Jan. 1 marked the first day VA officials could begin processing all claims related to the PACT Act. Since the end of last summer, more than 176,000 veterans have submitted paperwork related to toxic exposure issues covered in the measure. In early December, VA Secretary Denis McDonough said that officials have been preparing for the increased workload for months, developing processes and procedures
to make sure that all of the claims are handled as quickly as possible.
Concerns raised over continued rising cost of VA health record digitization
The VA electronic health records overhaul has been underway for five years, but events coming in the new year could decide whether the effort still has any future. The health records
modernization project started in 2017 as a way to provide better care to troops and veterans throughout their lives. Implementation so far has been problematic. Government watchdogs now suggest the continued postponement of record deployments could be adding hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of the project. This has some lawmakers questioning whether the project will be worth its final price tag.
New law will help certain survivors receive benefits faster
A new bipartisan law should speed up payments to hard-to-find survivors of recently deceased veterans. President Biden signed the Faster Payments to Veterans' Survivors Act into law on Dec. 27. When a veteran passes away, the surviving spouse or child is eligible to receive certain benefits. The VA often struggles to promptly identify, locate, and pay these families or beneficiaries. The legislation cuts the time in
half that the VA has to pay life insurance benefits to survivors.
A comprehensive list of burn pit presumptive conditions
If you're diagnosed with a presumptive condition, you do not need to prove the medical nexus (connection) between your condition and your service to be eligible for VA compensation. There are 33 conditions on the current list of presumptive conditions related to burn pits. The VA added the first three (asthma, rhinitis, and sinusitis) in Aug.
2021 and expanded the list to include nine rare respiratory cancers in Apr. 2022. Twenty cancers and conditions were added to the list a year later when Congress passed the PACT Act.
Didyou live or work at Camp Lejeune before 1987 and now have a health condition? You may be eligible to take legal action and seek a financial settlement from the U.S. government.
Benefits for Widows and Widowers of Deceased Veterans
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