What can I claim secondary to rheumatic heart disease?
1 condition in the Repatriation Medical Authority's Statements of Principles list rheumatic heart disease as a factor. If DVA has accepted your rheumatic heart disease, each of these has a documented pathway to a further claim.
At a glance
- Accepted conditionRheumatic heart disease
- Conditions it may open1
- SourceRMA SoPs
- Chart Review$600 + GST
How a secondary claim works
Some Statement of Principles factors are not about service at all — they name another condition. Where DVA has already accepted your rheumatic heart disease, and another condition's SoP lists rheumatic heart disease as a factor, that part of the next claim is already established on your file. How a secondary claim works, in full →
Conditions that list rheumatic heart disease as a factor
Quoted from the instrument. A pathway existing is not the same as a claim succeeding — each factor carries thresholds your record has to satisfy.
Heart block
RH No. 23 of 2022 · BoP No. 24 of 2022
Reasonable Hypothesis — factor (33): “having rheumatic heart disease at the time of the clinical onset of heart block” [clinical onset] — factor (66): “having rheumatic heart disease at the time of the clinical worsening of heart block” [worsening]
Balance of Probabilities — factor (27): “having rheumatic heart disease at the time of the clinical onset of heart block” [clinical onset] — factor (54): “having rheumatic heart disease at the time of the clinical worsening of heart block” [worsening]
Other accepted conditions that also open heart block
If any of these is also on your file, it reaches some of the same conditions rheumatic heart disease does.
What DVA means by rheumatic heart disease
A claim is tested against the definition first. If the diagnosis on your file does not meet this wording, the factors below never get reached — so it is worth checking that what your doctor wrote matches what the instrument requires.
Rheumatic heart disease, for the purposes of the Statement of Principles, for the purposes of this Statement of Principles, rheumatic heart disease: (a) means a clinically or echocardiographically documented cardiac disease, commonly involving the mitral or aortic valve, that follows acute rheumatic fever; and (b) includes pathological stenosis or regurgitation in the presence of scarring, deformity or morphological change of at least one heart valve, chronic rheumatic myocarditis and chronic rheumatic pericarditis; and (c) excludes acute carditis of acute rheumatic fever.
Note the exclusion. This instrument expressly excludes acute carditis of Acute rheumatic fever. A diagnosis of that is not a diagnosis of rheumatic heart disease, and a claim framed the wrong way fails on the definition before any factor is considered.
Aggravation-only factors. In this instrument, subsections 9(4) to 9(8) apply only to material contribution to, or aggravation of, rheumatic heart disease where it was already present before or during service. If service caused rheumatic heart disease outright, those factors are not available to you.
RH No. 51 of 2019 · BoP No. 52 of 2019 · 8 factors
What could support a claim for rheumatic heart disease?
The Statement of Principles for rheumatic heart disease names 1 other condition among its own factors. If any of these is already accepted on your file, it may be the factor that carries a rheumatic heart disease claim — quoted here from the instrument.
Acute rheumatic fever
Reasonable Hypothesis — factor (1): “having acute rheumatic fever at least three months before the clinical onset of rheumatic heart disease” [clinical onset]
Reasonable Hypothesis — factor (4): “having acute rheumatic fever before the clinical worsening of rheumatic heart disease” [worsening]
Reviewed by Dr Thomas Perkins
Founding doctor, Veterans Health Centre · former RAAF aviation medical officer · 13 years working exclusively with ADF members and veterans. Full profile →
Rheumatic heart disease accepted?
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