VA Benefits News

The Veterans Administration provides a Pension and Aid and Attendance benefit for wartime veterans or their widows/widowers who have low assets and whose income is below the MAPR after deducting their uncompensated monthly health care expenses. Throughout the country, vast numbers of elders are being cared for by family members. Often those family members have given up their fulltime work...

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced last week that the Veterans Health Administration has eliminated the use of net worth during both the determination of eligibility and assignment of VHA priority group.  The VHA will now only consider gross household income and deductible medical expenses for veteran otherwise not assigned a higher VHA priority group due to service-connected...

Yesterday, Sean Connolly, Army Judge Advocate General, was named as commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Veterans Affairs.  More information concerning his appointment can be found at Connecticut Mirror. I don’t believe I personally had any interaction with Mr. Connolly (though I recall reviewing court-martial records where he was counsel); however, I know many of my...

On February 9, 2015, the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC) issued an  opinion stating “ urged by the veteran, that  § 3.309(a) includes tinnitus, at a minimum where there is evidence of acoustic trauma, as an “organic disease[] of the nervous system.”  That decision can be accessed at Fountain 13-0540 (Fountain v. McDonald).  In essence, the CAVC overturned a...

Of recent, we had a few favorable decisions that address similar issues than may provide insight for veterans with similar concerns.  In this Blog, it involves proof of service in the Republic of Vietnam. In terms of the little things, the now-updated version of Acrobat Reader permits me to save already-filled Standard Form (SF) 180s.  This form is used to make a request for military personnel...

Presently, the VA Special Pension program bases eligibility on a “snapshot” of the income, expenses and very low assets of the applicant as of the time of the application. There is no specific asset limit, no look-back or transfer penalty (unlike Medicaid), and the applicant’s income is offset by qualified recurring medical expenses to see if the remaining income is below the...

There is a fascinating article in the February 2015 issue of National Geographic Magazine on the subject of research into soldiers’ exposure to blasts (explosions) and the traumatic brain injury that results from that exposure — “The Invisible War on the Brain” by Caroline Alexander. This has been referred to as the “signature injury” of the wars in Iraq and...

We recently began representation of a Korean War veteran who had appealed a denial of service connection for renal cancer causally-related to benzene exposure.  During the initial triage of claim and legal memorandum to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board), we had briefed a few issues regarding Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268 (1998) and the C&P examiner’s misreading of a...

On the heels of DoD Secretary Hagel and DA Secretary McHugh’s recent guidance concerning applications for discharge upgrades when there is an underlying issue concerning post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the Army Review Boards Agency (ARBA) has launched a new website devoted to the issue.   The webpage can be accessed at ARBA Discharge Upgrade/PTSD. The above webpage explains both...

Rarely a day goes by where a veteran — some days a baker’s dozen — does not contact me via email (sdirector@FRE-L.com) or telephone ((732) 382-6070) concerning issues they are having with the Department of Veterans Affairs.  These contacts come in from all geographic areas (to include out-of-country) and range in issue from initial claim processing confusion to issues...