Trying to figure out your VA disability rating can be confusing and frustrating. At times it may even seem like no one is even looking at your case since the delay times can be fairly sustainable. Then when you do finally hear back your rating percentage is not what you expected. Here are a couple of guidelines to help alleviate some of the frustration and aggravation when filing for a VA disability rating.
Evidence of Record
If you are trying to get a VA disability rating the first thing you must show is that the claimed disability first occurred or was diagnosed during military service. This usually means that the Federal Records Center in St. Louis has to have official record of the condition. Except for cases like PTSD when the condition may develop after active service is over, if the disability or condition is not in your official record then for VA disability rating purposes it never happened. This means that it is extremely important to get a discharge physical examination because this is your last chance to make sure all your disabilities are on your record.
Determining Disability
Once it has been determined that your service record shows the disability being claimed then the level of present disability has to be determined. This is usually accomplished by a visit to the closest VA Medical Center. The physician will then send a report to the Regional VA Office for review by a rating specialist. The rating specialist reviews all the medical information on record, with emphasis on the recent report sent from the examining physician, and compares it to a pre-determined rating schedule. The rating schedule will give the specialist a certain “disability percentage” by matching the description of the condition with various percentages. The percentage that most closely matches the condition’s description is the one that is assigned. This percentage then serves as the VA disability rating.
If multiple conditions or disabilities are being claimed then the corresponding percentages for each disability will be combined to form a comprehensive percentage which will then serve as the VA disability rating. However, the percentages are not combined by simple addition but by “rolling percentage.” For example, if a veteran has three disabling conditions with ratings of 50% 40% and 20% then the combined percentage would be figured as follows: The veteran is considered at 100% healthy or 100 to start so with the first condition applied the rating would now be 50. When the next condition is applied it is now applied only to the remaining healthy 50 so you would only add 40% of 50 or 20. This brings the running total to 70. Then we apply the final condition to the remaining healthy, so 20% of 30 or 6. This is added to our running total of 70 and the final VA Rating percentage is 76%.
Once you have your percentage then you can determine your compensation level by consulting the VA compensation Rates found on the Department of Veterans Affairs website.
Sources:
United States Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Disability Compensation, www.vba.gov
United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Compensation and Pension Service, www.vba.gov
