VA MAKES THE RULES – FOR VETS, NOT VA. BUT THEIR "RULES" ARE IGNORED

Multiple Federal Register comments about our C-123 Agent Orange regulation referenced a March 2013 correspondence from the Joint Services Records Research Center (JSRRC) to VA. JSRRC had cited the findings of a study by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) as relevant documentation establishing exposure to residual dioxin. The commenters requested that this memorandum be utilized as a basis for a retroactive effective date. Similarly, multiple comments referenced the 2015 findings of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and requested that the date of these findings be utilized as a basis for the effective date of this regulation.

"VA finds no basis to utilize the JSRRC correspondence or the IOM findings to establish an earlier effective date for the regulation. For all regulations in which VA has established a presumption of exposure, there is a body of scientific evidence that must be considered and ultimately informs the decision to establish the presumption of exposure. This body of scientific evidence, by logical necessity, predates the effective date of the regulation. Exposure aboard contaminated C-123 aircraft is no different. As discussed above, to the extent VA has legal authority to establish a retroactive effective date, it is unquestionably the well-established practice of VA and Congress to establish liberalizing regulations and statutes benefitting other groups of veterans with prospective effective dates. Therefore, no change is warranted based on any of these multiple theories asserted in support of assigning a retroactive effective date for this regulation."

The ignored rules about the JSRRC VA's own regulation VA M21-1MR. VA's rule is tat claims adjudicators must inquire about non-presumptive disabilities and questionable presumptive claims. Yet in the paragraph above VA insists it was correct in ignoring the numerous JSRRC affirmations of C-123 post-Vietnam exposures.

Rules? For vets, not for VA!

VA Continues Denying C-123 Vets' Agent Orange Claims–Merely Changes Their Wording

(please see today's next posting correcting the JSRRC actions which were perfect, as this error rests with the Huntington WV VARO)

It never stops.

Post Deployment Health in VA's Veterans Health Administration said no C-123 claims would be honored on their watch, and they continue to call the shots by ordering Compensation and Pension Service to make sure all such claims are denied.

Today we were copied on a VA Regional Office decision on one of our flyers. Like Paul Bailey and Dick Matte's earlier claims for Agent Orange exposure aboard the C-123 fleet at Westover, this NCO flew the same C-123s during the same time period. Unlike them, his claim remains denied. And will stay denied until reviewed by a Decision Review Officer or the BVA.

What is particularly weird here is the Joint Services Records Center response about the veteran's exposure claim. As far back as March 2014, JSRRC began confirming Westover's C-123 veterans' Agent Orange situation, yet here JSRRC denies it. So, VA refuses to accept JSRRC confirmation on other claims, but when JSRRC responds (incorrectly) in the negative, VA leaps at the opportunity to sink another deserving veteran's disability claim.

VA Now Permits C-123 Veterans Agent Orange Registry Exam!

At first available, then forbidden us, the VA's Agent Orange Registry Exam is now available to C-123 veterans! This is a terrific step for VA to take and important to us. The exam is one of our first requests to the VA, and here it is!

The first notice I had of this is the Manchester NH VA Medical Center's web page, published on February 11. Manchester is dear to all of us because they are the ones who bravely reviewed Paul Bailey's denied claim, and awarded it to him a month before his death. They stood up to the system and read their rules and regulations fairly.

The exam itself doesn't qualify a veteran for Agent Orange benefits. However, it is a comprehensive exam by practitioners who know what to look for, and I strongly encourage everyone concerned about their exposures to complete the exam.

How? Call your nearest VA medical center and ask for the Agent Orange exam people. Here's the text from the Manchester VA web page...wonderful to see it in print!