By: Susan Paczak

There are some new developments regarding the VA and Agent Orange. In the summer the House of Representatives easily passed a bill that would have given Blue Water vets the same presumption of exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides given to vets who served on land in Vietnam. The bill then went to the Senate. The bill stalled in committee in the Senate. It stalled because the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Robert Wilkie opposed the bill. The Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee tried to come to deal to get some legislation passed, but without the support of the Secretary he would not bring the bill up for a vote in the full Senate. As this Congressional term is almost over, a new bill will have to be introduced in the House in 2019, and the process will have to start over again. Once again, justice is denied to Blue Water vets.

In other news, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine issued its 2018 update on Veterans and Agent Orange. This organization is required by law to provide an update every 2 years on whether, based upon research, certain diseases are linked to Agent Orange exposure. The VA then uses this report to decide if disease should be added to the Agent Orange presumptive list. This year the report included high blood pressure (hypertension) on its list of diseases that there was sufficient evidence to conclude that Agent Orange caused this disease. In the past, all other disease that were found to have sufficient evidence to link Agent Orange to the disease were put on the list. In my opinion, the Secretary will not put high blood pressure on the list. It is clear from the VA’s position on the Blue Water vets that they do not want to add more veterans to the list of those eligible for benefits for Agent Orange exposure. However, this evidence can be used by an experienced attorney to argue that even without the presumption, the veteran should be compensated for high blood pressure caused by Agent Orange exposure.

To discuss your claim for Agent Orange diseases and other conditions, call ABES BAUMANN.

By: Edward Jaffee Abes

Sometimes professional athletes suffer work-related injuries but not the kind one would expect such as a collision at second base or a hard hit by a linebacker. Former New York Yankee outfielder, Dustin Fowler, found this out the hard way. He suffered a season ending injury when he collided with an electrical box in right-field foul territory while attempting to catch a fly ball. His right knee collided with the unprotected electrical box. The resulting injury, a rupture of his patellar tendon, ended his season before his first major league at bat.

Fowler should be eligible for Workers’ Compensation benefits, but because this electrical box was not wrapped in foam or similar protection, he has filed suit against the Chicago White Sox and the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority in Cook County Illinois.

Hopefully other stadiums will do a check of their facilities so that this type of danger will be eliminated.

By: Susan Paczak

Recently, the United Stated House of Representatives passed a bill that gives Blue Water veterans the same presumption of exposure to Agent Orange that those who were “boots on the ground” in Vietnam have had for years. The bill also gives the same presumption to veterans who served in the Korean DMZ from September 1967 until August 1971.

Now before the Senate Veterans Affair Committee, the bill is slated for a hearing on August 1^st. The Chairman of the Committee says the bill is a top priority.

If the Senate passes the same bill the House passed, then it goes to the President for signature, and becomes law. If the bill is different from the House bill, then it has to go to a committee made up of members of the House and the Senate. They then have to come up with a bill that both houses will pass, and send to the President to sign.

If the bill is made law, then these Blue Water and Korean vets will be able to get compensation for the same diseases for which other Vietnam vets get benefits. However, it will still be many months until the VA comes up with procedures to process these claims, then more time for the claims to be processed.

Please call your Senators (go to whoismyrepresentative.com to find your Senator’s phone number) to tell them to vote YES on this bill, and to do it fast. Veterans have been waiting long enough! Justice delayed is justice denied.

UPDATE:

Some more news on Blue Water vet legislation. The proposed law to expand the Agent Orange presumptive diseases to Blue Water vets came up for a vote in the Senate.  Senator Kirsten Gillibrand D-NY asked for unanimous consent to pass the law. However, when this procedure is used one senator can object and the bill does not pass. One senator, Mike Enzi R-WY objected so the bill did not pass.  It is unlikely it will brought up for another vote before the end of the year. This means that a new bill will have to be introduced in 2019.

By: James R. Burn, Jr.

Earlier this year, I posted a caution about the concerns of signing blank medical authorizations for insurance carriers. Another concern is the insurance carrier sending a nurse case manager with you to your medical appointments. Case managers have a reputation for lobbying doctors against work restrictions.

In other words, if a doctor treating you thinks you should be restricted to sedentary work, the case manager may advocate to the doctor that light or medium duty work is more appropriate. This makes it more likely that a case manager and an insurance adjuster will attempt to use these work restrictions to force an injured worker back to work at a job that is beyond their physical restrictions, hampering their recovery and potentially making the work-related condition worse.

Workers who have suffered work injuries simply want to get better. But often they need time to heal so that they can return to being employees as soon as possible. The impatience, and oftentimes shortsightedness, of the insurance company and their adjusters can hamper the ability of an injured worker to go back to work.

Insurance adjusters are trained on the law. They know every twist and turn that can lead the unrepresented, injured worker into pitfalls that they may not be able to get out of, jeopardizing their entitlement to workers’ compensation benefits.

This firm stands ready to assist anyone who feels they are being pressured back to work or their doctors are being pressured to write work releases that do not accurately reflect their level of disability.