J Basser: 0:09

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another edition of the Exposed Vet Production Show. This is the Exposed Vet Show. Today is the 13th day of February, tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so all you veterans out there make sure you get your wife or your girlfriend some flowers. If not, you might be in trouble. Coming to co-host today the one and only Mr Ray Cobb Ray's out of Winchester, tennessee. He has a show on WZOX radio on Tuesday mornings and he discusses a lot of veterans' issues and helps a lot of veterans. How are you doing, ray?

Ray Cobb: 0:45

I'm doing great. How are you doing this cold wintry weather we're having?

J Basser: 0:51

I'm about beat to death man. This is too cold for me. I've had it. I'm just about fed up with it.

Ray Cobb: 0:55

When the cold weather and doctor's appointments.

J Basser: 0:56

I don't know if I'm going to make it or not. Yeah, but we're going to discuss some crazy stuff today. I call it crazy and everybody else will understand what's crazy when we get into discussing. But there's an issue that really brought to my attention that the legislature in Tennessee, the great state of Tennessee I just love Tennessee they have introduced a bill in their House of Representatives that allows these claim sharks to start processing and doing veterans' claims at a cost. Is that correct, ray?

Ray Cobb: 1:33

Yeah, it's House Bill 342, and that's exactly what it does. It's actually giving the right of veterans the choice of being able to sign on with one of these claim sharks to do or to anyone. Now we're calling them claim sharks, but the way this is written, anybody can do this. You can do it, I can do it. Joe Blow down the street who doesn't know his head from holding the ground. There's no written thing in here that says this individual has to in any way be a veteran or doesn't have to take any educational classes or anything. It just says he, he wants to help a veteran, then he can. He can do this, and I kind of wrote up some things that I didn't like about it and sent it to my American Legion representative and I sent it to my house, my state representative, and talked with her about it.

Ray Cobb: 2:43

It's not good, guys. I mean there's no other way to say it. What it does, it gives a person, an individual like myself, who is a veteran, to apply for benefits and it allows anyone to participate in preparing those benefits. Participate in preparing those benefits. And it states in here that if he does this, if you sign on with it, it has to be a written agreement signed by both parties. And then here comes a cletcher. They can receive up to five months back pay if the veteran wins his claim. If the veteran appeals on his own and goes somewhere else and he wins his claim, they still get 5% of his back pay. I mean five months, excuse me, five months, so that's five months of back pay.

J Basser: 3:42

Now this five months of how much he'd get every month. Yeah, five months of whatever he gets every month.

Ray Cobb: 3:49

So if he gets $4,000 a month, they get $20,000.

J Basser: 3:52

That's $20,000. Do they touch his back? Pay too His retro check.

Ray Cobb: 3:59

That all has to come out of his back pay. That is what he pays the attorney with. Whether he pays them, it's up to him. It's up to the veteran to pay the guy who helps him. The VA is not going to collect the money and give it to the guy. The veteran has to do it.

Ray Cobb: 4:17

This guy also states in here what this is. It's actually a consultant permission for a guy to hire a consultant to consult on the matters of his veterans benefits, disabilities, and he can assist in whatever way needed to get those benefits. In other words, what it's saying is you go to a guy, you tell him what you think your disability is. He figures out what you need to win your claim. He fills out the claim or he fills out an intent to file whichever and he gets the paperwork, helps you get the paperwork together, gives it to you. Then you go to the county service office or the regional veterans affairs office or you go online. However you choose to do it and submit it Right. So this guy is not submitting it to the VA. He's not responsible for the VA and he never talks to the VA responsible for the VA and he never talks to the VA.

J Basser: 5:30

So what do you think? Personally, I don't see how they get the information like that. To do it, They've got to be able to check the status and things like that, because they're not going to get no from the VA. The veteran won. The veteran's going to have to tell them they won. In order to do that, they need access to the veteran's file. They get access to the veteran's file. They're not allowed to look at the veteran's file because any medical information they look at the veteran's file would be a HIPAA violation.

Ray Cobb: 5:59

Well, the only way they can get around that is that it states in there that they can't do that, but only if the veteran gives it to him. In other words, I can go and get a copy of my medical records and give it to this guy and say look through here and see what I need.

J Basser: 6:19

You can, but you've got to realize too that if a veteran does something, regardless of what Tennessee state law says, if they give them something like a password or passcode to a federal computer system, that's a felony.

Ray Cobb: 6:35

Yeah, the state's in there. They cannot do that.

J Basser: 6:39

It's very clearly about that.

Ray Cobb: 6:43

There's a lot of roadblocks too clearly about that, huh. So there's a lot of roadblocks too, yeah, there's a lot of roadblocks in here, but but basically what it's saying. And let's take your you yourself and myself we're talking to a veteran on the phone and he's telling us what's wrong and what he, what he wants to apply for and all these things. Now he, I, I turn to him and I say do you have a doctor's diagnosis? Oh yeah, my VA doctor said this and this Okay, would you go into your VA notes under ID me and would you print off your doctor's notes and give them to me Now he can do that and it states in here that basically he can do that.

Ray Cobb: 7:30

And then the guy can look at the notes and say, oh okay, here let's highlight this you need to send this in with a 4138 that says your doctor said on this day that you have this medical condition according to your VA medical records, because a veteran gave him those medical records.

J Basser: 7:55

It's kind of.

Ray Cobb: 8:02

Yeah, it's kind of crazy.

J Basser: 8:05

It goes to prove that anytime there's money to be had, free money kind of crazy it goes to prove that anytime there's money to be had, free money to these idiots, we're going to do whatever they have to do to cheat, lie, cheat, you know, to get it. And I'm sure there's some people that are humble in ways like that, and I think the VA in itself has actually brought a lot of this on the VA. Because of the way they've been doing things over the years, Vets have become really frustrated and fed up. They don't feel that they should have to pay a claims aid. They're like you have to finish your claims up, which basically, when push comes to shove, you can get your county service officer. You can get the SO through the state certain states you can get the SO through the state. In certain states you can get assistance to file your initial claim.

Ray Cobb: 8:50

Your original service office, your original veteran service office, has agents in there, usually anywhere between three at all times, sometimes as many, as in Nashville, as many as five or six are sitting at their cubicles on any given day or any given time.

J Basser: 9:14

It's one of those folks represent a whole different genre of people too, you know. Well, that's true.

Ray Cobb: 9:22

As a regional office. You can go there seven days a week. They have two people on Saturday and one person on Sunday. That's good, so you can go there.

J Basser: 9:35

Those are probably the busiest people in the world, you reckon.

Ray Cobb: 9:39

They don't have much time to take a breath.

J Basser: 9:41

Okay, folks, if you have an appeal going on, you need help. These guys can help you do your initial claim but all of a sudden say you get denied. Well, let's say, if you're with the 94% of the people, you're going to get denied, and it's all based on interpretation of the regulations, what the M-21 says and how they look at the M-21 and how the computer puts it in there. So you're going to need help. That's the problem Getting the good, qualified help to adjudicate the remainder of your claim in the appeal process. In the scope of things I can devout and rake in too, I can confirm that my 20-some years of experience in doing this that I've seen more veterans win their appeals and their processes even though they have to wait, unless they're a certain age that more veterans win by getting an accredited VA claims agent who knows what they're doing, for example, alex Grant.

Ray Cobb: 10:53

Yeah, they usually get it in a shorter period of time.

J Basser: 10:57

Yeah, it depends on what your age is. We're all bound by the mud hole that it's the VA, because there are times in processing and doing things like that. Then all of a sudden Congress jumps in the middle of the mix and adds something new, like the PACT Act or the Mission Act or the Step on your Foot Act or the Shoot Yourself in the Foot to Get Up for Hard Act, things like that. All of a sudden they get put in the hands of the lines so everybody else goes back a step. You know what I mean.

Ray Cobb: 11:28

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. That's happened.

J Basser: 11:31

That's happened. So what I'm saying is, if you're 75 years old and you're at the appeal process, you can get an advancement on the docket to get a judge to look at your claim quicker, because I know a guy that did it just there a few days ago, a few months ago, and you're looking at it. Well, yeah, you're looking at him. I started to say you couldn't see, but I guess you can now.

Ray Cobb: 11:52

Yeah, I think we both got advanced on that Dr.

J Basser: 11:54

Yeah, here's the deal. If you're going to spend money, you need to find one of these claims agents. There's over 300 of them now and there's people who pass the test. Every time they give it they have to take a very stringent test with several hundred questions. In order to pass, they have to go through a background check for their abilities and make sure that they're good people. It's like getting a security clearance. You've got to go through the checks, make sure you're not a felon and things like that. Make sure you know what to do with the money and information. You cannot be giving people's information out and things like that. You've got to cover your bases. But you go to one of these agents Clark Sharks and you sign up with them. They want to know what status your claim is. Then they're going to say well, here, let me see, here Can you get into e-benefits? Let me take a look at it, see what you got. Guess what they're saying the same stuff we are.

J Basser: 12:54

But the most important thing is the accreditation process. You become an agent in a system called Veterans Benefit Management System, or VBMS. Called Veterans Benefit Management System or VBMS, the claims agents and the accredited attorneys or non-practitioner attorney agents like Alex Graham or Wes McCauley. People like that. They look at this and they pop in the screen. They see the whole thing in real time. They know where you're at.

J Basser: 13:26

And the problem is if you get it that far in appeal. If you're at the BBA, they can see where it's at. If you're at a high-level review, they can see where it's at. If they're at the supplemental lane, it's a little bit harder to see that one. They kind of keep that away. Because I'm a veteran, raised a veteran. We cannot look on the computer. It'll show us the claim in a supplemental lane. That's all it's going to show us. It's not going to show you any movement. It's kind of like constipation nation. You ever seen that Ray? Yeah, absolutely. So my best advice, guys, is find you an agent or something like that. Do not Don't ever give five months of your back pay away of your e-mail. Now, if you go from 40% to 100%, that's a lot of money you're paying. Go somewhere where, if you win, it comes out of your retro.

J Basser: 14:17

Okay, one good thing about that say you make it all the way to the BVA and the judge doesn't go in your favor, then you can pick on Alex or you can pick on Wesley or Macaulay or any attorney that can practice for the VA court. All of a sudden you want to go to the court, so you look for your paperwork off and as soon as you file that paper, man, look out, your mailbox is going to be flat full I mean flat full of offers from attorney's offices from all over the country wanting your claim or wanting to look at it. I had seven attorneys offices turn my claim down. You believe that? Yeah, seven of them. One guy took it and it worked.

J Basser: 14:59

Now, if you are at the court, you sign a paper and you give to your attorney and that paper is called Equal Act for Justice Amendment, which means that if you win your case, the winning is you get a decision on award, or the counsel for the VA or your attorneys get together, they butt heads in a room and they decide let's send this back to the regional office and have them do it like this. That's called remand and since they decided together, it's called a joint motion remand. That's considered a win at the court because they've got to re-look at it and re-do it. So that happens, the EHA money pays your attorney's fees and you're sitting back going to get your claim processed. Next thing you know, you get your check in the bank and there's no deduction. You see what I'm saying. So if you want to waste a lot of money, go ahead and do that, because a lot of these people don't know. Duck crap from apple butter.

Ray Cobb: 16:10

Great, lost your volume, ray and kind of get you go, get down that hamster wheel and start rolling around and running and running and running and you're staying in the same place. Now the thing that's changed I guess it was a couple of years ago. Now you're in the state of Tennessee I'm sure it's all over the country. You're in state tennessee I'm sure it's all over the country. But your county service officers and your regional service officers can now look at that vmbs and they can see where that claim is. They can see what's going on. Now.

Ray Cobb: 16:54

What they are not allowed to do, if I understand it correctly, what an agent's allowed to do is pick up the phone and call that guy and says oh, I would like to talk with you, if you don't mind, about such and such a case number. Now the guy can either send him up to his supervisor or he can say well, what's on your mind? And then your agent can actually tell him what he thinks the mistake was made or why it should be granted, or whatever, and perhaps the two of them can come to an agreement. Yeah, that's exactly what my agent did for me and got it taken care of in a matter of about 45 days.

J Basser: 17:39

Otherwise it could have taken four to five years where otherwise it could have taken four to five years. Didn't you get some kind of information from? Were you at the board already? I guess you got a piece of information from the VA that had the wrong information on it and there was an exam that had the wrong exam stuff on it and you were at your wit's end. You were fixing to blow a top and well, yeah, I went to.

Ray Cobb: 18:04

Uh, I went to a cmp exam. I was going for our level r2 and they sent the documentation and the questionnaire that is used for r1 right which is totally different, and yeah, that's the one that my agent found was wrong. Told him what was wrong about it. They sent me that next week for another CMP, where the right information was filled out and it was granted in no time like this.

J Basser: 18:41

You know we've done this for a long time, guys. Uh, we were in blog talk for years. This blog talk, I guess they, uh, I guess they got choked on a watermelon seed and lost their, lost something. They're out of business. So we've had alex scram on the show many, many times and me and ray were talking after that issue and uh, ray's like what do I do? And I said alex grant next thing. You know, he calls Alex up and boom, he took the football and ran with it, didn't he Ray?

Ray Cobb: 19:08

he did, and that's going to be the way it is with most agents. They're going to ask you to first. They're going to ask you to. They probably have to ask you to after they talk with you.

J Basser: 19:22

They're going to have to ask you to sign on with them.

Ray Cobb: 19:24

You've got to sign them up. They've got to turn that in doing away with your previous representation. In my case it was the American Legion, so they took the American Legion off and put Alex Graham in as my contact, and he's still in there today.

J Basser: 19:42

Well, alex is amazing as far as when it comes to best monthly compensation. I want to say Alex Graham is probably the Bo Jackson of SMC. Bo knew baseball and Alex knows SMC. You know, I mean you had a good point. If you're stuck in the mud it's like a football, like Super Bowl last week. I mean that poor quarterback for the Chiefs. I mean he got sacked so much. By the time the game was almost over before they sacked him they started asking if he wanted paper or plastic.

Ray Cobb: 20:15

Yeah, so that was the Super Bowls.

J Basser: 20:22

That wasn't one of our best Super Bowls, was it? Oh my goodness. Well, I kind of predicted it. So, you know, I knew that nobody was giving Philadelphia any chance. But you know, and I figured I knew they had a better team because of the record.

J Basser: 20:35

So, but don't ever play Russian roulette with this stuff, guys, because you get denied these people, you know they're going to drop you like a rock that can't hold nothing. You know, get somebody accredited to do your stuff. That way they can put you right in the appeal process and help you go to court. If they don't know, you know the situation. They can recommend, which is a good thing.

J Basser: 21:02

But I want to tell you something about a claims agent. Most people don't really understand. If a veteran's got access to the information and he's got a good agent, that good agent actually goes through his file and then he interviews a veteran in order to determine if he's going to take them on as a client or not. And some of these people are very, very, very thorough, which the majority of them are, because it's their bread and butter. All of a sudden they're starting to look into your record and they start seeing A, b, c, d. You're talking to the guy and he starts to ask you a bunch of questions. All of a sudden you've got seven more claims you can file and didn't know about.

Ray Cobb: 21:44

I'm having a hard time hearing you here.

J Basser: 21:47

Turn your volume up.

Ray Cobb: 21:47

Yeah.

J Basser: 22:05

There you go. Can you hear me now?

Ray Cobb: 22:09

I don't hear you can you hear me now?

J Basser: 22:19

yeah, there you go. Yeah, yeah, you got blood lugged.

Ray Cobb: 22:23

Yeah, I'm not sure what happened there.

J Basser: 22:27

But you know, I mean that's the point. Let's touch on something else. I mean you guys, I mean, do not under any circumstances let one of these claim sharks do your claim. You'll get accredited help. You know You're protected by law and don't sign any contracts. The only contract you sign is the fee agreement and things like that with your attorney or your agent and say, for example, you've got an agent or a VSO that is not doing their job or they're too busy and you need more service than what you're getting, especially an appeal. You can switch. You can go ahead and pick up an agent. They can do the paperwork for you and do the change. It's like changing an insurance company. It's kind of a painless process. You can do it. You know VSOs are the same way too. You know there's good VSOs that know what they're doing, but if they're good they usually got a line out the door right around the building for you to get in Right the busier the restroom, the better the food is.

J Basser: 23:29

You heard that statement.

Ray Cobb: 23:31

I have.

J Basser: 23:33

It's basically the same thing in agents. Now I want to touch base on militarycom. I got up this morning getting ready to go to the VA. I started looking at my phone, and I do it every morning. I got a ritual, a little bit of coffee and look at the phone, look at last night's news. This thing pops up militarycom, va wants to cut. I said, oh, I got this article, started reading it. Of course, militarycom, you know I always respected it.

J Basser: 24:04

Here comes this crazy stuff about the VA wanting to cut disabilities that are not directly related to service. That tells me that they want to start chopping presumptives, which has a whole lot of presumptives and a whole lot of benefits to service for presumptives, which has a whole lot of presumptives and a whole lot of better service. Next, for presumptive conditions. I was going to go into it in detail on the show but after reading this and spending a day at the VA and coming home and talking to a couple of folks and doing a few things, I went back to it and looked at it and it's just like Houdini it's gone, g-a-w-n Gone.

Ray Cobb: 24:48

Took it down huh.

J Basser: 24:50

Yes, I don't know if it took it down or what. Be careful what you read, folks. If you read something about the military star and stripes, things like that, read that. You can see the bottom line and things like that. You've got to make your own mind up. Don't let these people coerce you either way. Just pay attention to what's going on in the world and what's happening. You know people talking about DOACH, which is the Department of Government Efficiency. They're going into the VA, right. What are they doing Right now? They're doing contracts. It's like looking at contractuals and things like that to make sure the A's not getting ripped off, which is something that they've been talking about. How they do it is pretty cool.

J Basser: 25:35

Mr Muth has got some very, very intelligent young men. I don't mean to say very intelligent. He's got some stinking geniuses. One or two of them kind of say geniuses are autistic. They know numbers like you've never seen before Put it in the present terms and they can figure stuff up. They can write some computer code. They can do some mining data mining which is probably over everybody's head. I know it's way over mine and I know somebody does it. They get the information off there and they can pull it out and they can find fraud. So one thing I asked them to do was to go ahead and look at veterans and see if a veteran's paying co-pays or money you know if he's 100% vet, say, all of a sudden your insurance company sends you EOB, which is explanation of benefits. You start seeing a bunch of charges from the VA on there on your insurance company and you see it for diabetes. Your service connects for diabetes. What's wrong with that, ray?

Ray Cobb: 26:34

Well, if you're service connected, that's what in 100%, they're not supposed to charge your insurance companies.

Ray Cobb: 26:42

You know that's against the law for service-connected condition. Now, that's pretty interesting. You say that because yesterday I think it was yesterday, let me think no, it was Monday. Yeah, no, monday Monday I went down to my diabetic clinic and I'm checking in and of course we're a number. Now, right, they say what's your last name and your last form? So all of a sudden we're a number. And then the next question as she goes down through there, she says the first thing she asks is you have an updated uh va medical card? I handed it to her. She looked at it, said okay, handed it back to me, which is states only that are 100% total and permanent disavailable. And then she turns. Then the next thing she says is do you have your insurance card? I said what insurance card? Well, don't you have Social Security insurance? And I said no, why not? I said I don't need it insurance and I said no, why not? I said I don't need it. I have VA and that's all I need.

Ray Cobb: 27:46

So in my case they can't, but they're wanting to get that insurance card for that very reason, so they can bill it.

J Basser: 27:54

VA has not been able to bill Social Security for years, folks, because that's against the law. If you've got private insurance, they're going to hammer you like a nail. But remember something if you've got private insurance, they're going to hammer you like a nail, but remember something if you've got insurance and say the doctor at the VA says you need a certain medication, and next thing, you know, your insurance pays your meds and you're jumping through hoops. But the VA comes out with their little pharmacy thing and says well, we can't approve this medication, and they do it based on cost. I don't care what they say. Pharmacy thinks is well, we can't approve this medication, you know, and they do it based on cost. I don't care what they say. What is your reply back to them? You better relook at that, folks. My insurance is paying for this medication. It's not a service to that condition, right? So how can they deny you if they're getting paid?

J Basser: 28:38

for it that's a good question yeah so, but don't get me wrong, folks.

J Basser: 28:46

I mean I don't have any animosity that way. I'm just, uh, basically upset that, uh, every year, insurance keeps going up and up and up. I mean to the point where this federal blue cross and blue shield is outrageous and I think every year is going up is because they're being overcharged by certain groups individuals. That's why it keeps going up and up. And're being overcharged by certain groups of individuals. That's why it keeps going up and up and up. It needs to be level and they need to stop doing that.

J Basser: 29:10

You know information and we're talking I'm just one veteran and there's other veterans out there too that have the same issue and don't even know it. You know, because they get those EOBs and they don't know what they did, they throw them away or whatever. You start reading it and I go and look at it every week. You know it's amazing how much pharmacy charges for surrogacy medications and, of course, the insurance company's hands are tied, you know. So they want to save money under this Dole stuff. It's going to cost them money in this situation, but I told them it needs to work both ways. Do you agree with that?

Ray Cobb: 29:47

I agree with it 100%. Yeah, and you probably. There's probably a lot of veterans out there that are 60% or 70% that may still be working and they'll have insurance through their company and they also go to va because of military connection and therefore the va is building building their insurance company. Um, and you know, you got to put a little on the insurance company too. They look at this and they say wait, wait a minute, this is a VA, we shouldn't have to pay VA.

J Basser: 30:31

Well, if it's private insurance, they have to, because the VA doesn't put the coding on there, because the insurance company doesn't know what service connection is, and that's a problem. So there should be a coding system on there for your disability and they should have the coding system in the file. It should be automatic. You issue medicine, it goes to the guy. Here's the code can't bill. No code go ahead, all it is is paperwork in a computer Keystroke. It should be automatic and so I mean it's simple to fix. Only problem is is how many billions of dollars is out the window?

Ray Cobb: 31:06

Yeah, how many insurance companies are overpaying because of the government doing this?

J Basser: 31:13

Yeah, I mean, I'm just you know, I mean it's it hurts. It only hurts when they raise your insurance rates. Every year you get a 2.5% raise or whatever it was, and the insurance goes up 5%. You know you've lost that 2.5% raise you know what I'm saying yeah, mm-hmm, that's what it is. I mean, it's just between eating bologna or chopped steak.

Ray Cobb: 31:41

Or maybe a hot dog. Maybe, a hot dog. Maybe I should send for any sausage.

J Basser: 31:48

Any sausage. Well, if you go to Gold Star Chili and buy a hot dog, that's what you're getting, one about the size of one. No, that's one thing I want to put out there, ray. I mean you know this claim shark stuff and that stuff and Doge. I mean pay attention to what's going on. A couple words about the VA secretary, mr Doug Collins. He seems to be a reasonable guy. He came out and didn't do a direct response to militarycom but he said there will be no cuts to veterans and I believe him. Oh yeah, and hopefully he fixes this mess up now inside the v hospitals the health care part of it, the medical side of it I have no problem. That's one of the best treatment I've ever got, a lot of good people. But you get in other avenues, the clerical and or the administrative part. Situations like that, like people dealing with the Caregiver Act or the regional office where they do the claims it doesn't give me that kind of a comfort feeling. You know what I mean, ray.

Ray Cobb: 32:57

Well, I do and that's like another area that you and I have discussed before. Offline we're just talking about things and I know you're kind of going through it now and I went through it this week with a couple of dental appointments. When I reached into my pocket and spent $55 for a dental appointment to look at the dentures that the VA gave me and see if she could adjust them. She tried to give her that credit but she just kind of shook her head like I don't think these can be adjusted. Then she said but with the one we could bring it up to date and add a tooth there where the VA had it pulled, and then it would still fit loose. But if you have some you know your denture cream, it'll probably hold up and work fine.

Ray Cobb: 34:05

She said now I don't like the way or the type of dentures they got for you, because this one over here that's not fitting and not doing well is a flexible type and this other one is a that you have here is a porcelain and it has no metal in it.

Ray Cobb: 34:29

She says well, if I was going to do your denture, I would do a combination and I would do put a metal plate from where my eye tooth is back to the end of my jaw because that's going to help you chew your food better, to have a metal plate in there, so it's not plastic or or porcelain going up and down on your gum. It'd be covered in a soft material but it'd have the stability of metal. And she said it's a little more expensive, but it'd have the stability of metal. And she said it's a little more expensive but it would serve you better. So I'm thinking about that and we'll just have to wait and see what I'm going to do. But I'll probably allow her to add another tooth to the one I have and use denture cream. And one reason is I'm losing a lot of weight and I know when you lose weight your dentures get loose and things like that. So I think I'm going to wait and see how much weight I continue to lose before I have any more teeth.

J Basser: 35:38

If you keep on erasing it, you're going to lose a whole lot. I lost almost 100 pounds to raise me. You're going to lose a whole lot. I lost close to 100 pounds.

Ray Cobb: 35:48

I started out at 321 and I'm down to 234. Now I'm getting near close to that 100 pound mark. I'm not sure how much I'm going to continue losing, because I just don't need as much you're a big dude anyways, man well yeah, what do you mean big, I mean in high school I was 198 pounds, a senior and I didn't have a single ounce of fat on me being a running back.

J Basser: 36:20

You know how that is how tall are you?

Ray Cobb: 36:22

foot. I'm right at six foot yeah.

J Basser: 36:25

Okay, You're about the same size as my son big boy.

Ray Cobb: 36:30

You're a big bone man too. Right, I have a big bone and what they call your playing weight. My playing weight in college should be between 205 and 225. Well, if I'm down now to 236, I'm almost down to my playing weight. Don't have the muscles making it up. I still have too much fat making it up, but in any case, that's going to affect a lot of my medical conditions and what I need over the next upcoming six months.

J Basser: 37:05

Anytime you lose weight like that in situations you don't really realize it, but every 50 pounds you take off it's like taking off a bag of dog food on your back and it's easier for you. But the biggest thing is mobility, and things like that Say you need to move body parts like that or you do something else. Of course you're like me. You know we've gotten her off the inner feet, so you know we're like a couple of drunk monkeys walking around.

Ray Cobb: 37:34

If we don't have a cane or something to lean on, we're on the floor but movement and things like that.

J Basser: 37:45

And just I tell you one way that you really notice it is you go to a restaurant and you know, say you get out of your chair and you get in the booth and sit down. Usually the table is right on your stomach and now I know the table six inches away from the stomach that's exactly correct.

Ray Cobb: 37:59

You're 100 correct. I noticed that today uh used to there was this little restaurant we've been going to for years if you go on the left side, the booths are closer together and was tight. It was uncomfortable for me to sit there and eat. Today. I walked in there and I sat down. I thought, wow, have they changed? No, I've changed, you know. So I was able to sit there comfortably and even had my jacket on when I first went in and sat down. It's like a wiper.

J Basser: 38:33

You have to have the wiper scoot up, yeah.

Ray Cobb: 38:37

But yeah, and when you get into changes like that, you see a lot of things. You know, I am very disappointed in our dental staff. Uh, here at the va I called two days ago and asked a return call to schedule an appointment to have his dentures looked at. They hadn't called me back yet, that's what you do.

J Basser: 39:08

Go ahead and send them a direct message. Go ahead and go through. Guys, you can call the VA if you want, but the best way to contact your VA is go ahead and get on the VAgov and contact your people through direct messenger. That way any response you get, or any reply you get, is in writing. You know you got to print it off, you can. You know you can keep the files in your records. You know if you make a phone call and it's not recorded, guess what?

Ray Cobb: 39:43

Yeah, they say we never got that call, you never contacted us.

J Basser: 39:49

It's like the mailman you get the stuff in the mail from the VA and you never receive something. We sent it to the VA, we sent it to the mail. Well, the court has held that. The mail rules. They say they sent it, you're out of luck. Only problem is if they say you sent something to them and they didn. They sent it. You're out of luck. Only problem is if they say you sent something to them and they didn't receive it. You better have a return receipt on it, a little green tag in the mail.

J Basser: 40:13

But VAgov does make it a lot easier. You can upload stuff to the VA. If you're doing claims and things like that yourself, you can upload everything on the website and it tells you when they get it. And if you're doing an Apple product, like an iPhone or a Mac, you can pull that up, do a screenshot of it that says we received it and print it out. You might be able to do that on some of these Windows-based computers now, but I'd have to get Einstein Jr to show me how to do it.

Ray Cobb: 40:42

Well, yeah, it's not that hard. You can pull it off and just go right, click and go down and hit print, and I did that with this house resolution bill. Yeah, so I was able to do that. It's maybe another step in there, but it's not that hard.

J Basser: 41:01

Folks, we'll keep you posted on this stuff. You know Ray's going to follow this pretty hard. I'll follow some other stuff. We'll do a show once a month and just get some updates on some of this stuff. We're going to start bringing our agents back on next week. I think we've pretty much got it worked out now. It's the Jay Baxter Exposed, that YouTube channel Exposed. That's actually the owner of the channel and of course Basser is a name that I used for years. I used to be part of the Haddock Group and so a lot of people know who I am. But now you'll see the face to who's who and we're going to try to get James Cripps on here maybe next week and see how James has been doing, because James has had a rough time here lately and want to get him back and see, because I think, is he in town next weekend or is he out?

Ray Cobb: 41:49

He's out. Matter of fact, I think the US Nesters Alliance is having their winter conference up in Pigeon Forge up in the Gatlinburg area this coming weekend. I think they go in on Sunday and finish it up on Wednesday or check out on Wednesday. So he's going to be up in that area. He should be back in town by showtime on Thursday If you reach out to him before he leaves and get that scheduled. That's a good group that guys are. You know that's a good group that guys are.

Ray Cobb: 42:24

You can follow his Web page via the Redneck way and see how that goes, and you can. He gives you a lot of good instructions on how to file your own claim and how to work it. But then also, I think, if I remember correctly, a three year membership into into his organization is only like $40 or $42. And your spouse and you both can belong to that. It doesn't matter where you live in the country, and you can send him messages and get response. And if you happen to be down towards Ashland City Tennessee area I think they meet on a Monday night, the second Monday night of each month. Stop in and say hi to them. They'd love to have you. They usually have around 120 people at their meetings A good group, good organization and they do an awful lot and they do not charge for any of their assistance in helping a veteran win his claim.

J Basser: 43:29

That and all kinds of others have to. James is actually a remarkable person To beat the boogers up. As bad as he is, he gets a lot done. He does. That's it, Guys. We're going to go ahead and shut her down. I want to thank everybody for listening, for watching Ray. I'll be back next Thursday night, 7 o'clock Eastern, 6 o'clock Central time. This is John, on behalf of the Exposed Net Productions, in cooperation with the Battle for Vet Bethany Spangenberg. We'll be signing off for now.