Nexus letter
Asthma and reactive airway disease
For asthma that began in service or was permanently worsened by deployment exposures.
$895 for this condition · $149 to start
What this claim turns on
Asthma claims split between veterans who developed the condition during service and those who had it beforehand and saw it permanently worsen. The second group files an aggravation claim, which is a different medical question: not whether service caused the condition, but whether it made it measurably and permanently worse than its natural progression would have. That requires a physician to compare your pre-service baseline against your current pulmonary function, and to state whether the difference exceeds what time alone would explain. It is a harder opinion to write and a more valuable one when the evidence supports it.
Commonly claimed as secondary to
If one of these is already service connected, this condition may be claimable as secondary to it. Your intake asks which pathway applies.
Records to have ready
Your physician needs these to form an opinion. Gathering them before you start is the single biggest thing you can do to move your case quickly.
- DD-214 or other separation document
- Service treatment records covering your time in service
- Current VA or private treatment records showing a diagnosis
- Any VA rating decision or denial letter you have received
- Pulmonary function tests, ideally more than one over time
- Inhaler and medication history
- Pre-service medical records, if claiming aggravation
Missing something? Start anyway and tell us in the intake. Sometimes a gap changes the approach rather than stopping the claim. How to request your records.