VA Watchdog Stuff...
cups, hats, shirts...
click on item to order
and support the site.






Be sure to get all four
VA Watchdog dot Org
RSS feeds --
Daily VA
News Flashes
House CVA
Veterans' News
Senate CVA
Veterans' News
VA Press
Releases
 

Download your
free copy of the
2008 VA benefits
handbook here...
 

Printer-Friendly Version

REPORT: VA NOW ACCEPTING CLAIMS FOR HYPERTENSION

LINKED TO AGENT ORANGE EXPOSURE -- Will determine

service-connected status at a later date, but

claims are expected to be approved.

Suggestion:  If you are a Vietnam veteran with hypertension, file a claim for the condition as a presumptive.  Even though the VA is not processing these claims at this time, if they give the go-ahead, you'll already be in line.

For more about hypertension, use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=hypertension&op=and

Story here... http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_9207845

Story below:

-------------------------

VA begins taking claims related to Agent Orange exposure

By Chris Roberts
El Paso Times

Veterans Affairs has started taking claims for hypertension related to Agent Orange exposure, but it will determine at a later date whether the claims will be honored as being military "service-related," according to service organizations who received notices from VA.

A letter from the Texas Veterans Commission to its county service officers indicates that the claims are expected to be approved.

The claims won't be actively "worked" until the VA makes its decision.

Requests for comment made to local VA agencies were referred to Washington, D.C.

However, after two days, the public affairs office in Washington, D.C., still had no comment.

If the claims are approved, it could mean as much as $300 a month for Bob Snow, a retired soldier who worked as a forward observer directing artillery fire in the Vietnamese jungles.

Snow - who worked with special forces soldiers and Montagnards, a French name for the indigenous people of Vietnam's central highlands - operated in areas sprayed with Agent Orange, a defoliant that knocked down vegetation used as cover by the enemy.

Snow retired in 1982 and was diagnosed with hypertension by the VA in 1983.

However, the condition was not considered service related and therefore his disability compensation was limited.

If hypertension is connected to Agent Orange claims, it could mean as much as an extra $300 per month for Snow, which he said will relieve some of the pressure of the rising cost of living.

Jeri Elena Mark worked as a radar mechanic for Hawk missile systems at a base in Vietnam where she watched planes drop Agent Orange on vegetation surrounding the camp, which was being shelled.

She had experienced high blood pressure, a symptom of hypertension, during her Army career, usually associated with flashbacks from her Vietnam service.

She retired in 1985, but her exposure is not considered combat-related, so she would get no increase in disability payments.

However, her family would receive benefits after her death if the cause is related to hypertension.

Chris Roberts may be reached at chrisr@elpasotimes.com;  546-6136.

-------------------------

posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org

Don't forget to read all of today's VA News Flashes (click here)

Click here to make VA Watchdog dot Org your homepage

email Larry

(go back to VA Watchdog dot Org Home Page)

       
Military Medical Malpractice 
Legal Network               

VA Watchdog Stuff...
cups, hats, shirts...
click on item to order
and support the site.