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hi and welcome to cck live my name is Brandon paiva and today I'm joined by my colleagues Dallas
aguiar and Alex Gamache today we're going to be discussing high value secondary claims before we
get into sort of the details let's start by defining what a secondary service connected
claim is so secondary claims are those that are filed for secondary service connected disabilities
a secondary service connected disability is a disability that results from a condition that
is already service connected so essentially we're saying that your service connected for
a disability and that disability has caused a complete and separate other disability that
other disability is now called a secondary condition so you can be service connected
for that Commission on a secondary basis now in these claims for secondary service connection try
providing a Nexus or proving a Nexus which is the link between your secondary disability that you're
seeking service connection for and your already service connected disability these Nexus and these
links are very very important to establish the Nexus between your primary disability and your
secondary disability must be clearly established in order to be granted on a secondary basis
this is different than a claim for an increased rating because you are claiming an entirely new
disability instead of asking VA for an increase of an already service connected disability
so now that we've kind of very generally laid the groundwork and kind of defined what secondary VA
claims are let's start to talk about why these things may may be beneficial to you or your your
case um Alex can you talk to us a little bit about why secondary service connecting claims
will be beneficial yeah so there's kind of two main reasons why they are beneficial
um so kind of getting into the first one as with any VA claim some conditions tend to
receive higher ratings than others when you get a higher rating that means more monthly compensation
um however it is common for a veteran with one service connected condition to develop another
so that secondary service connected condition will get a separate rating from the VA and then
they will have multiple service connected conditions and using VA math they will get
a combined disability rating so usually that secondary service connected condition will
increase the overall combined rating which means more compensation for the veteran
kind of the second reason why it's important to file for secondary claims and why they're
beneficial is that the veteran may also qualify for other VA benefits such as tdiu which
compensates veterans at the 100 level um so again the higher the monthly the higher combined rating
the veteran has the better likely chance they have getting tdiu because it's more conditioned service
connected and more criteria being met um for more information on tdiu we have posted a link below
and you can refer to that great thanks Alex so now that we've sort of gone over why these secondary
claims may be beneficial Dallas I'm going to kick this one over to you can you talk to us a little
bit about you know very generally speaking how these secondary disabilities may actually occur
yeah so there are several ways that a primary disability can cause a secondary disability
some diseases just as part of the natural progression of that disease can lead to other
health complications and they might rise to the level of compensable disability which will become
eligible for service connection for example a veteran who's service connected for type 2
diabetes might develop diabetic retinopathy and that could be eligible for service connection
additionally treatment of a primary service connected disability could result in a secondary
disability if the side effects from medication chemotherapy radiation or other treatments cause a
disability this could be classified as a secondary disability and finally completing everyday tasks
going about your life or working with a primary disability can lead to other health problems
like General wear and tear so for example if you suffer a knee injury and it results eventually in
a knee disability you might compensate for this by putting added stress on other joints such as
your other knee or your hips so this is another pathway for developing a secondary disability
great information yeah thanks Dallas before we kind of dive into what the actual high value
secondary claims are let's first really really quickly just recap how you can actually file
a claim for the secondary service connected conditions or conditions that you're seeking
service connection for on a secondary basis just like you would file an additional claim you file
a claim for a service connect disability that you're seeking secondary service connection
for on a 526 EZ which is otherwise known as VA form 21-526 easy so the same way that you would
initiate your claims process same way you would file for a service connected disability is going
to be the same process in the same form that you're going to fill out for seeking service
connection for a condition on a secondary basis specifically veterans need to demonstrate two
things in order to be granted secondary service connected disability they need a diagnosis for
that secondary disability and you're also going to need to provide or at least make sure that VA
goes out and obtains medical evidence that shows the relationship between your service connected
disability and that secondary disability that you're seeking service connection for as well
if your secondary condition you know could have many possible causes you may often need
a doctor's opinion or other medical evidence that clearly shows that your primary service connected
disability is the actual cause of that secondary disability that you're seeking service connection
for so same way you would initiate your initial claims process is the same exact form and same way
you would go about filing a claim for secondary service connection and that is now in that 526 ez4
so now that we've kind of laid the groundwork how to file a disability claim why these things are
important let's talk about what are the actual high value secondary service connected claims
that you potentially could file for um now this is not going to be an exhaustive list but these
are going to be some of the most common ways and what we at cck believe are some of the most high
value sort of secondary claims here so Alex can you talk to us about uh one of the first
high-value secondary service connected claims that a veteran may be able to file yes um so kind
of the first one that we see most often and has the most result would be depression and anxiety
um so like I said there are two of the most common secondary conditions among Veterans as
they develop due to a wide range of conditions um so veteran could develop depression or anxiety as
a result of a service-connected cancer they have in Orthopedic conditions such as a knee
injury or a back injury a TBI and many other conditions um oftentimes a veteran's condition
will lead to depression if it prevents the veteran from participating in activities they
used to enjoy finding a steady job or living their day-to-day life similarly an inability
to perform certain activities or fear of your condition worsening can also lead to anxiety
so basically if a veteran develops depression or anxiety secondary to a service-connected
condition they can receive secondary service connection for the depression and anxiety
depression and anxiety are both rated under the general rating formula for mental health
conditions and these can be rated from a 0 10 30 50 70 or 100 percent based on the
severity of the condition and the resulting level of Social and occupational impairment
great information Alex thank you we we tend to see that you know sometimes you know veterans
or even accredited Representatives or anybody in the claims process sometimes they may Overlook
that this is a potential Avenue to pursue if you have a diagnosed psychiatric disability and you
can sort of relate that to your service connected Orthopedic conditions and something that that we
see a lot here um so it's definitely something that is available out there that you know I'm
glad we're putting out information for for kind of people to to know Dallas I'm going
to kick this one over to you because as we know diabetes can cause a number of complications if
a veteran you know let's say for instance Vietnam veteran or service connected for for diabetes can
you talk to us about some secondary service connected claims that that veterans may be
able to file uh regarding you know their main disability diabetes and what else it can cause
definitely one of the more common conditions that we find secondary to diabetes is peripheral
neuropathy peripheral neuropathy impacts someone's peripheral nerves and it can cause
numbness weakness and tingling in the upper and lower extremities sometimes more specifically in
the feet in the hand VA doesn't have a diagnostic code for a peripheral neuropathy so it reaches it
with another code VA reads it based on whichever nerve is affected by the neuropathy typically
the lower extremities is going to be rated as paralysis of the sciatic nerve under diagnostic
code 8520 this code is going to contain readings including a 10 20 40 60 or 80. diabetes can cause
other complications though like we talked about earlier diabetic retinopathy erectile dysfunction
or kidney disease these are all conditions that are eligible for secondary service connection
I think this is a perfect segue into our next sort of secondary service connected condition that we
see is potentially high value uh piggybacking off of of diabetes say a veteran has has prostate
cancer Alex can you talk to us a little bit about what secondary service connected claims might be
available or or are out there for veterans who may be service connected for prostate cancer
yeah so like Dallas mentioned erectile dysfunction is a common secondary condition to diabetes
but erectile dysfunction is also a secondary condition to veterans that have prostate cancer
um so while a rectal dysfunction is typically given a non-compensable or
zero percent reading veterans who are service connected for erectile dysfunction may be
eligible to receive SMC at the K level which is loss of use of a creative organ
um this is a level of special monthly compensation that is awarded in addition to
the veterans monthly disability compensation and the 2023 compensation rate is about 128 dollars
thanks Alex she brings up a great point when we're talking about you know whether you're a service
connected for erectile dysfunction you know more often than not or almost in all instances
um you know it's usually rated at a zero percent rating but but take a look at your code sheet in
that decision that you get if you do get granted service connection for erectile dysfunction and
look out for that smck that is sort of where potential retroactive benefits can sort of stem
from so although it might be discouraging that you're service connected for Ed at a zero percent
rating check to make sure that your service connected um and you're also you know qualifying
for the SMC at that K level for loss abusive or creative organ because that's going to directly
correlate to your your monthly compensation so I'm going to kick this last one over to Dallas
uh sort of piggybacking off of what we had said at the beginning sort of the first high value
secondary service connected claim I'm talking about psychiatric disabilities Dallas Can you
sort of wrap us up here with talking about things that may be related to PTSD absolutely um you know
we commonly hear folks talk about hypertension being a result of toxic exposure but what folks
don't realize is that you can you can develop hypertension due to other causes and you don't
necessarily have to be exposed to something like agent orange to qualify for service connection
for hypertension so hypertension can occur as a result of another disability and we kind of see
this a lot with veterans who have post-traumatic stress disorder you can have increased stress and
anxiety that might cause you to develop high blood pressure so hypertension is rated based on blood
pressure readings under diagnostic code 7101 and you can receive either a 10 20 40 or 60 rating
for hypertension great thank you Dallas and thank you Alex for your great information so again this
is not an exhaustive list of conditions that may develop secondarily to other service connected
conditions these are just mainly some of the high value secondary uh claims that that we may
have seen in our experience here now of course if you're unhappy with your current rating or if you
are granted service connection for a condition on a secondary basis and you're unhappy with the
rating that VA assigns just like your initial uh your initial service connected disability
you can file a claim for an increased rating you do have the right to appeal va's decision under
the AMA system as we know there are several appeal options from which veterans can choose
based on their current situation if you need help with your appeal you also May benefit from
contacting an accredited representative or even an attorney the cck team here offers free case
evaluations to see if we can assist if this might be something that you're interested in pursuing
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content this has been high value service connected claims thanks for watching foreign