VA Combined Rating: For veterans seeking compensation for service-connected disabilities, VA disability ratings are crucial.
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Ratings range from 0% to 100% in 10% increments. A 0% rating indicates that the impairment is acknowledged but does not affect work, relationships, and daily activities.
Gathering strong evidence is key when applying for VA disability benefits. A persuasive nexus letter from a healthcare professional who specializes in your condition is essential.
Diagnostic tests and past treatment documentation bolster your case. You can include records from both VA providers and private medical evidence.
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Personal journal entries might be recommended to explain your condition in your own words, as well as statements from family, friends, and colleagues about how your symptoms affect your life on a daily basis.
It is difficult to achieve a 100% VA disability rating with a single service-connected disability. Most veterans with a 100% rating have multiple disabling conditions.
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Veterans with service-connected PTSD might also have migraines, erectile dysfunction, hypertension, sleep apnea, or IBS.
It’s pretty hard to get a 100% VA disability rating with just one service-connected disability. Most veterans who get a 100% rating have two or more.
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Simplifying the process of combining disability ratings
In VA Math, disability ratings for more than one condition are added together to make a single “combined” grade. The method sees your body as whole, and each disease is equal to a certain percentage of your overall disability.
For instance, if you start with a 30% back pain, you take that away from 100% to get 70%. Then, if you hurt your knee 20%, you take 20% away from the leftover 70%, which leaves you with 14%.
The VA uses what’s called the Veterans Affairs Schedule for Rating Disabilities (VASRD) as its “guide for evaluating the severity of disabilities” related to military service, the Army explains.
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If you add a 10% tinnitus rating, you subtract 5.6%, leaving you with 50.4%, which rounds to 50%.
In order to qualify for disability compensation, you must have a combined service-connected disability rating. Combined ratings are not simply additive.
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VA disability ratings are calculated based on the Schedule of Ratings, which assigns percentages based on symptom severity.
To do this, you have to put your disability scores in order from highest to lowest percentage. Next, find the highest rating in the left column of the table of combined ratings.
Then, find the number that intersects with your second-highest rating. This gives you the combined disability rating. Learning About VA Veterans who want to get disability payments need to be good at math.
Not just adding up numbers, you need to think about how each disability affects your health and well-being as a whole.
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