per·ma·nence
The state or quality of lasting or remaining unchanged indefinitely.
We Are An Encrypted
Up To 256-bit Secure Sockets Layer Encryption
Secure Site
Send Your Documents,
Forms & Evidence here...
Use Certified Mail!!!
Department of Veterans Affairs
Claims Intake Center
PO BOX 4444
JANESVILLE, WI 53547- 4444
Toll Free Fax: 844-531-7818
Regional Loan Center
Contact Information
Vocational Rehabilitation
and Employment
Contact your VARO
Pension Management Centers
Education and Training
Regional Processing Offices
VA has three RPOs that handle GI Bill claims.
How to Use My HealtheVet
My HealtheVet is the VA's Personal Health Record.
It is designed for Veterans, Servicemembers, their caregivers and others. To use My HealtheVet, you will need a computer with Internet access...
Your Health
VA researchers question whether traumatic
brain injuries lead to Alzheimer's
How a brain gets hooked on opioids
How one group of doctors drastically
decreased opioid prescriptions
Fibromyalgia: What you need to know
There’s even more evidence that one type of exercise is the closest thing we have to a miracle drug
My HealtheVet: Veteran care made easy
Federal agencies partner for military and
veteran pain management research
MRI twice as likely as biopsy to spot
prostate cancer, research shows
Veterans' Medical and Health Records
Prostate Specific Antigen PSA Total PSA Free PSA
What's your VA up to today?
If you aren't reading the
Federal Register, you may miss it.
I am a Veteran
Veterans of the United States Uniformed Services may be eligible for a broad range of programs and services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Disability Benefits
Apply for disability compensation and other benefits for conditions related to your military service.
Health Care Benefits
Apply for VA health care, find out how to access services, and manage your health and benefits online.
Education Benefits
Apply for and manage benefits that help you pay for college and training programs.
Housing Assistance
Find out if you qualify for a VA home loan. If you have a service-connected disability, find out if you qualify for a housing grant to help you live more independently.
Careers and Employment
Find out if you're eligible for Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) services, get support for your Veteran-owned small business, and access other resources to help build your career skills and find a job.
Life Insurance
Explore VA life insurance options, manage your policy online, and file claims.
Pension Benefits
Apply for monthly pension benefits for wartime Veterans and survivors.
Burials and Memorials
Get help planning a burial or memorial service, and find out how to get survivor and dependent benefits.
Family and Caregiver Benefits
As the family member of a Servicemember or Veteran, find out if you qualify for benefits like health care, VA-backed home loans, life insurance, or money to help pay for college. If you’re caring for a Veteran with disabilities, find out if you can get added support.
The Shocking Health Effects Of
Agent Orange
Now A Legacy Of Military Death
Life Insurance
VA provides Veterans, Servicemembers,
and their families with $1.3 trillion in
insurance coverage each year. VA also
offers a variety of life insurance options
VA Benefits for Your Child
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) offers several benefits for the children of veterans:
(1) Education benefits
(2) Health care CHAMPVA
(3) Life insurance
(4) Memorial benefits
Forms
No Form, No Benefit!
Disability Service Connection
Secondary Service Connection
IncreasedDisability Compensation
Temporary Total Disability Rating
Individual Unemployability
Compensation under
38 U.S.C. 1151
Special Monthly Compensation
Specially Adapted Housing
Special Home Adaptation
Automobile Allowance
/Adaptive Equipment
Benefits Based on a Veteran's
Seriously Disabled Child
VA Form 21-0958 - NOD
Notice of Disagreement
VA Form 21-534 EZ
Application for DIC,
Death Pension
Change of Address
Military Records DD 214
Official Military Personnel Files (OMPFs)
Official Personnel Folders (OPF)
Selective Service Records
Deceased Veteran's Claim Files
Individual Deceased Personnel File
Since 2005 This Is The Site VA Reads
When They Want To Learn What They've Been Doing
Guns 'n Weed - Can you own guns & smoke medical marijuana?
January 2018
Probably not. At the time this is being written, it's becoming apparent that the current
administration plans to vigorously police federal marijuana laws. This means that
if you apply for a medical marijuana license, your data will be shared with NICS.
NICS is the FBI database for gun ownership/registration. Smoking weed is against
federal law. Even if you have a state issued medical marijuana license, the
FBI will have you entered into their database. You get to choose, guns or medicine?
The Pain Contract
Your VA and many civilian providers today will insist that you sign a "Pain Contract" if you
are on any sort of pain medicines for more than a very brief period.
The reasoning behind this is controversial.
There is a common misconception that veterans who receive any sort of pain
medicine are likely to resell it at a very high profit. Like most of the rumors
that are published about the American "War On Drugs" there is little truth to this.
The majority of veterans who receive pain medicines from VA are just like you and
they have no reason to want to sell their medicines. The bulletins would have
you believe that every pill is worth an enormously inflated price
and that vets can get rich by selling their medicines.
The result of all this is that you are likely to be tested to ensure that you're taking
your medicines. Once you sign the pain contract you give VA the authority to test
you at any time. They are not required to tell you that you're being tested for drugs.
If you aren't taking your drugs at the time of the test, your provider may not
extend any more refills.
If other drugs (such as marijuana) are seen during the test, you may or may not be
counseled. That depends on the individual provider.
Pain contracts threaten the doctor-patient relationship
Pain contracts can undermine patient trust
The VHA Directive on Pain Management
Marijuana Use and the Department of Veterans Affairs
Aljazeera
British Broadcasting Corporation
Business Insider
Central Intelligence Agency
Electronic Reading Room
Billing Issues
1-877-881-7618 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. ET
The Code of Federal Regulations Title 38
Courthouse News
Ann Coulter
CNN Sources
"Contact Your Representative!!!"
Who are my representatives?
Everything You Need To Survive
Contact Your Representative
Discharges & Military Records
(DTRA)
Defense Threat Reduction Agency
My HealtheVet Website
ebenefits
NICS Veterans 2nd Amendment Rights
Home Based Primary Care (HBPC)
Independent Expert Medical Opinions
Marijuana & VA DRUG TESTING & VA
M21-1 Adjudication Procedures Manual
National Personnel Records Center
New Outreach for Vets Regarding
Discharges & Military Records.
Project-Syndicate
Records of the Veterans Administration [VA]
U.S. Medicine
Veterans Benefits Administration
Fact Sheets
VA urges veterans to be
screened for hepatitis C
VA’s Airborne Hazards and Open Burn
Pit Registry for Veterans and Servicemembers
VA Payment for Emergency Care
Veterans Benefits Administration
Benefit Brochures
Veterans injured by service wait
years for compensation hearings
Washington Post
Washington Times
Welcome to Military Disney Tips!
FREE case evaluation.
The attorneys and doctors
you'll meet here will
be happy to review your
case for free. It will only cost you a little of your time to speak with an expert. What are you waiting for?
Can medical marijuana users have firearms? Police say no
States That Allow Both A Medical Marijuana And Gun License
Ever wonder which are the states that allow both a medical marijuana
and gun license? Us too. Take a look at what we found.
Got a medical marijuana card? You can’t own a gun
Federal law prohibits selling firearms to marijuana users
Lawsuit: SC VA hospital flubs urine sample; tells sick man he’s cocaine addict
Help Needed to Prevent Veterans’ Suicides
22 veterans commit suicide every day in U.S. Proposed state program addresses issue.
Drug Screening & Your VA
Have You Been "Drug Screened" By Your VA Clinic?
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA)has a little known (and apparently unenforced)
policy that requires practitioners who are authorized to order laboratory tests to give you informed
consent prior to a drug screen. VHA HANDBOOK 1004.01 Page 7; "(b) Information about certain
tests must be considered “information that a patient in similar circumstances would reasonably
want to know” because these tests are particularly sensitive and may have consequences
that the patient might reasonably want to avoid.
These tests include, but are not limited to, specific tests to identify illicit drug use..."
In April 2017 VAWatchdog asked the Secretary to explain the VHA policy for screening
veterans for illicit drug use. Read the reply as a web page here. Note that the VHA
Handbook has been updated for distribution after we inquired.
Bottom line: You have a right to be fully informed before any drug screen. The ordering
practitioner must document that you were given informed consent for a drug screen.
If you have been drug screened and not fully informed as to the reasons for the drug
screen, you can have that removed from your medical record.
Read all of this as a full web page.
Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration Washington, DC 20420
VHA DIRECTIVE 1315 Transmittal Sheet December 8, 2017
ACCESS TO VHA CLINICAL PROGRAMS FOR VETERANS PARTICIPATING IN STATE-APPROVED MARIJUANA PROGRAMS
Do You Take Opoid Pain Medicine?
Listen up!
Have you had prescriptions for Codeine, Fentanyl, Hydrocodone, Hydromorphone,
Meperidine, Morphine, Oxycodone or Tramadol to treat your pain? Have you been
notified that your doctor isn't going to refill your prescription?
We are being inundated with emails and messages from you about how VA won't refill your
pain medicine prescriptions. Most of you are very angry. Some of you have already started
calling your Congressperson or a local VSO for help getting a refill on your Vicodin. Quite
a few want me to tell you who you can complain to at VA to ensure that your refills of narcotics
continue uninterrupted, just like always. You all blame this on the damned VA.
The facts aren't all that elusive. This is happening to you because the law has changed. The VA
didn't change the law, the push for the change happened at the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
The DEA decided the potential for abuse and risks required tighter restrictions than in the past.
This affects every doctor across America, not only VA doctors. When you tell me that your
civilian doctor always refills your narcotic prescriptions, that lets us know you haven't been to
a civilian doctor lately. The DEA controls their license to prescribe. If the doctor doesn't
follow the new rules, he or she may quickly lose that privilege. Many doctors have decided
they will no longer write any narcotic prescriptions. The narcotics prescriptions of the future
will be written mostly by surgeons for short term treatment of pain caused by operative
procedures. Chronic and long term pain relief won't generally be treated with narcotics.
One problem you're confronting is that the more you ask for your narcotic prescription to be
refilled, the more you appear to fit the profile of "drug seeking behavior". Once you display
anger because you ran out of Vicodin, you get that label and you're even more unlikely to
get any sympathy. Our advice? Talk with your primary care doctor. Be open about it if you
may be dependent on narcotics and you need some help to leave them behind. Don't get angry.
The VA isn't putting up with your anger these days. Before you raise your voice, look around. The VA
police are serious in their work and will have you on the ground before you can say much.
If you want to complain, give the DEA a call. Tell them that you have the right to get narcotics free
from VA. Get really pissed with the agent. They'll be happy to hear from you.
Drug Tests
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_test
Much of the testing in both civilian and VA and military settings is done with a
standardized 4 drug detection kit. The test of your urine would show the presence
of narcotics (Vicodin, Oxycontin, morphine, etc.). marijuana, cocaine (or crack) and
amphetamines. In some tests benzodiazepines (Valium and similar) may be detected.
Therefore, if you are tested to ensure that you are taking your prescribed medication
and you have been smoking marijuana, you'll likely get a call from your doctor.
Some VA doctors won't tolerate your marijuana use at all. Others don't pay it any attention.
Office of Child Support Enforcement
Income Withholding and Medical Support for Department of Veterans Affairs Benefits
Frequently Asked Questions
Housing-Related Assistance
VA Assistance to Veterans Who Are Severely Disabled
Veterans with certain service-connected disabilities may apply for grants to build an adapted home or install ramps, widen
doors, or make other modifications
to live more independently.
What Additional Benefits
Are YOU Eligible For?
VBA Derivative Benefits Eligibility
There are additional benefits that you may be eligible for that are based on a favorable decision for a VA benefit and/or based on special circumstances.
These are known as derivatives.
SSDI, LTD and WC
When you can't work, there are
three programs that can help:
Social Security Disability Insurance,
long-term disability and workers'
comp. You may even qualify for more than one, but that can also cause issues.
The Board of Veterans' Appeals
Legislation will help Pacific veterans
exposed to Agent Orange
How To Leak To ProPublica
Become a Freedom Fighter
Join the ACLU
VA starts domestic violence program
Department of Defense Extends
Shopping Privileges to Veterans
CIA Freedom of Information Act
Electronic Reading Room
Disability Compensation Benefits
C-123 Aircraft and
Agent Orange Exposure
DBQ's
TDIU Unemployability
MST
Presumptive Benefits
Special Monthly Compensation
(SMC)
for Assistance with
Activities of Daily Living (SCAADL)
Special Compensation
for Assistance with Activities
of Daily Living (SCAADL) Calculator
What Are
Activities Of Daily Living
Who are all these people and
what have they done for you today?
There are 3 Great Lies, it's been said...
1) Of course I'll respect you in the morning, darling.
2) The check is in the mail.
3) Hello, we're from the and we're here to help you.
Benefits from Other Federal Agencies
A general list of other Federal agencies that
offer benefit programs and resources for
Service members, Veterans, and their families.
Veterans Legal Help Navigator
Welcome to the Veterans Legal Help Navigator. This online tool helps veterans' caseworkers and advocates across the country find the right fit legal help for veterans.
Jim Strickland is a nationally known
advocate for veterans and a member of the
The Department of Veterans Affairs doesn't
care much about you smoking marijuana.
You won't lose disability benefits if you're smoking marijuana.
The only people who are concerned are in the health care arena of the VA...your doctors.
Most enlightened physicians recognize that marijuana has some medicinal benefit
and that there is no evidence of harmful side effects other than the obvious...inhaling
hot smoke. Most agree that the single most devastating side effect of recreational
marijuana use is that it remains illegal and you may be arrested for it.
Having said that, your doctor may feel differently. If your doctor makes a decision
that you shouldn't be smoking, he or she has the right to ask you to stop. Few people
will try to help you with that sort of problem as the doctor is the
clinical authority and makes those decisions.
Most mental health providers will ask that you refrain from all recreational
substance use. If you are diagnosed with any mental health problems, your doctor
will want your head to be as clear as possible during treatment. You should comply.
Doctors who treat your chronic pain with narcotics may also tell you to lay off the
recreational marijuana. They want to be able to judge the effects of the
treatments they offer you without any other substances interfering.
Orthopedic doctors today are often refusing such surgery as hip and knee replacement
unless the patient gives up tobacco and marijuana. They believe that smoking
anything will displace vital oxygen and interfere with the critical healing process.
Doctors who do transplants like kidneys or other organs also frequently tell the
patient to quit smoking marijuana. This is as much a matter of discipline as anything else.
They know that if you refuse to follow their orders, you may not do as well with your
transplant and they can offer the organ to another patient who will be more compliant.
Although society is undergoing some positive changes in how we view
recreational substance use, marijuana remains an illegal drug. Federal laws
are strict and in some states, even a small amount can earn you jail time.
You do not have any "rights" to smoke pot. If you're smart, and you want to
keep your health care provider happy, you'll pay close attention to what the provider tells you.