Condition guide
VA Tinnitus Rating: What You Need to Know
Tinnitus is one of the most-claimed conditions in VA disability. Here's how VA rates it, what evidence matters, and where claims commonly fall short.
6 min read
Guides
How VA actually rates the conditions you served with.
Plain-English explanations of the VA disability rating system, written by a VA-accredited claims agent practice. No marketing language, no scripts — just the regulations, the criteria, and the evidence that matters.
Condition guide
VA PTSD Ratings: How the 0–100% Scale Actually Works
VA rates PTSD on the General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders. The difference between a 30% and a 70% rating is occupational and social impairment — here's what that means in plain English.
9 min read
Condition guide
VA Sleep Apnea Claims: Direct, Secondary, and the Evidence That Wins
Sleep apnea ratings turn on CPAP use and breathing assistance. Service connection is where most cases are won or lost — directly, secondary to PTSD, secondary to weight gain, or aggravated.
10 min read
Condition guide
VA Back & Lumbar Spine Ratings: The Range-of-Motion Math
VA rates spine conditions on forward flexion in degrees, ankylosis, and incapacitating episodes. Knowing how the math works lets you give the examiner the right picture of your worst days.
8 min read
Condition guide
VA Knee Ratings: Limitation of Motion, Instability, and DeLuca
Knee claims often get under-rated because examiners snapshot you on a good day. The DeLuca and Mitchell cases require VA to consider flare-ups and functional loss — here's how that works.
8 min read
Condition guide
VA IBS and Functional GI: Severity, Frequency, and the 30% Threshold
VA rates IBS under Diagnostic Code 7319. The difference between a 10%, 30%, and (in some cases) higher rating turns on frequency and severity of episodes. Most claims fail on the evidence side, not the medicine.
7 min read
Condition guide
VA Migraine Ratings: Diagnostic Code 8100 and Prostrating Attacks
Migraine ratings hinge on the word "prostrating." 50% requires very frequent completely prostrating and prolonged attacks productive of severe economic inadaptability. Documentation, not symptoms, is what most claims need.
7 min read
Condition guide
VA Hearing Loss Claims: The Audiology Table and Why Most Get 0%
VA's hearing-loss rating uses puretone thresholds and Maryland CNC speech discrimination. Most veterans walk out with a 0% rating because the criteria are strict — but service connection alone matters for secondary claims like tinnitus.
7 min read
Condition guide
MST Claims: The Relaxed Evidence Standard and Markers VA Accepts
Military Sexual Trauma claims have a special evidentiary standard under 38 CFR § 3.304(f)(5). VA explicitly accepts indirect evidence — behavioral changes, deployment records, lay statements — when official records are silent.
9 min read
Condition guide
Gulf War Presumptive Conditions and Undiagnosed Illness
If you served in the Southwest Asia theater on or after August 2, 1990, certain unexplained chronic illnesses are presumed service-connected — without you having to prove a direct nexus.
8 min read