Tens of thousands of Viet- nam veterans with ischem- ic heart disease, Parkinson's disease or B cell leukemia should file claims now with the Department of Veterans Affairs for disability compensation, not wait until VA publishes a regulation officially linking these diseases to wartime service.

Advocacy groups are urging the swift filing of claims because veterans eventually found eligible for disability pay for these diseases will be able to receive compensation back to the date their claims were filed.

Those who wait for a regulation to add these ailments to VA's list of diseases presumed caused by exposure to Agent Orange and other toxins used in the war could lessen, by several months of compensation, any retroactive pay that they will be due once their claims have been approved.

"File your claim now so you can get what you've earned," urged Peter S. Gaytan, executive director of The American Legion.

VA officials, in a statement, agreed.

"The only way an eligible Vietnam veteran can lose out is if he or she delays filing or does not file a claim, as the effective date of benefits hinges on the date of actually filing of the claim," the VA explained.

Help in filing claims is available through the Legion and its service officers as well as through most other major veterans' organizations.

A law firm representing the Legion, the Military Order of the Purple Heart and the National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) sent a March 1 letter to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki demanding that VA publish by March 12 an interim regulation for adding these illnesses to its list of diseases presumed caused by Agent Orange -- or face a lawsuit.

Longer delays in rulemaking, the letter said, will "result in irreparable harm to thousands of Vietnam veterans who suffer from these diseases" because VA compensation is not owed to "new claimants for any period prior to publication of a final regulation."

What the letter didn't make clear is that veterans can avoid the "irreparable harm" if they don't wait for the regulation to file their claim.

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By March 3, the Legion had heard from Shinseki and disassociated itself from the letter sent by the law firm of Chadbourne and Parke.

"We got reassurance from the secretary that they're moving as quickly as they can to clarify the regulations, and they understand the urgency behind making that happen," Gaytan said. "We're satisfied with the secretary's direct commitment to get that done."

What had irked veterans' groups was a missed deadline. The Agent Orange Act of 1991 requires VA to publish final regulations to expand its list of presumptive diseases within 210 days of receiving a report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) linking more illnesses to use of the herbicide during the war in Southeast Asia. That 210-day deadline was reached Feb. 19 without VA having published even an interim regulation.

A VA official said the Office of Management and Budget is expected to complete its review of VA's interim regulation by the end of March. It then will be published in the Federal Register for public comment.

Shinseki had delighted veterans' groups last October by announcing that VA would not challenge a July 24 report by the IOM that found sufficient epidemiologic evidence to suggest a link between wartime herbicide exposure and Parkinson's disease, B cell leukemia and ischemic heart disease, also known as coronary artery disease.

Veterans who set foot in Vietnam from 1962 to 1975 and suffer today from one of these diseases will be in line for a disability rating and compensation once the regulation is final and claim adjudicators begin using it. By one estimate, as many as 185,000 veterans could be eligible for disability pay for these diseases.

A VA official defended the pace of rulemaking since Shinseki's decision.

"Typically it takes any agency about two years to get through something like this -- dealing with the Federal Register, open comment, et cetera," said the official who asked not to be identified. "As a result of this being so important, we have definitely made sure to expedite ... This is one of the secretary's top concerns."

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Bart Stichman, co-executive director of NVLSP, agreed that Vietnam veterans should file claims immediately to fully protect potential benefits.

"If they previously filed, they're OK," Stichman said. "But a lot of people haven't heard about this." Those who wait for "a big announcement when the regulation comes out" will only be eligible for retroactive compensation back to the date the regulation becomes final, which still could be months away.

The American Legion is sending out fresh guidance to its service officers to urge veterans who believe they have a claim under any one of the three illnesses to come in for free help in developing their claims.

"We have experts in this field," Gaytan said, "paid employees ... to help get the claim filed as soon as possible. That's our job as a veterans' advocacy organization. We can't expect the veteran to understand all the complicated regulations that help the VA administer delivery of benefits."

Many tens of thousands of Vietnam veterans, particularly with heart disease, are expected to file claims to get tax-free compensation for life and access to VA medical care. Exceptions to eligibility could include lack of any proof a veteran ever visited Vietnam or the surfacing of credible evidence showing the ailment was unrelated to service.

Claimants with a presumptive Agent Orange disease don't have to prove a direct association between their condition and their time in service.

"We understand the importance of moving this through," the VA official said about the regulation.

She noted that snow storms in Washington, D.C., in February shut down federal offices for several days, adding to the delay.

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