New Presumptives Under

[Berta]

If VA denied your claim in the past for Parkinson's, Ischemic heart disease, or Hairy cell B Leukemia -the VAROs are supposed to-after the regs are law- access all past claims denied for these disabilities with proven AO exposure and then prepare awards on them.

However- in spite of that I feel the vet or widow themselves should re-open ASAP under the proposed regulations. Their claims will be stayed until the regs come out but although I was just told from VACO what the procedure will be- I also remarked that "it is as likely as not" that VA will fail to properly access and re-adjudicate many many claims denied in the past that fall under the new AO regs. The EED under Nehmer for most if not all past denied claims for the same conditions now going into 38 CFR and M21-1 in a few months is the date of the past claim or in case of widows or widowers of AO vets, the date of death of the veteran- assuming the claim form 21-526 was filled within one year of the veterans death or predicated by a prior decision the vet received in their lifetime.

Edited December 3, 2009 by Berta