Veterans' PACT Act deadline approaching
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U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar and U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough spoke Monday at the Minneapolis VA Health Care Center to remind veterans of an important deadline.
The 2022 SFC Heath Robinson Honoring our PACT Act expands benefits to veterans exposed to burn pits and Agent Orange during the Vietnam War and other toxic substances during the Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan wars.
The deadline to file claims that will back-date to August 2022 is Aug. 9.
“It covers new conditions that can qualify for help from Agent Orange, and that includes hypertension," Klobuchar said.
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"We are very enthusiastic about the fact that 700,000 veterans have filed claims, but when you think about the fact that as many as three and a half million Iraq and Afghanistan vets may qualify, and then several million additional Vietnam vets may qualify, we want to make sure that we're making we're making every veteran aware that they qualify,” said McDonough, who grew up in Stillwater.
He added: “Many of our Vietnam vets do not know that their hypertension is now presumed connected to their service. So please, if you have a veteran in your family, your son, your daughter, your mom, your dad, your brother, your sister, one of your battle buddies, please send word to them. Please file on or before August 9.”
McDonough said PACT Act claims are being accepted at a rate of about 79 percent, an “historically high rate of granting of benefits,” which he credited partially to improved training and education of VA personnel. Klobuchar said improved staff education was a vital part of the bill.
“There has been improvement — vast improvements — but a lot of that was training people so they understood what the standard was, what the new standard was, and how to implement that,” Klobuchar said. “It was a very important piece of the bill because we knew what the past denial rates were.”
According to VA data, 9,631 Minnesota veterans had filed claims as of mid-June. Minnesota has more than 294,000 veterans.
On July 19, the Minneapolis VA Health Care center will host PACT Act VetFest Day, which will include toxic exposure screenings and a claim clinic as well as live music.