The VA has implemented a significant change to the VASRD rating standards, aiming to improve the fairness of payments to veterans with digestive disorders.
(Credit: The Hill)
VA Benefits 2024: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced a big change to the VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities (VASRD). The change will mostly affect digestive disorders. In this update, the rating standards for 55 medical disorders have been changed to make payments to veterans more fair. These changes are based on new medical knowledge and treatments.
The most important change to VA disability pay starting in 2024 will be the 3.2% Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA).
The Veterans Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act, which President Biden signed into law last year, mandates that the Department of Veterans Affairs raise disability payouts. The increase is equal to the Social Security Administration’s set percentage to give disability claimants the same purchasing power as the previous year and to keep up with inflation.
Chapter 1606 VA Benefits: Education and Training Benefits
The SSA’s calculation of inflation rates causes an annual variation in the COLA amount. Veterans benefited from the highest proportion of COLA increases since 1981 last year—8.7%. The amount varies annually and is based on the third-quarter Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. The SSA then compares the CPI-W for this year and last year and applies a COLA if the difference is greater.
VA has improved the support and benefits accessible to Veterans by making many adjustments to the rating schedule across different bodily systems since September 2017.
Updates to the examination criteria for hemorrhoids, celiac disease, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are among the noteworthy modifications that will directly affect veterans.
According to Marca, Veterans with celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that affects how well they handle gluten, will now be able to receive evaluations ranging from zero to 80%, depending on how severe their condition is.
In a similar vein, the IBS rating criteria have been modified to allow VA ratings of 10, 20, or 30% and to provide compensable evaluations based on the frequency of symptoms. Furthermore, the VA updated the hemorrhoid evaluations so that mild to moderate cases now qualify for a 10% evaluation.
Josh Jacobs, Under Secretary for Benefits, stressed that these modifications bring the rating criteria closer to the schedule’s original intent, to provide assessments based on each veteran’s average earning capacity impairment.
“These are just a few of the changes being made to how conditions of the digestive system are rated based on updated medical information,” Jacobs stated.
“The updates will bring the rating criteria more closely in line with the stated purpose of the rating schedule, which is to provide evaluations based upon average impairment of earning capacity for each and every Veteran.”
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