Articles Posted in Veteran Affairs

B cell leukemias, Parkinson’s disease, and ischemic heart disease are now presumptive diseases / illnesses for veterans exposed to Agent Orange.

On October 13, 2009, the Department of Veterans Affairs in a news release announced the VA is extending VA benefits to Vietnam veterans who were exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange.

The October 13, 2009, VA news release states an “estimated 2.6 million” veterans were exposed to the herbicide commonly referred to as Agent Orange. Secretary Shinseki declared “Veterans who endure health problems deserve timely decisions based on solid evidence.” An independent study concluded these illnesses/diseases are directly related to Agent Orange exposure.

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPWkcG5VQ_k
 

Suicide is not the answer, according to this clip. Unfortunately, many wounded and disabled veterans carry the burden of depression, loneliness, fear of the unknown future, and just want to give up. I understand all too well.

For the disabled veteran their world has turned upside down. They were active, strong, and had the future. Depending on the injury, event or disease that changed the veteran’s life, the hope may be gone.

For me I sought counseling on how to deal with my loss and also how to deal with how people treated me now. I just recently went through a devastating loss when a fiancé left when she saw my vision during a low vision eye exam. I turned to counseling to find hope.
Continue reading

Memorial Day brings back a lot of memories to me of serving overseas and in a combat zone. Friday meant just two more workdays until Monday. For me, as an aircraft commander or Mission Director, even time in the tent meant I was thinking about the upcoming operations or missions ahead. I was constantly thinking and preparing to achieve the mission objectives.

The objective of VA benefits is to help you to compensate for any service-connected disabilities that limit your earnings.

I can state you need to take charge of helping yourself receive your disability payments or Vocational Rehabilitation to achieve your post-military objectives. You need to act to receive VA service-connected disability payments or help.

Filing a claim for disability benefits with the VA is a straight forward process. There is no magic formula to the process.

However, recent revelations about some employees at some VA Regional Offices destroying or hiding claims raises issues regarding how veterans can protect themselves from such unconscionable behavior. There are some things you can do to help make sure your claims are received and processed by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The easiest way to protect against lost or destroyed claims is by delivering the claim to the VA Regional Office directly. Deliver the claim directly to the VA and ask the VA employee accepting the claim to date stamp the claim as received and provide you with a copy. The VA employee should be glad to accommodate your request. If the employee is not willing to abide by your request, ask to see a Supervisor. Now you have a copy of the claim you filed with a VA date stamp showing the date it was received by the VA. If you later discover the claim has been lost or has otherwise not be processed by VA, you can provide them with a copy of what you have and insist they open the claim and begin processing. Remember the date of the claim should be the date shown on the copy VA provided to you. This date is important because most benefits granted are granted effective the date the claim was filed with VA. There are exceptions to this but the date of the claim is a very important date and it should be correct.

Recent U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC) cases have clarified how medical opinion evidence must be considered. These decisions did not have any impact on current Department of Veterans Affairs regulatory language, but they have made it clear how the CAVC will handle decisions made based on medical opinion evidence.

CAVC has held that the probative value (the weight to be given) of a medical opinion rests primarily in the examiner’s reasoning or rationale. CAVC held that private medical opinions cannot be discounted based on a lack of review of the veterans DVA claims file. CAVC further indicated that a DVA examination is not accorded greater probative value simply based on review of the claim folder.

However, CAVC did hold that DVA DOES NOT have a general duty to inform every claimant providing a private medical opinion of the availability of the DVA claim folder. In other words, DVA’s failure to inform the claimant that the claim folder is available for review by the private physician is not sufficient to reverse a denial based on lack of sufficient reasoning/rationale by the private physician.

Haas v. Nicholson was the case brought on behalf of “blue water” veterans who argued that the presumption of exposure to herbicides (Agent Orange) should be extended to veterans serving in the waters off the coast of Vietnam.

The presumption of exposure to Agent Orange has been defined by the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) as “served in the Republic of Vietnam.” This definition means a veteran must have performed duty or visited the country of Vietnam to be considered to have “served in the Republic of Vietnam.” This presumption of exposure, therefore, did not extend to those serving in the waters off the coast of Vietnam.

The argument made by the appellant, Jonathan L. Haas, was that the presumption should extend to those who served in the waters off the coast of Vietnam. The Board of Veterans Appeals (BVA) upheld the VA’s regulatory interpretation that presumption to exposure to Agent Orange did not extend to these “blue water” veterans.

Title 38 specifically, 38 U.S.C. § 5103A – Duty to Assist Claimants, establishes and the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims has held the threshold for VA’s duty to assist veterans with their claims is low. Subparagraph 5103A(a) states “the Secretary shall make reasonable efforts to assist a claimant in obtaining evidence necessary to substantiate the claimant’s claim for a benefit under a law administered by the Secretary.” Court holdings provide a veteran’s lay statement describing the nature of the disability, including such things as the initial incident/illness/injury, symptoms associated with that event and the continuing symptomatology and treatment, if credible, is sufficient to trigger the VA’s duty to assist.

Lay Statements

Examples of lay statements supporting a claim when medical documentation is not available would be a knee disability by a former paratrooper who is injured during a combat jump or a claim of tinnitus (ringing in the ears) by a former artilleryman claiming exposure to acoustic trauma. Underlying this, of course, is the fundamental requirement for a current residual, chronic disability — a current disability. A diagnosis by a physician is not necessary, but you must be able to clearly describe a residual and chronic condition.

Both the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Privacy Act (PA) give the public the right to request access to records held by Federal agencies.

FOIA applies to all Federal agency records with access rights generally given to “any person.” However, one of the FOIA exemptions permits the withholding of information about individuals to protect their personal privacy.

The Privacy Act applies to only those Federal agency records that are in a “systems of records.” A system of records contains information about individuals that is retrievable using a name or personal identifier (e.g., claim file number). Privacy Act access rights are given only to individuals or their appointed representatives who are the subject of the records sought.

Chronicity and Continuity

Chronicity is established when the disability has been present since the in-service disease, injury, or event occurred. In other words, you have had this residual condition to one degree or another since the disability occurred and leaving active duty.

The second element to prove a nexus is continuity. Continuity means you have been receiving treatment for the condition since leaving active duty. In the absence of clear evidence of continuity and chronicity, the VA may order an opinion examination and ask the examiner to determine if the current disability is “at least as likely as not” related to the in-service disease, injury, or event.