What Rating is Expected for High Blood Pressure? (New Agent Orange Presumptive Illness)

[Max Rommel]

The Pact Act has expanded the list of Agent Orange presumptive illnesses to include high blood pressure, aka hypertension. My assumption is that many, if not most surviving Vietnam veterans have this medical condition. Does anyone have an idea what disability rating the VA will give to vets with high blood pressure who take one or more meds to treat it?

[brokensoldier244th]

Not yet- it just passed the other day. We still haven't gotten guidance on how it will be applied because, up until yesterday, it was a no-go (again.....)

 

 

[Marine Corp 69/70]

Maybe I am reading the pact act wrong but hypertension doesn’t go in to affect until later 2026 for agent orange, that is why I said to get it secondary to other conditions like sleep apnea, PTSD, type 2 diabetes if you have these  conditions 

[GBArmy]

Hypertension will be rated  to diagnostic code 7101.; min requires a diastolic reading of 100 or higher  for a 10% rating, BUT 90 would be 0%. Note that it taken 3 times. M21-1 has an exception, however. IF you are under meds AND it is controlled, you can provide b p readings taken prior to your initial diagnosis as evidence. For most veterans who have had htn for years, that is what you need. Get your records from the doc that initially diagnosed you.  The interesting part is when will the VA eval and award the disability, even if it doesn't have an effective date a couple years out. Will we get the disability but just not get the comp but still be able to hang secondaries to the "pending" new disability, or we can't yet because it's not in play yet? I'm thinking they just receive the claims and put them in a holding pattern for two years and then they don't have to worry about new secondaries.

[brokensoldier244th]

We can't just hold claims for 2 yrs. We have to evaluate based on whatever current regulations are at the time they are filed. 

[broncovet]

I dont usually advise Vets to start calculating disability percentage "until" they get SC first.  

As always, there are many rules and restrictions on the Pact ACT, and, as Broken soldier pointed out we dont even know what those are yet.  

Not trying to offend, but it reminds me of a person who goes and buys a lottery ticket, then contacts a stock broker to decide how he will invest the money, once he wins.  

VA takes the following order, and pretty much does not devaite from it:

1.  Service connection.  Do you have evidence of a SC disability, including, if applicable presumptive, (there are always qualifiers to the presumptive, mostly, you have to demonstrate you served in the applicable period, in the countries which allow the presumptives.  You need diagnosis, an in service event, and a nexus, OR can demonstrate you meet the criteria for a presumptive.  Since we dont know all those things, its like getting the cart before the horse.  I made a similar mistake years ago, and VA set me straight..with multiple denials.  I kind of set myself up for those, pretty much "skipping" the sc part and going right to the percentages.  

2.  Disability percentage.  AFTER you become sc, only then will you be rated on symptoms.  And those have to be documented.  

3.  Effective dates.  This is likely going to be even more complicated with PACT ACT presumptives.  

     Im not trying to be negative here, but I was led to beleive my sc was a no brainer.  Well it took me about 17 years to finally get it mostly resolved, including appeals for sc, for percentages, and for effective dates.  It was a long fight, and my VSO set me up for failure thinking I would get a check in 6 months or less.  Instead,  it took in excess of 200 months, and a very long fight with many appeals.  I just dont like em promsing you a rose garden and giving you the fertilzer to grow roses, a decade later instead.  

     By skipping this important part (service connection) and getting the cart before the horse, it made it much more difficult for me, and Im trying to save you the trouble, by being meticilous, getting SC first, and only then consider disability percentages.  

     It may not be too good of an idea to book tickets for the Super Bowl, when you have not yet made the team, yet.  

Edited August 6, 2022 by broncovet

[Marine Corp 69/70]

Hear is what it says there are provisions in the bill to speed up benefits for individuals with deteriorating health conditions, or age 80 and older. For hypertension, However, as the bill is written, some veterans expecting to benefit from the Pact Act won’ See any checks in the mail for another four years