so
welcome to cck live under five i'm kayla gianafrio and in this video i'll be explaining 1151 claims
an 1151 claim is a means of receiving va disability compensation as outlined in the statute
38 usc 1151 the statute allows for veterans to receive compensation for a qualifying additional
condition as if it were service connected under two separate circumstances the first is that the
additional condition must have resulted from the carelessness negligence lack of proper skill error
in judgment or similar instance of fault on the part of va in furnishing hospital care medical or
surgical treatment or examination and that that event was not reasonably foreseeable as part of
the procedure or treatment that the veteran was undergoing the second is that the condition was
proximately caused by the veteran's participation in a chapter 31 rehabilitation program or in a
section 1718 compensated work therapy program or ctw program um so basically that means if
you're attending a vocational rehab program or a compensated work therapy program and you
incur some sort of an injury or a disability while actively participating in that program you may
be entitled to compensation for it and for this means of service connection under 1151 you're not
required to show evidence of negligence or fault on the part of va in order to file an 1151 claim a
veteran can go about doing that in really the same way they would any other service connection claim
if it's your first time filing a claim for that condition you can use the va form 21-526-easy
or if you have previously filed the claim and been denied and it's been more than a year since
va issued the decision denying that claim um you can use the va form 20-095 which is a supplemental
claim form and submit that with new material or new and relevant evidence to start the process
when filing these claims veterans should specify that they are claiming the condition as an 1151
claim if you don't explicitly say that on the form it's really unlikely that va will really
consider that theory of service connection at all so it is really important to note that up front
1151 claims can also be filed by veteran surviving spouses or dependents if the veteran died as a
result of a condition or an injury that falls into one of those previously talked about categories
now in order to be successful in these 1151 claims veterans do still need to show three elements
the first is that they have to have a currently medically diagnosed disability
the second is that there's an event or incurrence while under va hospital
care medical or surgical treatment or examination furnished by va or during the vocational rehab
or compensated work therapy program and the third element is a medical nexus that links
the disability to the occurrence and for the purpose of the va medical treatment circumstance
that the event or occurrence was the result of negligence carelessness improper skill error and
judgment or similar fault on the part of va and that can be really difficult to overcome that is
usually the most difficult portion of these 1151 claims in getting va to grant them it can
be really difficult to show that the event wasn't reasonably foreseeable as a risk of the procedure
or to get another medical professional to provide an opinion that another doctor was
negligent or aired in their care can be a little bit difficult to come by but i do
think that that's a good place for us to close out today thank you so much for tuning in and
visit our website for more information on 1151 va claims and be sure to check out our other videos
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