uh good morning and welcome to cck live under five i'm nicholas briggs and today
we'll be reviewing va ratings for bilateral pace planus pace planus often referred to as
flat feet is a common foot deformity in which each of the foot is flat and to the point
sorry pace plainness often referred to as flat feet is a common foot deformity in which the
arch of the foot is flattened to the point where it touches or nearly touches the ground ligaments
and tendons from the lower leg and the foot form the arches and people's feet and when
these tendons don't pull properly the foot has little to no arch resulting in flat feet
now oftentimes this won't cause symptoms itself but as the condition becomes more severe
additional symptoms can include the feet tiring out easily aches or pains in the areas of the
arches themselves or on the heels foot swelling difficulty performing certain movements such
as standing on your toes as well as pain in other areas including the legs and in the back
pace plainness is a condition that often affects both feet so it implicates va's bilateral factor
the bilateral factor is when a veteran has a disability that affects either both arms both
legs or paired skeletal muscles and there's in those in those instances the ratings for each
side the left and the right sides are combined separately and then 10 of that combined rating
is added to the total before the disabilities are combined with any other conditions the bilateral
factor is a recognition on va's part that the limitations of a disability affecting both sides
is necessarily going to be more severe than each disability separately so it's an attempt on va's
part to show the impact of bilateral disabilities in a veteran's overall combined rating
in terms of specific readings for pace planus va rates veterans under 38 cfr 4.71 a
with the specific diagnostic code being 5276 and ratings under this diagnostic code range from 0
to 50 depending on the scale of symptoms ranging from mild to severe as well as whether one or both
feet are affected so a veteran with mild symptoms of flat feet is a veteran who uses arch supports
to successfully relieve their symptoms and as a result they're assigned a zero percent rating
for their mild controlled symptoms in contrast a veteran experiencing moderate symptoms will have
a weight-bearing line that is over their big toe rather than spreading across their entire foot and
as a result of this shift in the weight-bearing line there's an inward bowing of the achilles
tendon and pain on manipulation or use of the foot and for moderate symptoms the veterans can receive
either a 10 a 10 rating for both unilateral meaning one side or bilateral meaning both feet
um so you're going to get a 10 rating either way for more severe symptoms the veteran will receive
either a 30 rating when both feet are affected or for unilateral foot symptoms there will be a 20
rating finally a veteran with the most pronounced and severe symptoms will receive a
combined 50 percent reading whereas pronounced unilateral foot symptoms will result in a 30
so that's all the information that we have to you for you today on pace planus we have
additional resources on this and other conditions available on our website as well as other relevant
videos going over the topic so thank you again for tuning in and please feel free to visit
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