The Veterans’ Disability Benefits Commission (www.vetscommission.org) is charged with carrying out a comprehensive study of benefits provided under the laws of the United States to compensate and assist veterans and their survivors for disabilities and deaths attributable to military service.  Part of their statute requires that the Commission consult with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to review the medical aspects of the disability compensation procedures and programs.

Two expert committees will review various medical aspects of the veterans' disability and compensation procedures and programs.  One committee will address a series of questions relating to the medical evaluation of veterans for disability compensation.  Another committee, for which this statement of task applies, will evaluate the presumptive disability decision-making process for veterans and, if needed, recommend a more rigorous scientific model to underpin the decision process.

This committee is charged with the following specific tasks provided by the Commission:  “Describe the current model used to recognize diseases that are subject to service connection on a presumptive basis.  Propose a scientific framework that would justify recognizing or not recognizing conditions as presumptive.”  Therefore, this committee will review the current scientific methodology used to support presumptive compensation decisions.  After reviewing the current methodology, the committee will suggest alternate models that better leverage scientific knowledge for these decisions.  Both committees will make recommendations to the Chairman, Veterans’ Disability Benefits Commission.

Since 1921, many decisions to presumptively compensate veterans for numerous categories of diseases and illnesses have been made.  Those decisions are reserved for the Secretary of Department of Veterans Affairs to make, and they often have to be made with limited information.  In addition, Congress has established many presumptive decisions for veterans.  The Commission desires that IOM review the scientific basis used for making presumptive decisions with the belief that it may be possible to develop a more scientifically rigorous approach to underpin these decisions.

Read more information about the study, including a more detailed statement of work, short biographical descriptions of the committee members, and the schedule of meetings.

Email the Committee at PDDM@nas.edu