{ "version": "1.0.0", "segments": [ { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "1.8399999", "endTime": "22.575", "body": "Hey, guys. Welcome back. Today, we're gonna talk about VA claims related things for 2026. So one of the biggest misconceptions I'm I'm seeing right now in the VA disability space is the idea that VA somehow got rid of secondary claims in 2026 or that secondary claims are no longer viable. That is just not true." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "22.815", "endTime": "53.725002", "body": "Secondary claims are still absolutely recognized by the VA. Veterans are still winning them every single day. And what has changed is the level of, scrutiny being applied to the medical reasoning behind them. And, honestly, I think a lot of experienced VA attorneys are already saw this shift coming years ago. The firms that consistently handle strong appeals understand that secondary claims were never supposed to be about simply linking conditions together with broad statements." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "54.16", "endTime": "75.435", "body": "The strongest cases have always relied on detailed medical analysis, timelines, and well developed evidentiary records. Right? That's really where the conversation is heading in 2026. So there's a lot of bad information online right now. Veterans are hearing things like, you can claim anything secondary." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "76.475", "endTime": "91.73", "body": "Just get a nexus letter. Everything connects to everything. Or the opposite, is also true. The VA is denying all secondary claims right now. Neither of those, extremes is true." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "91.73", "endTime": "141.78", "body": "Neither of those extremes is accurate. So in this video, I just really wanted to break down what a secondary claim actually is, what changed in 2026, why some claims fail from a medical perspective at least, why some claims succeed from a medical opinion standpoint, talk about aggravation, what obesity as an intermediate step means, and what veterans should realistically understand moving forward. So first, let's define what a secondary VA claim actually is. So a secondary claim means that you already have a service connected condition, and that condition either causes another disability, contributes to another disability, or aggravates another disability beyond its natural progression. That's the key." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "141.94", "endTime": "154.9", "body": "So this is not some loophole. This is not gaming the system. This is just basic medicine. Bodies are connected. If somebody has chronic knee injuries, they may walk differently for years." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "155.195", "endTime": "178.27", "body": "That altered gait can affect the hips, then the hips can affect the low back, then reduced activity levels contribute to weight gain. Then weight gain leads to things like sleep apnea, hypertension, diabetes, or worsening orthopedic strain. That's how medicine works in real life. But there's, here's where things start to get messy online. K?" }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "178.27", "endTime": "207.37001", "body": "A medically possible relationship is not medically, doesn't automatically mean a medically supportable relationship. And that's the distinction that matters tremendously in 2026 and in every year. So one of the biggest changes veterans are running into right now is that the VA is looking much harder at the actual explanation behind Nexus opinions. So years ago, some claims were getting approved with extremely generic language. Things like condition x is secondary to condition y." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "207.37001", "endTime": "247.535", "body": "Is that still happening? Sure. Possibly. And some of those old opinions had almost no reasoning or maybe one paragraph with no real discussion of the veteran's medical history, biomechanics, risk factors, symptom progression, or literature support. The VA has become, it seems, much more rigid about challenging those types of opinions and much more stringent because, honestly, it's you know, they wanna see you know, they they wanna do a good job and and try to do it in accordance with the code of federal regulation, the m 21, things like that." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "247.535", "endTime": "288.54", "body": "And they wanna make sure that they're doing due diligence to the cases they're reviewing. So, honestly, experienced attorneys have been, warning about weak or boilerplate opinions for a long time because they know those cases become difficult to defend or appeal. The strongest legal teams tend to want opinions that are medically specific, internally consistent, record supported, and capable of withstanding scrutiny. Because, ultimately, a strong legal argument still depends on strong medical evidence. And that partnership between medical analysis and legal strategy is incredibly important in complex secondary claims." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "289.1", "endTime": "308.32498", "body": "Now let's talk about one of the biggest words you're going to hear more and more in 2026, and that's aggravation. This is huge. K? Historically, veterans often focus only on direct causation. Meaning, did my service connected condition directly cause this?" }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "309.16", "endTime": "339.1", "body": "But aggravation changes the the conversation. Aggravation asks things like, did the service connected condition permanently worsen the nonservice connected condition beyond its natural progression? Right? That is a completely different analysis. And this matters because some conditions may not have been originally caused by service, but they may they certainly may absolutely be worsened by service connected disabilities." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "339.9", "endTime": "370.29", "body": "So for example, a veteran may already have mild degenerative neck disease due to aging. But years of compensating for a severe lumbar spine condition could potentially worsen that cervical spine condition over time. That doesn't necessarily mean the lumbar spine caused the neck degeneration initially, but aggravation may still be medically supportable. And this is where detailed medical reasoning becomes critically important. Okay?" }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "370.45", "endTime": "395.0", "body": "You can't just say my back pain caused my neck pain. Will that fly? Maybe. But a lot of times, you have to really just explain things like biomechanics, compensation patterns, chronic altered movement, muscular imbalance, kinetic chain effects, treatment history, imaging, symptom progression, and timing. The VA is looking much harder at those types of details." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "395.32", "endTime": "418.52502", "body": "And frankly, attorneys handling these appeals understand how important it is to distinguish between speculative theories, medically plausible theories, and medically defensible theories. Okay? So those are not always the same thing. Another topic that exploded recently is obesity as an intermediate step. We've done tons of videos on this." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "418.62", "endTime": "438.71503", "body": "This one creates a lot of confusion. Veterans hear obesity isn't rateable, and they think that means obesity can never matter in a VA claim. That is not true. Generally speaking, obesity itself is not directly compensable. I I think there's a lot of back and forth in that in the in the legal field right now, so don't hold me to that." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "438.71503", "endTime": "471.535", "body": "But, you know, that's definitely something that has been on topic in 2026. But obesity can act as an intermediate step or link between a service connected condition and another disability. Meaning, service connected orthopedic injuries reduce mobility, reduce mobility contributes to weight gain or obesity, and obesity contributes to things like sleep apnea, hypertension, diabetes, or worsening orthopedic strain. That chain can potentially be medically valid. But again, this is where nuance matters." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "471.9", "endTime": "500.795", "body": "Not every veteran with knee pain automatically develops obesity because of service connected limitations. Not every veteran with obesity develops sleep apnea because of obesity alone. And not every sleep apnea claim involving obesity is medically supportable. The VA is looking much you know, they're they're really looking at whether each step in the chain is actually supported by evidence. That means documented mobility limitations, documented weight changes, documented symptom progression, treatment records, consistent medical rationale." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "501.36", "endTime": "521.795", "body": "One thing I really want veterans to understand is a a nexus letter is not magic. It is not a magic wand. It it can only be as strong as the records, the reasoning, and the medical defensibility behind it. K? I think social media has unfortunately created this idea that Nexus letters are just paperwork people buy to get approved." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "521.95496", "endTime": "551.435", "body": "That is not how legitimate medical opinions work. A credible medical opinion should sometimes conclude that it can't be supported. And and, unfortunately, I have I have to tell people I can't support a relationship between this and this. I know veterans don't always like hearing that, but, ethically, that matters because the strongest opinions are not the ones that connect everything imaginable. The strongest opinions are the ones that remain medically defensible and consistent." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "551.675", "endTime": "599.66", "body": "And good attorneys and VSOs and legal accredited claims agents understand that credibility matters, especially in long term, you know, long term, long standing VA cases. VA is scrutine things like copy and paste language, boiler pay plate opinions, unsupported conclusions, speculative rationale, and opinions that fail to address alternative risk factors. And veterans need to understand that not every denial means the theory itself is impossible. Sometimes the problem is simply inadequate explanation. For example, a veteran may truly have a medically supportable condition, but the nexus letter failed to explain aggravation, ignored obesity as an intermediate step, didn't discuss medication side effects, ignored smoking history, ignored age related factors, or failed to explain timing." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "599.74", "endTime": "619.18", "body": "Those details really matter. And another misconception is that people online will always say things like secondary claims are the easiest way to get a 100%. I really just like that kind of messaging. So it encourages veterans to chase conditions instead of focusing on legitimate evidence. Secondary claims should never be approached like, what can I connect?" }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "619.18", "endTime": "640.435", "body": "The better question is, what conditions are genuinely related to my service connected disability, based on evidence and medicine? That's that's a mind shift shifts. That is a mindset shift that matters. Honestly, I think 2026 is forcing VA disability rolled to mature a little bit in this area. The days of simplistic one line theories are fading." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "640.835", "endTime": "662.88", "body": "Medical evidence is becoming important. Detailed rationale is becoming more important. Chronology is becoming more important. Consistency is becoming more important, and the attorneys who consistently succeed in this space already know that. The strongest cases are usually the ones where the medical evidence is carefully developed, the legal theory is realistic, and the record tells a coherent story." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "663.495", "endTime": "691.2", "body": "At the end of the day, secondary claims are still very real. They are still very viable, and they remain one of the most important pathways to service connection for many veterans. But veterans need to understand that not every theory is supportable. Not every nexus letter is equal, and not every relationship is simp is, as simple as just social media makes it. The strongest secondary claims in 2026 are the ones that are medically grounded, evidence based, well explained, and defensible because ultimately, medical evidence matters." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "691.805", "endTime": "699.725", "body": "So I hope you guys enjoyed today's topic. Please drop some comments. Please like and subscribe. And as always, thank you for watching. Alright." }, { "speaker": "Leah Bucholz", "startTime": "699.885", "endTime": "700.365", "body": "Bye." } ] }