General Legal

Most of us know someone who served in the military at some point in time.  We’ve seen pictures of them in uniform posted on their walls, or we’ve heard them talk about when they were in Korea, or Viet Nam, or Fort Benning. 

Today, there is a lot of anxiety about healthcare costs, education costs, and long-term care costs.  Have you ever asked someone who served in the military whether they are receiving any benefits or have thought about receiving benefits?  Often veterans or their families will say, “When my dad came back from the war, he never wanted to talk about the war and the VA just reminded him of a really bad time in his life. “  Or, my dad visited a VA hospital and it was too confusing and overwhelming for him.

The VA provides “Community Living Centers”, or what used to be called Nursing Homes.  These are operated by the VA, and are usually in a Veterans Administration Hospital.  These Community Living Centers (CLC’s) provide rehabilitation for veterans recovering from injury and illness in the short-term, but also provide long-term skilled nursing care for veterans who need care for long periods of time for a service-connected injury.

For veterans rated at 70% service-connected or higher, or for those who need nursing home care for their service-connected injuries, the VA pays for their nursing home placement as part of their package of healthcare benefits.

The CLC’s are available for non-service connected veterans who are enrolled in VHA healthcare, and need short term services such as rehabilitation, hospice, respite, and for those waiting for placement in the community.

As the veteran population ages, and as veterans come back from war with increasing numbers of traumatic brain injury (TBI), the number of veterans who are legally blind or have low vision is increasing exponentially.  Low vision and blindness can be caused by accidents, and brain injuries, but many veterans are losing their vision because of age and disease-related factors, such as macular degeneration and diabetes.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an Executive Order on January 8, 1944, which declared:  “No blinded serviceman from World War II (WWII) would be returned to their homes without adequate training to meet the problems of necessity imposed upon them by their blindness.”   After the war ended, the VA accepted the responsibility of adjustment training for blinded veterans.

What are vocational rehabilitation benefits?

The Department of Veterans Affairs provides services for qualified veterans with service-connected disabilities who need assistance to become suitably employed or to maintain employment or who need assistance or training in order to become independent in daily living.

The services provided may include counseling, as well as education and specialized training. 

Which veterans are qualified?

In order to qualify for the program, the veteran must either have, or will receive, an honorable or other than dishonorable discharge, have more than a 10% service-connected disability rating, and must apply for vocational rehabilitation services.

Generally, the veteran must apply for the vocational rehabilitation within 12 years from the separation from active duty, or from the date the veteran was first notified of a service-connected disability rating.

Once the veteran applies, a VA Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor provides a Comprehensive Evaluation, which assesses the veteran’s interests, aptitudes and abilities to determine whether the veteran is entitled to the vocational rehabilitation services and whether the service-connected disability impairs the veterans ability to find or hold a job with the skills the veteran already has.

The Department of Veterans Affairs administers many benefits to veterans and their spouses and families, but some benefits are available only to those who are classified as “Service-Connected” veterans.

Service-connected means that the veteran was injured or developed or contracted a disease or aggravated a pre-existing injury or disease while he or she was on active duty with one of the branches of service – the Navy, the Army, the Marines, the Air Force or the Coast Guard, or their Reserve Components- and that the injury or disease caused a present disability.   Some disabilities or diseases are presumed to have been caused by the veteran’s service if he or she develops the disease or becomes disabled after leaving the service.  We will discuss presumed service connection in a later post.

Some benefits available to service-connected veterans are financial, and the VA pays the veteran a certain amount of money each month based on the level of disability.

If so... 

Who pays what?  Do I need insurance if I’m eligible for VA healthcare?

You’ve been approved for VA Pension or Compensation, and you will be receiving healthcare and prescription drugs at the VA facility.  You also have Medicare part B and Medicare part D.

Part 2:    Proving Injury in Service

Once you’ve proven you are a veteran, how do you prove that your current disability was caused by something that happened to you in the service?

The VA can pay compensation for a condition that was incurred in service, for a condition that existed before entry into service that was aggravated during service, or for a disability related to a disease that is statutorily presumed to be related to service.

If you were injured or contracted a disease while in the service, and you are currently suffering from a disability, you have to prove that the injury or disease occurred while you were in the service, that there was medical evidence of your injury or disease while you were in service, and you must provide medical evidence that you are currently disabled.  There should be some evidence in your military records that an incident occurred, or that you contracted a disease while you were in the service.  If there is no evidence of the incident in your record, you can use your own statement and or statements of those who were with you when the incident happened to prove that you were injured.  Then, the VA may be required to get your military healthcare records from military hospitals and doctors that show that you were treated for an injury while you were in service.

Although it may seem that defining a military veteran should be easy, the term “veteran” may be defined differently depending on the calendar years the person served in the military, whether the person was in the Reserves or National Guard, and it may be defined differently based upon the programs or benefits the person is seeking.

The basic definition of a veteran is “a person who served in the active military, naval or air service, and was discharged or released under conditions other than dishonorable. 

The first prong in the definition, then, requires “active service.”  So, what is “active service”?

According to the VA’s manual, active service includes “active duty” defined as full-time duty in the Armed Forces, other than active duty for training.  In addition, active duty includes any period of active duty for training in which the individual became disabled or died from an injury incurred or aggravated in the line of duty; or from an acute myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest, or cerebrovascular accident occurring during such training.

Survivor’s Benefit – DIC

Mary’s husband was rated 100% service-connected for a cancer related to Agent Orange exposure.  After receiving Compensation for a number of years, Mary’s husband dies of the cancer.  Mary is 76, and is no longer able to care for herself in her home. She can no longer bathe or dress herself, and she needs someone to manage her medications.

What benefits are available to Mary?  What about other surviving spouses or dependent children of veterans?

There are two monetary benefits available to the surviving spouses or dependent children of veterans.

Is there any connection between diseases or disabilities that show up after a veteran has been released from service?

If a veteran is discharged from service, and then develops a chronic, tropical, prisoner-of-war related disease, or a disease associated with exposure to an herbal agent, which manifests itself to a compensable degree (generally 10%) within a specified period after discharge from service, it is possible that he/she may receive a service-connected disability rating and compensation for that disability.   There is a whole laundry list of chronic diseases that, even if there is no evidence the veteran had symptoms while in service, are presumed to have been caused by their service.  If those diseases cause the veteran to be disabled – to lose some ability to earn money- the VA will award a monetary amount based on that disability.

The presumption means that the veteran does not have to provide proof that the disease was incurred in the service, as long as the disease shows up within a certain period of time, which may be different for different diseases.  That period of time is called the presumptive period.

The death of a veteran is always a difficult time for the family, but there are some benefits available to the veteran’s family that might make his or her death a little less financially difficult.  Veterans who were discharged under other than dishonorable conditions are eligible for burial in a VA cemetery, a burial flag, and may be eligible for a one-time burial allowance, a funeral expense and a plot interment allowance.

Although the veteran cannot reserve a space, a veteran can be buried in one of the 131 national cemeteries located in 39 of the states the U.S.  and in Puerto Rico if there is space in the cemetery.