PACT Act Updates - Are You Covered? - What you ACTUALLY need to know!

Over 20 New Presumptive Claims were added in 2022

PACT Act Updates in 2022 have made big waves in the veteran community!! Make sure you claim any and all issues that you have on this list if you were exposed. If you have questions about your claims journey, please reach out at theveteran.coach or email laura@theveteran.coach

2022 PACT Act Updates - What this might mean for you!

The Pact Act was passed in August of 2022, I haven't covered a whole lot about it yet but, I've had a ton of questions. And environmental exposures are a Hot Topic in the VA, in the military, the veteran world and we’re no strangers to it. There's been Agent Orange with Vietnam Veterans. There's been water contamination at Camp Lejeune. There there's been other instances but the VA is finally acknowledging some of the conditions that are related to environmental exposures and more specifically with the burn pits.

Environmental Exposure exams are a great place to start with any PACT Act Exposures, and I've done a video specifically about the Burn Pits here> Even if you aren't having any of these issues that are now on the presumptives list which, you should get ahead of this if you have been deployed to any of these regions below or if you think you may have been exposed to any toxic substances, make sure you contact an environmental coordinator. There’s more details about that in that video below we'll go ahead and jump into what these medical conditions are that are presumed to be related to environmental exposures.

Presumptive Claims a medical condition that is presumed to have been caused or aggravated by your service and in this case environmental exposure. Stay tuned we'll dive into some more of those details and if you have questions as we're going through make sure you leave a comment in the videos or fill out our contact form.

The Pact Act was expanded in 2022 to cover more of the burn pit exposures in the newer campaigns Iraq-Afghanistan but it also includes Agent Orange, other toxic exposures such as Camp Lejeune water things like that. So it's just a little bit more all-encompassing and the big big new addition is the burn pit exposures. The PACT Act adds to the list of health conditions that are assumed or presumed to be caused by exposure to these substances these conditions are referred to as presumptives or presumptive conditions. if you think you were exposed recently and you don't know what some of the new modifications of the PACT Act covers, I'm here to show you all of the new additions and what it could mean for you! It expands and extends the eligibility for HealthCare coverage especially for these new Burn pit exposures but also Vietnam and Gulf War era Veterans. There's 20 new presumptive conditions some for radiation, some for Agent Orange but, mostly covering the Burn Pits. (again which I put out a video recently about the burn pit registry if you have not gotten on that make sure you see that video I'll link that above )

Hopefully, this is going to help us improve our research and our treatment related to toxic exposures. The more people that come forward and have these exams the more we know about the conditions related to these exposures and the more we can help other veterans. So this is important even if you're not having current symptoms, it's best to go ahead and get on that registry, get checked out and have that screening. If you're not sure what a Burn Pit is, what all that entails, it’s anything that was open air combustion. There's a lot of trash that was burned overseas in these new campaigns and theaters, it was a lot cheaper to burn and destroy waste - bio waste trucks, weapon,  everything. It was just much cheaper to destroy than bring it back. Just the water bottles alone think about how hot it is over there. Each person drinking eight bottles of water a day that adds up and it had to be burned. So breathing those BPA, the plastic, even let alone the metals and the biohazard waste. There's a lot of things that are are now presumed to be connected if you were exposed to that air.

How do you know if you have a presumptive exposure to the burn pits? This is where that registry does comes in. If you get the exam see what issues you may have already pre-existing going on right now that you may not know. May be related to the Burn Pits or maybe you know you have some things going on and now you can finally prove that it is related to your service.

One of the qualifying factors for a presumptive issue on The Pact Act is proving that you were in those locations on or after September 11th:

Any of these below locations qualify on or after 1990:

20 New Presumptive Conditions Acknowledged and Added!

Most of these are going to be for the Gulf War and Post 9-11 Veterans. All of the below cancers are now presumptive. Unfortunately, there's a lot of links between cancer and these toxic exposures. So any and all of these cancers below would be covered on the presumptive list so what you need to do to claim these, if you have any of these presumptive issues is: A - proving the location that you were exposed and B - proving that you have the listed condition. Those are the two qualifying factors for presumptive claims other than cancer. These are a few other illnesses and diseases that are now qualifying presumptive issues.

I do want to point out a keyword on this list is chronic for bronchitis, rhinitis, sinusitis. A lot of us have those issues throughout the year but it's important to note the word chronic verbiage and terminology is very important with the VA. So, if you have rhinitis, sinusitis, bronchitis you have to prove that it is chronic. So, documentation comes in very handy if you haven't seen my video about secure messaging with the VA I highly recommend that one but having documentation a little bit of a paper trail so to speak even for issues that we treat over the counter with things like nasal spray and Zyrtec and just over-the-counter cold medications it's important to document that or there will be no proof of chronic. Because that is key in some of these issues here.

How do I file a claim for a presumptive condition? This is a separate process from the burn pit registry itself. The burn pit registry is just an exam. It's checking you making sure you don't have the conditions on that list or if you do, they're annotating it but they do not automatically file claims for you. You still have to file a claim so once you go to the VA, you're on the burn pit registry, you've done the health questionnaire, you've done the evaluation that covers you for documentation starting off. However you want to make sure again you have the documentation for chronic, you have your diagnosis things like that. But getting on the burn pit registry is a very important part. If you don't have that, it's going to be a little bit of a hold up in your claim process. Could be the health questionnaire part of the registry is very brief, it's online. It's just a questionnaire brief health history and a few other questions. The health evaluation is again voluntary but very important for claims purposes or cover your a purposes so make sure you get this part done. If you are going to file for compensation it's important to have this part out of the way so it doesn't hold up your claims and your C&P exams.

Starting your Claims: If this is a new claim something you've never filed before you can file it online with the EZ form. If it's something that's previously been denied and now the VA is considering it a presumptive claim you can file a supplemental claim. Again they will not automatically award you something just because you have claimed it before and it's now presumptive. You have to do that leg work so make sure you file that supplemental claim. It is an appeal and submit something like a personal statement saying “hey this is now listed as a PACT Act presumptive and I would like to be reevaluated”. It could be as simple as that but for a supplemental claim you do have to have new evidence, PACT Act update would be new evidence.

Know the facts! Presumptive claims are not automatically awarded. You still have to apply and file a claim for compensation. You have to prove both that you were exposed during the service and that you are having current issues. Again if it's not on paper it cannot be claimed. It cannot be proved that it is a current issue that you have if you don't have both pieces of the puzzle. You can still be denied for a presumptive claim so make sure you have all of your ducks in a row before you submit.

Stay safe, stay healthy and I'll see you next time!