While on active duty, you might have been exposed to environments that could harm your lungs. Even if you didn’t have breathing problems right away, conditions like bronchitis could develop later after returning to civilian life.
If you are suffering from bronchitis as a service-connected medical condition, you may be eligible to receive compensation in the form of disability benefits through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Stone Rose Law firm helps veterans with disabilities receive the monthly compensation and other VA benefits they need and deserve. Call our law firm offices at (480) 498-8998 to speak with a veterans’ benefits specialist attorney and to set up an appointment to review your initial or supplemental benefits claim.
Bronchial tubes are the passageway between the lungs and the mouth. Bronchitis occurs when the tubes become inflamed and swollen, constricting the airway and making it hard to breathe.
Bronchitis takes two forms: acute and chronic.
For VA disability benefits purposes, chronic bronchitis is a medical condition that can qualify you for VA healthcare and disability benefits. To be classified as having chronic bronchitis, you must meet two requirements:
Bronchitis occurs when your bronchial tubes react to significant or prolonged irritation. The source of the irritation can include airborne hazards like sand, dust, asbestos, industrial chemicals or pollutants, or air toxins released by burn pit exposure.
Cigarette smoking is another significant contributor to chronic bronchitis.
The cause of acute bronchitis can often be viral or, for COPD sufferers, a bacterial respiratory infection.
A presumptive condition means you do not need to establish a service connection as you would ordinarily need to receive VA disability benefits. Instead, the VA will automatically presume that a service connection exists.
In the past, smoking could make it harder for veterans to get their disability claims for bronchitis accepted by the VA. However, with the 2022 PACT Act, the VA now presumes chronic bronchitis is service-connected if you can prove exposure to burn pits during certain times and places while on active duty.
The PACT Act defines specific times and places of service that qualify you for benefits based on a presumptive service connection. There are two main categories for eligibility.
If you were deployed to the following countries (including maritime, air, or space service) after August 2, 1990, your chronic bronchitis will qualify as presumptive:
If you were deployed to the following countries after September 11, 2001 (including maritime, air, or space service), your chronic bronchitis would qualify as presumptive:
The VA began granting chronic bronchitis claims effective October 1, 2023. If you are terminally ill, homeless, in severe financial difficulty, aged 85 or older, or can demonstrate other acceptable causes, the VA will move this date back to August 10, 2022.
The most common bronchitis symptoms are a persistent cough (sometimes called “smoker’s cough”) accompanied by thick mucus. These result from your lungs’ natural efforts to clear themselves of the irritants causing bronchial irritation: the mucus lifts particulate matter from your lung tissue, and the coughing expels the mucus.
Other bronchitis symptoms include:
Bronchitis is one of several respiratory conditions you may develop due to your service, including asthma, pneumonia, emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis, tuberculosis, and sinusitis.
The primary way to tell chronic bronchitis apart from most other respiratory conditions is the consistent heavy mucus production. Your doctor will be the best authority to diagnose you with bronchitis or any other condition.
If you can’t establish a presumptive service connection, you can still receive disability benefits for chronic bronchitis. However, you’ll need to prove the condition is linked to your service.
To do this, you may need to undergo tests that measure your lung function. These tests are called:
The FEV-1 test measures the maximum amount of air you can breathe out in 1 second, measured as a percentage compared to a healthy person of your age.
You can receive a 10% COPD VA disability rating if you can only breathe out 80% of the air that a healthy person can.
FVC test results measure how much air you can exhale after taking a full breath.
This test measures your body’s ability to transfer oxygen into red blood cells.
The VA uses the results of these tests to learn how much your chronic bronchitis condition impairs you and affects your daily activities.
Other evidence the VA may consider includes a chest X-ray in cases where you may have pneumonia, as well as the severity of your symptoms, their frequency and severity, and whether your bronchitis requires prescription drug treatment or hospitalization.
Once you have submitted your application for chronic bronchitis disability benefits, the VA will evaluate your claim. During this period, the VA may require you to undergo a Compensation and Pension (C&P) examination.
A C&P exam gives the VA a chance to learn more about your condition, your symptoms, your medical treatment to date, and the effects of chronic bronchitis on your ability to work and engage in daily activities.
Missing your scheduled exam without good reason and failing to reschedule could result in a claim delay or denial.
Chronic bronchitis can contribute to the development or aggravation of another service-connected disability. Examples of these secondary disabilities include:
To establish a secondary service connection, you must provide medical evidence documenting how your chronic bronchitis condition directly contributes to the development or aggravation of your chronic bronchitis.
If you have multiple compensable VA disability ratings, you can estimate how much you might receive in veterans’ benefits by using our VA Disability Calculator.
| Rating Percentage | Symptom and Test Results |
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| 60% |
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| 100% |
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If the VA approves your disability benefits claim for chronic bronchitis, you can receive the following disability ratings: 10%, 30%, 60%, or 100%.
If your chronic bronchitis condition makes it impossible for you to obtain or to hold onto substantially gainful employment, it is possible to receive the same benefits still as a 100% disabled veteran would. To do so, the VA would need to call total disability based on individual unemployability, or TDIU.
There are three ways in which you might qualify for TDIU total disability benefits based on a chronic bronchitis VA rating:
The VA does not accept all benefits claims it receives. In fact, it rejects up to one-third of such claims. This often happens because of missing information in your application or mistakes made by the VA during deliberation.
If this happens, you can appeal the VA’s decision. When making your appeal, it is helpful to have an experienced VA disability benefits appeal lawyer to help you understand the reasons for the denial, gather additional evidence to support your claim, prepare counter-arguments to the denial, and help you file your claim.
At Stone Rose Law, we support veterans like you with chronic bronchitis and other VA disability claims. These include initial claims, supplemental claims, and appeals of VA claim denials.
We help our appeals clients on a contingency basis, meaning there is no fee to you unless you win your appeal. If we win on your behalf, then we only collect a one-time fee from your asthma compensation back pay. You keep all your monthly disability and other VA benefits.
Our expert VA Disability Lawyers know how to handle VA appeals cases. We have successfully represented clients just like you to recover tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid VA disability compensation related to chronic bronchitis.Contact one of our VA disability attorneys at Stone Rose Law Firm for a free consultation on your VA disability claim. Call us today at (480) 498-8998 or reach us online.
