By Dorothy Meindok
The Post Newspaper Veterans Consultant
Now that President Biden has signed the PACT Act into law, the Veterans Administration is readying for the claims process to better help our warriors, their families, and their survivors. The PACT Act expands VA health care and benefits for Veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxic substances; it reduces the need to furnish records that are lost, have been destroyed or in some cases didn’t exactly exist in the first place for a myriad of reasons including happenings that took place in war zones where administrative documentation isn’t always at the top of the military’s “plan of the day” no matter what a warrior’s MOS (job description) may be. It helps in keeping national security and personal security issues from the hands of our nation’s enemies because our warriors do not have to divulge possible secured information they may or may not know, to be recorded, faxed and emailed all over the place, left open to worldwide hackers just to prove the need for healthcare and benefits while in a vulnerable state of desperation.
In my opinion, the PACT Act serves not only our veterans but our nation.
So how does a veteran and/or family member get started? As a lawyer whose specialized practice is VA law, I wanted to take this week’s column to share qualified information and resources to help.
To begin with, I’d recommend starting at VA.gov. The link is provided below, and it is the very best and quickest place to start an application for benefits. If you are able to submit your application via the online forum, it reduces the chances of it getting lost or accidentally mishandled in the administrative flow that each claim goes through. There is still the ability to apply with paper form and submit the claims via fax or USPS Mail to VA’s Janesville, WI Evidence Intake Center (aka the Janesville EIC), which serves as an administrative records hub for the VA system. Also below, is a link to the necessary cover sheet which will provide the EIC’s fax number and mailing address for submissions.
Depending on claims history, a veteran will need to begin with the proper form. To determine which form to use, I supplied a few simple considerations to best determine that. Note: each health concern is considered its own separate claim, even if they are all claimed on one form, in example, a veteran that uses one form to claim a back injury and a lung injury will actually be filing two claims from that one form, thus, two claims will be opened by VA even though the veteran has used one form to do that.
#1 – VA Form 526ez: If the veteran has not ever filed a claim for a particular disability (meaning they have not ever received a denial award on that issue in the past), the correct form to use is the VA Form 526ez. At VA.gov under forms you can find it; search engines will also help but be aware that some spammers have intervened, so be sure to look that the site you download from is a reputable one.
Form 526ez is the very first form that is needed by VA to initiate a standard claim. It MUST be signed by or receive the legal mark of the veteran under federal law to be accepted as valid. It looks long but most of the pages are implicit instructions to help in filling it out as completely as possible.
In most cases, a copy of the veterans DD214 will be necessary to accompany the application and it is smart to include any additional evidence that may be needed as outlined in the instructions and on VA.gov.
But what if the VA already has the claim?
#2 – If the VA has been presented with a Form 526ez and those claims have not been decided or have been denied and is presently before secondary review or in-wait upon an appeals docket, the VA reports that the PACT Act presumptives will be applied upon review and that the veteran need not do anything to have the new law considered in the additional review or appeal. This is true under the VA’s duty to assist the veteran in claims development.
#3 – If the VA has been presented with a 526ez form and was denied or even where there may have been a higher-level review or appeal in the past and it also was denied where the claims may benefit from another look because those claims may now be covered under the PACT Act. The best form to use is the SUPPLEMENTAL CLAIMS form, VA Form 20-0995. In Part III of the form under the heading “NEW AND RELEVANT EVIDENCE,” simply enter “PACT Act 2022”, sign it and submit it. This will get the claims re-reviewed under the new law.
These are the three most basic ways to get things started and have the PACT Act work for the veteran. The PACT Act covers many kinds of exposures and — most notably for our Vietnam Veterans — now includes presumptive connections between high blood pressure and Agent Orange exposures as well as a monoclonal cancer, both of which have waited over four decades for inclusion and recognition.
The VA proposes to phase in the claims with hopes to have responded to all timely raised claims prior to October 2026 and urges veterans to submit their claims as soon as possible to get the process started.
Additionally, there are benefits available to surviving family members for those veterans that perished before the act became law. Please reach out to a certified and experienced veteran service officer, agent or lawyer for further helps and insights noting that if a veteran or family member has not ever received a denial from VA on the claim, it is against federal law for ANYONE to charge a penny in helping them to file an initial VA form 526ez. Personally, if someone asks for that, it’s likely a red flag and seeking another representative to help is prudent because they should know better. If they don’t you might want to wonder what else they don’t know; if they do and ask for money anyway, I’d take note of their ethics and move along.
To better empower our Galveston County community in these initial claims efforts, our local veterans organizations members from Vietnam Veterans of America, VFW, DAV, American Legion and associated auxiliaries along with Operation Honor Our Local Veterans (and its President, Fidencio Leija of Santa Fe), community, academic and clergy leaders are uniting to bring educational training to the public via of clinics and the creation of other resources to help navigate the VA claims system and keep updated on new changes and programs including programs such as the VA Caregiver Support Program which qualifies spouses and family members to act as caregiver for our disabled veterans and supplies them with various and much needed additional supports. I’ll keep you posted as to our collaborative team’s first public meeting and educational event.
Looking forward to helping everyone we can.
Here are the links:
To apply for benefits online with the help of an online wizard: https://www.va.gov/disability/file-disability-claim-form-21-526ez/introduction or simply go to VA.gov and put 526ez into the Search box
For the paper form of 526ez: https://www.va.gov/find-forms/about-form-21-526ez/
– If not filing online – you will NEED this cover sheet to best assure proper handling; it provides both fax number and USPS mailing address to use for proper submission: https://s3.amazonaws.com/htfavac/2017-01-18+Claims+Intake+Fax+Coversheet-1.pdf
Remember to ALWAYS do your best to keep a copy of anything submitted for your own records as well as any fax receipts or proof of mailings. I suggest, if sending via USPS, using Priority Mail which provides tracking as well as receives specialized handling and speedier delivery options.
Dorothy Meindok is The Post Newspaper’s Veterans Consultant. Ms. Meindok served her nation in the United States Navy and is currently a practicing lawyer advocating for our nation’s veterans. Her column appears on Sundays.
