welcome to cck live my name is nicholas briggs and i'm an accredited va practitioner here at
chisholm chisholm and kilpatrick i'm joined today by attorneys christine clemens and christian
mctarnigan and in this video we're going to be discussing va's recent proposed changes to the
rating systems for sleep apnea mental health and tinnitus so first a brief overview of those
proposed changes on february 15th va announced some proposed changes to the va schedule for
rating disabilities specifically pertaining to the rating systems for conditions within the
respiratory auditory and mental disorder body systems in particular the changes are going to
impact veterans seeking disability benefits for sleep apnea tinnitus and like we mentioned before
those mental health conditions according to va at least these changes would incorporate medical
advancements for treating certain disabilities and incorporating modern medical knowledge with
the goal of more accurately compensating veterans for their conditions it's important to note from
the beginning that these changes are not going to impact veterans who are currently rated
under the old system and by and large it won't affect veterans who have active claims pending
that being said it could affect future claims which is why we wanted to go over that information
with you all today so with that all in mind christian could you please give us a pre
a brief overview of the schedule for rating disabilities yeah right of course thanks nick
so the va's schedule for rating disabilities sometimes referred to as the vas rd sometimes
revert referred to as the rating schedule basically this is the title of the us code
that contains all the different disabilities that a veteran can be rated for it's divided
into 15 different categories depending on the bodily system that you know that is disabled for
instance you know there are separate categories for digestive system respiratory system one of
you know we're going to talk a little bit about that specifically today musculoskeletal system
so for each bodily system the vas rd the rating schedule lists diagnostic codes that basically
are four digit numbers that corresponds to a particular disability and that's how you're
rated right when you get a co when you get a rating decision you get a code sheet you're
gonna see a little four digit number on the left side of the page that corresponds to your
disability and then that disability is going to be rated based on the criteria in the schedule
and that's what's going to lead to your monthly compensation so basically any disability that you
have rated it's in the code and it tells raters how they have to rate that particular disability
so um like i alluded to and like you said nick one of the changes um that's being proposed
is to how sleep apnea is rated so sleep apnea is one of those disabilities that's in one of
those subsections so the number of veterans who have been given compensation service connected
and rated for sleep apnea has risen sharply sleep apnea has interrupted breathing during your sleep
so the current rating schedule and like you said nick those who are currently rated this
isn't going to affect them those that have claims pending it shouldn't affect them
the schedule recognizes ratings at zero non-compensable 30 50 and 100 for sleep apnea
even if treatments are effective in dealing with the condition and so currently if you have sleep
apnea and your doctor has prescribed and you use a cpap machine you're going to get a 50 rating for
that disability that's irrespective of whether it um you know helps your sleep apnea you don't have
any other symptoms or anything like this anything like that but this is not going to be the case if
these proposed rule changes uh you know are final and actually become how they now rate sleep apnea
so with the proposed with the proposed changes a veteran would get a zero percent rating for
asymmetric asymptomatic sleep apnea so that's even if the symptoms are fully treated and asymptomatic
because of use of a cpap so this is different than how the schedule works now so then under
the proposed change the ratings would increase based on how symptomatic the condition remains
after the treatment so veterans would be able to get a rating of a 10 or higher only when the
treatment is either ineffective or the veteran is unable to use the prescribed treatment due to a
co-morbid condition so just some veterans that have post-traumatic stress disorder have trouble
wearing a cpap machine for instance so that's i think what they're trying to get at there
um so this new way to rate sleep apnea allows for va to formally acknowledge a veteran's condition
without requiring any compensation if the condition is easily managed with treatment
so that's that's pretty different that's a pretty big difference from how the old
schedule looks to how the new proposed rule would work great thanks for that christian
and from what we understand so far it's looking like tinnitus is going to understand some
equally significant changes in how it's understood and rated by va uh christine could you tell us a
little more about that yeah nick thanks so um tinnitus is uh something that a lot of veterans
experience more than 1.5 million veterans are currently receiving disability benefits for
tinnitus also sometimes we hear it referred to as tinnitus this is a high-pitched
ringing caused by damage to the ears there are a number of reasons why somebody could have
tinnitus the number of other disabilities it might be associated with or it might be independent um
and just to reiterate something that nick that you said at the beginning um
these proposed changes would not affect veterans who are currently receiving ratings for their
tinnitus but under the proposed schedule changes veterans who are diagnosed with tinnitus would
need to meet a higher standard essentially in order to receive levels of disability compensation
higher levels of disability compensation va officials have noted that these changes
would likely reduce the number of veterans qualifying for disability ratings of 10 or more
and you know although this wouldn't affect veterans who are currently receiving those ratings
this is something that we see really commonly that veterans experience um and so it will be
a significant shift if these proposed changes go through great thanks for that christine and then
last but not least we have changes in the mental health reading criteria now this change if if it
ultimately goes through is a bit different because there are some positives and some negatives to it
um that we think we'll need to sort of play out before we get a full grasp on how it might affect
how a veteran's condition is rated and treated by mental health experts
so the goal is essentially for conditions like anxiety depression or ptsd to be evaluated based
on how they affect the veteran's ability to perform everyday functions with even mild
impairment available for compensation so first and foremost the new proposed rules for mental health
conditions would increase the minimum disability rating from zero percent to 10 so it's no longer
going to be possible to get a non-compensable reading for a mental health diagnosis
the rule would also get rid of a dated part of the schedule for rating disabilities
that prevents a veteran from getting a 100 reading if they're able to work
there are plenty of veterans out there who are able to work in some capacity or another
but ultimately have such of your symptoms that they should be getting a schedule or 100 rating
but because they don't have total occupational impairment under the current diagnostic code
it just is completely ruled out for veterans like that
in addition to those changes rather than assigning an evaluation based on the number
and type of symptoms va is implementing a new set of criteria to evaluate mental disorders
based on their impacts like we talked about before and specifically that impact on five
domains of impairment those new five domains are cognition interpersonal interactions relationships
task completion life activities and navigating environments and finally self-care again the goal
of these changes is to better recognize the impact of the mental health condition on their individual
well-being by placing greater emphasis on their ability to function in a work setting rather than
just sort of counting the different symptoms which is kind of how the system tends to operate now
so with those basics in mind christian can you tell us a big picture how are these changes going
to impact the veterans monthly compensation right so um currently veterans can receive
anywhere from 152 dollars for a 10 disability rating to 3 332 dollars for 100 percent rating
so although these proposed changes don't change those dollar amounts what they have potentially
and again like you said nick i think you made a really good point these are just proposed rules
none of us have worked on cases that apply them we don't have rating decisions that use
them so we're not exactly sure what the what the outcome is going to be but um you know
looking at it it seems that it could mean lower payouts for veterans with sleep apnea
and tinnitus in the future but potentially and again we have to see how this plays out
higher disability ratings for for for veterans affected by mental health disabilities that's
probably most specifically because there's not a non-compensable rating anymore
for mental health disabilities so um again and i think we've stressed this
several times but it's very important to understand that these changes will not
affect you if you're currently service connected for a mental health condition they're not going to
take away your existing benefits it's not going to lower your disability ratings but because of
some rules that va have it might actually increase some veterans ratings which would be a good thing
and again just to put a point on this on the other hand veterans who apply for benefits in the future
if these rules are are made official will you will see a different set of standards apply to
their cases which could change your financial situation and how much money you are able to
get for your service-connected disability correct thanks christian and then finally
christine could you tell us a bit more about when and how these changes will be implemented
sure next so uh va officials do not have a planned implementation date for the ratings changes
uh yet they are currently um in the notice and comment phase so when um va proposes to make
changes like this to the rating schedule they go through notice and comment and the public has 60
days to provide feedback on the proposals so that 60-day period takes us to about the middle of
april sometime thereafter va would review those comments they will typically respond to any that
are significant they may take back some of the feedback that they've received revise further
their proposed changes sometimes they decide not to move forward with the changes and then other
times they decide to move forward and at that point they would issue uh finalized regulations
as i said the public does have the opportunity to to provide feedback and they can do that
electronically on the regulations.gov site so if anyone did want to provide their feedback
for example if tinnitus is something that they think would negatively impact
veterans they don't really know why va would be making these um proposed changes or sleep
apnea if they have feedback related to mental health um they could certainly provide that there
great thanks christine so again just closing points here um all these changes are proposed
some might hurt veterans some might help veterans that's what the notice and comment process is for
um it's for attorneys service organizations and veterans themselves to provide feedback
and va may ultimately choose to not move forward with some of these proposals so we'll just need
to see how things are and then eventually they may propose that new final rules at some
point in the future at which case we can start really practically assessing how these changes
will affect veterans and their families moving forward um either of you any additional comments
great thank you both and uh thank you all for tuning in be sure to just
subscribe to our channel and check out our blog for more information
you