When your receive the initial decision from the VA you have one year to file a Notice of Disagreement (NOD). When you file your NOD you should request the Decision Review Officer (DRO) hearing. This “non-traditional” method of appeal allows a “de novo” review, meaning a “new review” of the claim. The traditional NOD appeal only allows review based upon additional evidence not already in the claims file and there will be no hearing via the traditional NOD review process.<\/p>\n
A September 2011 Government Accounting Office (GAO) report evaluated the NOD DRO review process and found that many veterans were not aware that the DRO request was available. In 2001 the VA established the DRO process in order to limit the amount of claims having to be appealed to the Board of Veterans Appeals (BVA). Although the GAO report revealed mixed results of the DRO review vs. the traditional review there is (more…)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When your receive the initial decision from the VA you have one year to file a Notice of Disagreement (NOD). When you file your NOD you should request the Decision Review Officer (DRO) hearing. This “non-traditional” method of appeal allows…<\/span><\/p>\n