From: Veterans Resources Network" <veteransresources@switchboardmail.com>
 

VETERANS RESOURCES NETWORK

Dear Readers,

Below is an article from the NVLSP (National Veterans Legal Services
Program) Which states that You Should file NOW for Diabetes type 2
associated to Agent Orange exposure.

The VA Secretary has 60 days to review a new report about this issue and the
NVLSP believes that the Secretary will approve Diabetes as a presumptive
condition.

By filing an informal claim you will receive compensation at the earliest
date possible.  Follow up with the formal claim and the necessary evidence
needed; evidence you served in Vietnam; a current diagnosis of Diabetes type
2; and a doctor's statement saying that your current diabetes type 2 is
related to your in service exposure to agent orange.

 

Your Editor
Ray B. Davis, Jr.

 

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On October 11, 2000, the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine
(IOM) issued its report, which had been specially requested by the Secretary
of the Department of Veterans Affairs in 1999, on the relationship between
Agent Orange exposure and "adult-onset (Type 2) diabetes" (also called
"Diabetes Mellitus"). While finding no "clear link", the report finds
"limited or suggestive" evidence of a link. Previous IOM reports had found
"inadequate or insufficient" evidence.

 

The IOM report states that family history and other factors are a better
determinant in predicting diabetes, that increased risk due to Agent Orange
exposure is small, and that health risks of veterans are hard to "pinpoint"
due to inadequate information on actual exposure; however, NVLSP believes
that there is sufficient strength in the findings to support presumptive
service connection of Type 2 diabetes in Vietnam veterans.

 

What Does This IOM Report Mean For Vietnam Veterans or Their Survivors

 

1. This report has no impact on the twelve other diseases and spina bifida
in children of Vietnam veterans previously found by the VA to be
presumptively service connected.

 

2. The Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs has 60 days to
determine whether a presumption of service connection is warranted.

 

3. Since all previous IOM reports of "limited or suggestive" evidence of a
link have resulted in the determination by the VA of presumptive service
connection, there is no reason to believe these findings will be treated
differently.

 

What Should a Vietnam Veteran with Type 2 Diabetes or the Survivor of Such a
Veteran Do?

 

1. File an informal claim with the VA stating that the claimant believes
that his or her claim for service connection for diabetes based on Agent
Orange exposure should be granted, and if such a claim has been denied in
the past, that the effective date of the claim should run from the date of
the first claim. An informal claim need merely be a letter and should be
followed up by filing a formal claim (that is on VA Form 21-526 or 21-534
for survivors).

 

2. Because of NVLSP litigation, veterans with, or surviving family members
of veterans whose principal or contributing cause of death was, Type 2
diabetes will be able to have the effective date of their claim, (should
Type 2 diabetes be added to the presumptive list), in most instances, set on
the date the first claim for service connection or survivors benefits for
diabetes was filed. The claim need not have stated Agent Orange was the
basis of the claim. The basis of this is Nehmer v. Secretary.

 

3. For those whose first claim was filed or denied after January 4, 1994,
the VA takes the position that the effective date for diseases added to the
presumptive list after that date is the effective date of the new
regulation, not the date governed by the Nehmer case. NVLSP is challenging
this interpretation in the Nehmer court, and a decision is expected this
year as it relates to prostate cancer, a disease added to the presumptive
list in 1996. A NVLSP victory would govern the effective date for re-opened
diabetes claims.

 

NVLSP
http://www.nvlsp.org/nvlsp/welcome.htm

#####END#####
This Email From:
Ray B. Davis, Jr.
http://www.veteransresources.net
(articles published as  under the Fair Clause Use
of the Copyright laws)