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hi everyone and welcome to cck live I'm Amy Odum I'm an attorney here at cck and with me
I have Dallas aguiar and Claire Babcock and today we're going to be talking about reviewing the most
common disabilities that were service connected by VA in 2022. so as many of you know many veterans
become ill or injured as a result of their military service and as such their conditions
may qualify for service-connected VA disability benefits service connection is the way that VA
recognizes that a disability is related to a veteran's service in some way and once service
connection is granted a veteran may qualify for a VA disability compensation check once a month and
additional benefits as well to establish service connection on a direct basis a veteran must prove
one that there is a current disability two that there was an injury or disease that happened in
service and three that there is a medical Nexus or relationship between the current
disability and what happened to the veteran in service so this isn't going to be a video that
focuses a lot on those three requirements for service connection but we have plenty of videos
um on our blog and on our YouTube channel so if you want more information about how
to establish service connection please check out our blog and our YouTube station link below
um Dallas what were the most common disabilities that VA servers connected in 2022 yeah let's get
right into it um so there are a number of conditions a veteran can be service
connected for but in this video we're going to talk about the most common that were identified
in the annual benefits report based on fiscal year 2022. so the most common disability was
tinnitus generally speaking tinnitus refers to the perception of noise or ringing in the ear
often tinnitus is a symptom of an underlying condition such as hearing loss and ear injury
or a circulatory system disorder the most common symptoms of tinnitus may include
Phantom noises in the ear something like ringing buzzing roaring clicking hissing and humming
according to va's 2022 report this is the most commonly claimed condition with veterans over
2 million seven hundred thousand receiving compensation for it VA rates tinnitus under
38 CFR section 4.87 with diagnostic code 6260. the highest rating for tinnitus is 10 while
it's possible to receive a rating higher than 10 percent on an extra scheduler basis it's very rare
the next most common disability for fiscal year 2022 was limitation of flexion of the knee
this is just one type of knee disability that can be service connected
and limitation of flexion refers to um when the joint bends or curls inward toward the body
and VA will typically rate this based on the degree of range of motion limitation of the
joint and Veterans can receive a disability rating ranging between zero to fifty percent depending on
how limited the range of motion of their knee joint is yeah so hearing loss was also a big
disability that VA saw a lot in 2022 and I would wager to guess any year you see a lot of hearing
loss claims hearing loss is categorizes three main types depending on which part of the year is
affected there's conductive hearing loss and that is when the outer or middle ear is affected their
sense of new sensio neural hearing loss which I always mispronounce that is when the inner
ear is affected and this is the most common type of hearing loss that we see with noise exposure
especially military noise exposure and then there's also mixed hearing loss loss which is
a combination of conductive and sensual neural hearing loss importantly tinnitus is often a
symptom of hearing loss and you usually see these two disabilities service connected together but
unlike tinnitus you can get a rating higher than 10 for hearing loss in fact you can go all the way
up to a hundred percent though most commonly veterans are rated either 10 or 0 for hearing
loss it's actually pretty hard to get a reading higher than 10 usually you see some like pretty
profound levels of hearing loss when you start getting up into the higher levels of disability
in 2022 almost 1.5 million veterans receive benefits for hearing loss and it will come as
no surprise to everyone here that post-traumatic stress disorder also made it to the list of
most common disabilities planned in 2022. post traumatic stress disorders and mental
health condition that results from experiencing a distressing shocking or otherwise traumatic event
to be service connected for PTSD veterans must provide a diagnosis corroboration of a stressor
and a link between the two as all mental health conditions are PTSD is rated under 38 CFR section
4.130 and can receive up to 100 rating with ratings of 10 30 50 70 or 100. as the fourth
most common disability last year over 1.3 million veterans received benefits for PTSD in 2022.
another really common disability among veterans are back and neck disabilities and that was number
five in 2022 over 1.3 million veterans receive benefits for lumbosacral or cervical strain
VA rates back conditions like Lumbar and cervical strains under the musculoskeletal
rating criteria and the criteria again is based largely on range of motion and that can
be rated under diagnostic code 5237 and you can get readings between 10 and 100 percent
um and another common disability related to um back disabilities would be um conditions that
can be secondary to the back involving the nerve yeah that's right um in sciatica is one that we
see a lot paired with back disabilities sciatica is a nerve condition in which pain radiates along
the path of the sciatic nerve which goes down the lower back through the legs it usually
happens when the sciatic nerve is compressed or irritated by like a herniated disc or spine
overgrowth or or something abnormal in the lumbar spine it's really common among veterans because it
is linked to back issues and as Claire was just saying we see a lot of back issues with veterans
um and then when rating you know any back or neck or neck condition ba is required
to provide separate ratings for any nerve related injury degrees which include sciatica in sciatica
and other nerve injuries related to the cervical or lumbar spine is rated under uh 38 CFR 4.124 a
um and there are 10 20 40 60 or 80 ratings for um a sciatic nerve injury depending on how severe the
disability resulting from the injury is another condition commonly secondary to a back or in
that disability would be scars related to surgery veterans can also receive compensation for scars
based on injuries and service almost 1 million veterans are currently service connected for scars
scar disabilities are rated under 38 CFR section 4.118 with diagnostic codes 7800 and 7805
scars are rated based on the number of scars or disfigurement a veteran has the total area
of the body affected their permanence and the presence of pain or instability another really
common condition that many veterans experience due to the physical demands of their military
training and surveys is an ankle disability so many veterans suffer from limitation of motion
of their ankle because of things like Fitness related activities or jobs that require physical
exertion while serving and these activities and jobs can result in ankle injuries that will lead
to issues later and so ankle limitation of motion was another really common disability in 2022
like many other joint conditions this is rated based on the limitations to the range of motion
and Veterans will typically receive a 10 or 20 percent rating for limitation of motion of the
ankle the shoulder is another joint where we see a lot of disabilities for veterans generally you get
a shoulder disability when an injury an in-service injury to the shoulder or the arm has not fully
healed or hasn't been rehabilitated adequately and like ankle injuries an unhealed shoulder or arm
can cause repetitive injuries and repetitive injuries can result in further limitation
of motion and instability of the shoulder um diagnostic 5201 is used to rate limitation of
the arm limitation of motion of the arm related to the shoulder which was the ninth most common
disability VA saw in 2022 there were 894 846 veterans um currently receiving benefits in 2022
for limitation of motion of the arm and um unlike the ankle reading criteria the limitation of
motion of the arm rating criteria will First Look to whether the injured or disabled art is the left
or right the dominant or non-dominant and then the rating that you get for the limitation of motion
of the arm will depend not only on the range of motion that's left but also whether the arm
is the dominant or non-dominant arm so if you're right-handed and you're right shoulder is the one
causing the limitation of motion then you'll get a higher rating generally than you would if it were
the left shoulder and that brings us to our last condition of the 10th most common disability in
2022 was migraines with 837 211 veterans receiving compensation for this condition migraines are
recurring intense and frequent headaches that can be completely debilitating in many cases
they prevent people from working and going about their daily activities service connected migraines
are rated under diagnostic code 8100 based on frequency severity duration and impact on daily
life all these factors are outlined in the rating criteria and incorporated into how VA evaluates
the veterans migraine condition ratings can be assigned at 0 10 30 and 50 so these were the
disabilities that VA saw the most in 2022 and to be honest I've been doing this for a while these
are the disabilities that we see every year isn't that right Dallas Sinclair absolutely
so for more information on these disabilities you can look at our blog at cckhyphenlaw.com
you can uh look at some videos some more videos on our YouTube channel don't forget to like this
video and to subscribe to our channel for more videos and thanks so much for watching
thank you