All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
This is Veterans Radio.
And now your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry.
Hey, and welcome to Veterans Radio.
My name is Dale Throneberry and we are excited to have you here.
This is our monthly benefits program.
We have moved our benefits program from the last Sunday of the month to the first Sunday
of the month.
Mainly because of things on the calendar, we ended up missing four benefits programs.
So we wanted to make sure we could always get these in for you.
Our guests today are going to be Caroline Palsone.
Caroline is associated with Legal Health for Veterans.
She's also a retired Air Force nurse.
As in Brigadier General type, so I always have to salute her whenever I see her.
She insists upon it.
And so we're going for that.
We're hoping we're waiting for David Sames to come on from the Washtenaw County Veterans
Service Office.
But we've got lots of answers for lots of questions and we encourage you to call us
here at Veterans Radio.
The number is 734-822-1600.
734-822-1600.
I got a little bit of housework, I guess you could call to get through before we get into
the program actually.
And number one is I want to make sure that we thank all of our sponsors.
We can't do this program without their help and without your assistance actually.
So for number one, they've been with us the longest and that is Legal Health for Veterans.
And Legal Health for Veterans specializes in Veterans Disability Claims.
You can give Legal Health a call at 800-693-4800 or you can go to their website, Legal Health
for Veterans.com.
And actually you can start your claim right there.
Just kind of interesting.
The National Veterans Business Development Council, better known as NVBDC, is the nation's
leading third party authority for certification of veteran-owned businesses.
For more information, you can go to their website, that's NVBDC.org.
Give them a call at 888-237-8433.
If you want to do business and you are a veteran-owned business, if you want to do business with
the federal government or with many corporations, you need to be certified as a veteran-owned
business.
And so these are the folks that can get you that certification.
They're very professional, very worth your time.
And what an incredible group of people that could help you mentoring all kinds of meetings
that they put on, all kinds of educational programs that they put on.
I would really encourage you to check them out at NVBDC.org.
The Charles S. Kettles VA Medical Center here in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
For more information about them, you can go to va.gov.
Slash Ann Arbor Healthcare.
We think we have one of the finest VA hospitals in the country here in Ann Arbor.
And come on down, check it out, you might like it.
We also want to thank our local veterans organizations for their long-time support.
We couldn't have gotten this program started back in 2003 without their help.
And that's the Erwin Prescott and American Legion post-46 and the Charles S. Kettles
Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 310, both of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The other thing, as I mentioned, is that these organizations are supporting us, but also you
as individuals, your support over the year has been greatly beneficial and we're really
appreciated by all of us here at Veterans Radio.
And if you'd like to continue that donation process, you can go to our website, veteransradio.org,
and click on the donate button.
This is our 20th year.
And now that's hard to believe that we've been doing this.
Over a thousand episodes, programs, whatever you want to call them.
And so we're asking for your help to celebrate our 20th year and also to help us continue
on for another 20, possibly.
Speaking of which, you know, we've got some, you can't see what we're all wearing here
with it.
We all have kind of Veterans Radio swag on here as they call it.
And so if you'd like to get some of that, which we benefit from, obviously, you can
go again on our website, that's veteransradio.org.
And right on the right hand side, there's a picture of sweatshirts hats and all kinds
of really neat things.
Click on that and you put in the code VR20, 20% off of whatever it is that you decide
that you would like to have.
So again, we encourage you to do that.
In lieu of buying a hat or something, you can make the straight donation to us on the
donate button.
So anyway.
All right.
So since it is our benefits program here, and I'm going to bring on my guest right now
is that because we're missing one, but we'll try to reach out to him in a second.
As General Carol Ann Falstone, General Falstone is associated with legal help for Veterans.
She's also a qualified Veterans Service Officer.
And she's a very, very good friend of Veterans Radio.
So Carol Ann, welcome back.
Thank you, Dale.
Good afternoon.
I kind of like this move because we were missing a couple months there and we were getting
some calls about, hey, what happened to you guys?
So good move there, Dale.
Yes, we were.
I talked to my programming committee and they suggested that we do this.
And we're such a big organization.
Excellent.
So actually, Carol Ann, we do have a caller on the line already, which is kind of cool.
So this is Leroy Page and Leroy, welcome to Veterans Radio.
What's your question?
Yeah, Dale, hi.
How are you?
Doing very well.
How are you doing?
Not too bad.
Thank you.
I have actually a couple of questions that I can expedite.
I know it gets some answers for me.
I can help.
See if you guys can help me out.
The first question is, I've gotten hearing aids and glasses through the VA and over to
Ann Arbor.
And I'm just wondering if that indicates that I am service connected and how can I find
out if that's the situation and to what percentage, what percent?
I don't know that there's a lot that I've done.
I signed in the system, but I didn't do that until 2011.
But I came home from Vietnam in 1970.
So I didn't go to the system until that time.
But back in those days, we wasn't too keen on getting involved with the VA.
Leroy, I'll turn this over to Caroline.
Caroline, he says he has hearing aids and glasses provided by the VA, but he doesn't
know if he's entitled to a benefit.
Well, that is an outstanding question.
The issue is Leroy has somebody sat down with you.
The fact that you got hearing aids and glasses, are you entitled to benefits?
And the answer I want to say is yes.
But nobody probably said to you and sat down with you and filled out the forms for a disability
monthly benefit that doesn't happen automatically through the VA.
You need someone like a veteran service officer, legal help for veterans, a county counselor
as in Dave at Washtenaw County, which VA medical center do you receive your services at?
Charles Kettle, whatever.
Okay, excellent.
So what I would recommend you to do if you don't want to reach out to the county, which
is the Washtenaw, if Dave comes on the line, I know he would say, please come on over to
the county and we could sit down with you and you put in paperwork.
And at that point, you would put in for your paperwork and you could possibly receive for
the hearing a 10% disability and there might be, there's the tinnitus and then there's
the piece with the hearing.
So it doesn't happen automatically and then there's the issue of your vision.
So just because you receive service, I do know there are men and women who do get complete
service from the VA, but say, I don't want to apply for a disability benefit.
So there's two pieces to this puzzle.
Okay.
I hope that helps, but you have to apply for that benefit.
The VA doesn't just give that benefit to you automatically.
All right.
So that is a monthly, what they call a monthly benefit, disability benefit?
Right.
Yes.
If you qualify and they certify that you're hearing was lost due to your exposure in the
service and you get a 10% rating, let's say you're going to get a check every single month
in the first of the month tax free.
Okay.
That's the nice part about it.
All right.
Now, let me ask this and have it do with that.
In my hearing, I mean, I've had to go to the audiology test through the VA where I actually
had to go up to a special place in Howell and take the test and stuff.
And they said that my hearing wasn't within the parameters of the hearing loss issue.
But yet they still sought that to give me a hearing aids.
And I just kind of thought that was kind of a weird situation that they would do exactly
what I thought they wouldn't do.
They wouldn't do.
So that sounds familiar, Leroy.
I can relate to that entirely.
I have hearing aids that are provided by the VA, but I don't get any rating on my loss
of hearing because they said I'm still within some certain parameters that they have set.
Exactly.
So probably you might somewhere in your paperwork like wherever my paperwork is, there's a denial
letter in there somewhere.
Yes, I have.
I have a few different issues.
You know, so, okay.
Thank you, Carol.
Hold on.
Time out, Leroy.
Carol Ann is trying to jump into the conversation.
Okay.
So this is a great example, a pre-conversation that Dale and I had earlier.
You might not be aware of it, Leroy, but you might not have a denial from the VA.
You might have a 0% rating where it might be.
They gave you hearing aids because you have some variation of a hearing loss, but it is
not very significant.
But you have a loss and it was contributed by your service.
And they noted that by giving you the hearing aids.
They gave you 0% rating, which means you had that occur because of your service.
Now, if it gets worse and you go in and you get tested again and it drops or your hearing
diminishes, one ear is worse than another, then that will be rated differently and they
could score you differently.
So a 0% rating is recognition that something occurred because of your service and it's
not a denial.
So I hope that is.
We're hoping that that kind of settles it out.
Carol Ann's hearing aids because there was something going on and they related it to
your service.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you for that.
I have my other question is, when I came home from Vietnam in 1970, and I didn't sign
up for the system until 2011.
At the time of my coming home, I was diagnosed with Bell's palsy on the right side of my
face.
And they told me in the process of the times of years that if I didn't complain about it
or didn't have it when I was in Vietnam, then I never really had it.
But I got it within a month after coming home.
So I had been told numerous times, basically they were just letting me fall through the
cracks, told me numerous times that I had no bearing on being an issue or VA to consider.
So this is definitely a neurological problem I know that I had back then, but it went away
and was a cordyceleroid and another medication.
So then I returned back to, I came back in 2007 and I've had it ever since.
Now, how can I get the VA to recognize this issue was being connected to my service time?
Well, so Leroy, here is another, this is a great example and thank you Leroy for your
service.
So this is a great example of why we really encourage our veteran service men and women
to not handle these issues by themselves.
With all of the environmental issues, all of the Agent Orange issues, all of the issues
that are out there, whether it's legal help for veterans, a veteran service officer, a
county counselor, we see these issues.
And these occur all the times and they say, well, it didn't happen for your service.
You need to let an organization that has seen this and heard it and the research that's
out there tackle these issues.
I don't know that if you know I'm a nurse and they could go back and track some of the
things that occurred to you while you were in the service, the reoccurring of it, you
probably never had Bell's palsy of your life until you came back and they could do some
tracking of this.
So I would encourage you to have a service officer or someone look at this and we could
talk offline later in the week to try to track this down for you and help you assist you
with this issue.
Okay.
Well, I am a member of the Plymouth Canton Vietnam Veterans Chapter and I have had a
VSO.
I mean, he probably got a stack of paperwork.
I've been denied already three different times over the years.
Good.
I'd like to say in the
I've lived with this since 2007, and I figure I have it when I pass away.
I'm 77 years old right now, so I'm just realizing I just don't like the idea.
It's not about military distribution, it's about the fact that they said I didn't have this.
I didn't complain about it until you found out.
It doesn't make any difference if you didn't complain about it or not.
If you are entitled to benefits, you will get them.
The thing about the VA sometimes is you have to keep fighting.
That's why I'm coming to you.
All I can suggest is that you either give Carolina call at legal help for veterans, or give David call at the county level.
Do you live in Wayne or Washnaw County?
I live in Wayne.
I don't have that number in front of me, but legal help for veterans number is where did it go?
I know I had it here.
I know that.
1-800-693-4800.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate that.
God bless you and thank you for your service.
Thank you and God bless you too.
Thanks, Leroy.
I asked for Carolina specifically.
We'll get this taken care of for you.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
That's really interesting.
When you look at part of that generation of which obviously I am part of it, we didn't even think about many of the conditions that started appearing after we got home.
And then we probably got some bad advice or we never got involved with the VA until our later years.
And we go back and then of course, they always want you to prove it.
Yes.
And you go look at your medical records that were kept on you for the service.
And so sometimes it's difficult, not impossible, but difficult to get your claims through.
I had a question that Leroy brought up that I thought was rather interesting.
And I don't know if you're the one I could ask this about, but I heard something about them tying Tinnitus and hearing together at some point.
You know, they've been talking about that for a while.
You know, whether the hearing loss, the Tinnitus.
But I, until I see it done, you know, there's so many issues they're working with, you know, because the 10% seems like with the Tinnitus that that is as far as you could go.
But then the hearing loss, if you're deaf, they could take you all the way up to 100%.
Now, how, you know, how could they combine the two?
I don't know.
So I'll wait until that happens.
Dale, as that, you know, we could talk about it once I see that being scrubbed.
But I just want to go back for a second on, you know, the Agent Orange and the Vietnam veterans.
You know, I think back a good 20 plus years, how long it took them to start talking about ALS and everything with the presumptives.
I think back when I was still serving under General Shensheky and he was our secretary for the VA, and how prominent his decision was when he declared presumptives.
And I thought of that when Leroy said, well, they make, they're making me prove it and said, I didn't have it.
And, you know, I was thinking about General Shensheky and when he was the secretary, because that was very prevalent.
I mean, when he did that, that really opened it up for our veterans not to have to go back and find all that paperwork and have to prove number one.
We still find it today, I ran across a couple a few weeks ago that the veteran was told by the VA that you were never in Vietnam.
Could you imagine being told that Dale, that you were never in Vietnam?
No.
And, you know, so they had the paperwork, they had pictures, I mean, you know, and so it, that's, that's really hard.
And you think about the days when you came back, but he really made things a lot better and things are getting better.
But still the neurological issues, the Bell's palsy, and some of them are still unwinding as to all of the effects of Agent Orange.
You know, we're not there yet.
I think we have a long way to go.
But we'll keep fighting for our veterans.
I know, I know you will. And I know we will too. And this is something that we do.
We're going to take a quick break here here at the bottom of the hour.
And hopefully when you come back, we're going to talk a little bit more about some of these older claims that have, you know, not been approved and so forth.
Because there are some, there are some benefits to the families.
If somebody passed away from a disease that has now been added to the list. So that's the topic in the second half of our program today.
So you're listening to Veterans Radio. We'll be right back.
Their experts had handled cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Their number again, 1-800-693-4800.
Emmet was in G troop, which was sent to relieve a detachment of soldiers under attack by hostile opouchies.
During a flank attack on the Indian camp, made to divert the hostiles, Emmet and five of his men became surrounded when the Indians returned to defend their camp,
finding that the Indians were making for a position from which they could direct their fire on the retreating troop.
He held his point with his party until the soldiers reached the safety of a canyon.
Emmet then continued to hold his position while his party recovered their horses. The enemy force consisted of approximately 200 opouchies.
The Medal of Honor series is a production of Veterans Radio.
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We're back here on Veterans Radio and the number is 7348221600.
We're talking about benefits today and there have been a number of news releases from the VA about certain things that are going to be covered differently.
And one of the questions that I had that I was thinking about was what happens to the veteran or the veteran's family when the veteran passes away from a condition that is now considered presumptive?
And I don't mean going, I'm just talking about the Vietnam generation right now, but you know, like I've had friends who have died of Parkinson's, let's say, or they died as a result of leukemia, which was finally added to the list.
And is there any method or methodology where the family could file a claim?
Yep, you, the PAC Act of August of 2022 is now allowing you to go back and reestablish, open up a claim. It's not going to be any guarantees, Dale, as to what happened.
Now, if it's within a year, okay, let's say you've got open claims and the veteran dies and your claims haven't been, your issues haven't been adjudicated.
There is the survivors, okay, what we really encourage as soon as we find out that the veteran dies is to get the Substitution Act. So we substitute the spouse.
It's the spouse goes in for the veteran, whether it's the male or the female, the spouse goes in and takes over the claim. So when the VA decides on that claim, as if it was the veteran, the spouse will get the decision and the disability rating and the amount as if the veteran was still alive.
Okay, so that is something that, you know, the old folklore or the rumor that when the veteran dies, the claim dies. That's not true.
You need to do the substitute, but the rule of thumb for that to keep it really clean and to make sure that the spouse gets that benefit is one year from the death of the veteran.
So that is the way to keep it the cleanest to guarantee that that claim will stay alive is to go back to your VSO legal helper veterans, the county counselor, once the veteran dies to keep that alive.
And there's the other benefit that should the veteran pass. And there is no length of stay. There's no length of time for this. There's as we've talked before, there's what is called the benefit death indemnity claim that let's say the veteran did die from agent orange
or something from Vietnam. It's Vietnam is a is is a good example. Veteran died years ago, and Parkinson's and something else is now approved. The spouse could go in and apply for the death indemnity claim, because that's what the veteran died from.
And that's what's so presumptive, and that spouse could get that widow could get that benefit. So that's that's something really important.
And I wouldn't do that on your own, you need to go back to somebody that is aware of these benefits. And that's why, you know, we talk about it here at the time.
I think it's really important to keep talking about some of these issues. And if you go to legal help for veterans.
I am completing right now, very timely topic, I should be up hopefully in the next couple weeks, a new brand new and they're all free. I got about 26 different ones up there.
A brand new ebook called survivors benefits. And this is all the benefits out there for the spouse, including if you're 100% if the veteran is 100% disability rating, and you pass and you've gotten the tax abatement, the the spouse could continue to get that tax abatement.
If you go to your county, your tax assessor, and take that, you know, that piece of paper that says, yeah, that veteran was 100% and take it to your, your, you know, your tax assessor.
Well, I think it's really important that we do continually talk about these things, because, you know, sometimes we get a listener that hears something and then they pass it on to friend, hey, did you know that you could get this.
And they're going, no, I had no idea that we were entitled this thing. We have a mic on the phone mic is calling from Canton, Michigan, and he has a call about a presumptive condition. So Mike, welcome to veterans radio.
How you doing today. Doing very well. Thank you for calling. What's your question.
Yes.
In 2010, I had a five way bypass and was diagnosed with a gimmick heart disease.
That was on the presumptive list on November of the year before. So I had just, I had just come under under the present of list. So I do get 30% disability for that. And I get 10% for tonight.
But after I had the five way bypass in March of 2010, by August of 2010, I had to go back and get three steps.
And then a year after that, I had to go back and get four steps.
So I have heard someone, you know, I've heard a couple of people along the line that has said that you should apply to get upgraded from that because these can be added on as what is what is the term that they use.
There's a special word that you're supposed to say aggravated that this has been aggravated because of the a skim of heart disease. Is that true or not.
So, Carol Ann is shaking her head yes up and down like crazy. So, Carol Ann, what he needs to do with what does he need to do.
So, Mike, who, who ever helped you and the answer is yes, yes, and yes. And since you are at 30% or greater from your ischemic heart disease, which is a presumptive.
And thank you once again, Mike, for your service. I hope with that 30% or greater that you're what if you are married, I'm not going to assume that but if you have a spouse.
If you're 30% if you're 30% or greater, your, your wife should be added to that as an extra benefit. So I hope number one, that you're dependent and if you have children under the age of 18.
I sure hope they are added. So that's an added benefit that I hope is added to your, to your disability rating. But yes, the answer is if any condition, and we've talked about this many times if any condition that you have and you're rated for gets, I will say worse or deteriorates
or you need follow up care with this is not the automatic the VA gives you automatically nothing. You have to go back through your VSO, whoever helped you originally get your 30 plus percent of your disability rating.
You need to go back to that entity and tell them you've had additional disease entity with your schema cart disease that you needed more stints. You've had more problems so that, you know, if you need more medications.
And hopefully that's another thing if you need medications you're getting those medications through the VA, and you're receiving those because of your disability rating.
Yes, you do need to go back and have that area rated.
That's an increased rating secondary conditions.
And you need to look at also what is really important to is not only to get your stints, but if you are experiencing other issues related to your heart secondary conditions.
And what I mean by that is some of our veterans have problems with GERD stomach issues. Some have neuropathy issues. Some have other problems that are called secondary related to the heart presumption.
So you need to go back and follow up. And that could increase your disability rating. I hope that helps, Mike.
Yes. Okay. Thank you very much, Carolyn. And thank you, Dale. This is the first time I've even heard the station. My wife and I had happened to be in the car.
We were going out to dinner with some folks and I had the station on and then this is the first time that I've heard of you. So thank you very much. God bless you guys.
Thank you very much. Tune in again next week, every Sunday, five o'clock Eastern time on your local station. Thank you, Mike, very much for calling and listening.
Bye-bye. All right. Now it's kind of interesting.
Well, and I think, you know what, I, he didn't answer me, but if his wife is not on there for the disability benefit, the dependency benefit, and if he has children, I mean, he sounded like a very young man, you know, you just don't know when you get a color on, but I hate to say it, but it's like free money.
But that's a benefit. Sometimes people don't even realize, Dale. I know, I know. And it depends on, you know, the VSO obviously the vast majority, I'm going to say, are you married? Do you have any kids and so forth?
And so hopefully they did that with with him because it, you know, can turn out to be a substantial amount of funds on a monthly basis. And I was afraid he was going to say, well, you know, they think I'm cured or something, because that that's another thing that people need to be aware of.
Right. If you are diagnosed with a disease like a cancer, especially prostate cancer, seems to be the big deal right now is you go in and they fix it.
You could lose that the benefit of the prostate cancer, you'll get 100% right away. But they could come back and reevaluate.
Well, when you go in for surgery, and sometimes people don't even know about that one, when you go in for surgery, you should ask your representative to make sure that you're applying for during your surgery time and your rehab time, you should put in for that convalescent period,
whether it's three months, six weeks, whatever period, your rating should go up to 100%. Okay, then when you're done with that rehab time and whatever, then you will go back down to your rating, whether it's 60%, 30%, 50%.
Now, sometimes when they take out tumors, sometimes they will say, after your chemotherapy, after your rating, what you were talking about the prostate, they will take you back to maybe say, 0%.
But I want to bring up a point that sometimes we tend to argue is you have residual issues or secondary issues that could cause you more problems.
And that sometimes unless you've got trained individuals to start pulling teeth and talking about them, whether it's, you know, reproductive issues that you're not able to talk about.
And most men sometimes don't want to talk about those.
But they are real issues. And those need to come out and talk about them because they could impact your disability rating. And maybe your disability rating will not go to zero, because you are having problems.
And the chemotherapy and radiation could cause problems. So we're able to argue that sometimes that just because you take out a tumor, and you say, oh, it's all gone now, that necessarily isn't the truth.
So, but you're right, Dale, sometimes it's really hard to explain to a veteran why one minute they're at 100%. And the next minute they've dropped.
But that's why it's so important to communicate with your representative, whether it's the VSO legal health for veterans, the county to work with them to know once you get that piece of paper or that rating or you get a phone call, or you're going in for the exam, you've got to let us know what you're
going through.
So we could help you.
That's actually one of the questions that's kind of a, I wanted to just kind of divert over to, you know, when we are set like Leroy and I've done the same thing as, you know, when we are sent to have an exam to, you know, because they don't just because you have whatever you have cancer Parkinson's
or whatever it is, you don't go to the VA to get evaluated, they send you outside to get evaluated. And so we need to, I think we need to kind of touch on how do we prepare for those outside examinations.
Well, as you all know, we, we do. We at legal health for veterans, take care of our clients when we know they're going for an exam. We call you up. We are our claims developer will talk to or tell our and work with our veteran as to what they're going to go through.
You have almost like the play.
You know what your provider is going to go through.
It's the recipe book. You know, you know where they're going to rate you. You know the breakdown of 10% 30% 50% what what they're going to be looking at.
You know, whether they're if it's an orthopedic they're going to be testing, you know, the reflexes. If it's neuro, you know what they're going to be looking at.
You know, you've been through this so many times, but once again, as I'm sure you all know, it depends on the examiner. And so we try to make it as easy as possible, and as best for our veterans.
So if we find out that that our veteran has to drive three hours down the road for an exam, we try to call the VA and say, look, this is not realistic.
Why are you sending our veteran, you know, three hours down the road. If they live in Ann Arbor and VA is their place. Can't you make it someplace closer to home.
You know, we try to make sure that our veteran has the best and the easiest route to get that exam, especially if they're older.
And it's difficult to go to a service.
It is it gets very confusing, I think sometimes. Yes, you know, because, you know, and you know, the thing most of us do and it's kind of interesting that even just the phone calls.
Oh, how are you today? I'm fine. Well, right there on that piece of paper, they're right.
The veteran claims he's fine.
Well, and you know, you're done.
So I don't go in and say, oh, I'm awful today, but kind of avoid those fine answers. And I know that many of the VSOs that we have talked to over the years have.
And now what's the term I'm looking rehearsed us in this, you know, certain certain things that you, you know, you say certain things that you avoid, you know, always tell the truth, obviously.
Absolutely. And, you know, because it's not like they're those evaluators are out to trick you. But sometimes I'll ask a question that is, you know, could be interpreted one way or two or three ways.
Sometimes. And so it's important. I think that if you are, you know, you have filed a claim and you've gotten a letter that says, you're going to be sent to an evaluation wherever that particular evaluation is going to be held, that you contact your
VSO or your representative as Carol Ann pointed out, say, what do I need to know? Right. And they will, they will talk you through that. I think that's so important. That, you know, that that we we help these veterans out because, you know, some of them are, you
know, getting really nervous. And, you know, they just they won't be able to help themselves. So that's your purpose and all of these wonderful VSOs that are out there all across the country that are designed to help you because the VA is a very complicated system.
You know, especially on the disability side. And so we encourage you, you to do that.
We are talking, you know, the interesting thing, Dale and you and I've talked about this before, you know, when you go to an exam, you expect to go to an exam and be examined.
And, you know, whether it's head to toe, and I like to see objective facts. That's what I like to see, whether it's range of motion, objective facts or a blood pressure, you know, a pulse.
Those are objective. You're not guessing what my blood pressure is, you're taking my blood pressure, and you're doing it in a certain manner. And now I have facts to compare.
And so, you know, I have a record and I have your history, like Mike from Canton, you know, he had cardiac disease and he had stents. And so there's a history there.
It's either going to get worse or it's going to get better. And so when the physician examines him.
Yeah, when the physician examines him, it's going to get a little bit, you know, he's going to have that history to look at.
Yes, absolutely. That's what I want to hear that I could say was the exam a great exam. You got some objective data to say that this was a favorable good exam.
That's what helps me with the veteran.
Right. You know, we're talking about these various conditions that are out there and the VA itself actually put out a, what's an update to their VA schedule of rating disabilities for three specific, mostly digestive conditions.
And I'll mess up how we pronounce these. But so the Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease that impacts how the body process is gluten.
And they were available under their own code. Now, evidently, it used to range from zero to 30%.
And now it is from zero to 80%. Because evidently, this was tied in with another condition.
That does that right? Am I interpreting that right? Yes. You know, the all sort of colitis is a lot of the GERDS, a lot of the digestive issues.
A lot, it all stems with a lot of the environmental issues and the medications and some of the things that, you know, we've had to go through when you're on deployments.
So, I think this is huge, because zero to 30% compared to now zero to 80%. The VA has indicated this is a huge issue.
You know, you all know somebody that has all sort of colitis, diverticuli, to have this type of illness in your gut.
It's huge. It's, your whole lifestyle has to change. Your eating disorder. So the fact that they're recognizing this, I think is very significant.
Yeah. The other one that's tied in with that was the irritable bowel syndrome, which previously the VA offered zero, 10 or maximum 30%.
Now they're entitled to 10, 20 or 30. Right.
And once again, irritable bowel, I mean, you could lose colon, you could end up with, you know, colostomies, you could, I mean, that one also is huge.
So once again, both of those diagnoses are very closely tied in, could affect a family's lifestyle, the veteran's lifestyle.
That those both of those have huge implications.
And the last one is, you know, a little uncomfortable, but no pun intended here. That was external, internal and external hemorrhoids.
So previously the VA assigned a 0% evaluation, as it was identified as mild or moderate. For more, they went to 10 to 20.
For now, mild or moderate can now qualify for a 10% evaluation. Yes.
Which is good. The other thing that's really important about this, they're not going to, they're not going to give you this increase automatically.
No, you've got to refile.
Yes. Correct. You've got to go back. You've got to, you know, I think you said this to maybe the first caller, LeRoy.
Don't give up. You know, and I know it's very discouraging, it's frustrating to the veterans because they're hurting. I mean, they're going through a lot of pain.
And they do get angry that they have to fight for what they're entitled to. But I would say, you know, please keep trying.
Go to somebody that's going to help you that knows what they're doing, that has some experience with this.
And if you, the Ann Arbor VA, the Detroit VA, you know, and if you do have experienced physicians on the outside that are helping you get that paperwork into your providers,
get that into your reps, because that also helps your claim. That is very, very important.
I think this is important. Now, all of this, all of this goes into effect on May 19th, 2024. I mean, it's already there, but they're not going to start, I guess, processing any new claims until the 19th.
So we encourage you to follow up on that.
And, you know, this is why we do this program. We've, you know, we're pulling things out that, you know, that I'm the veteran, Carol Ann is a veteran, but she also knows all this stuff.
And, you know, we've been able to help a lot of people with questions out there who never would have even considered contacting the VA to find out if they had a disability, you know, claim that they should put in.
And I think it's really important to remind you and also tell you, you know, you have veteran friends, hopefully, you know, the majority of our listeners are going to be veterans, friends of veterans, veterans.
So, you know, if you have an issue or you know of a friend who has an issue, or unfortunately, if you know of a veteran who died recently, talk to the spouse, get them to, you know, to contact a, again, a service rep so that they can, they can get what they're entitled to,
because there's a lot of things out there that they're entitled to, that they're not even aware of.
Dale, I will say one thing in closing. I really want to give a lot of credit to the VA, because they are out there researching these topics left and right.
And, and I think you gave us three great examples of areas that they have researched with the gluten and the celiacs and, and these areas that they are trying to help the veterans, and they're increasing benefits, and they're trying to help them and make it better and they're recognizing where the problems are.
So, as more veterans are coming in needing service, then they're identifying and they're making this known, almost like as a presumptive, they're not calling it a presumptive, but if you have these areas and these issues, make it known.
Right.
You got to file the claim. You got to do the paperwork.
Yep.
It's annoying and it's, it's, that's the kindest way I can express it is how annoying it can be. You know, you mentioned them doing research, we're coming up to the end of the program folks.
And the research was just quickly there's the VA open a new osteoarthritis research center at the Philadelphia VA.
And there's going to be, you know, research in there and if you think about the conditions and everything that where the care has improved so dramatically over the years, I think it's really important that you do that.
So, Carol Anne Faust owned. Thank you so much for, you know, being on our program being our representative care, you can reach Carol Anne at legal help for veterans in number there is 806-934-800.
So, thank you very much.
Thank you, Dale. Thank you so much.
It's always fun.
All right, as I mentioned, we are coming up to the end of our program on benefits. So the benefits program now is going to be a monthly program on the first Sunday of every month.
Those of you that listen, listen to on our affiliates, you'll have to check their schedules of when these programs will be there.
So I encourage you to help us out and ask us questions. You can go to info.veteransradio.org leave your question there, and we'll pass it along to the people that we work with.
And so that's, that's what we do. And that's why we're hoping that you can help us. Don't forget to support veterans radio. You can go to our website, click on the donate button, support the people that sponsor us legal health for veterans.
The MVBDC and all these under the Ann Arbor VA. So again, thank you all very much.
We're going to be going out. This is the Air Force and with God bless America, the instrumental.
Until next week, this is Dale Throneberry for everybody here at Veterans Radio. You are dismissed.
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