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welcome to another edition of cck live my name is Emma Peterson and today I'm joined by my colleague
Caitlin degnan and Rachel Foster and we're going to be talking about VA presumptive exposure claims
and how they work so for VA disability claims a presumption can work in two ways first it can
improve exposure to harmful toxins or chemicals during service or it can link a disability to
service and VA creates presumptions to make proving aspects of va's disability claims easier
for veterans so basically we're looking to see if you were in the right place at the right time
Caitlin can you tell us a little bit about presumption of exposure
sure so a presumption of exposure means that if a veteran has qualifying service meaning
that they served in a specific area during a defined time frame VA is going to presume that
they were exposed to certain harmful chemicals or environmental hazards and these presumptions
of exposures help replace the requirement of First Service connection that requires veterans
to have an in-service event that caused their current disability so in these instances VA is
going to count that exposure as the in-service event the veteran doesn't need to establish
that the exposure actually happened VA is going to presume that it did so long as he or she served in
that specific place at that specific time so for example VA will assume that veterans are exposed
to herbicides or agent orange satisfying the in-service element required for service connection
for any veteran that served in the Republic of Vietnam from January 9th 1962 to May 7th of 1975
and this includes Brown water and Blue Water Navy veterans VA is also going to presume that
any veteran that served in Thailand on any U.S or Thai base from January 9th of 1962 to January
30th of 1976 without regard to the veterans MOS or where on the base they were located the same
applies to veterans that served in Laos from December 1st of 1965 to September 30th of 1969.
veterans that served in Cambodia specifically at memo or krek kempongshan Province from April 16
1969 to April 30th of 1969. Guam or American Samoa or in the territorial Waters thereof from January
9th of 1962 to July 30th of 1980 the Johnson atoll were on a ship that called at the Johnson Atoll
from January 1st of 1972 to September 30th of 1977 on or near the Korean demilitarized zone also
known as the DMZ between September 1st of 1967 and August 31st of 1971 an active duty and reservist
Personnel who had regular contact with c-123 aircraft between 1969 and 1986. thanks Caitlyn
and a lot of those locations have been expanded or are new presumptive locations Under The Pact
act we have a lot of information about the packed act on our blog and in our videos if you want to
explore that further and we'll of course have all this information up on our website but I think big
takeaways from those presumptive locations that Caitlyn just mentioned are that um only is it
Guam or American Samoa but also the territorial water so that really covers a lot of veterans out
there so be sure to take a look at those closely to see if VA is now going to presume that you
were exposed to herbicides meaning agent orange while you were in service so Rachel can you tell
us a little bit about a different aspect about presumption meaning presumption service connection
sure so a presumption of service connection and is when VA presumes a veteran's disease
was caused by the military service usually due to a certain exposure the presumption of service
connection takes the place of the medical Nexus requirement and obtaining service connection
so a little background a medical Nexus is that link between an event during the veterans service
and their current disability usually in the form of a medical opinion a presumption of
service connection acts as that link so instead of having an examiner say whether in their opinion
on disability is less likely as likely or more likely than not due to service the presumptive
regulation steps in and essentially tells VA to Grant service connection as a matter of law
um an example of that is va's presumptive service connection for Gulf War Illness under title 38 of
the total federal regulations Section 3.317 for Gulf War veterans with eligible chronic
disabilities from undiagnosed illnesses they may qualify for presumptive service connection if
their symptoms began anytime between their active duty and the Southwest Asia theater of military
operations and December 31st 2026. the Gulf War presumption includes medically unexplained chronic
multi-symptom illnesses you'll probably hear this referred to commonly as muck knees but are
essentially a disability with no clear etiology so your doctors can't figure out where it came from
or how you got it uh it also includes undiagnosed illnesses where you might have a cluster of
symptoms but doctors may not be able to figure out what the condition you're suffering from is
and it also includes certain infectious diseases such as malaria or West Nile virus
thanks Rachel so for veterans who want to file a new claim presumptive or otherwise they have
to use a VA form VA is very form happy these days and so you're going to want to file a VA
form 21526 easy it can be submitted online using the eBenefits platform you can mail it to the
evidence intake Center you can bring it in person to your local regional office or you can file it
with the help of a veteran service organization an accredited agent or VA disability lawyer
um with the creation of some new presumptive locations as well as changes in
um those conditions that will be considered presumptive due to particular exposures by the
way of The Pact act many veterans have been left with a lot of questions about these updates and
how The Pact Act is going to affect them so we're going to break down a few of the common questions
that we've received in our past videos and just questions we've received at the firm here about
how those new presumptions are going to um to work so Caitlyn um if VA has denied a claim in the past
but the condition is now presumptive how is that going to work so VA recommends that veteran file a
supplemental claim if your claim was previously denied but that condition now qualifies as a
presumptive and to do so you have to provide or identify evidence that is new which means it was
not previously provided to VA and relevant to your case and to do this you can file a supplemental
claim form it's VA form 20-0995 and it's titled the decision review request supplemental claim
and if you're trying to preserve that earlier that you know that earliest effective date that
you can it's best to do this within one year of your original decision that's how you're going
to preserve that earliest effective date all right pop kids quiz Caitlin and it's okay if
you don't know the answer to this will the PAC deck count as new evidence could a veteran just
say well my condition is presumptive now is that enough for to file a supplemental claim
you know I'm not sure Emma I'm gonna say yes yes it is all right Rachel what if I
now qualify under a presumption but my claim is already pending do I need to file a new claim
if you have a pending claim for a condition that is now presumptive you don't have to do anything
except maybe continuously prosecute your appeal if you receive a denial VA should can still consider
your conditions presumptive and process your claim accordingly even if the condition was added to the
presumptive list after you filed I will say even though the pact Act was passed in August I've
seen some of these claims since then still get denied so it seems VA adjudicators are not yet
consistently applying the news presumption so as you know Caitlyn mentioned if you have a decision
within a year you'll want to make sure that your timely filing to in order to keep that claim alive
so in a nutshell if there's already a clean pending veterans don't need to file a new claim
um and you don't want to abandon that claim
okay Caitlyn if I served in a presumptive area or I have a presumptive condition do I still
need a diagnosis a Nexus or a medical opinion so you still need to provide that proof of
diagnosis as part of your VA claim unless it is an undiagnosed qualifying disability related to
service in the Gulf War so if a veteran qualifies for a presumption of exposure they no longer need
to provide proof of an in-service event injury or illness right so that element is taken care of
if you qualify for a presumption of service connection then you don't need to show that
there's a Nexus or a link between the service and that condition but in both cases you do
still need to show that there is that diagnosed condition though something to keep in mind for
everyone out there watching that is impacted by The Pact act maybe you're in a new location
um or you're in there's a condition that you have that's been added to the presumptive list
even though the pack passed in August we've been talking about it I think a lot since then VA has
said they're not going to start processing these claims until 2023. so we strongly encourage you
to get your claim in as soon as possible you want to preserve that early effective date
the earliest effective date you can so that you receive all the benefits you're entitled to but
just know that you might be having to hold tight until at least next year early next year if not
well into the spring before VA starts making a decision on your claim so that's all we really
have today for presumptive exposures do either of you have any final thoughts Caitlyn or Rachel
just kind of running with the theme of today is just to continue to be persistent for your
claim as both you and Caitlin have said don't wait file for your claims if you already have something
pending keep it going um the packed Act is a very expansive and exciting and a good thing and
um we might just have to wait a little bit longer before we start to see those benefits thanks
Rachel any better if you need help appealing a denial of benefits or filing a supplemental claim
um feel free to contact our team of accredited agents and attorneys to see how we can help if you
want to learn more about va's various presumptions and how to qualify be sure to check out our blog
at cck-law.com and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on social
media to keep up with the latest VA news and information regarding veterans thanks for watching