guide rails, you know, just put a bunch of fours in a room and not expect things to get fucked up.
Clayton Simms 4:44
Oh, yeah. The VA is not a barracks lawyer. Right. It's an actual department of the government.
Keith McKeever 4:49
Exactly. So like, you know, there should be some rules and some guidelines and some process to go through but you know, I mean, I don't know how many people work for the VA but it's it is a huge organization. It Lots of money pumped into it, and your steps and processes and yeah, your files gonna end up on people's desks. And there's only so many people. And there's so many claims. And I don't want to skip ahead. But you know, like, when you have new legislation like the pack back, oh, you have so many people that qualify. I'm sure they just got massively just flooded with incoming claims. So like, what could have been, hypothetically three months to go through a process? Could be six months, nine months a year now. So like, like I said, I want to jump ahead into
Clayton Simms 5:35
you hit it right on the head. Right. So with the introduction of the pact act, I think the average claim right now is 104 days, at least, that's what what's on the VA site. But that was prior to January when the pact Act went into effect. But now that it is January, as of this recording. Since the pact act is in effect, now we have all these claims to be adjudicated, that's in claims don't go away. So now we just have more claims to adjudicate. So now that 104 days might turn into 500 days, who knows right?
Keith McKeever 6:07
I can only imagine what happened to people's desk. So I know it's you'll probably digital, but just just imagine like somebody's got like a stack like this on their desk and all of a sudden somebody just knocks on Hey, here.
Clayton Simms 6:20
Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what happened. Yeah.
Keith McKeever 6:24
I could just imagine the, the the feeling of looking at that like, well, I guess I got plenty of work to do. Oh, yeah. I guess for the employees of the VA. It's job security. Right. It is it is veterans and keeping them gainfully employed for the foreseeable future.
Clayton Simms 6:39
Yeah. And just for I always try to stay away from like, VA bashing, okay. If you want to bash the VA, you can go on a Facebook group and bash the VA all you want, right. But they're most of the people that work for the VA are veterans anyways. And I genuinely, I guess I choose to believe that they're not out here. Messing with veterans claims, right. It's just a process. There's a knowledge to that process. And at some point, there's a lot of disconnects between the veteran and the VA. And but yeah, I'm definitely not bashing the VA, but they have their work cut out for them. Right.
Keith McKeever 7:17
I agree. I'm the same way. I try not to bash them. Sometimes it may seem like it's kind of negative, but Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. There's like there is a lot of veterans and their hands are tied to, like, they can only do so much like they may read somebody's you know, they may be a Raider and me read something. They may be like, Hey, man, I really feel like, you know, on paper, like, I really feel for what I'm seeing in this claim. But I'm not, you know, I have to play by the rules. They have a job to do. Like, they may be like, Man, this seems like this person is really going through some shit. Like, I really wish I could give them 50% for this. But from what I see, I can only give 30
Clayton Simms 7:55
Yeah, they're bound by law and policy, right. So they're very constricted. And so if you give the VA any reason for a lower rating, or no rating, they they legally have to accept that evidence, right? It would be illegal, if they're like, You know what, we're going to ignore that piece of the evidence, and then we're going to give you 50% It just wouldn't be illegal.
Keith McKeever 8:17
Yeah, and I think that's an important thing to maybe highlight that some people don't understand is, everything has these guidelines. And I love quantum VA math, but, like, correct me if I'm wrong, almost everything had goes on a scale of zero 10 3050 I don't know if anything goes 20% disability, oh, it's
Clayton Simms 8:38
each disability is very different. Right? So mental health is 1030 5070 100. Okay, we're like your back could be 1020 4060 100. So there's definitely there's no comparison there. It's about it's whatever dictated by the 38 CFR,
Keith McKeever 8:56
okay, but that CFR states, for each one of those percentages, there are certain specifications like, like, I happen to know, like, like joint issues like knees and ankles and hips and stuff like that, like they take measurements. Like you have to be within certain ranges of motion of whatever, I don't know. Um, no, definitely no doctor, but like, it has to fit on whatever, like and if it's in or out of that determines like, what percentage you get and all the scientific stuff. So like, there's no,
Clayton Simms 9:28
no, that's there's no argument, I guess exactly how to do it. Yeah. So when it comes to knees, like act like my knuckles, my knee and right now, how, what is the degree that you can flex it for, I'm sorry, what is the degree that you can flex it and what's the degree that you can extend it and they will do some math and combine those angles together? And pain is a part of that right? If you have pain if you need a brace as a minimum 10% But in addition to that, okay, so you can only Flex 30 degrees and you can extend 45 degrees and there's The math that goes into that, and I say, boom, hey, you got 10%? Like, alright, cool.
Keith McKeever 10:04
And that's where the that's where the VA math comes in funny. That's what I try. You know, it's really funny trying to explain it to civilians. When when it's like, oh, yeah, you know, like you could be, you can be like, oh, yeah, well, I have a, I don't know, just, I have a disability. That's, let's just say 10%. And I've another one is 10%. And I have a 50% and a 30% and a 20%. And I'm still rated at 40%. Just hypothetically, you know, and they'd be like, what? Yes, VA math don't ask. Oh, yes. Government math.
Clayton Simms 10:42
The best. Yeah. Government math is a good example. The best way I tried to explain VA math is that 90% If you're out a hard 90%, so not at six, not before, you're at 90. There's 10% left to 100. I think we can all understand that.
Keith McKeever 11:00
Right? Yeah. It's that simple math. That's not VA. Yeah, there's
Clayton Simms 11:03
10% left. And so now you're dealing with 10%. So if you have another 50% disability that comes into play, it's 50%. Of that. 10%.
Keith McKeever 11:15
So you're only going to 95%? Yeah,
Clayton Simms 11:17
so now you're looking at 5%? Because half of 10. but correct
Keith McKeever 11:20
me if I'm wrong, that 95% Then you round up
Clayton Simms 11:23
to 100. Exactly. So if you're at 190, you need 50 More percent to get to 100. Because they're gonna round up.
Keith McKeever 11:32
Gotcha. I didn't know that other rounding rule, which, you know, may confuse some people, like if you look in certain calculators, or some things online, like you can play with things. And yeah, so that is something good to know. Like, if you're doing the math, and you're like, I'm only going to be like, 88% No, you they're gonna round you up to 90. So yeah, yeah, so, or if you don't get up to 94, sorry, you're screwed, you're still in it. Or go back and find something else. So why
Clayton Simms 11:59
that really matters, though, is let's say you're, let's say you're at 88%. Okay, and you want to claim tinnitus, but you've been denied. Tinnitus is only 10%. And so you, you do the VA math yourself, you're only going to be at 89%. Which at the end of the day, nothing changed, because you're getting paid at 90%. And so now you have to ask yourself, Am I really going to go out to a private doctor, get an independent medical opinion, am I going to pay for this service? To have the same result? Right? And so that's really when it comes in that cost benefit analysis saying, Hey, am I really going to fight for this? Like, is it going to change my overall rating? Or do I just keep complaining about severe health care? I don't I don't claim it yet. Because nothing changed, right?
Keith McKeever 12:48
Would you say that? Typically, that conversation should come into people when they're at that 90%. Mark, because I know that the biggest jump, is that 90 to 100. Oh,
Clayton Simms 13:00
yeah, no, you're exactly right. The more you have, the more you have to really weigh out, is this worth it? Right? So if you're at 90%, the only things you want to claim are things that are going to push you to 100. If it's not going to push you to 100. Personally, I would recommend you don't claim it you absolutely you absolutely can if you want to, right, there's no harm in that. But personally, I wouldn't claim it. I would still go to VA health care and say, hey, my knees still bother me. Hey, I have ringing in my ears, right? Because just in case you have enough evidence one day that does pushes you to 100 now you have this trail of medical billing, hey, yeah,
Keith McKeever 13:41
there you go. Exactly. Yeah, I was just gonna I was just thinking that as you were starting to say that I was like, Yeah, at least build a paper trail. Because you know, it is it is a big uphill battle. It's you know, once you get to, you know, probably 7080 90% You've got a lot probably a lot of things stacked on each other. You could have one disability that stacks up to that. Or you could probably have I would guess most people probably have 789 various things. I think most of us have a little bumps and bruises along the way. There are 10 percents here and they're probably all of us have tinnitus. I know I do. That was That was lovely when I took that test because you have ringing in the ears. I'm like, What's the sound like? Yeah, she she was trying to explain it. I'm like, Well, hell yeah, like I've had to. Oh, yeah. Oh, is that tinnitus? I'm like, that's what that is like. Okay, I was just thought it was weird. Anyway, but so anyway, back back to the main questions I had, that was good stuff, but how does somebody go about getting their benefits in the first place?
Clayton Simms 14:45
Okay, so let's do some time scenarios. Right. So we let's hit everybody in the in no matter what age you're at, or where you're at in your career, we can hit them all. So let's start with your active duty. If you're active duty enough In a perfect world, I would say one year before you get out of the military, you go to medical, right? All those times you didn't go to medical in the past because you didn't want to let your squad down or let your unit down. That's out the window. Right now you're focused on hey, I'm leaving in a year, I need to focus on me. So one year you're going to medical, but VA disability claims for active duty can't start until your 180 days out. So that's really the first timeframe which is six months up
Keith McKeever 15:26
till the temperature I'll be what are they going to kick you out? Yeah, exactly.
Clayton Simms 15:29
You get medically retired and now you're like, Alright, cool beans. Right. Okay. But the very first timeframe is that 180 days when you're active duty, step one is find a VSO a veteran's service organization. Since you're active duty, depending on where you're at, if you're in the States, there's definitely going to be a VSO on post on base, right. So you could just set up an appointment, had that appointment, if not any type of VFW Dav disabled, American veterans or veterans? Yeah, is a huge organization, any accredited VSO? That's step one.
Keith McKeever 16:07
Step two American Legion sometimes has? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. At least here in Illinois. I think most of the counties have a VSO I know, mine is at my local county. There's, like seven or eight people in the office there.
Clayton Simms 16:19
Absolutely. So there's county VSOs. And then there's accredited VSOs. I will say this though, when you hear VSO it's just veteran service organization, and there are 1000s of VSOs across the nation. Okay, there's only about I want to say 40, give or take a few accredited VSOs with VA. So for instance, a nonprofit VSO that does hikes to prevent veteran suicide, right. That's a VSO. But that has nothing to do with being an accredited VSO by the VA. Right. Accredited VSOs. File VA disability claims that so you want to find absolutely, yeah, so that's the 180 days out, find a VSO you're going to file claim, it's called a BDD claim benefits deliver at discharge, honestly, doesn't matter what it's called. If you just find a VSO, they'll take care of the rest, right?
Keith McKeever 17:14
Oh, yeah. I mean, I know when I I did my initially when I got out, but I did one a year and a half ago, and I went sat down with them, because it had been like 10 years. Oh, yeah. All right. Well, tell me what's happened in the last 10 years. You know, it was like, he walked me back what's happening last 10 years, medically, you know, all these kinds of things. So like, that's kind of things that my county VSO did.
Clayton Simms 17:33
Oh, yeah, that's a that's a, that's a solid sign that that he's a good VSL. Right. So that's the first time frame 180 days out, the next time frame is within one year after you leave the military. That one year is crucial, because that's when your back pay starts. So if you file a claim within that first year, you're gonna get back paid to the date that you got out, right? We all went back. When that back pay, check hits your bank account, you're gonna be like, Yes, this is awesome.
Keith McKeever 18:02
steak dinner on family. Yes.
Clayton Simms 18:06
But in addition to that one year timeframe, there's these things called presumptive conditions. And presumptive just means Hey, the VA assumes this came from service. Tinnitus is one of them. If you're diagnosed with tinnitus, within one year of getting out, it's automatic. You have service connection, which is good. Okay, that's what you want. And so that it's, I guess, to put it to give you a good example, if you have back pain within that first year, and you claim it, it's very hard for the VA to say, hey, that didn't come from service. This came from the last two months, you've been out. Like, really? I was in the Marine Corps for 10 years. You can't tell me the last two months, I got back pain. Okay.
Keith McKeever 18:47
Well, you're in a bad car accident, like Yeah, exactly. Something like that. Like, but
Clayton Simms 18:52
that first year is crucial. Versus the opposite. Let's say five years go by, and you're like, hey, my, my back hurts. Now, the VA is like, well, you've been out for five years. You know, the
Keith McKeever 19:03
hell have you been doing the last five years when you've been jumping out of airplanes as a hobby?
Clayton Simms 19:07
Yeah, exactly. They
Keith McKeever 19:09
usually they're
Clayton Simms 19:10
bound to investigate, Hey, did this back does this back pain correlate to that five years you've been out? And you just want to take that option away from them? Right. So within that first year is probably I would say the second best time to file a claim. All right. Now, let's talk about everything from one year on. Okay. So now we're talking about you've been out for a year and a half. So you've been out for 20 years, and you served in Vietnam. All this is in the same bubble, okay. And now when you do submit a claim, you're fighting the time gap. And in a very perfect world, when you do submit a claim after you've been out of service for a long time, you want medical evidence. But again, it goes back to what we said earlier, right? How many people don't go to medical while they're in and so now Not only are you finding a time gap, but more than likely you have a lack of evidence. And that's really when you see independent medical opinions and Nexus letters be considered to be awarded your claim. Because that's just you, you lack medical evidence. And so that's that's pretty much the three phases of VA disability claims.
Keith McKeever 20:23
Right? Because it takes three things for the connection, you know, for a service connection. Yes, it what are what are those three things? Yeah. So you
Clayton Simms 20:31
need an in service event, that's, that's the number one. And service event could be like a deployment, it could be very generic like that. It could also be, you know, an extreme scenario, you saw combat, you saw someone die. But outside of combat, it could also be a car accident, hey, I was active duty I was in a car accident, it could be an off duty car accident, or it could be like a car accident in a training exercise, either would be okay. But for this disability to develop, something had to happen, right? They don't just come out of nowhere. And so you need that stressor, you that in service events. The second thing you need is a net is a service connection. And you can break service connection down into two things, either medical evidence in service, that's Picture Perfect, that's gold, right? Or you lack medical evidence in service. So now you need a Nexus letter saying, hey, my PTSD came from service, although there's no medical records of that, right. So you're in service event, service connection. And then the third thing is a current and chronic diagnosis, meaning, if you let's say you did have medical evidence of your back pain, hurting from service, which is gold, right? That's what we want. That's good. But 20 Years go by you never submitted a claim, you never went to talk to your doctor about it. You never complained about it. And 20 years later, you try to submit that claim, the VA is going to say, hey, you have no current diagnosis, right? Obviously, it didn't hurt you that bad for the last 20 years. So now this claim is denied. So you need to ask a lot of
Keith McKeever 22:08
polio questions in those appointments?
Clayton Simms 22:11
Oh, yeah. And the thing about those three things is if you're missing one of those, your claim without a doubt will be denied. Right? So theoretically speaking, because we are informed and educated veterans, when we submit a claim, if you can identify those three things and make it clear to the VA, you're going to win your claim every single time. It's when these three are missing that claims get denied.
Keith McKeever 22:36
That's a good point. So that's really what everybody should be looking at what their VSO breaking down a what do I want to claim and then breaking each one of those down and Okay. Like, I know, with my VSO, he went got my medical records, you know, and it was like, okay, all right, I see, you know, this, that in there, and I'm, you know, so making that connection, and this any other, I mean, luckily, for some people, like if you deploy to Iraq, or Afghanistan or something else like that, like, you're pretty well set, you pretty much you can just pretty much be like, Hey, I was deployed once or twice, or five times, or 10 times or whatever. You know, like, just do that, which is kind of funny, when you start asking questions, when did it start hurting? Yeah. Because they're like, you know, because I'll take, you know, to my case, like, you know, they start asking like knee pain, like, I don't know, like, sometime on a deployment. Can you tell them off? No, yeah,
Clayton Simms 23:35
it's okay to be generic.
Keith McKeever 23:37
It was like 14 months ago, 14 years ago, like, I don't know, like, I was here from this date to this date, like, sometime in there. Like, I was young and dumb, and jumped out of the back of five tons every day with all this body armor. Like, yeah, that wasn't the brightest at 21 years old. I don't think any of us were. But yeah, I mean, they're gonna ask a lot of pointed questions like that. And the longer you're out, the harder it is to be like, you're gonna stupid in those in those interview questions when they start asking though, so.
Clayton Simms 24:04
Oh, yeah. So when you say they, you're talking about CMP? Examiners? Right. Yeah. The
Keith McKeever 24:09
CMP examiner has pointed questions in there like? Like, I don't I don't know. I don't know exactly what month.
Clayton Simms 24:17
Yeah. So CMP examiners, they have two jobs to do. They need to identify how severe your symptoms are, right? Saying, Hey, you can only bend your knee this far. That's the severity of symptoms, or like a pain level. That's their first job. Their second job is to establish service connection. So you're right, they are going to ask you, when did you get this knee pain? And I'm telling you, if you say anything, but from the military. They're not right. Oh, yeah, they're gonna write it all day, you know? Yeah, I heard it on this deployment. But really, two years ago, I broke it. And in my civilian life, they're gonna be like, just sucks they denied, right? It's like you really got to navigate those CMP exam questions. And so just be specific don't give the VA any reason to deny your claim. Hey, it happened on this deployment. Right? I jumped out of a seven time. Okay.
Keith McKeever 25:08
That's it. Yeah, exactly. You know, how was it worded to me? But my VSO was like, Look, these people are going to try and be friendly. And they're going to try to get you to open up. And they're going to try, like, he's like, you know, don't lie, obviously. But like, if they can try to get you to say something, and they can take it out of context, they will, Oh, yeah. Like, if you like, like you said, like, a car accident or something like that, or like, you know, oh, your knee hurts. You got into a car accident, your shoulder hurt from that? Maybe your knee hurt from that, too. Like, so, you know, it's like loose lips sink ships kind of thing, like, just a question point blank. So what when did it start hurting? You know, it was on, you know, I remember as my first deployment, it was this year, we were deployed between this month and this month, you know, sometime during that I couldn't tell exactly what, and that's it. Don't try to elaborate and come up, you know, be like, you know, gosh, I remember this exact thing, you know, like this one day that I did this or that, like, just make it as simple and whatnot, as possible. So it's kind of, but we should probably should back that up. Like you said, Because of this, the CMP exams. So once you fill out the paperwork, and you submit it to the VA, you're going to wait weeks and weeks, then a company is going to call you one of probably a handful of companies they use and they're going to schedule it for you for exams, and then you're going to have to probably drive, like, like, I did like three hours to go take an exam someplace, that's a 25 minute exam, and then drive three hours back. You know, and you're gonna have to do that, probably two or three times, depending on how many claims you have to do. And you're gonna go see these independent doctors and these little shopping malls, hospitals, of all places all over the place, like, you're looking for the address, and there's nothing posted on the wall, you know, on the building, you're like, What the hell am I. But, you know, so that's the process, like you put in the paperwork these companies call you, they're farming it out. However, they're paying these these people to do it. But that's, they are doctors and medical professionals with specialty experience. And they're the ones actually doing this and interviewing you and asking these questions. So that's kind of a probably an important step. And they give all that back to the VA and a person that the VA makes that rating decision. Correct?
Clayton Simms 27:39
Exactly. You explained it perfectly. There are three, so it's a contracting company, it's a government contract. So what it is, there's three companies that do CMP exams for the VA, it's ones Q, TC, I don't know what all these stands for once Q TC ones v s. And the last one is LH psi. So if you have a cmp exam is going to come from one of those three, it can also come from the VA itself. But more than likely the VA is booked up, which is why the government contract exists in the first place, right to kind of supplement that. And to have those how I how I explain how I explained CMP exams is one the CMP exam is not the VA. It's a it's a private contract with the government. Right? And so bashing a cmp examiner is not bashing the VA. I'll tell you this about let's just talk about government contracts real quick. Okay. The government does not pay top dollar for anything.
Keith McKeever 28:38
Yeah, you're kidding.
Clayton Simms 28:39
And so I think I think you know, what I'm implying here, right? You're not You're not getting the bee's knees best world psychiatrist.
Keith McKeever 28:47
You're not getting the valedictorian of the medical school.
Clayton Simms 28:52
Exactly. And, and really, so I say that to kind of build up. What I'm about to say is that CMP examiner probably sees what, 1012 people a day. And let's say, you you have, you have your whole case, and your whole medical files, your medical records. So let's say you did 1015 years in the military, you're telling me that examiner spent 20 minutes, looking at all your evidence, asking you all these questions, and then putting a detailed medical opinion within that 2030 minute timeframe. And I mean, it is what it is, right. And so that's another that's another reason that will push veterans to get an independent medical opinion to where CMP examiner sees 1012 veterans a day, an independent medical opinion will spend all day eight hours a day fighting one letter. Right. And so those are just some nuances that that people don't don't really understand, right, you know, I've
Unknown Speaker 29:53
never really thought about that. Like, you know, I just went to those appointments and I'm like, okay, hey, they're qualified medical professionals and They're doing their thing. They submit their report to the Raiders at the VA. Okay. But I've never really thought about the fact that they're getting paid to do it, whatever they're getting paid, but they probably are at the very least seeing a handful a week. Yeah. In addition to whatever other caseload and patients that they have on their, their normal business. So they're probably
Keith McKeever 30:24
maybe spending at most an hour? Yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, 1520, maybe 30 minutes of prep work? Well, maybe two hours total, you know, 1520 minutes of prep work, reading through your stuff, wherever the VA sends them. You know, I had someone that I would drive literally three hours, and I'm in there for 15 minutes. Yeah. And then they would ask, like, 10 questions, and okay, I think that's all I got, like,
Clayton Simms 30:47
that also assumes they are doing the prep work, right? Does exactly how many times you walked into an appointment? And you're like, they ask you questions, you're like, Dude, I know. You didn't read my evidence? Because that's right.
Keith McKeever 31:00
It's Yeah, exactly. So I mean, I never really, I've never really thought about it, you know, I just, you just kind of go through the motions, you don't really think about, you just assume that they're qualified people doing the best that they can, but
Clayton Simms 31:15
on the on the other side of the coin, because I don't want to bash them too hard. Right? They are, you're right, there are there anywhere from nurse practitioners, to medical doctors, right. And so that's, if you need your claim adjudicated. Or if you if you do submit a VA disability claim, you're gonna see a cmp examiner. And I don't want to, you know, fear monger saying all CMP examiner suck, right? If you have the evidence, the VA can't ignore evidence. And so the CMP examiner makes their opinion. But at the end of the day, a va rater is going to make that this decision. So don't, don't be spooked by CNP examiner's. But that if you are denied, right, you really want to know why you were denied, and see if your evidence can kind of combat that decision.
Keith McKeever 32:03
That's a good point. And we also need to realize that they are people too. And there's a reason that they're taking all these jobs, they may be veterans themselves, and it may not be about the money, it may just be their way of being able to do these exams. And obviously, they have to play within the rules as well. But it may be their opportunity to just play a part in helping veterans get benefits they deserve. You know, I had, I had one or two that I went to that I knew they were veterans, you know, you could see the signs in the office. And it was like, like, okay, like, at least they understand me. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, they're, they're probably not going to completely dismiss anything that I say they're going to listen to me at least, you know, anything that I have to say. So people should keep that in mind, too. They aren't, you know, they are doing a job. They may be doing it for the right reasons. They may, you know, there could be people out there doing it for the wrong reasons and just trying to collect a paycheck from the government. But if they're if they're doing a try to collect a paycheck from the VA, they probably ought to reevaluate their income producing activities.
Clayton Simms 33:05
Oh, yeah. No, you're you're absolutely right, though, right. There are good VSOs. And to be honest with you, there's bad VSOs. Right, you might go find a VSO to help you submit your claim and find out that he's dogshit. Like, what do I do? Step one, find a new VSL. Right. Same thing with CMP examiners, there are good CMP examiner's there are some that are better than others. We'll just we'll just say that. Okay. And, yeah, you're right. They may be doing it for the right reasons. They may be in debt for 200 grand to pay for their med school, right. So they gotta make money. Like there are people to
Keith McKeever 33:42
write, and I'm sure you know, you know, if you go to like a local VSO who they may also know who some of those CMP examiners are, and may know, like, hey, this person, you know,
Unknown Speaker 33:55
if they, you know, send you to this person, person A versus Person B, by Person A is gonna be more favorable for them to go to versus Person B, like your outcome is better. So, I mean, I'm sure there's something to that too. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. The VSL might know that they might have their work cut out for him on an appeal if it goes to CMP examiner B, versus a. So yeah, there's, there's there's some things there. So, I mean, that's why it's important to have a good VSO and maybe, you know, talk to them, interview them, make sure that everybody clicks that they communicate well, and do you know what they're talking about, and that you're comfortable and
Keith McKeever 34:36
go go through the process?
Clayton Simms 34:37
So I'll I'll tell you right now, how you find a good VSO or bad VSO? Right. And you can find out in the first three minutes of meeting some of meeting a VSO if you walk into an office and they're like, hey, what do you want to claim? And you just say, I have no, I'm completely ignorant on the process, I don't know. And then they spend like five minutes saying, Alright, we're gonna submit this. We're gonna submit that one and submit that that's a bad VSL
Keith McKeever 35:00
All right. Oh, yeah, just like just like picking and choosing for you like, yeah,
Clayton Simms 35:05
yeah. Or not explaining that versus your case, what you described earlier saying I want to VSO, he asked me, Hey, the last 10 years, tell me about your medical history that right there within the first 10 seconds the conversation, I know that your VSL was good, right? So that's, that's, that's, you have to gauge that. Right. There's definitely no VSO meter out there. Yeah, you have to gauge that. And if you don't fit at the end of the day, if you don't feel comfortable with the VSO, find another VSO like it's it's not the end of the world.
Keith McKeever 35:38
dosterone Yeah, there's, there's plenty of them out there. And there's some that will do a darn good job for you. So now, when it comes to the actual claims, interesting one for you, what are the most common claims that people are getting? All right,
Clayton Simms 35:54
so off the top of my head, I'm gonna say tinnitus. So off the top my head, the VA publishes a report every single year. I just read 2022, maybe a couple of weeks ago, and tinnitus was on there. It was back pain, I think was lumbar strain specific specifically, which is like lower back pain, mental health. So anything from PTSD, depression, anxiety, major depressive disorder, all those things? Is traumatic
Keith McKeever 36:24
brain injury included in that or is that rated something differently?
Clayton Simms 36:28
Yeah, so TBI is included sometimes. And just to to give us a quick breakdown on this is the VA rates symptoms. They don't actually rate diagnosis, right. And so that's why PTSD, depression and anxiety are all the same. Because if you have PTSD, you're probably going to have symptoms of high anxiety, right? You might be depressed, you might have suicidal thoughts and all those three symptoms are the same. When it comes to TBI, which is a weird one. TBI can also share the same symptoms. And if that's the case, then TBI will just be roped under your PTSD, right or depression or anxiety. But TBI can also have other symptoms, like brain damage, like actual brain damage, memory loss, but in like a in a very extreme form of memory loss, migraines,
Keith McKeever 37:27
neurologic physical and neurological issues.
Clayton Simms 37:30
When you do any sort of like sense. I'm not a doctor, but any sort of like fluid. That's weird up in there. Okay, that's definitely related to TBI. That's not related to PTSD. So in that instance, like for instance, if you are an IED blast, and you have TBI, from that, you're probably going to have PTSD too. And so in that case, you can have separate PTSD ratings and TBI ratings. But I would say those are the top three most commonly claimed tinnitus and you can throw your hearing loss in there too. Those are two different disabilities, tinnitus and hearing loss, but conditions of the ear, lower back pain and then mental health disabilities for sure.
Keith McKeever 38:14
What are the what would you say are some of the easiest for most people to claim?
Clayton Simms 38:20
That is a loaded question. So when it comes to easiest I'll approach it like this and then and then I'll give you Claessens as answer right. The easiest claim to submit a claim for is one that you have medical evidence for. Period doesn't matter what it is, as long as you have medical evidence from service. You have a current diagnosis you have service connection. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, submit the claim, right? But now that's the real answer. I'll give you clay Sims as answer. If I was to pick three of the easiest claims, I would say tinnitus, right because how do you diagnose for tinnitus? Right? I have ringing in my ears, okay. Checkmark diagnosis. I would also say migraines. You can't take an x ray or an MRI of your migraine. Okay. So if you do Yeah, if you do have migraines, there is a way to get evidence for migraines, like a buddy letter or lay statement would be a great example. And then frequent visits to to your doctor medication for migraine stuff like that is evidence. But you can't take an x ray. You can't take an x ray of tinnitus.
Keith McKeever 39:32
Yeah, his history would be important on that one. Yeah. medication and stuff. Yeah, yeah.
Clayton Simms 39:37
So tinnitus, memory loss. And then my third one. If I had if I really had to dig for a third easiest claim. I would say probably skin skin conditions like acne. Right? Acne really acne. Oh yeah. If you have acne. Now most acne can surface connect The conditions that I've seen just across hundreds of veterans that I come across, it's normally rated at 0%. Right? And the reason why is because you can take medicine, you can take Accutane, you can take creams, it heals them up, boom, your symptoms are gone.
Keith McKeever 40:14
I mean, plus, you know, I mean, every rating is dependent on how it affects you. Yeah, right. Like, I mean, acne, like, how does it really affect you might be kind of annoying on your skin, like health help hurt your self esteem, I guess. But like, no, no, it's not like it's incredibly painful. I guess I've been very fortunate, I guess I didn't have never really had a lot of acne. So you
Clayton Simms 40:34
brought up a great point that I'm gonna get to you right after this. But um, there are disabilities that have medication a part of it, right? Like sinusitis. If you take medication for sinusitis, obviously, you've been diagnosed, you have it, but just taking medication, I believe is 10%. Right? Towards acne, if you take medication, and 38 CFR, that is not a severity of symptoms, which is why it's commonly rated as 0%. Right? Unless you have like a very, a very extreme case of acne. And it talks about the portions of the body, how much does it cover? And that's really whenever you get waiting for acne, but you said something, you said, acne might hurt your self esteem, but that's about it, right? Which is a huge, huge implied question there. It's like, okay, if acne is rated at 0%, why would I go to the trouble of claiming acne? Right? Now, I'll tell you why. If you depressed, yeah, if you are depressed, or your acne causes you to not take your shirt off at the beach, you can't, let's say you have kids and they go to swim lessons. You can't you know, enjoy the swim lesson with your kid, whatever the case may be, okay, that you could link, it's definitely possible to link depression, secondary to acne. So now the 0% acne claim, maybe got you a 50% depression claim, right? So that's, that's when you would consider 0% service? Yeah,
Keith McKeever 42:06
I mean, so the same thing would work for somebody who has the somebody who's an amputee, birthmarks, scars, yeah. Anything along those lines where, you know, showing that off in public or something like that could cause
Clayton Simms 42:24
mental Absolutely, it doesn't have to be it doesn't have to be like a visual, like an amputee, or acne, that's something you can see, it could be lower back pain, you know, hey, my back, I can't play baseball with my son. Because my back hurts too much. No one can see that. But if you have medical evidence to support that, if you've created that medical trail, you talk to your health care doctor, you go for counseling for depression on your back, you always reference your back, you're creating this correlation between your back and depression. What you're missing is causation. And that's when it comes to a Nexus statement, right from a cmp. examiner or from a private doctor. But yeah, that's that's a solid, solid point. Awesome.
Keith McKeever 43:08
No, no, I asked you what the most common were and what the easiest sort of flip the script a little bit. Yeah, because obviously, some claims are easier, but some of them are have got to be extremely difficult
Clayton Simms 43:22
to already know my number one.
Keith McKeever 43:24
So what would be the top you know, two or three, that if somebody is going to try and claim them, they need to be aware that they are in for a battle, and it is going to be tough to get claimed
Clayton Simms 43:33
to have them off the top my head I know once the Batman. And sleep apnea is like a coin flip. Okay. And first, let's talk about direct to service. If you're an in service, if you're in the military right now watching this, go get a sleep study done. Whatever you have planned for next week, drop it, go get a sleep study. If you're out of service, and you don't have that sleep study, you don't have medical evidence in service. Nine times out of 10 you submit a sleep apnea claim, you'll be given a sleep study, there'll be you'll be going all through all the tests and you'll get diagnosed Hey, brother, you need you need a CPAP. Right. You have some serious sleeps, sleep apnea, but it's not service connected.
Keith McKeever 44:13
Okay. And if it is service connected CPAP is what 50%
Clayton Simms 44:17
percent. Okay. There are proposed changes that aren't perfect yet, so don't even worry about that. Okay. Yeah. All right. Yeah.
Keith McKeever 44:23
I just I just happen to know that. Oh, yeah. Okay, so. So without the study in service, exactly. It's gonna be easy for the VA to just be like, Yeah, well, we got we have no connection there. Absolutely. There's just nothing there. Oh, absolutely.
Clayton Simms 44:43
Which forces veterans to get an independent medical opinion and a private Nexus letter from a doctor right. And even then, because sleep apnea. Sleep apnea can be linked to PTSD. But there is no solid proof saying If you have PTSD 100% You have sleep apnea, right? There's no medical study. There's not enough evidence behind PTSD to actually it correlates with sleep apnea. It doesn't cause sleep apnea, right? Those are two different things. And so really, when you're looking at sleep apnea secondaries, you want to grab multiple conditions that contribute that all correlate, because if everything's pointing this way, it's at least got to be somewhere over
Keith McKeever 45:28
so PTSD can be connected to it, what else what else can be connected to, I would say, higher
Clayton Simms 45:33
hypertension, high blood pressure, tinnitus, or in there's also certain deployments like campaigns that are historically linked to sleep apnea, like going to Iraq and oaf or OEF and Afghan or Oh yr. And so if you have PTSD, you have OSPF or OSPF or Oh IR or all three of them. And you have hypertension, you have some itis now, what the doctors can do is grab multiple things that correlate none of them calls it. None of those calls. But if you have if everything's pointing that way, it's very hard for the VA to be like, yeah, now it's over here, you're like, okay, it makes no sense. Yeah, that's number one. That's that's probably the hardest secondary claim. And my second one that I think of off the top my head, I'm gonna say hypertension, it's very difficult to prove hypertension. And and something I see that's very common in veterans is they'll be like, Hey, I got a high blood pressure reading, I want to I want to submit a claim for for hypertension, and having a high blood pressure reading and having hypertension are two separate things,
Keith McKeever 46:50
right? I mean, you might you could just be all like worked up or something. But being at the doctor's office and
Clayton Simms 46:55
have some Starbucks the elevator wasn't working, I have three flights of stairs. And now I got a high blood pressure,
Keith McKeever 47:01
three shots and espresso and that Starbucks dark roast and
Clayton Simms 47:05
Yeah, exactly. And so if you look at the 38 CFR for hypertension, you will see that the 38 CFR demands three different blood pressures within the same day, over multiple periods of time, right? You have to you have to show, hey, I consistently have high blood pressure. And that's hypertension. Another factor of hypertension, is that can be medicated. Right. And so now now you're in the position of, well, if I have my CMP exam, do I not take my high blood pressure medicine, right? And high blood pressure is serious, right? We're talking like, this can kill you. Okay? And so by no means do you skip out on your medication to get a high blood pressure reading. And that's kind of where you'll see you'll see hypertension ratings at 0%. And really, when it comes to your health, you do not want that. Right? Take the medicine, don't deal with it. You don't want that. If you have it, by all means submit the claim. Right? But that is that is that's a bad one to have.
Unknown Speaker 48:12
And I thought you were gonna go the direction like, you know, with hypertension. When I think about things like hypertension, high cholesterol, in things like that. Sometimes I just think about like,
Keith McKeever 48:24
what we do in our society. And we're Americans, let's just face it, right? We have a McDonald's and a taco bell on every corner. Oh, yeah. We don't eat to clean this are the healthiest. Okay, we don't eat like some other cultures around the world and other countries, you know, eat lean meat and healthy food and lots of vegetables in our diet. It's all garbage and chemicals. And fast food like, Yeah, so like, so. I mean, there, I could imagine there can be part of that too, especially if you've been out for like 20 years and like, oh, well, I want hypertension. And it's like, well, you've been out for 20 years, and you've got no connection. And you know, you're 150 pounds overweight. Yeah.
Clayton Simms 49:08
Same for you, right. That time gap goes, do you gain your you're considered obese? And now the VAs like, well, is that from service? Or is it because you're fat? Right? Like you're you're there's no definitive answer. Same with hypertension. I will say this about hypertension, though, is it? Definitely hypertension is under the pack that for our Vietnam era veterans and the career veterans as well. So if you have direct contact with Agent Orange, there's some other chemicals listed IMPACT Act. But if you have dealt with that, and you have a diagnosis, it's instant service connection for that. So
Keith McKeever 49:47
I'm glad you mentioned PAC deck because that was the last thing I wanted to get to was some of the latest legislation. I was telling somebody the other day, they said something about you know the VA and processes and this is where we can actually well obviously the VA we can give some Um we can give some props to our elected officials over the last couple of years for getting I think getting some shit. Right. And like the Bluewater Navy act. Oh, yeah, finally getting those guys some recognition. Between that and the pact act, I think well we got about both those happened in the last year, year and a half, something like that. So what should people know about first of all the blue water Navy act? If they happen to be Vietnam veterans and and would fall in that category?
Clayton Simms 50:29
Yeah. So the best, the best thing to do when it comes to legislation for VA disability claims, is just Google blue water at disabilities. All right. And if you have a diagnosis, boom, you have service connection, that's it. All you need is the diagnosis. There's gonna be some parameters like in the pack that, and the if you meet, I think it's deployed to Afghanistan, or Iraq after 2001. You meet presumptive conditions, right. So all these diagnosis, you have the timeframe. That's it. I think a lot of people because when it comes to legislation, it is complicated. is confusing. But to make it as easy as possible, get a diagnosis. Look at your DD 214 Put those together, boom, you win the claim. It's that simple.
Keith McKeever 51:19
Yeah, I don't know. Like on the pack deck, if you weren't in Iraq or Afghanistan, you're in you have one of those. You're you're pretty much golden. What about like Kuwait? Saudi Arabia, UAE?
Clayton Simms 51:31
Kuwait? Yeah, so there is a list of countries, the pact acts broken down into three categories. Right. If you go to va.gov, you'll see the Gulf War era, which is everything from Desert Shield Desert Storm, like in Kuwait, early days Iraq, to ally are in Syria. Right. And so Kuwait on there, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, there's like five other countries, right. All those are on there is another category is the Vietnam era. Right? And you can click on that link, it'll talk to you about hypertension, to talk to you about Agent Orange and other chemicals that were used in Korea is kind of roped in that Vietnam era as well. And the third category of PAC that is the camp was June water. So if you were in competition during the specific timeframes, and you have a diagnosis that's on the pact, X, presumptive list, that's it. submit the claim, you win.
Keith McKeever 52:29
Yeah, so anybody who's listening or watching, If that's you, you definitely need to check that out. Because I looked at it just again the other day. And I want to say what is there for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, there's like 13 cancers or something like that. And almost another like 12 or 13 other diseases that are I think, mostly respiratory. Oh, yeah. Like burn pits, COPD, asthma. Like some guy probably gonna totally mispronounced the names, but like, cite and itis or whatever. A lot of lot of breeding stuff. I was I was, I was, I'm not a medical professional. I was like Googling them. And I'm like, Oh, that's weird. That sounds terrible. We can hear the weakening of the lining of the lungs, and then oh, yeah, stuff growing in your lungs. I'm like, That sounds terrible. That sounds worse. That sounds Oh,
Clayton Simms 53:20
I had if I had to guess which we'll find out next year. But if I had to guess which pack that claims will be claimed most, I would say asthma probably will be number one for the Gulf War era. I would say a hot hypertension would probably be number one for Vietnam. Right. And so to add on what you said, like if you went to Afghan Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, wherever. And you have asthma, 10 years, 10 years later, you have asthma. You get that diagnose, submit the claim. That's it. You win asthma, boom, checkmark done. And so that's what the PAC that does, it makes service connection easier. That's all it does. And it's it's very huge for Vietnam vets. Right there had been battling with Agent Orange and hypertension for what 50 plus years now is going to be very huge for asthma, rhinitis, sinusitis, stuff like that.
Keith McKeever 54:20
Yeah, I think what what's really big, especially with all the burn pits that we're operating to is the cancers. You know, because I knew some people that I served with it, you know, ended up with brain cancer. And
Unknown Speaker 54:35
there's been a high profile cases that have been brought to the forefront in the news of people who've come down with different cancers, because, you know, they felt like they weren't linked to the burn pits. It's like, it's a very real thing, obviously, if it made it into the pack deck. So do you have that protection for those kinds of things in there that like
Keith McKeever 54:53
it's in law? Yeah, it's you. It's in there like it's massive. Those Vietnam veterans. Hell The Bluewater Navy guys waited, like almost 55 years to get protections for Agent Orange. You know, I mean, for our generation to just just a few years to get some protections. I mean, that's that's a step in the right direction. That's why I say we, we it's weird to say this, but we should we should give a round of applause to our elected officials for doing something right.
Clayton Simms 55:22
On top. Yeah, no, you're right. You're right. I totally agree with that. On top of that, there's more VA employees, there's more VA raters. It's a I'm not saying the VA is golden unicorn. Okay. But, um, it's better than it was. Right. The air, you know, the sentiment is the Iraq Afghan vets up today, or the Vietnam vets of yesterday, right. And so when we're old and crusty, we're basically going to be the new Vietnam era vets. But instead of battling for disability, now we have the pact act. And so for instance, I'm 30 years old right now. I have no asthma. I have no respiratory issues that I know of at least. But 20 years down the road, I get asthma, guess what? It's service connected. Right. That's what the pact Act does. i It's not not a question. It's like, oh, you had asthma? Boom. service connection?
Keith McKeever 56:18
Yeah, that's definitely works great. I mean, because it's there already on like those Vietnam veterans who could not get any protections. And unfortunately, the guys and gals who got had issues and died from Yeah, and never got the care, the recognition, the reimbursement and, you know, disability that they should have gotten? Just because, you know, there never was anything for them.
Clayton Simms 56:48
Oh, yeah. That also reminds me that there's two sides of the pack that we talked about the disability side, there's a whole healthcare side of the pack that that offers health care to exactly that situation, right. If you're a veteran and you meet, pack that presumptive, you now have health care for free. You don't have to pay for it. And so it opens up a pack that has opened up health care to millions of veterans. Mainly our Vietnam veterans, right, that had a a sour taste, because how the sentiment of the military is today, it's a billion times better than how it was to the Vietnam era veterans, right. When when Vietnam veterans came home, they got spit on. Right? They definitely weren't. If you were to compare Iraq, Afghan veterans to Vietnam veterans, we got treated like kings, okay, compared to that Vietnam era. And so they may, Vietnam veterans may not have filed for any disability claims,
Keith McKeever 57:46
because they try once. I know some of them that never still have, yeah, five years later,
Clayton Simms 57:50
they tried once they got denied and was like, Well, fuck it, did you know this country, blah, blah, blah, I served blah, blah, blah, they don't care about us. Bla bla bla, right. It's the same story. Different person. And so luckily, and very fortunately, that's not something that, you know, OEF Oh, if no way our veterans and that shows that there's a storm veterans don't have to deal with, at least not to the scale of Vietnam era.
Keith McKeever 58:16
Yeah, well, we've proven that we can take care, we can do something, take care of events we have now and put something you know, set up something for those people who may unfortunately develop something over the next 510 1520 years.
Unknown Speaker 58:31
Because let's just face it, we will always need a military, young next generation that kids will come up, we'll end up serving, God forbid that they have to go serve in combat, but they'll have to serve, they'll get their bumps and bruises to whether or not they go into combat or not. But, you know, I mean, you could have not saw combat and still have problems with camouflage and water. Right? Absolutely.
Keith McKeever 58:54
Like, you know, no matter where you're at what you're exposed to those things can follow you for the rest of your life. So, you know, hopefully, we have learned that there are ways that you can do some things and set up things to take care of that generation, you know, before they get into their 70s and retirement age.
Clayton Simms 59:11
So, absolutely. I mean, a, it's very easy to go to the combat side of the house when talking about disability, right. But make no mistake, just because you didn't see combat does not mean you're not eligible, right? In a very extreme case of military sexual trauma is a pretty serious event. That's going to lead to some very serious, debilitating disabilities, right? And same thing with a car accident you got in a car accident when you're 19 years old, active duty. You broke your ankle. Guess what, when you're 40, bro, that angle is going to hurt a lot. Okay? And so, claim it. You're you're 22 you're 23 years old, you broke your ankle claim it, you might get 0% Right. But when you're 40 and 50 that 0% might turn into something else, right?
Keith McKeever 59:57
Yeah, I didn't even break my ankle. I twisted my arm Like, four times when I was in, went to doctor like twice and it was just in my records my initial claim I got 0% Still 0% Yeah, once or twice a year, I'll twist it and it'll be a little sore. Wrap it up, you know, it'd be better in a couple of days. But, you know, it's claimed. Absolutely. It's it never gets worse. You never know. God forbid it does. But you know, you never know when you slip in twist on some ice or something like that. Right. But you know, you're not you had a good point like to like, you know, you don't have to go to combat to experience some things that pack back to there's some legislation in there, too. I can't remember what years it was cold war era. There's an I'm sure there's very small group of guys that this qualifies for but nucular cleanup efforts. Absolutely. No. I mean, like, when I read that, I was like, I never even heard of these disasters. You know, and these guys were going in there cleaning up this radiation and all these things that happened and exposed to all this stuff. And it's like mad. I'm a history buff, and I didn't even know about that. Yeah, like and for them to get, you know, care, you know, 50 6070 years later, you know, better late than never, I guess.
Clayton Simms 1:01:03
Yeah, I guess. I mean, it really does. It really sucks for the Vietnam era vets. Right. And and the Cold War era. I mean, it really does suck, that the pack that got implemented in 2022. And then, you know, started submitting claims or adjudicating claims in 2023. That part sucks, but at least it's here, right?
Keith McKeever 1:01:23
So yeah, like I said, Better late than never. I mean, it's so well claimed, I appreciate you coming on here and sharing with us, there's a plethora of nuggets of information for people to check out. If if anybody wants to check out your, your YouTube channel, I've got a scrolling across the bottom, I'll have it in the show notes as well. So have no fear people. As you know, I always put it in the show notes. So if you're watching, listening, it's down there. I highly, highly encourage everybody go check it out. Any other way people can reach out to you or check out your content? I know you got to tick tock too.
Clayton Simms 1:01:55
Yeah, you can hit me up on tick tock, I have a Gmail time is pressed, everything I do is free, right? So if you send me an email at Dustin dave@gmail.com, I will help you one on one with your claim. And I answer those first come first serve. Right. So shoot me an email, I can at least give you advice. I'll help you. I'll help you find a VSO to submitting a claim by yourself would wherever you fall within that spectrum, I can help. Awesome. Well, I
Keith McKeever 1:02:24
appreciate it. I guess you know, like you said, if you if you need help finding a finding a VSO we've got some questions. Make sure you reach out definitely go check out his content, got a lot of good stuff on there about even some of the questions he breaks down even more who we talked about today. So thanks for coming on the show.
Clayton Simms 1:02:41
No later having me appreciate it.
Keith McKeever 1:02:45
There you go folks, hope you enjoyed. Remember, you can go to my website check out all kinds of information and resources at battle buddy podcasts that net and as I always say, if you have something on there, have something you think should be on there. That's not please reach out, let me know. And if you're struggling today, remember this national suicide hotline number is now 988 Press one
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