so
hello and welcome to cck live my name is jenna zellmer i am one of the attorneys here at chisholm
chisholm and kilpatrick who works primarily at the court of appeals for veterans claims
uh working on veterans benefits appeals and joining me today are brandon piva and
rachel foster who practice primarily at the va representing veterans and obtaining those benefits
so welcome and today we're going to be talking about the top six va disability claims
in 2022 just as a little bit of background information in order to be eligible for va
disability benefits veterans must have one served on active duty in any of the branches of the u.s
military and received an other than dishonorable discharge and in some cases family members such
as spouses and children can also be eligible to receive va disability benefits according to va a
disability can either be a physical condition or a psychiatric condition and veterans can file claims
for va disability benefits for any condition they believe is due to their time in service so with
that background there are certain conditions that are particularly common among veterans regardless
of their branch of service and today we're going to be talking about those top six most common
va disability claims as always you can find more information on our website and we will link some
links to the blog and below in the comments so if you can learn more about this at your
own leisure but kick it off rachel let's talk about the top disability claim ptsd
yes so ptsd or post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition that results from
experiencing a distressing shocking or otherwise traumatic event the symptoms and severity of
ptsd can vary from person to person but the most common symptoms include re-experiencing the trauma
through intrusive distressing recollections of the event flashbacks and nightmares can also include
emotional numbness and avoidance of places people and activities that are reminders of the trauma
and third it can also result in hyper arousal that can manifest as difficulty sleeping and difficulty
concentrating feeling jumpy and being easily irritated and angered we have a lot of videos
that discuss ptsd specifically but as a quick overview in order to establish service connection
for ptsd veterans must verify an in-service stressor that they believe caused their ptsd
this must be cooperated through evidence such as lay statements detailing the occurrence
va rates ptsd under the schedule of ratings for mental disorders so 38 cfr section 4.130
and its diagnostic code is 9411 and they can receive different ratings at 0 30 50 70 or 100
the ratings for ptsd are based on the level of social and occupational impairment as well
as the frequency duration and severity of those symptoms thanks rachel and like you said we have
a lot of veterans who have ptsd and so we have a lot of information on our website and on our blog
about ptsd so if that's something that you think you have or if you already are service connected
for it and are looking for a higher rating i would encourage you to look at our website uh brandon
let's go on to the second top disability claim thanks jenna so kind of the second top most common
va disability that we typically see at least our practice is what's called lumbosacral and cervical
strain so essentially back pain or back conditions veterans often suffer often suffer from back pain
which is usually caused by a variety of back conditions some bads such as a lumbosacral
strain or cervical strains the lumbar part of the spine being the lower part of the spine
the cervical part of the spine being closer to the neck closer to the top um of the back sort of area
now veterans generally attend a cmp examination um or a compensation pension examination to measure
how far they can bend forwards backwards and even side to side essentially va will determine the
severity of a veteran's back condition solely based on the range of motion that is measured
by the examiner so essentially how far can you bend forward how far can you bend backwards how
far can you bend to the side into the side and then sort of determine the severity
based on those numbers or how far a veteran can kind of move his or her back va rates back
conditions such as the lumbar and cervical strain under 38 cfr 4.17 a 4.71 a i'm sorry schedule of
ratings which is the musculoskeletal system and the criteria is largely based on a veteran's
range of motion like i had said typically and very similar to most other service connected conditions
with the back condition va has sort of a rating scale that goes from zero to one hundred percent
great thanks brenden and following along with the lumbosacral and cervical strain another
common disability claim is for a different orthopedic condition which is limitation
of motion of the knee we have a ton of veterans who have knee disabilities limitation of flexion
specifically is the most common um but you can also have limitation of extension
and a bunch of other different separate ratings based on different
knee disability manifestations but limitation of flexion is the range of motion the knee as the
veteran moves it um or curls it inward towards the body so if you think about um doing either a lunge
or you know just when you're sitting down when your knee is in that kind of 90 degree position
so generally va rates this condition as a musculoskeletal condition so it's also
under 38 cfr 4.71 a um and va looks at the range of motion and degrees rather than the pain itself
caused by the motion so you can get a rating under diagnostic code 5260 at 0 10 20 and 30 but
the most common rating that va assigns is that 10 rating um but you know for both the limitation of
knee and what brandon was talking about before for the back va often rates it solely on the
range of motion but there are other regulations that require va to look at some of the functional
impairment that orthopedic conditions cause and so i would really encourage you to check out
some of our other videos that go into a little bit more detail about how to rate orthopedic
conditions because we often see that va is not maximizing the benefits the veteran can receive
so that's number three rachel why don't you tell us about number four yes so number four are scars
veterans can receive service connection for scars that result in their time and military service or
from service conditions that require surgery that resulted in scarring so scar disabilities are
rated under 38 cfr section 4.118 diagnostic codes ranging from 7 800 to 78.05 and scars are rated
based on a variety of different characteristics so it can be the number of scars or the number of
disfigurements that the scar causes the area of the body affected by the scars their permanence
and the presence of pain or whether they are considered unstable scars on the head face
or neck are rated based on skin loss and how many facial features have been disfigured and readings
for scars on areas of the body other than the head face or neck are generally based on the size of
the scar scars can be rated anywhere from zero to eighty percent depending on their diagnostic code
yeah those are super common brandon what about the next one so the next one so number five we're
talking about tinnitus sort of that annoying ringing in your ear so generally tonight is
like i had previously just stated reverse the perception of noise or typically ringing in
the ears often what veterans or people suffer from tinnitus will often report it's often a symptom of
an underlying condition such as hearing loss and ear injury or even a circulatory system disorder
common symptoms of tinnitus include phantom noises in the ears such as ringing buzzing and
even roaring clicking hissing and humming veterans don't need a specific diagnosis of tinnitus in
order to be granted service connection for this condition they can provide a subjective report of
their symptomatology which is enough to show that they meet the rating criteria va rates tinnitus
under 38 cfr 4.87 under diagnostic code 6260 so 6260 is what tinnitus is rated under the highest
schedule rating for tinnitus is 10 which takes both ears into account so it's not like because
you have tinnitus in one ear and the other that you get to 10 tinnitus is rated bilaterally at 10
so the highest you can get is a 10 rating um if you're service connected for tinnitus
it's rare that a veteran receives a higher rating on an extra scheduler basis i'm sure
there are instances where it has happened but those instances are sort of few and far between
we do want to note though that va has proposed to change this rating in the future and under
va's new proposed rule tinnitus would need to be related to non-compensable hearing loss or
other service connected disability in order to get a rating that still isn't final again that
still is a proposed rule it could end up not going through but that's something that we're actively
monitoring so i definitely advise to stay tuned on the cck website or cca blog for more information
as it becomes available yeah and speaking of non-compensable hearing loss that's a nice
transition to the sixth um most common disability claim which is hearing loss so hearing loss
involves muffling of speech and other sounds difficulty understanding words trouble hearing
consonants frequently asking others to speak more slowly clearly or loudly and this often
results in withdrawal from conversations and avoidance of some social settings so it can
significantly impact the quality of a veteran's life and daily functioning it's categorized
into three main types there's conductive which involves the outer or middle ear hearing loss
there's sensor sensory neural which involves the inner ear and then there's a mix which is
a combined combination of the two so the common causes of hearing loss often include damage to the
inner ear earwax buildup ear infection or ruptured eardrum and according to the cdc veterans are 30
more likely than non-veterans to have severe hearing impairment we see a lot of veterans who um
you know were exposed to high levels of noise in service who come out of service with hearing loss
now the ratings for hearing loss are a little complicated they're based primarily on two
auditory tests which va requires to confirm the diagnosis there's a speech discrimination test
which is also known as the maryland cnc test and then there's the pure tone threshold which is also
known as the pure tone audiometric test um so essentially what va is measuring with these is
they're measuring hearing in a soundproof booth um and so while ratings can range from zero to a
hundred percent most veterans only receive zero or ten percent rating because there's a distinction
between what they can hear in a sound proof booth versus what they can hear in their daily life so
even though a veteran may be service connected for hearing loss and have a lot of trouble hearing
normal conversations or hearing people in a noisy restaurant situation or something like that in the
soundproof booth they only rate a zero or a ten percent rating and so it's really difficult to
get a high rating for hearing loss but it is one of the most common claims um and veterans are more
likely than non-veterans to have that hearing loss so um like brandon said about tinnitus
hearing loss is also extremely difficult to get an extra scheduler reading for um but sometimes you
know if hearing loss develops into non-hearing related symptoms such as you know a psychiatric
disability depression something like that there's a possibility that you could get secondary service
connection or um you know separate ratings and so if that's something that you think
you know is something that's happening to you i would encourage you to check out our website
we have a lot of information on separate ratings extra scheduler ratings and kind of what we think
is the unfairness of the hearing loss rating so that takes us to the end of our presentation today
those are the top six um thank you all so much for tuning in brandon do you have any closing remarks
i don't i think the only thing i would probably close with is if you're suffering from any one or
multiple of these conditions and you haven't filed the claim file now yes rachel how about you um i
think the only thing i would add is because these are so common sometimes veterans will hear that
others who have filed the same claims will get a grant faster than they have but it's always it
always comes down to the individual facts of the case so whenever there's a denial it's important
to review the reasons for the denial carefully or respond to va's requests for information
i think that's a great great note to end on thanks rachel thanks brandon so as we've said
more information on service-handed disabilities va ratings and the claims process in general can be
found on our blog and if you prefer videos we have an extensive library on youtube as well so please
be sure to subscribe to our channel and follow us on social media and we will see you next time