News
Important Update: New Presumptive Conditions for Gulf War and Post 9/11 Veterans
February 19, 2025The Veterans Administration recently added new presumptive conditions for Gulf War and Post 9/11 Veterans including the following:
- Acute and chronic leukemia
- Multiple myeloma
- Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS)
- Myelofibrosis
- Urinary bladder, ureter, and related genitourinary cancers
As published on the VA.gov, the eligible veterans include the following:
Gulf War Veterans: Veterans who served in Somalia or the Southwest Asia theater of operations (which includes Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the neutral zone between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, the Gulf of Aden, the Gulf of Oman, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and the airspace above these locations) during the Persian Gulf War on or after August 2, 1990.
Post-9/11 Veterans: Veterans who served in Afghanistan, Iraq, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, or Uzbekistan and the airspace above these locations during the Gulf War on or after September 11, 2001. This includes Veterans who served at the Karshi-Khanabad (K2) base in Uzbekistan after September 11, 2001.
In general, presumptive service-connection is defined as an automatic grant of disability compensation benefits to veterans for certain condition without requiring them to prove that the disability was incurred in or caused by any event, injury, or otherwise during their military service.
The presumptions for urinary bladder, ureter, and related genitourinary cancers went into effect January 2, 2025, and the presumptions for acute and chronic leukemias, multiple myelomas, and myelodysplastic syndromes, myelofibrosis will be effective January 10, 2025.
Successfully filing with the VA requires great attention to detail and the right representation. To build a compelling claim, Veterans should seek credible and experienced legal representation. If you need assistance with filing an application for disability compensation benefits, we encourage you to contact Wolf & Brown for a free consultation.
Categories: VA Disability, Vet-Wire, Veterans Disability News, Veterans Event
Attention Veterans: Your Top 5 for 2025
January 30, 2025A new year brings new and important considerations for obtaining veterans disability benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). If you have or are intending to pursue disability benefits and/or appeals, consider our Top 5 for 2025 guide for navigating the complicated process.
WOLF & BROWN’S TOP 5:
1. Continue to document the severity of your symptoms with your treating sources despite securing service-connection and an evaluation. The VA routinely re-examines the severity of the condition and Veterans want to ensure they can keep their current evaluations.
2. Be mindful (and even suspicious!) of YouTube videos, blog posts, and other social media about how “easy” it is to increase your evaluations or secure service-connection. These posts are not one-size-fits all and do not take a Veteran’s specific case variables into consideration.
3. Don’t think about not filing for benefits based on the thought process you will be taking benefits away from another Veteran. Veterans disability compensation is part of a total benefits package to which members of the armed forces may be entitled. Get the benefits you’ve earned.
4. Don’t stop fighting for benefits just because you get denied. The VA routinely denies seven out of 10 claims on initial application. Appeals are always an option.
5. Don’t be embarrassed or too prideful to seek medical treatment for your medical conditions. The right doctor and treatment plan can increase your quality of life.
Finally, successfully filing with the VA requires great attention to detail and the right representation. To build a compelling claim, Veterans should seek credible and experienced legal representation.
Categories: VA Disability, Vet-Wire, Veterans Disability News, Veterans Event
VA appointment delays, cancelations, and access to medical care on display with pending legislation
December 12, 2024According to Stars & Stripes article, VA must disclose delays to see a doctor and alternatives for private-sector care under new legislation, the VA would be mandated to “inform veterans seeking health care appointments about the availability of non-VA care.”
Known as the Complete the Mission Act of 2024, the legislation aims to require the VA to publish wait times for VA medical centers.
Read more at Stars & Stripes.
Categories: VA Disability, Veterans Disability News
Wolf & Brown Salutes Veterans – Every Day
November 11, 2024Saluting WILLIAM CAREY, United States Marine Corps
On Veterans Day, William Carey goes to mass. “I pray for those who didn’t come home. And I pray for other veterans who gave so much and for those who struggle.” Carey, a proud New Jersey citizen, served his country for nearly 10 years beginning in 1998, including a combat tour in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was honorably discharged in 2007. When asked why he was moved to serve, Carey recalls, “I just always wanted to be a U.S. Marine and help my country.”
Honoring the innate courage and dedication of service members like Carey is what Veterans Day is all about. However, we must not forget that the effects of violence and war on service members is overwhelming and constant. “I felt that toll,” Carey adds.
Like millions of veterans, Carey needed the help of the VA to seek disability benefits that he had earned. And like millions of veterans, he faced a system that was difficult to navigate successfully. He reached out to us at Wolf & Brown and we helped him get the benefits he needed and deserved.
Carey tells other veterans seeking help with VA benefits, “Let people help you take the burden off.” Like Carey, our attorneys and staff at Wolf & Brown know first hand that veterans endure more challenging obstacles than most of us will face in our lifetimes. When their service is completed, and they seek help for their service-connected injuries or illnesses, it’s our duty to help them.
This story is one of a series of veteran profiles that Wolf & Brown will publish on the NJ Vet-Wire. It’s our intention to honor our veterans this Veterans Day and every day.
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Photo: Carey (right) in Iraq
Categories: VA Disability, Vet-Wire, Veterans Event
VA adding new cancer types to list of presumed service-connected disabilities
June 17, 2024On June 14, 2024, the VA reported on their website that three cancer types are now included in the “list of presumptive diseases” due to “military environmental exposure under the PACT Act”. The additions are male breast cancer, urethral cancer, and cancer of the paraurethral glands, all of which join a list of other cancers considered presumptive for Gulf War era and post 9/11 veterans who were exposed to burn pits during active-duty service
According to the same post on the VA website, the VA recently “granted its 1 millionth PACT Act-related disability compensation claim and awarded over $5.7 billion to Veterans and survivors since President Biden signed the bill into law.”
Categories: VA Disability, Veterans Disability News
VA making PACT Act progress with claims expected to rise
April 23, 2024According to Government Executive, “The Veterans Affairs Department is quickly outpacing its expectations for processing new claims made through a law designed to provide health care coverage to veterans exposed to toxic substances, but [VA] Secretary Denis McDonough said Tuesday there may be more to come.”
The PACT Act expanded VA benefits eligibility to veterans exposed to burn pits overseas and to handle the expected influx in new claims from eligible veterans, the VA “went on a hiring spree” according to the article.
Read more about The PACT Act on Wolf & Brown’s NJ Vet-Wire.
Categories: VA Disability, Veterans Disability News
VA Proposal to Reduce Your Disability Rating – What it Means
February 22, 2024When the Veterans Administration (VA) proposes to reduce a veteran’s disability rating, it creates one of the most stressful times in a veteran’s life.
By Matthew J. Brown, Esq. VA-accredited attorney and partner at Wolf & Brown Law Offices
Routinely, our office encounters a situation where the veteran believed in good faith their service-connected disability worsened in severity and requested an increase in evaluation.
However, sometimes this request results in a determination that the veteran’s disability has decreased in severity – thus, resulting in a proposal to reduce a veteran’s disability rating. This inclusion to Vet-Wire will explain what occurs when VA proposes a reduction action and the various rules that protect veterans against proposed reductions.
Generally, a reduction in a veteran’s disability rating is permitted only where certain circumstances exist and where particular legal guidelines have been satisfied.
In proposing a reduction action, VA must comply with a variety of legal requirements and ultimately bears the burden of proof in establishing, by a preponderance of the evidence, that a reduction is warranted under the applicable regulations.
In some instances, the veteran’s rating is “protected.” In these situations, VA is prohibited by either statute or regulation from reducing the rating.
In one such instance, if a veteran’s rating has been in effect for five or more years, then that rating is considered stabilized. This means that VA may not reduce the rating unless all the evidence of record shows sustained improvement in the disability.
For example, if Jane is service-connected for a right knee patellofemoral pain syndrome and her evaluation is 20 percent, effective January 1, 2020 – if Jane 20 percent rating is in effect for five or more years, meaning the rating stays at 20 percent until January 1, 2025, then VA may only reduce the rating if medical evidence shows sustained improvement in the disability. If VA cannot bear the burden of proof, then VA may not reduce the rating.
In another form of protection, if a service-connected disability has been continuously rated at or above a particular level for twenty to more years, the VA cannot reduced the rating below that level unless they find the rating was based on fraud. This 20-year protection includes ratings levels that are assigned retroactively because a previous final decision is revised based on a finding of clear and unmistakable error (CUE).
If you need assistance with appealing issues in your Rating Decision, reach out to our team at Wolf & Brown Law Offices to schedule a free consultation so we may evaluate your case.
Relevant pages: NJ Vet-Wire; Veterans Disability
Categories: VA Disability, Vet-Wire
The PACT Act: Are you Eligible?
The PACT Act creates presumptions that make it easier for veterans and their survivors to become entitled to service-connected disability and death benefits.
By Matthew J. Brown, Esq. VA-accredited attorney and partner at Wolf & Brown Law Offices
On August 10, 2022, the President signed into law the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 2022.
The PACT Act creates presumptions that make it easier for veterans and their survivors to become entitled to service-connected disability and death benefits. Specifically, in relation to Veteran’s disability compensation, the PACT Act added a number of presumptive disabilities for veterans who were either exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and/or other toxic substances.
For background, burn pits were commonly used in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other overseas locations to dispose of waste collected on military bases. VA has identified waste products that were commonly disposed of in open burn pits, including:
- Chemicals, paint, medical and human waste
- Metal and aluminum cans
- Munitions and unexploded ordnance
- Petroleum and lubricant products
- Plastics, rubber, wood, and food waste
VA has noted “exposure to smoke created by burning these materials may cause irritation and burning of eyes or throat, coughing, breathing difficulties, skin itching or rashes.”
For Gulf War era and post 9/11 veterans who were exposed to burn pits during active-duty service, the following cancers are now considered presumptive:
- Brain cancer
- Gastrointestinal cancer of any type
- Glioblastoma
- Head cancer of any type
- Kidney cancer
- Lymphoma of any type
- Melanoma
- Neck cancer of any type
- Pancreatic cancer
- Reproductive cancer of any type
- Respiratory (breathing-related) cancer of any type
Additionally, the following illnesses are now also considered presumptive if a veteran was exposed to burn pits:
- Asthma that was diagnosed after service
- Chronic bronchitis
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- Chronic rhinitis
- Chronic sinusitis
- Constrictive bronchiolitis or obliterative bronchiolitis
- Emphysema
- Granulomatous disease
- Interstitial lung disease (ILD)
- Pleuritis
- Pulmonary fibrosis
- Sarcoidosis
To be eligible for presumptive service-connection for any of these disabilities, or more specifically to be found as having a presumption of exposure, a Veteran must have served in any of the following locations and time periods:
On or after September 11, 2001, in any of these locations:
- Afghanistan
- Djibouti
- Egypt
- Jordan
- Lebanon
- Syria
- Uzbekistan
- Yemen
- The airspace above any of these locations
On or after August 2, 1990, in any of these locations:
- Bahrain
- Iraq
- Kuwait
- Oman
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Somalia
- The United Arab Emirates (UAE)
- The airspace above any of these locations
However, it is paramount to understand that if you have a medical condition that is not listed as presumptive under the PACT Act, that does mean your condition is unrelated to your presumed exposure. Specifically, a veteran’s presumed exposure to burn pits has been shown to contribute to a broad range of illnesses including neurological, cognition, respiratory, immune system, skin, and cancers.
If you have a medical condition that you believe is related to your burn pit exposure, reach out to our team at Wolf & Brown Law Offices to schedule a free consultation so we may evaluate your case.
Relevant pages: NJ Vet-Wire; Veterans Disability
Categories: VA Disability, Vet-Wire
VA authorizes “fast-track” disability benefits for Agent Orange
February 12, 2024According to Military Times, “The move represents another major expansion of toxic exposure benefits for veterans, this time for individuals suffering from illnesses dating back to the Vietnam War era. The changes follow mandates included in the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act — better known as the PACT Act — passed by Congress in August 2022.”
Categories: VA Disability, Veterans Disability News
VA provides end of year 2023 benefits update
January 3, 2024According to the VA, Veterans have “applied for benefits at record rates over the past year — surpassing the previous all-time record by 39% … [delivering] $150 billion in benefits during 2023 alone.” The VA credits this increase in part to the historic PACT Act.
The VA also reports “Because of this record increase in applications, there has also been an anticipated increase in the number of claims applications that take longer than 125 days to process (otherwise known as the backlog), which is currently at 378,000 claims. While the total claims inventory has been decreasing over the last several weeks, the backlog is expected to grow in 2024 before returning to normal levels. We have been taking aggressive steps to address this increase and to ensure timely processing of your claims.”
Categories: VA Disability, Veterans Disability News