VA Math: The Combined Ratings Table
A veteran must establish “service connection” to be eligible for VA disability compensation benefits. Service connection refers to an injury, disease, or other disability related to a qualifying veteran’s service. Once service connection is achieved, VA will compensate the veteran based on the aggregate combined rating of all service connected disabilities.
But it’s not real math, right?
Unfortunately, VA doesn’t just add up the individual percentages assigned to each service connected disability. To do so would frequently result in a “combined rating” above 100%. Instead, VA uses the Combined Ratings Table, a table codified in VA’s own regulations, to determine the combined rating. Importantly, the combined ratings table limits the maximum combined rating to 100%. However, there are compensation rates in excess of the 100% rate, known as Special Monthly Compensation.
The Purpose of Evaluative Ratings
To fully grasp the combined ratings table, it helps to understand why (and how) VA rates service connected disabilities. When we talk about a “rating” for a condition, we mean the percentage that VA assigns a disability. For every condition that is subject to service connection, VA has established a rating schedule for that condition (also known as a “diagnostic code”). Each diagnostic code contains ratings from 0% to 100% for a particular condition. Some conditions only have a few ratings, or maximum ratings less than 100%. Some conditions allow for individual ratings of 100%. For example, tinnitus has a maximum evaluation of 10%, whereas some heart conditions can be rated up to 100%.
VA’s percentage ratings represent “the average impairment in earning capacity” resulting from the service connected disability. A “total” rating, a 100% rating, would indicate that the severity of a Veteran’s disabilities would totally preclude employment.
So, the inquiry that the combined ratings table is designed to solve is: How do we measure the total loss of economic ability in a single person with multiple disabilities.
For the video game aficionados, you might be visualizing a “health” meter with a level anywhere from 0% to 100% health for your character. For those with a bit of a sweet tooth (like myself), you might think about a pie (any flavor), or the more traditional pie chart.
Visualizing the Combined Ratings Table
Let’s start with an example: A Veteran has 3 service connected disabilities.
- 50% disability for sleep apnea;
- 20% disability for degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine;
- 10% disability for tinnitus.
Now, think about your character’s health meter, or your favorite pie. Our first disability rating is 50%, so take away half of your pie, or shade in half of your health meter. Now you have half of your meter, or pie left over.
Let’s apply the second disability. Of the half that is remaining, take 20% away. Think about splitting the remaining pie into 5 pieces, or shading in 1/5th of your remaining meter.
Now apply the last disability. Of the piece of pie, or remaining portion of the health meter, take 10% away.
The last step – add up all the pieces that you took away – try to visualize putting your pie back together again and think about how much of the whole you actually took away. That is what will end up being your combined rating.
Before we move onto the math – think about your visual one more time. If we didn’t have a 50% rating, and we started with a 20% rating, the 20% “chunk” that we took away in the exercise above, is a smaller slice of the pie than if we had taken a 20% chunk right off the bat. That’s the trick of the combined rating table – it limits the weight of subsequent disabilities so that we cannot exceed a combined rating in excess of 100% - because we are only 1 person, 1 health meter, 1 whole pie, we cannot exceed 100%.
The Table
The regulation regarding the combined ratings table instructs us to consider “the efficiency of the individual as affected first by the most disabling condition, then by the less disabling condition, then by other less disabling conditions, if any, in the order of severity.” 38 C.F.R. §4.25. It further instructs to arrange the disabilities in order of severity (greatest to least), then apply the table, and then round to the nearest 10 degree – this is the combined rating.
There is a subsequent regulation regarding the bilateral factor, however, that is not we won’t get into the specifics of that for purposes of this posting.
You can view the combined ratings table here.
Orienting yourself to the table, you’ll notice in the far-left column numbers from 19 to 94. Across the top of the table, you’ll notice that each subsequent column is tabled from 10-90 in serial 10s (10, 20, 30, etc.). To determine the combined rating, you start in the far-left column, add the disability rating of the next disability by working your way right (into the corresponding column), and then returning to the left column with your new number.
Let’s take our example again of a 50%, 20%, and 10% disability (ranked greatest to least). Start in the left-hand column and go down to 50. Now apply your next disability, 20%, move over 2 columns (under the 20% column) and identify the next number: 60. Return to the left-hand column and move down to 60. Finally, we add our last disability of 10%, moving over 1 column from the 60. The number you should have landed on is 64. Rounding the nearest 10, we end up with a 60% disability rating.
So how do I get a 100% rating?
That is the ultimate question – often the combination of service connected disabilities do not “add up” on the combined ratings table to the 100% rate (achieving at least a 95 on the table). However, if your service connected disabilities preclude you from working, there is still a way to be compensated at the 100% rating, even if your combined rating is less than 100%. Read more about a Total Disability based on Individual Unemployability here.
Have questions about your rating or whether you might qualify for an increased rating or Individual Unemployability? Contact us!