Episode 530 Adam Weissman Get the VA Disability Rating You Deserve Transcript
This transcript is from episode 530 with guest Adam Weissman.
Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] You are out of uniform now, but your injuries are still there. The knee locking up during your kid’s soccer game. Your back pain wakes you up more nights than it doesn’t. You’ve tried dealing with the va, but the bureaucracy is overwhelming and you feel stuck, frustrated, and maybe even a bit hopeless.
But what if you didn’t have to have it be that way? Today our guest, Dr. Adam Weissman, the founder of REE Medical, breaks down the confusing VA disability process and shows you how you could finally get the rating that you deserve without the stress. Before we begin though, I do want to take a moment to raise awareness for something.
Deeply important to our community, the Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation. You’ve heard me talk about it before. This organization is working to build a permanent national memorial in Washington DC to honor the service members, families, and civilians who are impacted by the global war on terrorism.
This Mor Memorial serves as both [00:01:00] a tribute to those who served and a way to ensure that their sacrifices are recognized and remembered for generations to come. If you want to learn more. Or find out how you can support the mission, visit GWOT memorial foundation.org. Now let’s dive into today’s conversation.
Scott DeLuzio: Dr. Adam Weissman, welcome to Drive On. Uh, really excited to have you here. Really looking forward to discussing the work that you guys do with, uh, REE Medical and you know, your, your work with veterans. Uh, really looking forward to this conversation. So welcome to the show.
Adam Weissman: Thanks Scott.
Scott DeLuzio: I really appreciate it
Adam Weissman: forward to it as
Scott DeLuzio: as well.
Yeah, absolutely. Before we get into the conversation and the episode and everything, I just wanna let the listeners know that I’ve, I’ve [00:02:00] personally worked with REE Medical and through your guys, uh, your, your team’s help was able to get my VA disability rating increase from, from what it was. And, uh, so when we do discuss benefits, I’m, I’m well aware of what those benefits are and just wanna make sure that the listeners know that I, I’m.
Familiar with it. It’s not, this is not just you coming on the show and doing a advertisement for REE Medical or anything like that. I, I’ve used the service. I am, I have seen the benefits from it and you know, highly do recommend it. But I, I wanna. Have you be able to answer some of the listeners’ questions you know, for things that, that they may not be aware of and, and stuff like that.
So, maybe just to start off, for the listeners who might not know about REE Medical, can you explain a little bit about REE Medical, kind of the background and, and what you guys do?
Adam Weissman: Sure.
Absolutely, yeah. Happy to do. So,
Really to
to start with, uh, my background is
an emergency room physician, re retired from
from clinical medicine. I.
a couple decades of emergency
Medicine,
which is
is
where
where this came from.
I, I [00:03:00] also have some experience
working with active duty
and
marine veterans. So
Um, and
then I got approach by veterans
to help them with their disability services. They were
fighting. So.
so to speak, with the va, trying to get the benefits that they felt they earned and deserved and were running into. Bureaucracy and roadblocks and so forth. So I started doing exams on them, uh, medical exams, filling out their disability paperwork,
Which
thing
led to another.
we have REE Medical. And
And so what we’ll do is
will intake
veterans
and we’ll, uh, collect their medical records with their assist
both VA
medical records and
or
provide them medical records,
compile
all that.
then coordinate it, an examination with a non-VA. But appropriate specialty, uh, physician, maybe psych, if they have PTSD or anxiety or other disabilities like that. Or medical for their
Back pain and
issues. So we’ll coordinate the exam with a physician local to
to them and,
any of the 50 states
internationally if
if they have [00:04:00] to
And
then prep the
for the physician. The physician will do a history and physical,
paperwork, all that together, uh, on completing issues
are those disability benefit questionnaires that are
are needed
the veteran will take them and submit them to the
today
And the VA
will make that.
as far as what’s an appropriate disability rating for them today.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, and from my experience, that was the thing that kind of set REE Medical apart from you know, some of the other options that might be out there, you know, going through like a VSO or you know, going, doing it on your own and working directly with the va, just on, on your own is that you guys had the physicians available who were able to understand.
What the whole process looked like and, and like. If I was to just make an appointment with a doctor, a random civilian doctor to just go get, you know, back pain or knee pain or, you know, whatever, evaluated, they’re not gonna know really what [00:05:00] the, the VA is looking for necessarily. They’re not familiar with the process, they’re not familiar with the forms and the terminology that the VA might be looking for yet.
The doctors that you guys have that you can set folks up with they’re familiar with the process. They, they know what it is that that needs to be put in there for an accurate rating. And, and I say that in that way because sometimes I, I feel like people think that, oh, well you’re, you’re just trying to scam the system and just try to jump straight to, you know, a hundred percent rating even if you’re not you know, a hundred percent.
Actually, you know, the issue is not a hundred percent. You know, with the. The doctors do is they understand you know, this is the, the guidelines or the, uh, you know, the, the rules and regulations that the VA has, and this is reality with this individual veteran, and let’s match it up and let’s put in the, the language that the VA needs to know to, to say, yeah, okay.
They’re rated at, you know, maybe 60%. Maybe that’s what, what they deserve or, or whatever the, the correct number [00:06:00] is, but based on reality. And that, that’s where those, those appointments come in, in, in handy. Yeah, that’s exactly right.
Adam Weissman: A lot
Scott DeLuzio: physicians,
Adam Weissman: uh, private
Scott DeLuzio: medical physicians example,
Adam Weissman: don’t like
Scott DeLuzio: like doing.
Adam Weissman: evaluations. If you have knee pain, they’re perfectly happy to diagnose and treat your knee
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Adam Weissman: but filling out disability paperwork. most physicians don’t like doing that. It can be a lot of paperwork, it can be time consuming.
They feel like there’s some liability they’re gonna inherit forever because they’re maybe giving you a disability rating that that’s gonna stick with you and so forth. Additionally, although the VA
Scott DeLuzio: Has a lot of doctors, they work,
Adam Weissman: with
Scott DeLuzio: they have capacity problems.
Adam Weissman: right? You
Scott DeLuzio: You know, they may not
Adam Weissman: not
Scott DeLuzio: like doing this.
Adam Weissman: exams, but they’re busy.
Scott DeLuzio: Like many
Adam Weissman: are busy.
Scott DeLuzio: physicians actually
Adam Weissman: very
Scott DeLuzio: careful in selecting doctors, right.
Adam Weissman: Making sure they have
Scott DeLuzio: The appropriate skills so that they can,
Adam Weissman: these evaluations,
Scott DeLuzio: making sure that,
Adam Weissman: the time and availability so that when somebody’s ready for their exam
Scott DeLuzio: uh, generally they’re getting into
Adam Weissman: see those
Scott DeLuzio: doctors. One doctors,
Adam Weissman: weeks. Our doctors.[00:07:00]
Scott DeLuzio: yeah.
Adam Weissman: and not waiting
Scott DeLuzio: Once
Adam Weissman: months for
Scott DeLuzio: that
Adam Weissman: see the right doctor, maybe see the wrong doctor.
Scott DeLuzio: we’re very careful
Adam Weissman: in
Scott DeLuzio: selecting that.
Adam Weissman: and making
Scott DeLuzio: Sure. Also,
Adam Weissman: that
Scott DeLuzio: they know the
Adam Weissman: wording. You know what’s interesting is the VA rater, the employee that works for the VA that’s making these determinations, they’re not physicians themselves, they are trained in looking for key words on these disability forms so that they can ascribe.
An appropriate disability rating, 40% for this verbiage, 20% for that verbiage, whatever it might happen to be.
Scott DeLuzio: And, uh, and so if
Adam Weissman: veteran sees a doctor that
Scott DeLuzio: that doesn’t know the
Adam Weissman: correct
Scott DeLuzio: wording
Adam Weissman: to
Scott DeLuzio: accurately describe it,
Adam Weissman: that
Scott DeLuzio: veteran is very likely outcome
Adam Weissman: a poor outcome,
Scott DeLuzio: mm-hmm.
Adam Weissman: doesn’t
Scott DeLuzio: match their
Adam Weissman: of disability.
Scott DeLuzio: right. And sometimes I, I’ve heard this from other folks too, who have gone through the process. As a matter of fact, this is my. This is my situation too, so it’s not, not just other people that I’ve heard from this.
I can speak from experience that you know, I’ve, I’ve gone through the process and, uh, did [00:08:00] it on my own before I knew about REE Medical. And I was like, you know what? I, I’ll figure this out. I’ll, I’ll, I’ll just, I’m, I’m a pretty smart guy. I, I can manage these, these types of things. But again, I like the, the language that was put in there was not the right language.
And so that. Cost me a, a lower rating and, uh, you know, didn’t get the, the rating that I should have had. And so, for the longest time I just thought that, oh, well that’s just what I’m supposed to have. Right. And then you know, I started, uh, you know, I met your team, uh, you know, a, uh, a few months ago and, uh, you know, got, got in into kind of some of the details and they’re like, yeah, you probably could.
Stand to have a someone take another look at this and, and, uh, we might be able to get you an increase on that, that rating. And so that’s exactly what happened. And, and that’s exactly, uh, you know, what they did. And so, you know, a lot of times their veterans will be out there and just accept the fact that, oh, okay, I, I only got 20% for this.
It must only be a 20% rating. Well, it could just be that whatever it [00:09:00] is that you put in the in your, in your paperwork and in your filing, it’s just not a hundred percent accurate either.
Adam Weissman: Yeah, and think of the opportunity call. If
Scott DeLuzio: you technically
Adam Weissman: rank
Scott DeLuzio: add
Adam Weissman: 60%,
Scott DeLuzio: 60%, you’re
Adam Weissman: at some lower rating, you could be losing out on hundreds or sometimes thousands of dollars a month
Scott DeLuzio: month’s actually here. Yeah. And so there’s a huge
Adam Weissman: opportunity
Scott DeLuzio: cost there. And
Adam Weissman: like
Scott DeLuzio: to.
Adam Weissman: sometimes people understand that,
Scott DeLuzio: That it just didn’t work out.
Adam Weissman: Sometimes
Scott DeLuzio: people get frustrated to throw in the towel and stop fighting the fight. And then there’s some,
Adam Weissman: some
Scott DeLuzio: people who just
Adam Weissman: recognize the
Scott DeLuzio: the fact that they actually deserve
Adam Weissman: rating than they have
Scott DeLuzio: it. Mm-hmm. Granted, it’s not to say that
Adam Weissman: nobody’s had an accurate rating
Scott DeLuzio: there are plenty of people that are
but, but of course there
Adam Weissman: there
Scott DeLuzio: are.
Adam Weissman: a huge number of people who are underrated, which is a problem.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, exactly. And, and to your point. That could cost someone thousands of dollars a year potentially depending on, you know, what their, their rating is. And so, when, when you’re. [00:10:00] When you’re, in some cases relying on, on that, that could make a, a huge difference in you know, the, the amount of, uh, money coming in for you.
So, so, you know, the, to me, the, this, those are the types of veterans that, that will benefit the most from working with REE Medical. Either the folks who are underrated and not getting the, the benefits that they, they deserve or the folks who. Perhaps haven’t even filed at all because the, the whole process is just cumbersome and who wants to deal with that?
Right. And so, going through a, a company like re, REE Medical, what you guys do is in, in my experience, you have taken the stress completely off the veteran. Uh, just a little bit about my, my experience. Your team actually went so far as to have. Screenshots of the, the VA’s website and saying, click here you know, submit here.
Do you know it was with like, things circled on the screenshots. And so like, I didn’t even really have to think about where do I even need to go. If, if they just said, [00:11:00] submit this to the va, I might not know where to go, but they showed exactly where to go step by step along the whole way. And so it’s that level of detail and care that they, they took that, that made it just.
So, stress free and, and painless really. And, and in a short amount of time, the the rating came back as, as an increase. And it, you know, I, I, I felt like it was just such a, you know, a great opportunity
Adam Weissman: Yeah, there are
Scott DeLuzio: are a lot of people who
Adam Weissman: are not very tech
Scott DeLuzio: mm-hmm
Adam Weissman: are an older. Veteran or even a younger veteran, and there’s
Scott DeLuzio: Also plenty of
Adam Weissman: who just. Aren’t successful in navigating
Scott DeLuzio: that
Adam Weissman: system.
Scott DeLuzio: I’ll say this.
Adam Weissman: the huge majority of
Scott DeLuzio: Veterans that come to
Adam Weissman: do so after they’ve
Scott DeLuzio: tried to do another
Adam Weissman: with the VA, or for that
Scott DeLuzio: for matter, utilize service, organization,
Adam Weissman: and for
Scott DeLuzio: whatever reason,
Adam Weissman: wasn’t successful,
Scott DeLuzio: sometimes they
Adam Weissman: even use an accredited attorney, a VA accredited attorney.
And didn’t have success and end up with us. We were happy to
Scott DeLuzio: take on
Adam Weissman: who haven’t tried [00:12:00] any
Scott DeLuzio: of those avenue.
Adam Weissman: But
Scott DeLuzio: said that.
Adam Weissman: the majority of them have tried
Scott DeLuzio: Unsu,
Adam Weissman: have been unsuccessful for various reasons.
Scott DeLuzio: maybe they went through the process and
Adam Weissman: five years, or maybe they. Were
Scott DeLuzio: unsuccessful or
Adam Weissman: had a nominal increase, and they don’t feel
Scott DeLuzio: like that matches their
Adam Weissman: level of disability.
Scott DeLuzio: disability, but for whatever reason it.
Adam Weissman: wasn’t successful. And that’s, that’s why we have this business. That’s why we wanna support people, because it shouldn’t be hard, right? These are, these are people who earn these benefits, who deserve these benefits, and a lot of times their whole
Scott DeLuzio: Lifestyle is.
Adam Weissman: on these benefits. Disabled veterans may have difficulty working.
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Adam Weissman: may have difficulty driving to work
staying
Scott DeLuzio: common work,
Adam Weissman: physically being
Scott DeLuzio: able to do whatever job they have,
Adam Weissman: so forth. So
Scott DeLuzio: so getting the right benefit level and right amount of support.
Adam Weissman: that they need is critical. I.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, for sure. And you know, to your point, a lot of veterans you know, what you were saying before may not be super tech savvy and may [00:13:00] not know the, not even just tech savvy, just the, the procedures that the VA has, there’s, there’s certain steps that you have to follow. And, and if you’re not well versed in that, because you know who sits there and studies this stuff, right? Like, it, it’s not something that your typical person’s going to do. There, you’re just not gonna know that.
And then now, okay, not only are you a person like you, you mentioned, who might have difficulty working or you know, uh. Anxiety or, or other issues that you’re, you’re dealing with that are affecting your, your work or your personal life or, or whatever. Now all of a sudden you have to go study how to file for disability ratings in order to get that and, and that.
It doesn’t seem like where your time is best spent. Right. And, and so, you know, I know it’s, it’s a struggle for a lot of veterans when they’re, they’re going through this and it, it’s, I mean, don’t even get me started on, on the VA rating math and, and how all that works. Right. And, uh, you know, I, I understand it.
I understand why, why it works the way it works, but [00:14:00] it, it, it makes a lot of people just scratch their head. Like, I, this, you know. 50 plus 50 does not equal a hundred. And, and that just doesn’t make sense to some people, right? And so, you know, so there’s, there’s that side of the struggle, but there’s also the struggle of folks who maybe didn’t always have the documentation from when they were in the service.
You know, if they, they got. Injury, but they, they just kind of brushed it off and they didn’t really think it was a big deal. But then a few years later it becomes a big deal. How big of a problem is that lack of documentation when it comes to VA claims like this? That’s great question. So
Adam Weissman: it really varies, but
Scott DeLuzio: many people in
Adam Weissman: documentation is a huge
Scott DeLuzio: problem, you know, interestingly, I.
Adam Weissman: was a civilian
Scott DeLuzio: Contractor
Adam Weissman: naval hospital, at a
Scott DeLuzio: a Marine
Adam Weissman: for
Scott DeLuzio: seven years.
Adam Weissman: And I
Scott DeLuzio: I used to see the
Adam Weissman: the time with active
Scott DeLuzio: duty Marine where they would get,
Adam Weissman: and they were basically told, you’re a Marine,
Scott DeLuzio: suck it up.
Adam Weissman: take some ibuprofen, you’re gonna be fine.
Scott DeLuzio: And so those
Adam Weissman: who
Scott DeLuzio: snake [00:15:00] were
veterans, a
Adam Weissman: you’ve heard that, that’s a
Scott DeLuzio: very, very common.
Adam Weissman: to hear.
Scott DeLuzio: And so he does a couple of things. One is. To keep
Adam Weissman: to keep
Scott DeLuzio: people
Adam Weissman: Working
Scott DeLuzio: right, despite an injury. Mm-hmm. But it also creates a lack of documentation.
Adam Weissman: And
Scott DeLuzio: one of the things that I know as a physician, but also
Adam Weissman: working
Scott DeLuzio: at medical is
Adam Weissman: don’t get
Scott DeLuzio: better over,
Adam Weissman: They generally get worse over time, and so you
Scott DeLuzio: I may have rolled your ankle
Adam Weissman: 20 years ago
Scott DeLuzio: or crashed
Adam Weissman: or
Scott DeLuzio: on para,
Adam Weissman: and
Scott DeLuzio: had multiple hard landing
Adam Weissman: or you name it, any host of
Scott DeLuzio: problems
Adam Weissman: And
Scott DeLuzio: those kids
Adam Weissman: over time. They
Scott DeLuzio: aren’t bad and they.
Hmm.
Adam Weissman: worse. And
Scott DeLuzio: And if
Adam Weissman: have the
Scott DeLuzio: documentation, you may not get a
Adam Weissman: a service connection in the
Scott DeLuzio: in first place.
Adam Weissman: meaning the VA may not consider it. Their
Scott DeLuzio: Right? And they may not
Adam Weissman: responsibility for it. Or if you do get service connection, you’re
Scott DeLuzio: be lucky enough to
Adam Weissman: to establish
Scott DeLuzio: that with some documentation getting the full
Adam Weissman: that you deserve is
Scott DeLuzio: rate right? Secondarily
Adam Weissman: the VA
Scott DeLuzio: doesn’t give automatic [00:16:00] increase.
Adam Weissman: because time went by. You
Scott DeLuzio: You know,
Adam Weissman: you’re
Scott DeLuzio: 40% today.
Adam Weissman: and 10
Scott DeLuzio: Years go by. They don’t say, oh, now you must be
Adam Weissman: or
Scott DeLuzio: 50%.
Adam Weissman: just give that to
Scott DeLuzio: Let’s just doesn’t.
Adam Weissman: not a thing. You have to go prove that. You have to go and see a VA doctor or a private medical doctor,
Scott DeLuzio: Get the
Adam Weissman: evidence, get your examination, and
Scott DeLuzio: permit correct.
Adam Weissman: qs with,
Scott DeLuzio: Dq.
Adam Weissman: your point, the right verbiage to show that.
Scott DeLuzio: So then they can say, oh, okay, well
Adam Weissman: did get worse, and now you meet this higher level, so we’re gonna bump your disability rating up. So
Scott DeLuzio: documentation is critical. Yeah. Yeah. So for the, the folks who are listening who are still in the military, if you had any sorts of bumps and bruises or anything like that, that that took place, doesn’t matter how insignificant you might think it is, go get it documented. And if you’re in any sort of leadership position, uh, in, in a capacity encourage your, your, your folks who are under you to go and do the same thing because you know, that’s, that’s just going to.
[00:17:00] Screw them down down the road, you know, as, as they, they get older, like you said, things don’t get better with time necessarily. Like they, they typ typically get worse and, and so you wanna look out for those folks? Yeah, sure. Maybe they’re gonna be out for, you know, a half hour or an hour from training or, or whatever.
Let ’em go do that and, and let ’em take care of that stuff because that, that’ll have a huge, uh, impact on them down the road. I think one of the, one of the things that gets in the way
Adam Weissman: is people are
Scott DeLuzio: I’m about looking
Adam Weissman: like they’re whiny or they’re
Scott DeLuzio: mm-hmm. Cleaners.
Adam Weissman: and the
Scott DeLuzio: other thing is people worried about
Adam Weissman: Injuries or
Scott DeLuzio: problems that get
Adam Weissman: getting in their way of promotions.
Scott DeLuzio: Sure.
Adam Weissman: that’s a huge factor for some people.
Scott DeLuzio: So I think it’s,
Adam Weissman: that they
Scott DeLuzio: balance that,
Adam Weissman: with
Scott DeLuzio: first of all, first
Adam Weissman: first and foremost, getting the
Scott DeLuzio: and medical care
Adam Weissman: they need acutely and
Scott DeLuzio: secondarily,
Adam Weissman: a documentation, a paper trail
Scott DeLuzio: so that they,
Adam Weissman: get the disability benefits. Later
Scott DeLuzio: mm-hmm.
Adam Weissman: in the military for a finite period of time. But this is gonna affect them for the rest of their lives.
Scott DeLuzio: Right. Yeah, exactly. And um. I, I [00:18:00] think to, to your point that even when things are documented sometimes veterans that feel like their current disability rating may not reflect how bad things have gotten over time. Because again, those things don’t necessarily get better as you age. I mean, as, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve, I’ve noticed that things aren’t quite working the same that they used to when I was 20.
You know? So, um, you know, so, so things definitely you know. Get worse over time. You know, how, how common is it for someone’s conditions to worsen after they leave the service? You know, they may have been in the service, maybe didn’t really have an issue, but then you know, years later, I.
Their back starts acting up, or their knees or, or something starts acting up on them which they can directly attribute to, like you said, if they’re, if they were doing some parachuting or something and there’s several hard landings, they’re like, you know what, that’s exactly where it hurt before. And that’s, that’s the type of thing, you know, how common is that type of, of, uh, situation?
Adam Weissman: Extremely
Scott DeLuzio: common when
Adam Weissman: what [00:19:00] happens is when
Scott DeLuzio: you’re.
Adam Weissman: to the military and you’re 18, you’re 20. You’re young, you’re basically elastic, you know, so to speak. And you’ll, you’ll get injuries and
Scott DeLuzio: typically bounce back from them
Adam Weissman: quickly. But there is a cumulative effect. You know, think
Scott DeLuzio: about it. Let’s say you get an injury, you
Adam Weissman: and you
Scott DeLuzio: recover 99. Mm-hmm. Injury 95, the next one is 90.
Adam Weissman: You, you
Scott DeLuzio: You have these small
Adam Weissman: cumulative
Scott DeLuzio: backs that
Adam Weissman: their toll over time. And maybe when
Scott DeLuzio: your 25
Adam Weissman: really feel it too much, but when you’re 55, you just might. So it’s an
Scott DeLuzio: extremely problem. Mm-hmm. And again, get, document
Adam Weissman: right? Get the
Scott DeLuzio: the care that you.
Adam Weissman: need acutely and then get it documented so that way you can be,
Scott DeLuzio: Document, uh, treated
Adam Weissman: appropriately later on with the right
Scott DeLuzio: a disability. Yeah. And another thing for the folks who are still in the military not only get it documented, but get a copy of that and keep it yourself. Um, I, I have a whole folder of all my documentation from any medical appointments that I had in the military, and I wasn’t great at keeping [00:20:00] these things, but the things that I managed to scrounge up, I, i, I kept in a folder.
And, uh, even since then, I’ve scanned them and I, I have ’em saved on my computer. So even if, God forbid there’s a, you know, a fire or something like that, that the papers burn up, I, I still have the documentation somewhere. So, um, you know, get it, get it documented. Have it. Have it available so that way you know, you, you have that to, to kind of fall back on and, and keep those copies.
’cause you never know. Sometimes they, they grow legs and they walk away.
Adam Weissman: It happens. It happens.
Scott DeLuzio: may not be able to find it again. So, no, I, you know, there are people who will go to a private doctor. And, and they’ll get, get that kind of, uh, documentation as far as, you know, yeah, my knee was messed up or my back was messed up.
As far as VA goes, the, the private doctors are, are just as good as the VA doctors as far as their diagnosis of whatever the condition is, right? Yeah, absolutely. Not only private mental doctors.
Adam Weissman: Fully capable of taking care of [00:21:00] patients and documenting things Congress made it an act.
Scott DeLuzio: They passed
Adam Weissman: act many years ago that said
Scott DeLuzio: that when
Adam Weissman: when the VA is looking at.
Scott DeLuzio: at
Adam Weissman: Kind of adjudicating these
Scott DeLuzio: cases
Adam Weissman: making a determination for somebody’s disability
Scott DeLuzio: level, they must consider
Adam Weissman: private
Scott DeLuzio: medical evidence,
Adam Weissman: meaning
Scott DeLuzio: documentation,
Adam Weissman: private
Scott DeLuzio: doctors. Mm-hmm. Equal.
Adam Weissman: to VA medical evidence. So whether they
Scott DeLuzio: they go see
Adam Weissman: doctor or a
Scott DeLuzio: a private medical, it must be consider
Adam Weissman: So, for
Scott DeLuzio: example.
Adam Weissman: you see a VA doctor
Scott DeLuzio: While you’re
Adam Weissman: Or a military
Scott DeLuzio: doctor, while you’re active duty,
Adam Weissman: a VA
Scott DeLuzio: a doctor afterwards,
Adam Weissman: you see
Scott DeLuzio: couple private mental doctors issues.
Adam Weissman: Six, one, half a dozen of the other. It’s all accepted the exact same way by a mandate from Congress
Scott DeLuzio: That, and that’s, that’s great too because, you know, sometimes those things happen. Where, where you do get out and you know, you’d end up going to a doctor and, and, and you might be able to tie that back to military service, but you want to be able to, uh, say, you know, Hey, this is. This is [00:22:00] the diagnosis and, and you get that from your your civilian doctor and that that’s a you know, just as valid as whatever the, the VA or the military was able to provide for you.
You know, and so for someone who thinks that they might need to. Have their rating reviewed. Maybe they, they currently have a rating that they think is too low for what it is that they are, are going through. Or maybe they don’t have a rating at all. ’cause they, they’re just so confused by the whole process and they didn’t even know where to start.
What does the process actually look like once, when they contact REE Medical? How do they get the ball rolling and, and what does that process look like? Yeah.
Adam Weissman: Our team is actually highly trained to do an evaluation to see if we, we wanna make sure that our services are not gonna be a waste of the person’s time.
Scott DeLuzio: So we’ll start off by asking
Adam Weissman: a handful of
Scott DeLuzio: question
Adam Weissman: if
Scott DeLuzio: if somebody can pull up their,
Adam Weissman: eBenefits, their electronic benefits, that’ll show, okay, they have these. 1, 2, 3, 4 things that are service connected disabilities and here’s their current rating for it. That’s very [00:23:00] helpful.
Scott DeLuzio: um, and then we’ll ask
Adam Weissman: key
Scott DeLuzio: key
Adam Weissman: to
Scott DeLuzio: help understand
Adam Weissman: what the
Scott DeLuzio: the,
Adam Weissman: may consider them a candidate for. So for
Scott DeLuzio: for example. Um,
Adam Weissman: you know, maybe
Scott DeLuzio: your back pain is
Adam Weissman: at 10%. Uh, the potential is
Scott DeLuzio: maybe
Adam Weissman: and
Scott DeLuzio: and there are key things that
Adam Weissman: is gonna need to understand to say.
Scott DeLuzio: you’re appropriate for a 10% or
Adam Weissman: or 40%
Scott DeLuzio: more rating, and we’ll ask those question. Mm-hmm.
Adam Weissman: Um, we
Scott DeLuzio: we of course cannot guarantee.
Adam Weissman: of, you know, for the va, that the VA will make your determination. But we know
Scott DeLuzio: Know what they look,
Adam Weissman: We’re specifically trained to understand what they look for.
We’ll
Scott DeLuzio: ask those questions.
Adam Weissman: and then
Scott DeLuzio: we’ll go back to the veterans about
Adam Weissman: Disability or
Scott DeLuzio: multiple
Adam Weissman: and say, look,
Scott DeLuzio: disabilities. The va
Adam Weissman: and based on what you’re
Scott DeLuzio: you’re saying,
Adam Weissman: and
Scott DeLuzio: and of course this all need to be authenticated
Adam Weissman: by a
Scott DeLuzio: because
Adam Weissman: exam, and the VA will have to make their determination, but what you’re saying
Scott DeLuzio: it matches up with the VA
Adam Weissman: disability rating
Scott DeLuzio: level of X, whatever that
Adam Weissman: is.
Now,
Scott DeLuzio: maybe you’re at 30% today.
Adam Weissman: X is
Scott DeLuzio: 90%.[00:24:00]
Adam Weissman: So
Scott DeLuzio: There you go. So
Adam Weissman: you know
Scott DeLuzio: know that it looks like it’s worthwhile chase.
Adam Weissman: so
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm. It’s worthwhile to have an examine
Adam Weissman: pool of
Scott DeLuzio: medical records
Adam Weissman: and
Scott DeLuzio: get new
Adam Weissman: paperwork to submit to the va.
Scott DeLuzio: disabilities. Again, we don’t guarantee
Adam Weissman: ‘ cause we can’t, right.
We’re not the
Scott DeLuzio: Sure. Va.
Adam Weissman: ourselves.
Scott DeLuzio: But I would say we’re excellent.
Adam Weissman: at, at giving estimates.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
And. And that was a, a thing that I, I found very useful as well was the, the kind of prescreening questions that you were talking about to kinda get a feel for, you know, is this even worth going down this road and doing all the, the physician appointments and, and the paperwork and all the, the things that need to go into this, is it even worth it?
Because if. You know, the likelihood was I’m already rated where I should be then not worth going into it anymore because there’s nothing to increase at, at, at that point. So, you know, so you can just kind of end it there and that, that’s, that’s great.
Adam Weissman: a
Scott DeLuzio: Disability by disability basis. Sure. [00:25:00] So if you have four.
Adam Weissman: it may be the case that the VA may consider you appropriately rated for three of them, but not for the fourth one or whatever your case may happen to be. And that fourth one may be a benefit to get reevaluated, uh, because it can potentially increase the rating for that, that specific disability and your overall rating.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You know, one, one thing I, I appreciated when I went through this, this process with you guys, uh, was just how. Streamlined everything was the the paperwork, the, the medical side of things, getting, getting the appointment with the doctor. I think you said, you know, most cases you can get a, an appointment with a, a physician, uh, within a week or two.
And that, that was my case too. Um, it was, it was somewhere within a week or two. I forget exactly what the, the time period was, but it, it was around that, that time period. So, you know, a lot of times you go. Get set up with your doctor. It’s like they may not have an appointment available for a couple months, and now, now you’re just waiting.
And, and like that’s, that’s kind of a pain. So, you know, [00:26:00] you, I was able to get in real quick. The appointment was quick and painless and you know, just really reviewing everything and making sure that, um, you know, everything was accurate and, and, and whatnot. And, and so everything was just.
Streamlined and, and, and that, that’s just the best way I, I can describe it. And so can you explain how, how you guys handle you know, the evaluations and the paperwork and all that stuff? So just to make it less overwhelming for the, the veteran? Yeah.
Adam Weissman: we have various teams of people that handle each component of this, and they’re all specifically trained in it.
Scott DeLuzio: Intake.
Adam Weissman: like I said, will do that initial evaluation to make sure that we’re not wasting your time and that’s gonna be a benefit for you. And
Scott DeLuzio: Then, uh, once someone
Adam Weissman: an individual
Scott DeLuzio: does sign up with us, um, we actually assign them a navigator.
Adam Weissman: And what
Scott DeLuzio: That person does
Adam Weissman: a single point of contact. Um, so you can
Scott DeLuzio: sticker
Medical record.
Adam Weissman: or any paperwork you need to
Scott DeLuzio: Do
Adam Weissman: directly
Scott DeLuzio: to us
Adam Weissman: our computer system, or to your navigator.
Scott DeLuzio: to, and that navigator,
Adam Weissman: make sure that
Scott DeLuzio: we have all the paperwork that we need, both the [00:27:00] agreements between us and veteran as well as collect all
Adam Weissman: paperwork, the medical
Scott DeLuzio: records.
Adam Weissman: so forth.
Scott DeLuzio: Um, and then, uh, then we’ll, we have a team.
Adam Weissman: people that will process the paperwork and get it all.
Scott DeLuzio: Sort it out because
Adam Weissman: people will
Scott DeLuzio: submit
Adam Weissman: hundreds
Scott DeLuzio: for a thousand plus pages of medical records. Mm-hmm. We’ll take them
Adam Weissman: electronically.
Scott DeLuzio: We don’t have we try not to
Adam Weissman: paper,
Scott DeLuzio: paper
but we’ll take them in electronically. We have medical records department that will.
Adam Weissman: sort through all of that. And we get
Scott DeLuzio: Everything teed up ready
Adam Weissman: the examination.
Scott DeLuzio: for. Once we do
Adam Weissman: that the paperwork is all ready to go,
Scott DeLuzio: paperwork, we have a medical
Adam Weissman: that
Scott DeLuzio: will identify the
Adam Weissman: or physicians that are closest to that
Scott DeLuzio: veteran and
Adam Weissman: and
Scott DeLuzio: basically
Adam Weissman: make a
Scott DeLuzio: match between the veteran and
Adam Weissman: the
Scott DeLuzio: medical.
Adam Weissman: psych, or both physicians. So that way the appointment can be scheduled and then the
Scott DeLuzio: Veteran will go
Adam Weissman: that one or two, those one or two appointments. And then, you know, the, the
Scott DeLuzio: to.[00:28:00]
Adam Weissman: will complete the paperwork. And then we have another team that does a final review. We wanna make sure that the paperwork was filled out completely, pages or lines weren’t missed.
It has your
Scott DeLuzio: Name,
Adam Weissman: not somebody else’s name. All the HIPAA is correct and so forth. So we,
Scott DeLuzio: check all of those.
Adam Weissman: things before we return the these db Qs
Scott DeLuzio: Veteran,
Adam Weissman: electronically for the
Scott DeLuzio: Veteran,
Adam Weissman: submit to the va.
Scott DeLuzio: yeah. And, and that, that was, you know, my experience as well was that, you know, there was that, that one point of contact that, that was able to, that kind of. Gonna be the traffic cop for, for all the, the paperwork and make sure everything was going to the right place and make, make sure everyone was staying up to date and, uh, the whole.
Process, uh, or the progress of the process, uh, was, was being maintained. So it didn’t seem like, uh, anything was falling through the cracks or being forgotten about. Um, there’s regular updates that I, I was getting, I, I, I would get you know, emails or text messages or whatever from, from people on the team just to just say, Hey, just checking in.
Just make sure everything’s good to [00:29:00] go. Uh, you know, on your end if, if they’re waiting for something from me, uh, you know, you have any questions, you know, they, they, they were there. And being proactive, uh, uh, throughout the whole thing. So I, I, I thought that was, that was just great. Now be beyond, we’re talking a lot about the, you know, the percentage increase, and that’s obviously tied to a, uh, you know, monthly payment that the veteran gets, which obviously that’s.
A benefit. That’s something that is, is a good thing, you know? Who, who doesn’t want more money? Right? I don’t think any, I I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who said I’m, I’m, uh, overpaid or, uh, you know, I’m getting too much money. Like, no, no, no. Um, you know, so, so getting that increase is, is obviously a, a good benefit there.
Um, but what are some of the additional benefits that, that come with a higher VA disability rating that maybe some veterans might not be aware of?
Adam Weissman: There can
Scott DeLuzio: could be a lot of them actually.
Adam Weissman: example,
Scott DeLuzio: And it does vary based on geography. Sure. Certain areas, Texas doesn’t
Adam Weissman: if you have a certain disability rating, you don’t
Scott DeLuzio: have to.
Adam Weissman: uh, property tax. And that’s a huge savings right there. Uh, the [00:30:00] GI bill can kick in. Uh, obviously as a veteran you can get healthcare, free healthcare through the va.
There’s a lot of
Scott DeLuzio: Things
that
Adam Weissman: be a candidate for over and
Scott DeLuzio: you.
Adam Weissman: money. But, and we can, we can certainly give more specific answers, but I, I, I will. Say that it does vary a little bit state to state. Different areas have different benefits, so I
Scott DeLuzio: I think’s important for us to understand where
Adam Weissman: a veteran
Scott DeLuzio: lives
help answer that question. Yeah, but I, I think some of the, the things that you mentioned are good things to be aware of because even things like the VA medical care is, is something that, uh, you know, if you have a certain percentage rating.
You are now eligible to be able to receive your, you know, even just your regular annual checkups or, you know, other you know, exams, routine exams for, uh, different conditions that you might have, uh, could all be done through the va. And you know, if, if that’s where you choose to go. Obviously, if you have.
Private insurance and you prefer to go someplace else, you can always do that too. But it [00:31:00] opens up options for you. So
Adam Weissman: Absolutely.
Scott DeLuzio: you know, God forbid you got laid off from your job and you, you lost that you know, that insurance through your employer or, or whatever the case may be. You still have access to that.
You still have that availability. So,
Adam Weissman: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: don’t want to just dismiss that like, oh, well I don’t need it right now. It doesn’t mean that you won’t need it somewhere down the line. Right. So, yeah, I don’t.
Adam Weissman: minimize the, uh, the monthly disability check either. I mean,
Scott DeLuzio: Obviously that’s a big thing.
Adam Weissman: We deal with a
Scott DeLuzio: A lot of veterans who are homeless.
Adam Weissman: homeless. We
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm. Veterans who
Adam Weissman: who
Scott DeLuzio: are almost homeless.
Adam Weissman: and that that
Scott DeLuzio: Extra bit of money to
Adam Weissman: make. Keeps
Scott DeLuzio: them.
Adam Weissman: Housed. It makes a big difference.
Scott DeLuzio: We also deal with a lot of those that have
Adam Weissman: who have
Scott DeLuzio: depression,
Adam Weissman: suicidality.
I
Scott DeLuzio: I, that’s problem that,
Adam Weissman: world,
Scott DeLuzio: and I would actually argue that,
Adam Weissman: if you,
Scott DeLuzio: uh, our active duty,
Adam Weissman: come
Scott DeLuzio: back home,
Adam Weissman: having
Scott DeLuzio: seen
Adam Weissman: done
Scott DeLuzio: what you’ve
Adam Weissman: maybe with PTSD,
Scott DeLuzio: done, possibly anxiety, depression,
Adam Weissman: stress,
Scott DeLuzio: whatever it might happen,
Adam Weissman: And
Scott DeLuzio: then you can fight.
Adam Weissman: for your, for your family because the
Scott DeLuzio: The job you.
Adam Weissman: you’re [00:32:00] getting fired or it’s inadequate pay, or you can only work limited hours because of your disability. A lot of times getting the correct disability rating and therefore the cor, you know, an appropriate amount of a disability check each month. That can make a huge difference in their lives. Their emotional wellbeing sometimes save their lives because they won’t, uh, necessarily take their own life.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, no, that, that’s certainly true. You know, and, and if you could take that financial burden or, or reduce that financial burden that someone might have, and you know, especially when you’re talking about someone who’s, who’s trying to f get back into the, into civilian world and try to figure out how to navigate this, this world that, this crazy world that we, we live in you know, we.
We sometimes forget about the, the fact that, you know, money everyone needs it and, uh, not, not everyone has enough of it. And, and sometimes that, that could mean they’re, they’re gonna lose their home. That might cause, uh, strain in relationships you know, their, their [00:33:00] marriage or kids or, or whatever the case may be.
And, and that. That could just lead down, spiral down a, a hole that you don’t want to go down. So, so having that, that little bit extra money could be the difference between, you know, losing all those things I just mentioned. Losing your home, losing a relationship, all those things or, or not. And that, that could be a, a huge benefit.
You know, and. So I, I know we, we were talking about this, uh, a little bit earlier, but with the, the intake process and the kind of the prescreening, uh, that that goes on but you know, not everyone will qualify for an increase. They, they may be appropriately re appropriately rated or. If they don’t have a rating and they don’t have any documentation of anything, they may not qualify for a, a rating.
And so, you know, when they go through that intake process and you, you guys kind of determine that they’re probably not a good candidate for a higher rating. That’s, that’s sort of like the, the end of it, or is there They’re kind of more to the, the process with that. Um, [00:34:00] so it doesn’t.
Adam Weissman: to be the end, first of all, just because somebody, just because we’re estimating that the VA won’t give them an increase, again, we
Scott DeLuzio: can’t get Sure.
Adam Weissman: is always a
Scott DeLuzio: A
Adam Weissman: wiggle room that maybe they will. So if
Scott DeLuzio: somebody is
Adam Weissman: if
Scott DeLuzio: somebody’s already hundred
Adam Weissman: disabled, I.
Scott DeLuzio: percent
Adam Weissman: the
Scott DeLuzio: deal with. Right? Sure. They can get,
Adam Weissman: and t, which is permanent in total, so it
Scott DeLuzio: we can’t get taken
Adam Weissman: away from
Scott DeLuzio: them if we had people approach us
Adam Weissman: who
Scott DeLuzio: who are hundred percent but wanna get
Adam Weissman: hundred
Scott DeLuzio: percent p&t.
Adam Weissman: t.
Scott DeLuzio: So, you
Adam Weissman: you
Scott DeLuzio: know, they can, they can try.
Adam Weissman: We
Scott DeLuzio: can’t guarantee that.
Adam Weissman: will give that to them of course.
But they can
Scott DeLuzio: Sure. Um, other people may be.
Adam Weissman: a hundred percent. And, and from what we’re
Scott DeLuzio: we’re seeing based on what they’re telling us from the va,
Adam Weissman: criteria,
Scott DeLuzio: they
Adam Weissman: seem like they would
Scott DeLuzio: likely,
Adam Weissman: be given an increase by the va. If they
Scott DeLuzio: if wanna try, they can.
Mm-hmm.
Adam Weissman: I’m not
Scott DeLuzio: expecting success at that point.
Adam Weissman: in time.
Um, and it’s a lot, you know, it’s, it’s a, it’s an exam or two, it’s some paperwork, it’s some time. So they may not feel that it’s worthwhile.
Scott DeLuzio: Generally
Adam Weissman: we don’t see
Scott DeLuzio: evidence
Adam Weissman: of
Scott DeLuzio: the va,
Adam Weissman: to, or them meeting [00:35:00] criteria for a higher disability rating, most of the people will stop there.
However.
Scott DeLuzio: sometimes the
Adam Weissman: them in
Scott DeLuzio: direction.
Adam Weissman: additional resources, not so much to increase their disability reading, but maybe they didn’t know. They can have free homeowners, or excuse me, um, property tax, you know, or
Scott DeLuzio: Whatever,
Adam Weissman: whatever it might happen to be. So sometimes
Scott DeLuzio: point them in a
Adam Weissman: of additional resources
Scott DeLuzio: like that.
Adam Weissman: But
Scott DeLuzio: as far as this processes
Adam Weissman: generally most people will
Scott DeLuzio: can stop,
Adam Weissman: if, if
Scott DeLuzio: it doesn’t seem like there’s
Adam Weissman: for an increase.
Scott DeLuzio: But to your point, uh, if, if someone does qualify, for example, for, uh, you know, free property tax, that isn’t necessarily income coming to them, but. It’s an expense that they don’t have to pay now.
And so that, that helps financially as well. So, uh, you know, having you guys point them in the right direction for that, uh, is, is just another benefit. And I think that that’s, that’s awesome. Now what I, I do wanna mention is that there are some companies out there who are. [00:36:00] They have a different model from what you guys have, and they go in and they’ll, they’ll do some of the similar things that you guys do, but then they go and take a cut of the veterans’ back pay when they help process through some of these claims.
Your guys’ model is totally different from that. And talk to us a little bit about that and how you guys, you know, kind of approach this model and, and, uh, you know, how, how you’re not. Predatory in that, that regard in, in terms of, you know, going and, and latching onto a veteran’s back pay or any of that kind of stuff?
Yeah, great question. And I think we’re different
Adam Weissman: the vast
Scott DeLuzio: majority,
Adam Weissman: companies out there,
Scott DeLuzio: uh, point of reference.
Like I said, I’m
Adam Weissman: an
Scott DeLuzio: doctor and medical
Adam Weissman: director of a few emergency rooms, so I come from a compliance background. And so when,
Scott DeLuzio: and I started doing this.
Adam Weissman: one of the first things I did is look to the VA and Congress to say, what’s compliant behavior? If I’m gonna do this, what’s
Scott DeLuzio: compliance because I don’t want it to backfire on veteran and whoever
Adam Weissman: I want it to backfire on me or
Scott DeLuzio: company.
Adam Weissman: and my staff. And. It turns
Scott DeLuzio: out [00:37:00] that there are
Adam Weissman: other
Scott DeLuzio: business models out there
Adam Weissman: are,
Scott DeLuzio: that are,
Adam Weissman: compliant. And,
Scott DeLuzio: and I’ll say because I had lobby
Adam Weissman: of my
Scott DeLuzio: company, I do
Adam Weissman: work
Scott DeLuzio: with Washington
Adam Weissman: Washington DC and state
Scott DeLuzio: Legislators, attorney General.
Adam Weissman: and so forth.
There
Scott DeLuzio: are a lot models out there and there are a lot of people.
Adam Weissman: to defend the various models and both
Scott DeLuzio: Federally
Adam Weissman: various states are
Scott DeLuzio: and has legislate
Adam Weissman: To
Scott DeLuzio: fine.
Adam Weissman: what’s
Scott DeLuzio: appropriate and what’s legal? Mm-hmm. We’ll say that it
Adam Weissman: the
Scott DeLuzio: narratives changed
Adam Weissman: little bit where for
Scott DeLuzio: for a
Adam Weissman: while, um, the
Scott DeLuzio: the government was basic,
Adam Weissman: saying, let’s
Scott DeLuzio: get rid of the private sectors,
Adam Weissman: and I’ll explain the details, but there are companies out there
Scott DeLuzio: take advantage of veterans,
Adam Weissman: Let’s
Scott DeLuzio: get rid of the entire sector, get rid of them.
Adam Weissman: ’em. And
Scott DeLuzio: then now they’re starting to realize, wait a minute, the VA is not all.
Adam Weissman: things for
Scott DeLuzio: Veterans
Adam Weissman: There’s a
Scott DeLuzio: lot shortcomings
Adam Weissman: despite
Scott DeLuzio: their well intended efforts. Mm-hmm.
Adam Weissman: and
Scott DeLuzio: even with benefit and support
Adam Weissman: of veteran service organizations or even accredited
Scott DeLuzio: attorney,
Adam Weissman: these
Scott DeLuzio: veterans are still not getting all.
Adam Weissman: that they deserve.
So yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Now we [00:38:00] realize
Adam Weissman: the
Scott DeLuzio: private sector
Adam Weissman: exist. So how
Scott DeLuzio: do.
Adam Weissman: have them behave? The VA actually cannot handle the caseload that they’re working on. When veterans try and get this increase, and they do work with a handful of
Scott DeLuzio: private sector,
Adam Weissman: and
Scott DeLuzio: give them
Adam Weissman: cases to do
Scott DeLuzio: hands.
Adam Weissman: on, basically,
Scott DeLuzio: Sure.
Adam Weissman: do a fee for service model.
You
Scott DeLuzio: Set up a
Adam Weissman: exam for this person and we will pay
Scott DeLuzio: positioning
Adam Weissman: number of dollars. for service
Scott DeLuzio: medical company
Adam Weissman: is
Scott DeLuzio: set up.
Adam Weissman: a fee for service company. It’s the world I grew up in, in medicine, and it is, uh, the
Scott DeLuzio: The most compliant one.
Adam Weissman: out there.
Scott DeLuzio: What’s nice about it
Adam Weissman: is
Scott DeLuzio: know what you’re buying. I mean, imagine going to the store and buying an item and they say,
Adam Weissman: take
Scott DeLuzio: the item.
Adam Weissman: We’re
Scott DeLuzio: not gonna tell you what the charge is. You go home and use it,
Adam Weissman: it,
Scott DeLuzio: and then we’ll tell you the charge after the fact. Right? And by the way, the more you like it, the more you use it, the more we’re gonna charge people.
Adam Weissman: though
Scott DeLuzio: The item doesn’t change.
Adam Weissman: Personally,
Scott DeLuzio: I don’t like that model. I, I, I think it’s unfair to the veteran.
Adam Weissman: you
Scott DeLuzio: know, you should [00:39:00] know how.
Adam Weissman: you’re paying for
Scott DeLuzio: What you’re getting.
Adam Weissman: right.
Scott DeLuzio: Exactly. And so work fixed fee,
Adam Weissman: for service. I will
Scott DeLuzio: I’ll say there is one variable. If you see
Adam Weissman: a medical
Scott DeLuzio: a doctor or just
Adam Weissman: psych
Scott DeLuzio: doctor
Adam Weissman: it’s a fee. If you
Scott DeLuzio: happen to have to see both
Adam Weissman: of
Scott DeLuzio: of them.
Adam Weissman: there’s an
Scott DeLuzio: extra fee for
Adam Weissman: because we’re paying two
Scott DeLuzio: that doctor.
Sure.
Adam Weissman: you know, I’ll tell you from
Scott DeLuzio: Experience doctors are not.
Adam Weissman: cheap. So, you know, there’s that.
Scott DeLuzio: Having said that work fee for service, not
Adam Weissman: not
Scott DeLuzio: and.
Adam Weissman: what contingent means. Okay, contingent sounds great on the surface until you break it down. So here’s what contingent means.
Scott DeLuzio: So you’re a veteran gonna go through this process,
Adam Weissman: I’ll
Scott DeLuzio: I’ll charge you nothing upfront.
Adam Weissman: When
Scott DeLuzio: You are done.
Adam Weissman: whatever
Scott DeLuzio: increase.
Adam Weissman: VA gives you,
Scott DeLuzio: If they don’t give you an
Adam Weissman: I will not give you a bill.
Scott DeLuzio: increase,
Adam Weissman: No
Scott DeLuzio: harm mm-hmm to full time, didn’t cost any money,
Adam Weissman: If they do
Scott DeLuzio: give you an increase,
Adam Weissman: then I’ll
Scott DeLuzio: I’ll give you a bill. But the bigger of an increase the
Adam Weissman: the bill and there’s two
Scott DeLuzio: model,
Adam Weissman: most common
Scott DeLuzio: the most common model is
Adam Weissman: I’m gonna
Scott DeLuzio: charge you.
Ever
Adam Weissman: whatever monthly
Scott DeLuzio: ink,
Adam Weissman: they give you. I’m gonna charge you
Scott DeLuzio: five times that
Adam Weissman: If your
Scott DeLuzio: bill
Adam Weissman: or excuse [00:40:00] me, if
Scott DeLuzio: check goes up by a thousand dollars a month. Your bill’s 5,000
Adam Weissman: If it goes up
Scott DeLuzio: by 2000 a month,
Adam Weissman: gonna charge you 2000 or
Scott DeLuzio: whatever the case, may
Adam Weissman: be for you. Okay? The
Scott DeLuzio: other model
Adam Weissman: is a
Scott DeLuzio: a percentage of your backpack.
Adam Weissman: Okay, so
Scott DeLuzio: let’s say you get, you can get up.
Adam Weissman: a year’s worth of
Scott DeLuzio: Back pay. Back pay is not
Adam Weissman: but you, you can get up
Scott DeLuzio: for the years back pay.
Adam Weissman: So
Scott DeLuzio: it
Adam Weissman: don’t
Scott DeLuzio: can an increase
Adam Weissman: we don’t bill you. If you do get an increase, we
Scott DeLuzio: yet let’s say 5% of that back pay.
Adam Weissman: pay
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Adam Weissman: challenge.
Scott DeLuzio: with that.
Adam Weissman: those
Scott DeLuzio: sounds nice
Adam Weissman: because
Scott DeLuzio: there’s no risk if you don’t
Adam Weissman: an increase.
Scott DeLuzio: get challenges
Adam Weissman: it
Scott DeLuzio: ends up being very expensive.
Adam Weissman: If, uh,
Scott DeLuzio: if
Adam Weissman: if you get a big increase, you
Scott DeLuzio: you get a big might pay
Adam Weissman: 8,
Scott DeLuzio: and 12, $15 for the survey. Yeah.
And.
Adam Weissman: for the
Scott DeLuzio: Back pay, well hold on a minute
Adam Weissman: So the
Scott DeLuzio: faster. A company processes
Adam Weissman: your case,
Scott DeLuzio: the fewer months of back pay, the smaller the bill.
Adam Weissman: So
Scott DeLuzio: in a way it incentivizes us kind of
Adam Weissman: to slow
Scott DeLuzio: down the process,
Adam Weissman: spread
Scott DeLuzio: it out to 12 months, maximize
Adam Weissman: their,
Scott DeLuzio: their fee.
Adam Weissman: [00:41:00] right.
Scott DeLuzio: Which
Adam Weissman: Which
Scott DeLuzio: I think is a
Adam Weissman: right? I
Scott DeLuzio: i
Adam Weissman: it’s a
Scott DeLuzio: a
Adam Weissman: for
Scott DeLuzio: the,
Adam Weissman: veteran,
Scott DeLuzio: the veteran
Adam Weissman: the veteran
Scott DeLuzio: doesn’t gain
Adam Weissman: positive
Scott DeLuzio: outta that, so.
Adam Weissman: us, we are fee for service. We are not
Scott DeLuzio: Contingent.
Adam Weissman: So whatever your increase is, you keep it.
Scott DeLuzio: But having said that, it allows us to also be,
Adam Weissman: cheaper.
Scott DeLuzio: we’re about 25 to 50, that the cost
Adam Weissman: most companies out there are, are,
Scott DeLuzio: I should,
Adam Weissman: are charged to the veteran.
Scott DeLuzio: so it allows us to be much less expensive.
Adam Weissman: to the veterans,
And fixed pricing.
So
Scott DeLuzio: You know,
Adam Weissman: you’re
Scott DeLuzio: what came from. Yeah. And I, I think that model, uh, in, in my opinion anyways, and, and, you know, everyone is welcome to have their own opinion, but that model makes the most sense to me.
Uh, like you said, uh, I, I don’t walk into the grocery store and just grab something off the shelf having no idea what the cost is, and. Then get, get charged for it based on how much I enjoyed it, you know, after the fact. You know, I don’t, I don’t buy that the ice cream and have a, you know, nice big bowl of [00:42:00] ice cream and really enjoy it.
And then I get a $500 bill for the ice cream, right? Like, that would be ridiculous. You know, I go into the store, I see what it is. If, if it’s a price that I’m comfortable with paying, then great. I’ll pay it and I’ll, I’ll take it home and I’ll enjoy it and my family gets to enjoy it and, and everything like that.
If not. Then I just don’t buy it and Yeah, no. You know, important thing to realize is one of the reasons
Adam Weissman: why
Scott DeLuzio: veteran service organizations, Congress
Adam Weissman: And
Scott DeLuzio: other people
Adam Weissman: had a,
Scott DeLuzio: had
Adam Weissman: emotional
Scott DeLuzio: a
Adam Weissman: with the
Scott DeLuzio: balance with the private sector company
Adam Weissman: billing
Scott DeLuzio: veterans at all, is because they don’t.
Adam Weissman: you
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Adam Weissman: go to the VA and pay them nothing.
Scott DeLuzio: Right. The challenge is, I would say, you get what you paid for sure.
Right? So if you go to the VA and they don’t charge you, by the way, they’re.
Adam Weissman: they’re reimbursed by the taxpayer and veteran service organizations
Scott DeLuzio: Are reimbursed
Adam Weissman: just not
Scott DeLuzio: by the veteran, they get private donations.
Adam Weissman: So
Scott DeLuzio: it’s not like money doesn’t flow through these.
It’s just a,
Adam Weissman: issue, right?
Scott DeLuzio: so they say, well, how dare the private sector bill veterans
Adam Weissman: [00:43:00] when
Scott DeLuzio: if they go to a veteran service or
Adam Weissman: or the VA
Scott DeLuzio: VA directly?
Adam Weissman: free?
Scott DeLuzio: Well, here’s a problem with that.
Adam Weissman: They’re
Scott DeLuzio: not wrong with what they’re saying as far as it being free veteran to go to the OR
Adam Weissman: o or
Scott DeLuzio: to the.
Adam Weissman: But if it
Scott DeLuzio: Five years to get the increase
Adam Weissman: or
Scott DeLuzio: you’d never get the fully,
Adam Weissman: that you deserve, think
Scott DeLuzio: but if you’re supposed to get a, uh, an extra thousand dollars a month for five years and you didn’t get it
Adam Weissman: you’ve
Scott DeLuzio: lost out on
Adam Weissman: huge amount of money,
Scott DeLuzio: a few thousand dollars, right?
Adam Weissman: Okay,
Scott DeLuzio: Would you rather go to a private sector company like Free Medical, pay them a few bucks, and then collect
Adam Weissman: almost
Scott DeLuzio: all of that $60,000 or fight the fight with the VA right now?
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t.
Adam Weissman: be misunderstood.
Scott DeLuzio: I am not saying don’t try it with the VA or a VS o
Adam Weissman: or for
Scott DeLuzio: for that matter of,
Adam Weissman: attorney. The majority of
Scott DeLuzio: of people that to REE Medical
Adam Weissman: have
Scott DeLuzio: tried it
Adam Weissman: but for
Scott DeLuzio: for whatever reason,
Adam Weissman: was
Scott DeLuzio: unsuccessful.
Adam Weissman: for them.
Scott DeLuzio: Sure. If you wanna come to us first,
Adam Weissman: foremost,
Scott DeLuzio: right off the bat,
Adam Weissman: we’re
Scott DeLuzio: [00:44:00] dear,
Adam Weissman: we’re
Scott DeLuzio: we’re happy to do it.
Adam Weissman: But
Scott DeLuzio: most people do try it through and.
Adam Weissman: these pr, these free choices and have not been successful, and then come to us.
Scott DeLuzio: Right. And to your point, time is money, literally in this case where,
Adam Weissman: Oh
Scott DeLuzio: uh, the, the more time you wait, the less money you collect. And you know, like, like you said, if it, if it’s a process that took you five years with a potential a thousand dollars increase per month, that that is $60,000, uh, loss that you, you have, you, you at the end of that five years, you, you would’ve had.
60,000 more dollars that you wouldn’t have had otherwise. And, and so, yeah, to me it just makes sense to pay up front, get it done, get it over with. I don’t look, the, the, the VA medical process is not. An enjoyable process for anybody. I don’t care who you are. You know, unless you like to torture yourself, you know, somehow, like it’s just not an enjoyable process.
I don’t want it dragging out for five years. I don’t want it dragging out for, you know, any length of time longer than it needs to. And [00:45:00] so, you know, if you can. Do this upfront and, and just get it done, get it over with. That, to me anyways, just seems like the way to go. And, and that’s honestly, that, that was one of the big things that, that drew me to REE Medical and, and how you guys work because, uh, you know, I, I just really really wanted to get the process moving and get it over with and, and not be worried about.
This appointment or that appointment or this paperwork or whatever and, you know, did I remember to submit it? Did I do stuff in time? Did I, you know, whatever it was that, uh, needed to happen. I just wanna be done and over with and, and check the box and move on. And and here we are and, and within, you know, just a couple months, you know, obviously part of that wait time is.
Waiting on the VA for a decision, but within a a couple months, I, I had a decision and, uh, you know, it was good to go. And now I don’t have to think about it anymore. It’s, it’s done, it’s over and, and it can move on and you know, live life. So, so it’s, it’s just great how, how you guys work. And I, I, [00:46:00] I, uh, do encourage folks who are listening.
To this who either don’t have a rating and think they, they deserve one or, or don’t have the rating that they that they deserve. They think there, there should be an increase. Definitely reach out to REE Medical. There, there will be a link in the show notes for REE Medical. So, so you can check ’em out and, um, you know, just find out more information.
You know, do, do your due d diligence and do your research. Make sure that you’re, you’re. You know, going through the, the right company for you. Um, but I, if it’s, if you’re asking me, I would highly recommend re, REE Medical for, for everything that you guys have done and, and how you guys work. So, definitely awesome organization.
Adam Weissman: Thank you, Scott. Appreciate that.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely. But you know, before, before we wrap up any last kind of closing words or anything that you want to leave the audience with, uh, you know, either about the process, about REE Medical or, or anything like that? Yeah.
Adam Weissman: Yeah, actually, um, one
Scott DeLuzio: Comment is
Adam Weissman: heard a
Scott DeLuzio: a number of times for people, you know what, I’m not that bad off.
Sure. Let somebody [00:47:00] else get benefits. I don’t, I don’t need them. It’s okay.
Adam Weissman: And
Scott DeLuzio: I’ll tell you
Adam Weissman: An
Scott DeLuzio: individual, getting benefits does not take away from any other individual. Right, right. If you could
Adam Weissman: you should
Scott DeLuzio: have it, you’re not taking else,
Adam Weissman: from anybody else.
Scott DeLuzio: not doing it. Benefits.
Adam Weissman: It just hurts you. So, it, it’s definitely
Scott DeLuzio: Try and I, I argue that we
Adam Weissman: it so easy for veterans,
Scott DeLuzio: may give us a call for free.
We,
Adam Weissman: do
Scott DeLuzio: that initial evaluation
Adam Weissman: and
Scott DeLuzio: let you know if it seems like they would.
Adam Weissman: consider you a candidate for an increase.
Scott DeLuzio: Um, so there’s, there’s no harm,
Adam Weissman: there’s
Scott DeLuzio: no obligation. Talk to us, we’re happy a conversation. Um, and if you wanna use us, we’re here
Adam Weissman: you
Scott DeLuzio: tonight that it’s not worth it for you
Adam Weissman: or
Scott DeLuzio: the va doesn’t VA
Adam Weissman: you know, maybe get. Excuse me. Maybe the VA
Scott DeLuzio: wouldn’t give you,
Adam Weissman: increase,
Scott DeLuzio: that’s fine. Mm-hmm. But we’re happy to have.
Adam Weissman: conversation with as many veterans for free as possible.
Scott DeLuzio: That’s awesome. And, and that’s a great point that you, you mentioned there too, that it, you’re not taking away from somebody else who might be, you know, quote unquote worse off than, than you. [00:48:00] You’re, you’re, all you’re really doing is you’re you’re, you’re taking care of yourself and, and allowing the country.
Really, we, we made that promise to all of our service members when they signed up. It’s like, we’re gonna take care of you if the, if you get. If your service messes you up, we’re gonna take care of you, uh, you know, afterwards. And we’re allowing the country to make good on that promise. So, that’s, that’s really, I think, the benefit that, that we’re, we’re looking for
Adam Weissman: care of
Scott DeLuzio: yourself, but also,
Adam Weissman: care of your family. That money goes a long way.
Scott DeLuzio: and
Adam Weissman: I
Scott DeLuzio: I would also say.
Adam Weissman: that if. You’re a family member of a veteran encourage ’em to call, help ’em call, jump on the phone with them, if that’s, if that’s gonna be supportive to them. We’re happy to do that.
Scott DeLuzio: Absolutely. That, that’s a, that’s a great great point there too. So, well thank you so much for joining us today and, and sharing how, you know, REE Medical is, is making a real difference for veterans who are, are seeking the benefits that they deserve. And, uh, going through this process is not an easy one, but it’s, it’s great when you have someone on your side who’s, who’s gone through the process and.
Knows all the, the things that are gonna [00:49:00] get you tripped up and, and can help navigate that process for you. So that, that’s definitely you know, an awesome organization. Thank you for doing what you do and doing it the way that you do it because I, I think that’s, that’s definitely a, an important distinction, uh, is, is how you guys work.
Well thank I appreciate that. Thanks for having me on.
Adam Weissman: with you. Really appreciate the time.
Scott DeLuzio: You bet. Thanks.