Veterans Disability Info Blog

On August 26, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit) delivered a landmark decision – Larson v. McDonough – determining that obesity can be a service-connected disability if it results in functional impairment of earning capacity.
What Happened in...

Recently, the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims issued its Annual Report for the Fiscal Year 2020, which ran from October 1, 2019, to September 30, 2020. The report paints a discouraging picture of a court stretched to its limits, where appellants face long wait times for...

On May 27, 2021, the Veterans’ Administration announced important expansions of eligibility for disability benefits related to Agent Orange exposure during the Vietnam War, and hinted at future expansions for conditions related to burn pits employed in southwest Asia during the Persian Gulf...

Medicare fraud involving care provided to veterans is rampant. Since late 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Veterans Affairs have collaborated to stop fraud by exchanging Medicare sanctions data. Though the initiative has helped prevent some bad...

Veteran victims of military rape achieved a huge win Thursday in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that a statute of limitations will not protect military members charged with rape. The unanimous ruling reinstated the military rape convictions of Lt. Col. Michael Briggs and two other Air Force members,...

The Inspector General for the Department of Veterans Affairs is currently investigating claims that Robert Wilkie tried to discredit Andrea Goldstein, a Navy veteran and congressional staffer, who reported she was sexually assaulted at a VA facility.
The VA Secretary allegedly sought...

Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Michigan) recently asked the Government Accountability Office (“GAO” - the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of Congress) to investigate whether the health of disabled veterans is improving with VA care.
In January 2020, GAO published its findings,...

Last January, the Massachusetts Legislature’s Cannabis Control Commission discussed a bill introduced by Rep. Michael Soter to expand access to medical marijuana for veterans in the Bay state. On a federal level, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Rep. W. Gregory Steube, (R-FL) have introduced...

Our country spent $89 billion dollars on contractors in Afghanistan for over eight years. However, some of those funds have not been used for their intended purpose. Devastated war zones like some areas of Afghanistan and Iraq have been fertile terrain for corrupt contractors to emerge....

The new year has brought some relief for Vietnam veterans. Effective on January 1, 2020, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019 provides that veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange while serving on ships in the vicinity of Vietnam or working on the storage or testing of the dangerous...