MILITARY UPDATE
Change in law likely to spark flood of VA disability claims
By Tom Philpott
Military Update focuses on issues affecting pay, benefits and lifestyle of active and retired servicepeople. Its author, Tom Philpott, is a Virginia-based syndicated columnist and freelance writer. He has covered military issues for almost 25 years, including six years as editor of Navy Times. For 17 years he worked as a writer and senior editor for Army Times Publishing Co. Philpott, 49, enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1973 and served as an information officer from 1974-77.
The Department of Veterans Affairs expects disability compensation claims from military retirees to soar when Congress, later this year, passes a law to restore full retired pay to career retirees with VA disability ratings of 60 percent or higher.
Roughly 700,000 retired military members — about one of every three — receive VA disability compensation for injuries or illnesses tied to service, said Brad Flohr, a senior official with the VA. That number could double in five years, Flohr said, so that 70 percent of two million military retirees could be drawing disability pay from the VA.
Another 118,000 retirees now drawing VA compensation will seek a new review of disabilities in the hope that their ratings will be raised.
Driving the anticipated flood of VA claims is congressional action to restore full retired pay to the most severely disabled career retirees.
The VA is not quite sure how many retirees stand to benefit from the new law, but those who do are in line for a substantial pay boost — at least $790 more a month for 60 percent disabled.
The VA last year paid $22 billion in disability pay. The percentage of all veterans receiving disability compensation — more than 9 percent — is higher today than at any time in history, Flohr said.
From 1980 through 1999, the veteran population dropped by 13 percent yet the number of disabilities rose by 21 percent.
Until a decade ago, claims went before a three-member board, which included a physician. Now they are processed by disability rating specialists at regional offices. The raters serve as veteran advocates. Though they lack formal medical training, they read medical records and physician opinions to determine whether a condition had its outset in service and how disabling it is now.
If the information is still insufficient, the rating specialist can order a VA medical exam, and often does. But it is left to the rating specialist to rule on service connection.
If dissatisfied with the decision the veteran has a year to appeal. Other features of the process include:
• Presumptive Diseases: Heart ailments, cancers, osteoarthritis and many other illnesses are presumed to be service connected if there is evidence of onset while in service or evidence of the disease or injury appears within a year of leaving service.
• Combat testimonials: Combat veterans are taken at their word if they claim an injury occurred during combat, even if years later there is no written record to support the claim. Only when there is a preponderance of evidence against the claim is it denied.
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