Aaron Glantz, New America Media

Walter Williams is still fighting for his veteran's disability

As I reported Friday, new rules from the Department of Veterans Affairs will make it easier for veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to get their benefits. Under the rules, which were formally announced today, veterans diagnosed with PTSD by a VA health care professional or by someone under contract with the VA no longer would have to provide proof that they had been part of a specific traumatic even in order to get benefits. Walter Williams, an Iraq war vet whose story was feaatured, had been denied a disability despite his PTSD.

The new rules would appear to immediately benefit at least 7,100, Northern California veterans have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan and been treated at a VA facility for PTSD or a related mental health condition, as well as tens of thousands of local Vietnam veterans who have been diagnosed with PTSD but never received compensation.

But this morning, the Army Times reports there's a wrinkle in the rules that could disadvantage tens of thousands of returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans diagnosed with PTSD while still in the service. It turns out the new rule does not accept a PTSD diagnosis from a military doctor (or a civilian doctor) as sufficient proof. So a veteran receiving a battery of medications and counseling for PTSD from an army or navy doctor will have to start from the beginning at the VA.