The Benefits Delivery at Discharge (BDD) Program

The Benefits Delivery at Discharge (BDD) program allows service members to file for veterans disability compensation benefits prior to separation.  This can only be accomplished if the service member files the claim between 90 and 180 days prior to separation, which allows the Veteran’s Administration (VA) to schedule medical exams, review medical records, and evaluate the claim before separation.  The VA fact sheet on BDD claims that most service members can begin to receive their veteran’s disability compensation benefits the day of separation.

Medical Records

The first step is to get a copy of your medical records, either a paper copy or a digital copy, and go through the whole thing identifying your problem lists.  I personally went through my records with a trained member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), of which I am a member, and also the Veterans Benefits Advisers who also have this training.

Next, you need to set up your Ebenefits account if you haven’t already and upload your medical records and a laundry list of other documents listed there such as: marriage certificate, birth certificates for all children, divorce decrees for all divorces.  The veteran benefits advisers at your base should be able to help you with all of this, that is their job.



When I spoke with the VFW adviser, he recommended faxing or mailing all the paperwork, but the base veterans benefits advisers told me that the Ebenefits portal is the new and accepted and faster way.  I chose the Ebenefits portal route, and once I submitted I started to receive emails about my medical and exam appointments.  I also received emails identifying documents that I still needed to upload.

Uploading medical records to the Ebenefits platform is somewhat problematic as they only accept 10mb files or smaller, and my records were 800 pages long.  There is a work around that I tried to use, but ultimately I had to break down the 800 page PDF file that I received on a CD from my clinic into 10mb pieces.

Just be warned, you won’t actually be able to see what your disability rating is until you are finally separated from the military.  After which, if you are not happy with the rating, you can resubmit with supporting documents and try and get a better rating which should be backdated to your date of separation.

So far, since I am still active duty, the only part of this process I have experienced is uploading my documents onto Ebenefits, submitting my claim, and getting the VA exams done.  Now, I am waiting for my separation to see when I get my first payment and what I will have to do next.

From other veterans who have already separated, I have heard the veterans disability compensation benefit taking up to six months to begin, though the pay is backdated to your separation date.  From those veterans who have separated in the last year and used the BDD program, the time to being paid has significantly decreased to within a few months of separation.

In future posts, I will discuss the VA exams for getting your disability rating and how/ when I finally got paid my veteran disability compensation benefit.

RR

Resources:

BDD information: https://www.benefits.va.gov/predischarge/index.asp
Ebenefits: https://www.ebenefits.va.gov
BDD Factsheet: https://benefits.va.gov/BENEFITS/factsheets/general/BDDFactSheet.pdf