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medical discharge

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question11796

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? South Carolina is where I am stationed and I am in the air force with 1 year of active duty service with an excellent record but approximatley 3 months ago I started having sever stomach pain and they have been running tests to diagnose the problem which has not turned up any answers yet. the medical clinic on base sent me to the navy hospital which tried to figure it out and had no luck so they sent me to a civilian specialist and he has me now. I have been sent home sick approximatley 25 or 30 times in three months and have been to the er as well. they ahve found somethings but not anything to cause hwat i am having. have been put on profile and my supervisor continues to send me to sick call just so that everything is documented as far as how many times i have been sent home sick etc. He thinks that they will put me in for an meb which I dont want but if i am sick enough not to work then there is no reason for them to keep me either. D you think they will give me a medical discharge or if they d will i be able to keep my gi bill and what type of benefits am i eligible for? How long does a meb process normally take and what do you think the outcome will be. I know you dont know for sure but I would like to see what someone else thinks as far as what they will do. If I do go for an meb is there anything you recommend for me to do in preperation for it and if they are unable to diagnose or fix the problem can I request them to put me up for an meb? thanks alot i appreciate it
 


CeLaw

Junior Member
question11796,
First, I don’t see the military giving you a medical discharge for unknown stomach pain. The military is not going to give you anything just because you can’t work, spend most days sick in quarters (SIQ) or spend most of you career on limited duty. In fact, I can see you possibly getting charged with malingering. But, the most likely route the military will take is to simply discharge charge you. They may give you an admin separation, with a good chance that it will be an honorable. If they do send you to an MEB, it will take about six month & you will most likely get 0%. This will give you a medical discharge and you will be eligible for severance pay. For you, that would be two months base pay. Once medically discharged, the military has no further obligation. However, the VA may pick this problem up & give you 10% to 20%. If you can get 20%, you become eligible for vocational rehab. If you qualify for this, you WILL loose your GI Bill. Ah, but the Voc Rehab is way better! This is 100% tuition & books free ride to college, plus $600 to $800 a month just to go to school. This money is tax free like all VA benefits. This amount is in addition to any other money received from the VA.
One small catch to VA disability pay & severance pay is that you won’t receive VA pay until the amount of VA pay withheld is equal to the lump sum that you received in severance pay. In reality, severance pay is only an upfront loan to what the VA gives you. It may take a short while for you to receive VA disability pay. But for someone that is an E-6 with 10 or more years, it will take several years to receive VA pay because they can get 30 to 50 thousand dollars in severance pay. Severance pay is 2x base pay x numbers of years active duty.
The best advice I have to offer is to be very careful. The fact that you have been sent home so many times, seen a number of doctors and no doctor has ever found any thing wrong reeks of malingering. NOT trying to imply you are, but from a distance, that is what it looks like. So, if confronted with malingering, I strongly suggest that you ask for an early separation with you honorable discharge. Then take your case to the VA & try your luck there. It would be best to attempt the MEB process simply to gain additional documentation of your medical problem, but that could also hurt your case too. It doesn’t look good to go to multiple doctors and multiple doctors can’t find a single problem. Even in this case, the VA may find a physical problem induced by mental causes.
To find out what the VA & the military will give you for any disease or injury, you have to look at the VASRAD codes. Both the VA & military are bound by these codes. It is very important to know these codes. This is what both the VA & the military look at when they assign a number. Contrary to popular believe, they don’t assign a number based upon how bad you are or the number of days you were on light duty or sick in quarters. However, if you meet the requirements of a high disability rating, and you continued to run, do PT, lift weights, Etc., the members reviewing your case will & can reduce your rating.
My advice is to hope for 20% only with the VA to make you eligible for Voc Rehab, but don’t try to push beyond that. I would not put too much faith in the military in giving you anything. But do be careful & get your Honorable, & try to get as much documentation as possible.

Good Luck, CeLaw

PS> I have been thru ALL steps in the MEB process

Also, try this link: http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1228/MR1228.ch3.pdf

And do a search on VASRAD codes! You need this info!
 
they usually wont discharge you untill they find out what exactly is wrong. then they wont dischage you if it is a condition that can be fixed. one of my friend while in was in Active duty, tore his knee up really bad, he had to have multiply surgerys, and they kept him passt his ETS untill his knee was better.
 

question11796

Junior Member
Founds somethings

They sent me to the civilian specialist and did a colonoscopy and found inflammation and was treating me as a chrons disease patient he also found several ulcers. He took biopsies which came back negative for chrons disease. They have told me I have esophagitis, duodenitis, gastritis, terminal colitis, IBS, ulcers. What does this mean for my career? I dont really know what to do I am lost in the confusion really. Any more new suggestions? Thanks
 

TLWE

Member
CeLaw said:
question11796,

One small catch to VA disability pay & severance pay is that you won’t receive VA pay until the amount of VA pay withheld is equal to the lump sum that you received in severance pay.
Is this a new thing? When did they change it? My husband was given an 80% VA rating and received 30% of his VA pay each month during the severance pay off.
 

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