Service Connected Obesity
connected obesity service wallpaperSection 331 Oa of title 38 United States Code provides that disability which is proximately due to or the result of a service-connected disease or injury shall be service connected. If you served in the military you may be eligible for compensation for various diseases and conditions you develop.
Understanding And Overcoming The Challenge Of Obesity And Overweight In The Armed Forces Proceedings Of A Workshop In Brief Understanding And Overcoming The Challenge Of Obesity And Overweight In The
Obesity cannot be considered a service-connected disability according to a new ruling by the Department of Veterans Affairs General Counsel expected to be published in the April 8 2019 edition.
Service connected obesity. Read on to learn more about getting VA disability for obesity. The subsequent condition would be filed as secondary to the primary condition the one causing obesity. The Walsh decision DID say is that when a service-connected condition aggravates the claimants obesity that aggravated obesity may be an intermediate step between a condition that is service-connected and a new condition that can be compensated by the VA as a secondary service-connected condition.
Why should you care Veterans. Obesity is a very common bridge claim. The veterans obesity was the result of his service-connected back condition which then led to obesity over time and then caused the veteran to develop hypertension.
The Office of General Counsel ruled that obesity can qualify as an intermediate step between service-connected conditions and another disease you may wantneed to qualify as service-connected. If Diabetes is diagnosed in service or if the symptoms of Diabetes present to a compensable degree 10 within one year of discharge the Veterans Diabetes will be presumed to be service-connected. Recent studies have concluded that 41 of post-911 Veterans in the United States are in fact obese.
It is a condition that is likely not rateable but that can be used to connect one or more medical conditions for the purposes of secondary service connection. In other words if a service-connected condition causes obesity any condition subsequently caused or aggravated by the excess weight would be service-connected. In other words if a disease or pathological process that is service connected causes obesity then the resulting symptoms diabetes cardiovascular problems should be compensable.
However the VA general counsel has determined that obesity is not a disorder subject to service connection and the evidence of record does not show that obesity is a manifestation of a separately-diagnosed disability. This sort of puts obesity in the position of a middle man while the obesity is not a service connected disability. Obesity impacts more than a third of American adults and it can put you at risk for a wide variety of health problems.
In this example obesity can be used as the bridge to try and obtain service connection for hypertension. Obesity also generally cannot be service connected on a secondary basis as a disability directly resulting from a veterans service-connected disability. Obesity can serve as an intermediate step to link a condition to service.
In May 2017 a VA examiner reviewed the Veterans claims file. Obesity cannot be considered a service-connected disability according to a new ruling by the Department of Veterans Affairs General Counsel expected to be published in the April 8 2019 edition. To VA an event is a discrete instance from service and VA states that obesity is a condition that occurs over time and results from multiple factors such as environment and physical and dietary habits so obesity cannot be attributed to a single event or instance.
Service Connection by Legal Presumption.