VA Presumptive Conditions that Develop Within One Year After Service

If you’re a veteran with a chronic disability that appears within one year after discharge, you may be eligible for a presumptive service connection. This means the VA automatically presumes your condition was caused by military service without requiring proof of service connection.

In this article, we provide the VA presumptive list for first-year veterans and explain how to apply for VA disability compensation for a presumptive condition. 

VA presumptive conditions for first-year veterans

Before and after discharge, it’s important to pay attention to when you start experiencing symptoms of an illness. If you do experience symptoms or receive a diagnosis of one or more of the below conditions within your first year after discharge, you could be eligible for a presumptive service connection. 

For any of the VA one-year presumptive conditions on this list, it doesn’t matter where or when you served. However, all conditions below must be rated higher than 10% disabling to be designated as service-connected and on the VA presumptive list. 

• Anemia, primary
• Arteriosclerosis
• Arthritis
• Atrophy, progressive muscular
• Brain hemorrhage
• Brain thrombosis
• Bronchiectasis
• Calculi of the kidney, bladder, or gallbladder
• Cardiovascular-renal disease, including hypertension
• Cirrhosis of the liver
• Coccidioidomycosis
• Diabetes mellitus
• Encephalitis lethargica residuals
• Endocarditis 
• Endocrinopathies
• Epilepsies
• Hodgkin’s disease
• Leukemia
• Lupus erythematosus, systemic
• Myasthenia gravis
• Myelitis
• Myocarditis
• Nephritis
• Osteitis deformans (Paget’s disease)
• Osteomalacia
• Other organic diseases of the nervous system
• Palsy, bulbar
• Paralysis agitans
• Psychoses
• Purpura idiopathic, hemorrhagic
• Raynaud’s disease
• Sarcoidosis
• Scleroderma
• Syringomyelia
• Thromboangiitis obliterans (Buerger’s disease)
• Tumors, malignant, or of the brain or spinal cord or peripheral nerves
• Ulcers, peptic (gastric or duodenal)

Some conditions are presumptive even if they manifest longer than one year after separation. These include:

• Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) must appear within three years after discharge
• Multiple sclerosis (MS) must appear within seven years after discharge
• Tuberculosis must appear within three years after discharge
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) can manifest anytime after discharge and still qualify as a presumptive condition 

How to apply for VA disability benefits

VA disability compensation is a monthly tax-free payment available to eligible veterans with physical or mental disabilities that resulted from military service. 

Before you file a claim for VA disability benefits, you need to gather evidence to support your claim. To help the claims process move faster, it’s best to submit all of your evidence at once. 

Evidence can include:

• Military medical records
• Your DD214 (discharge papers). These papers include your dates of service, military branch, type of discharge, medals, awards, and where you served.
• VA medical records and hospital records. These may relate to your claimed disabilities or they may show your rated condition has gotten worse.
• Private medical records and hospital reports
• Lay statements. Lay statements can come from anyone who knows you like family, friends, or people you served with. These statements are meant to help describe what your life was before, during, and after you developed your disability. They could also help describe how your condition started or how it got worse. 

The VA has a “duty to assist” you with collecting evidence. If you need help, just ask.

After you’ve collected evidence, fill out and file your application. 

1. The easiest way to file for VA disability benefits is to submit an application online. 
2. To submit a paper application, download and print the application, then mail it to:
   U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
   Claims Intake Center
   PO Box 4444
   Janesville, WI 53547-4444
3. Lastly, you can visit your local regional office to turn in your application in person.

After your claim is received, the VA may ask you to attend a compensation and pension (C&P) exam. A C&P exam is performed by a medical professional and is meant to evaluate how severe your disability is and to determine whether or not your condition was caused by military service. Missing a scheduled C&P exam could be grounds for claim denial. 

This is a summary of how to apply for VA disability benefits. For more in-depth information on the application process, see our article about VA disability tips and tricks.

Download Our 9 Tips and Tricks for Your VA Disability Application

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Filing a claim for a presumptive service-connected condition

As we mentioned above, some disabilities are presumptive, meaning the VA automatically assumes they were caused by military service. Veterans who have a condition from the VA presumptive list don’t have to prove their service caused their condition, so the burden of proving a medical nexus doesn’t apply. Veterans only need to meet the service requirements for the presumptive. 

To file a claim for a presumptive service-connected condition, use the same application you would for any other service-connected disability. Then, either file it online, by mail, or in person at your local regional office.

When filing a claim for a presumptive service-connected condition, include the following with your application:

• Medical records that show your diagnosis and severity of your condition, and
• Military records that show you meet the service requirements for the presumption

With a presumptive service-connected condition, the VA may still ask you to attend a C&P exam to evaluate the severity of your disability.

How Woods and Woods can help

The VA-accredited attorneys at Woods and Woods have helped thousands of veterans nationwide get the disability benefits they deserve. Call us today for a free case evaluation. You won’t pay us a dime unless we win your case.

Talk to Us About Your Claim: 
(812) 426-7200

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