VA WNY is Rated 5 Stars and PACT Act offers Veterans an Opportunity to Receive Exceptional Care

VA remains committed to providing the best possible health care for Veterans by leveraging strong practices already in place and improving processes to support this new law. This law treats toxic exposure as a cost of war by addressing the full range of issues impacting toxic-exposed Veterans, including access to benefits provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs. This law expands and extends health care eligibility for toxic-exposed Veterans and Veterans of certain eras. This law creates new presumptions of service-connection for disabilities based on toxic exposures. The Act unlocks a broad range of recruitment and retention capabilities that will enable VA to maintain the world’s best health care talent and supports new leases to provide VA the infrastructure it needs to provide world class care.

Congress passed and the President signed this Act into law to expand access for health care and benefits for Veterans who were exposed to toxic substances during military service. The bill expands and extends eligibility for VA health care for toxic-exposed Veterans and Vietnam era, Gulf War era, and post-9/11 combat Veterans.

To meet the needs of our Nation’s heroes, this law modifies or establishes presumptions of service connection for certain conditions or purposes for various groups of Veterans. It codifies many of the ongoing efforts by the Department to improve its process for establishing presumptions of service connection due to toxic exposure, reducing the burden for Veterans, and increasing transparency.   

The PACT Act will bring these changes:

• Expands and extends eligibility for VA health care for Veterans with toxic exposures and Veterans of the Vietnam, Gulf War, and post-9/11 eras
• Adds 20+ more presumptive conditions for burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic exposures
• Adds more presumptive-exposure locations for Agent Orange and radiation
• Requires VA to provide a toxic exposure screening to every Veteran enrolled in VA health care
• Helps us improve research, staff education, and treatment related to toxic exposures

If you’re a Veteran or survivor, you can file claims now to apply for PACT Act-related benefits.

To get a VA disability rating, your disability must connect to your military service. For many health conditions, you need to prove that your service caused your condition. 

But for some conditions, we automatically assume (or “presume”) that your service caused your condition. We call these “presumptive conditions.”

We consider a condition presumptive when it's established by law or regulation.

If you have a presumptive condition, you don’t need to prove that your service caused the condition. You only need to meet the service requirements for the presumption.

You’re eligible to enroll now—without needing to apply for disability benefits first—if you meet the basic service and discharge requirements and any of these descriptions are true for you:

• You served in the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan, or any other combat zone after 9/11, or
• You deployed in support of the Global War on Terror, or
• You were exposed to toxins or other hazards during military service at home or abroad

Specific toxins and hazards include burn pits, sand and dust, particulates, oil well or sulfur fires, chemicals, radiation, warfare agents, depleted uranium, herbicides, and other occupational hazards.

We will process your claim with the utmost urgency to get you the benefits you deserve as quickly as possible. In the first year of the PACT Act, we completed 458,659 PACT Act-related claims—delivering more than $1.85 billion in earned benefits to Veterans and their survivors.

The time it takes to review your claim depends on these factors:

• The type of claim you filed
• How many injuries or disabilities you claimed and how complex they are
• How long it takes us to collect the evidence needed to decide your claim

We regularly update the average number of days it’s taking us to make a decision on disability-related claims on our website.

If you haven’t filed a claim yet for the presumptive condition, you can file a new claim online now. You can also file by mail, in person, or with the help of a trained professional.

If we denied your disability claim in the past and we now consider your condition presumptive, you can submit a Supplemental Claim. We’ll review your case again.

VHA will continue to draw upon the wealth of knowledge and world-class resources available to care for Veterans and their unique health care needs.  Recent studies have shown that Veterans who come to VA have better health outcomes than those who go to the private sector.  Our clinicians treat Vets every day – they often are Veterans themselves – which is why Veterans who come to VA do better. 

To Learn more visit VA.gov/PACT