so
welcome to cck live everyone my name is nicholas briggs and i'm joined today by
caitlin degnan and alex gamache in this video we're going to explain how veterans
can increase their ratings through filing claims for secondary service connection so
first to get us started alex could you tell us a bit about what secondary service connection is
sure so i'll first talk about service connection in general so service connection is the
acknowledgement that your current disability is related to caused by or aggravated by your time
and service um a grant of service connection entitles a veteran to certain benefits from va
depending on their assigned disability rating so if a client has a secondary service connection
that's basically a condition that is caused by or led by your service connected disability
so we have a couple examples that we wanted to go over to kind of put the picture together
the first would be ptsd sometimes ptsd can cause increased stress and anxiety which can later lead
to hypertension so clients can file hypertension secondary to their ptsd the second is diabetes
mellitus that can lead to conditions such as peripheral neuropathy which impacts the veteran's
peripheral nerves and can cause numbness weakness and tingling in their upper and lower extremities
so a client can file for peripheral neuropathy secondary to diabetes mellitus
perfect thanks alex so now that we know a bit about how secondary service connection claim works
uh claims work uh caitlin can you tell us how to apply for these benefits is it at all different
from a traditional claim so filing for secondary service connection involves the same process as
requesting service connection for any other initial claim a veteran is going to fill out
and submit a va form 21 ez and that's just va's application for disability compensation
and related compensation benefits and just like any other initial service connection claim a
veteran can do this online using the ebenefits portal in person at their local regional office
via the mail or with the help of an accredited veterans advocate or attorney
when you are filing this claim you are going to need to demonstrate basically two things in order
to establish service connection one you need to show that you have a current diagnosis of
a secondary injury illness or disability and then you also need to show medical evidence showing a
link between your service connected condition and that secondary condition that you're claiming for
and we should also note that you can file multiple uh secondary service connection claims and become
service connected for multiple secondary conditions so just because you've you know
you've been service connected for say diabetes um and and you get service connection for that
peripheral neuropathy uh secondary to that that doesn't preclude you from also claiming secondary
claims for other other issues that might be secondary to that diabetes so you're not just
limited to one you can have multiple yeah and like you mentioned with diabetes in particular
it's not just the neuropathy but it might be hypertension it might be chronic kidney disease
there are loads of different recognized residuals that come with diabetes in particular
and oftentimes the rating schedule will technically instruct readers to consider those
separate readings as a part of the underlying condition but it's always safer to file that
secondary service connection claim because you want to get va's attention submit their form play
by their rules at least initially and then they'll start adjudicating your claim hopefully
so with that in mind one of the key things that you mentioned is sort of the
shift from the three traditional elements of service connection to two we don't really
need to worry about the in-service element here because the primary service connected disability
stands in for the in-service element so we're really talking current diagnosis and then a
nexus medical opinion linking that condition to what you're currently service connected for so
with that in mind when you're thinking about the types of evidence you want to submit in support
of your secondary va claims first and foremost we need to be thinking about medical evidence
this can come both from your va health care providers or any private physicians that you see
but it really is going to be important to both show that you've been diagnosed with
these conditions and if possible get a nexus opinion from your private examiner or from
your va physician but realistically this is a situation where va's duty to assist is going to
kick in if you put them on notice that you think you have conditions related to your your service
connected disability odds are they'll provide you with a service compensation and pension exam
um but either way medical evidence is a great place to start and hopefully get that process
kick-started but alex with that in mind are there any other types of evidence that might be helpful
in establishing secondary service connection yes so lay evidence may also be helpful in helping
you demonstrate service connection so veterans can submit late statements outlining how their already
service connected conditions caused or impacted their secondary condition those close to the
veteran such as family members co-workers fellow service members they can also submit statements
corroborating what the veteran's claim is in describing any symptoms they may have witnessed
notably as of january 2021 va does require that lay evidence be submitted using va form 21-10210
the other two helpful pieces of evidence may include service and employment records so service
records are important evidence and secondary claims they usually include the veterans dd214
which details the locations in which they served performance evaluation and service medical records
additionally employment records can further demonstrate how the secondary disability
impacts the veteran maybe it causes them to miss substantial amounts of work
or re or has resulted in poor focus or job performance all of which should be reflected in
the veterans employment records great thanks alex so up to this point we've largely talked about
how to go about getting service connected for secondary disabilities um but caitlyn could you
tell us a bit more about what happens once service connection for a secondary condition is granted
sure so once secondary service connection is established va is going to assign a disability
rating to that secondary condition just like with any other condition and va will rate that
secondary disability the same way it rates other conditions that are service connected on a direct
basis using va schedule for rating disabilities each condition is rated using a diagnostic code
in the rating schedule and va is going to look at the severity of your symptoms and the level of
resulting impairment to determine the percentage of the diagnostic code that best approximates
to your level of disability and that's what they will use to decide your disability rating
if you have multiple service connected conditions those ratings are going to be added together
using the combined ratings table or what some might like to call va math and the combined
disability rating is going to determine what your monthly benefit amount will be thanks caitlyn and
like you mentioned this is sort of where va math comes into play it's nobody's favorite subject
by a long shot but it's important to understand because as veterans get more and more secondary
conditions granted they tend to just assume that oh i was at 50 before and i have 40 more now
i must be at 90. but unfortunately that's not how the combined rating process works
so when can calculating a combined rating va starts with the premise that a veteran is 100
efficient or not disabled so if a veteran has a disability of 20 percent then va sees them as 80
non-disabled and then 20 disabled so with that baseline 20 in mind if an additional
disability is granted at say 10 va is only going to take that 10 from the remaining 80
efficient individual and then combine the result of that 10 percent and the original 20.
so rather than a veteran being 20 plus 10 equals 30 they're actually only going to be 20 plus 20
plus 8 equals 28. now it's such low ratings that doesn't mean too much because either way you're
going to be rounded up to 30 and you're going to get to combine the same combined rating either way
but as you get higher and higher and there's less and less of the efficient person left to add from
it becomes harder and harder to get to that next level of combined reading
so it's a complicated subject and we have many more facebook lives or cck lives available for
you um to go through that process in more detail but with combined ratings and vma
va math in mind alex how do secondary service connection claims help you increase your rating
yeah so if a veteran files for and is granted service connection on a secondary basis they'll
get a separate rating like nick explained and also like caitlyn explained you can get secondary
service connection for more than one condition so you're not just limited to one so the more
conditions you have that are service connected the higher your combined rating therefore your higher
greater disability compensation monthly um to calculate your combined rating instead of doing
the math like nick had talked about we do have a va calculator that's linked below which will
easily you'll be able to put in your comb your ratings for each condition and then what your
total rating should be additionally if your disabilities prevent you from working a grant
of secondary service connection may also help you meet the qualifications for scheduler tdiu
we have a ton of facebook lives on how to get scheduler tdiu but essentially tdiu compensates
veterans at the 100 level even if their combined rating does not equal 100 percent
um the amount of compensations for veteran getting the 100 or tdiu is about 3 300 a month
great thanks alex so uh thank you both for taking the time out of your day to
go over these important subjects with us is there anything else about secondary service
connection and combined readings generally that you'd like to share with our audience
i would say um you know nick as you mentioned before there are certain diagnostic codes that
require the va to look into the secondary issues but this is yet again one reason why
it's so important that if you're going for that cmp if you're seeing your treatment provider
it's so important to make sure they're that you're telling them about all of the effects
of your disabilities um because even if you may not realize that something is something
that could be secondary to your service connected disability you know this is how we can you know
you can discover it so it's so important to be honest with your cnp examiner to be honest
with your treatment provider to make sure that all of that gets documented and into the record
absolutely thanks for that caleb well thank you all for joining us be sure to explore our
website for more information on this and other subjects i do especially recommend our videos
on va math like i said it gets complicated very fast and don't forget to subscribe to
our youtube channel so that you'll never miss a video thank you all for joining us
you