Effective August 11, 2019, there is a new rating schedule for infectious diseases, immune disorders and nutritional deficiencies. The collection of federal regulations used by Veterans Benefits Administration helps claims processors evaluate the severity of disabilities and assign disability ratings. Since September 2017, VA has updated the rating schedules for Dental and Oral Conditions, conditions related to the Endocrine system, Gynecological Conditions and Disorders of the Breast and the General Rating Formula for Diseases of the Eye, Skin conditions, and the Hematologic and Lymphatic Systems. VA will continue updating the remainder of the VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities (VASRD)—affecting 15 total body systems—over the next several months.
The complete list of updates to the rating schedule for infectious diseases, immune disorders and nutritional deficiencies is now available online. Claims pending prior to August 11, 2019, will be considered under both the old and new rating criteria, and whichever criteria is more favorable to a Veteran will be applied. Claims filed on or after August 11 will be rated under the new rating schedule.
VA is updating the entire VASRD for the first time since 1945. VA remains committed to staying at the forefront of modern medicine to provide the best service to Veterans and their families.
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While some of the conditions needed to be revised, some of the new rating criteria does not use the best medical information or is based upon faulty studies. An example is chronic fatigue syndrome. CFS can be incapacitating and not require bedrest. In fact there are times when it is counter-productive just as it is often counter productive to push on the patient graded exercise therapy or cognitive behavior therapy. The study published in the British Lancet that much of the “current” understanding of what works for CFS has been retracted because of conflict of interests and shoddy scholarship and research.
In addition, there are many physicians in the VA healthcare system who know little or nothing about CFS (or Desert Storm/OIF/OEF/etc exposures, other conditions), and who automatically assume fatigue is caused by something else. This is even if there has been testing done; there is a diagnosis of it, and it continues to be an issue even with treatment. It is not just for CFS that problems occur in both the VHA & VBA in recognizing or acknowledging illnesses and injuries that do not fit standard medical textbooks, are new, or the physicians do not believe the illnesses are real and/or the veterans are lying/do not know what they are experiencing.
The infectious disease schedule shows the last update was in 1996
the VA will not give me medical benefits. I served in the Navy from 1961 to 1965.
carl barron
Did you get a discharge other than dishonorable?