What Is The Va Disability Rating For Agent Orange

Receiving A Presumptive Service Connection For Hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism can be caused by a number of different factors, including autoimmune disorders and the effects of certain medications. However, when a Veteran has served in an area known to have been exposed to Agent Orange, they will qualify for a presumptive service connection. This means the VA will operate under the assumption that their condition is the result of their military service. They will only need to document their diagnosis and specific symptoms to begin receiving VA disability benefits.

Fatigue, weight gain, constipation, dry skin, thinning hair, memory impairment, and depression are examples of some of the most common symptoms exhibited by people with hypothyroidism. However, these are often subtle in the early stages and can overlap with many other medical conditions. A blood test can confirm the diagnosis, but Veterans may also want to request a free Agent Orange Registry health exam to look for other service-connected conditions that could be causing their symptoms.

Agent Orange And Dioxin Exposure

Because of a manufacturing error, Agent Orange contained large amounts of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, or TCDD. This compound is a particularly toxic form of dioxin. Dioxins are common chemicals that often result from burning trash and leaves and in certain manufacturing processes. TCDD is the most dangerous of these compounds.

The compound is extremely persistent: It does not wash away readily with rain, but stays in the environment for years, building up in soil and sediment and accumulating in the food chain. Dioxins are fat-soluble.

Exposure to the TCDD dioxin is known to have potential immediate and long-term health effects.

Fully Developed Disability Claims

The next fasted option is the Fully Developed Disability Claims program.

The primary difference between the FDDC program and filing a standard claim is the Veteran must provide all evidence upfront and certify there’s no additional evidence needed to make a claim decision.

At a minimum, the Veteran should provide:

• All military personnel records on the condition, and
• All service treatment records on the condition, and
• All private medical records on the condition, and
• All VA health records or supplementary information about related VA health records that the VA can request on your behalf

If the VA requires additional information, the claim typically gets removed from the FDDC program and is processed as a standard claim.

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% Va Disability Rating For Diabetes Type 2 Level 2

If a doctor prescribes a diabetic medication, such as the ones below, in addition to a restricted diet, the VA will grant an increase to 20%. The medications below are common oral hypoglycemic medications and their generic names.

When your doctor prescribes one of the hypoglycemic medications listed above, this is your cue: time for a rating increase!

You Were Exposed To Agent Orange During Your Service In The Us Military

We can do this in a few ways. If your military records show you served in Vietnam or the Korean DMZ during the Vietnam era, the VA will grant service connection on a presumptive basis. This means that the VA assumes that you were exposed to Agent Orange while serving in these areas during the Vietnam War.

However, even if the VA does not presume a connection to service, we can help you recover benefits if you served somewhere else. The right combination of evidence, medical and service records, lay testimony, and legal argument could win your case.

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How Does Va Rate Prostate Cancer

Upon establishing service connection, the rates prostate cancer depending on if it is active. If the cancer is active, the VA should automatically assign a 100% disability rating. If the cancer goes into remission, the VA will evaluate each residual of the cancer and rate them based on the severity.

These are some common residuals of prostate cancer and their ratings.

These are just a few common residuals and some veterans may experience additional residuals. Presence and severity vary from person to person.

What Is Agent Orange

Agent Orange is an herbicide agent that was used by the United States during the Vietnam War. Specifically, Agent Orange is a 50/50 mixture of two kinds of herbicide agents: 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T. Agent Orange also contained the contaminant TCDD as a byproduct of its production, which is the most toxic of all dioxins. Agent Orange is just one of the rainbow herbicides used during the Vietnam War. Herbicide agents were used in the Vietnam War for two main purposes: to destroy the enemys crops to interrupt their food supply, and to destroy foliage in the jungle and increase visibility to prevent ambush attacks. During the Vietnam War, herbicides, including Agent Orange, were sprayed in mainly four ways:

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Service In Vietnam Requirement

You must be able to prove that you set foot on land in Vietnam, no matter how briefly, or that you served on the inland waterways of Vietnam. If you flew over Vietnam but did not land there, you cannot qualify.

Veterans who served in waters offshore Vietnam without ever visiting the inland waterways or stepping foot on land have great difficulty obtaining a presumptive service connection for Agent Orange. These veterans are referred to as “blue water veterans.” To see if your ship is recognized as having landed in Vietnam or traveled on the inland waterways, check the VA page for ships in Vietnam.

There is a special rule permitting presumptive service connection for certain diseases based merely service in Vietnam without a requirement of stepping foot on land. This allows blue water veterans to be eligible for presumptive service connections for those conditions:

• non-Hodgkins lymphoma
• small-cell lymphocytic lymphoma.

Diseases Associated With Exposure To Agent Orange

The list of diseases below are the diseases that the VA currently presumes resulted from exposure to herbicides like Agent Orange. The law requires that some of these diseases be at least 10% disabling under the VAs rating regulations within a deadline that began to run the day you left Vietnam. If there is a deadline, it is listed in parentheses after the name of the disease.

• Ischemic Heart Disease
• AL Amylodosis
• Parkinsons Disease
• Chloracne or other acneform disease consistent with chloracne
• Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
• Multiple myeloma
• Non-Hodgkins lymphoma
• Acute and subacute peripheral neuropathy
• Porphyria cutanea tarda
• Prostate cancer
• Respiratory cancers
• Soft-tissue sarcoma

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How The Va Rates Ischemic Heart Disease For Disability Benefits

The American Heart Association reports that more than 600,000 people in the U.S. die each year from heart disease. Ischemic heart disease, also known as coronary heart disease and coronary artery disease, is the most common typeand approximately 365,000 people died from it in 2014. Additionally, a heart disease-related death occurs every minute, and someone experiences a heart attack every 42 seconds. With lost work productivity, medication costs, and health care requirements, heart disease costs total over $200 billion every year.

Veterans returning home from military service are often diagnosed with heart disease, including ischemic heart disease. With this condition, they may suffer from chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, and other symptoms that make it difficult to lead a normal life. When the heart doesnt get enough blood due to a build-up of plaque or cholesterol particles on the artery walls, circulation is compromised, and theres a decrease in the amount of oxygen that makes its way to the heart muscle.

Ischemic heart disease is recognized by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs as a debilitating condition, and if a veteran can provide evidence linking his condition to his military service, he may be eligible for disability. Veterans exposed to Agent Orange while in the service and later develop ischemic heart disease are presemptively service connected.

How To Establish A Service Connection For An Enlarged Prostate

Establishing a service connection for an enlarged prostate is extremely difficult because the root cause of this condition is unclear, making it difficult to directly or proximately link this disability to an injury or disease in service.

For example, the VA denied a disability claim where a veteran tried to prove a secondary service connection for their BPH, arguing that this disability is a result of his primary service-connected diabetes. The VA found that there is no medical correlation between BPH and diabetes and denied the claim.

The Nexus Letter is like the missing link to a successful VA disability compensation claim. In this video, one of our veterans disability lawyers explains the importance of the Nexus Letter.

Therefore, a veteran needs to submit strong medical evidence with their disability claim to prove that their BPH is either a direct result or secondary result of their military service.

A veteran can submit:

• Medical records showing that they have been diagnosed with BPH.
• Service treatment records showing that they were treated for BPH or a prostate-related injury during service.
• Lay evidence that confirms the veteran developed BPH or a prostate-related injury in service. This can include statements from your co-workers, spouses, family members, etc.
• Doctor reports validating that a connection exists between their enlarged prostate and an injury or disease they suffered during service.

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What Diseases And Conditions Can Agent Orange Exposure Cause

VA presumes the following diseases to be service-connected for such exposed Veterans:

• AL amyloidosis,
• Chloracne or other acneform disease similar to chloracne,
• Chronic B-cell leukemias ,
• Diabetes mellitus ,
• Respiratory cancers ,
• Soft-tissue sarcoma

VA offers health care benefits for veterans who may have been exposed to Agent Orange or other herbicides during military service. These services include an Agent Orange Registry health exam and clinical treatment at VA’s War Related Illness and Injury Study Center.

When To Contact Golowin Legal

If the veteran has passed away and you are a surviving spouse, child, or parent of a Vietnam veteran that previously filed a claim for VA compensation that was denied, be sure to contact Golowin Legal. You may be entitled to be paid many years of retroactive VA benefits.

If you or a loved one was exposed to Agent Orange during US military service, have cancer or one of the presumptive conditions listed above, and the VA denied their claim as far back as 1985, call Golowin Legal today at 453-5208 for a free consultation or book a time now using the red buttons at the right.

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Pct Agent Orange And Veterans

Veterans must take special note of PCT, because exposure to Agent Orange is a commonly recognized risk for developing the disorder. The VA is well aware of the connection, and presumes a direct service connection for veterans who develop symptoms within one year of exposure to Agent Orange and receive a degree of disability high enough to grant a 10% rating. If you meet these qualifications, you are eligible for disability benefits and healthcare treatment. Phlebotomy is the most common method of treatment for PCT. The Health and Medicine Division of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine deduced the connection between Agent Orange and PCT in its 1994 report, Veterans and Agent Orange: Health Effects of Herbicides Used in Vietnam. The HMD backtracked slightly in 1996 upon further review, but the VA continued to treat the connection with the same degree of consideration.

How Much Compensation Can I Get For A Disability From Camp Lejeune Water Contamination

Once service connection is proven for a disability that was the result of exposure to herbicide agents, the amount of monthly, tax-free payments that a veteran receives will depend on their specific disability and how much that disability affects earning capacity.

For example, type 2 diabetes disabilities are assigned disability ratings based on whether a veteran must treat his or her diabetes with injections of insulin, restricted diet, regulation of activities, and whether the disability causes hospitalizations or symptoms like weight loss.

Generally, asymptomatic conditions are assigned a 0 percent disability rating, meaning the veteran gets no monthly disability compensation for that condition.

Click here to learn more about how the VA assigns disability ratings and determines the amount of monthly disability compensation.

If you believe that the VA is not fairly compensating your disability from Agent Orange exposure, contact us today to review your claim or appeal.

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How Much Will My Monthly Agent Orange Va Compensation Benefit Be

A single person can receive up to $37,272 per year in tax-free benefits from the VA due to their exposure to Agent Orange and resulting medical condition. A married person, or person with dependents such as a child or dependent parent can receive $39,348 or more.

The VA will rate your condition on a scale of 0 to 100% to determine how much the monthly benefit will be. The worse your condition is, the higher your rating, and the higher the monthly payment.

For example, if you have cancer that is active, the VA will consider you to be 100% disabled, which means you will receive the maximum monthly benefit until six months after you successfully complete your cancer treatment program. Then, you will need to have another medical evaluation. Once the VA receives the evaluation, they will re-rate your medical condition and possibly adjust the monthly payment.

Birth Defects Linked To Agent Orange

Spina bifida is a spinal cord birth defect. A baby develops spina bifida while still in the womb. In some cases, a parents past contact with specific chemicals causes this birth defect. If you served in Vietnam or Thailand, or in or near the Korean Demilitarized Zone and your child has spina bifida or certain other birth defectsyour child may be able to get disability benefits. Find out if your child qualifies for benefits.

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Additional Benefits And Care For Veterans Who Were Exposed To Agent Orange

Veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange may also be eligible to receive an Agent Orange Registry Health Exam. This exam is free of charge. The purpose is to alert Veterans to possible long-term health problems that may be related to Agent Orange exposure during their military service.

Importantly, the exam is not a Compensation & Pension exam. The exam is also not required to receive VA benefits. The exam is based on the veterans recollection of service, not their military service records.

VA notes that these exams can help understand and respond to these health problems more effectively. Through the program, veterans may receive free lab tests and referrals to medical specialists for their conditions related to Agent Orange exposure.

Agent Orange Registry Health Exam

Eligible veterans can receive anAgent Orange Registry Health Exam, free of charge. There is no obligation to do so. However,veterans who qualify and participate in this program receive a free medical exam, lab tests, and free referrals to medical specialists if appropriate. Participation is voluntary.

Your Agent Orange Registry Health Exam will include:

• A physical exam
• Any necessary blood test, x-rays, imaging, or other tests and procedures
• History of known or suspected exposure to Agent Orange or other herbicides
• Your health history

You do not have to enroll in the VA health care system to receive a registry health exam.

You do not have to submit to an Agent Orange Registry Health Exam to receive other VA benefits.

If you do have an Agent Orange-related disability or health condition, you may receive free health care for those conditions through the Veterans Administration. To receive care, you must enroll in the VA health care system.

In some cases, you may be referred to one of the VAs threeWar Related Illness and Injury Study Center facilities Washington, D.C., East Orange, NJ, and Palo Alto, CA. These three centers assist veterans with deployment health concerns and difficult diagnoses.

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Diabetes Agent Orange And Your Va Disability Claim

Diabetes is a condition in which the body is unable to regulate blood sugar. Type 2 Diabetessometimes called adult onset diabetesis considered to be presumptively service-connected for disability compensation for veterans exposed to Agent Orange. Agent Orange was a defoliant used primarily in Viet Nam to clear the jungle. Exposure to Agent Orange causes a number of health conditions in veterans. Due to the association between exposure to Agent Orange and the development of a number of medical conditions, the Veterans Administration created regulations which establish a presumptive service-connection. That is, a veteran who was exposed to Agent Orange and is later diagnosed with diabetes is presumed to have a service connected disability, no matter when the condition first appears.

In addition, the veteran may be eligible for compensation for a number of conditions that are judged as secondary to Type 2 diabetes such as diabetic neuropathy, coronary artery disease, hypertension and a list of other conditions. These conditions are all eligible for benefits starting when the disease first occurs. For the most part the VA does not attempt to prove that the diabetes was caused by some other condition.