welcome to cck live under five i'm elise phillips and we are reviewing va ratings for lower back
pain just generally veterans frequently experience low back pain following their time in service
these conditions depending on their severity can impact greatly a veterans ability to perform
activities daily living and their ability to carry out work-related responsibilities thanks
to saunders b wilkie a federal court decision from april 2018 veterans can actually receive va
disability for back pain even if they don't have an actual diagnosis such as arthritis for example
va uses the general rating formula for diseases and injuries of the spine under 38 cfr 4.71 a
to evaluate back conditions including low back pain it is based largely based on your range of
motion and range of motion is going to encompass flexion which is bending or extension which is
straightening ratings are going to range from 0 10 20 30 40 50 and then 100 percent
based on how severe your limitation of motion is um the 10 20 30 and 40 ratings are partly based on
flexion and range of motion where the 50 and 100 ratings are actually going to be based on
unfavorable inkliosis or stiffness present basically based on your inability to move
if veterans do not meet the rating the range of motion criteria they may also get a rating
for low back pain if they have introvertible disc syndrome or ivds this is going to be
rated under a slightly different diagnostic code that's going to be five two four three and it's
based on a number of incapacitating episodes that a veteran might experience due to their
low back pain ratings there are going to range between 10 to 60 percent again based on how many
incapacitating episodes a person might experience during a certain period of time um va also must
consider flare-ups when raiding low back pain to account for additional loss of function
motion and pain and while we did largely speak about range of motion here i also should note
that that is not the only way you can be rated for your pain you can also be rated if you have
um some type of functional equivalent to range of motion and limitation and range of motion think
due to things such as weakness or instability inability to put stand those type of things
you may also be eligible for tdiu if your low back pain prevents working or if your low back pain
combined with other service connected conditions prevents working a tdiu benefit would allow you
to be compensated at a 100 level even if your combined rating the scheduler rating does not
rate um equal at 100 level so thank you for joining me that covers low back
pain for today please be sure to follow social media and check out our longer videos on youtube
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