Attorney & Advocate Partnership Program

The VA rates asthma under 38 CFR § 4.97, Diagnostic Code 6602, at 10%, 30%, 60%, or 100%. Every tier is written with the word "or," which means you only need to meet one criterion at each level, not all of them. That is why your prescription bottle often matters more than your spirometry printout. Daily use of an inhaled anti-inflammatory medication like Symbicort, Advair, or Flovent meets the 30% criteria on its own, even when your breathing test comes back normal. Documented prednisone bursts at least three times a year meet the 60% criteria the same way.

There is no statute of limitations on a 38 U.S.C. § 1151 claim. You can file at any time, even decades after the VA treatment that harmed you. Two other clocks still control how much you are paid and which legal options you keep. Most articles on this topic never mention them. This guide explains how the three timelines work together and why waiting costs money even when it does not cost the claim.

MST markers are the indirect evidence the VA accepts to support a military sexual trauma claim when the event was never officially reported: records from the time, changes in a veteran's service record, and statements from people who knew. Under 38 CFR § 3.304(f)(5), a qualified clinician's written interpretation of the markers can help corroborate that the event occurred. The pattern, explained well, is the evidence.