VA Is Rewriting Big Pieces of the Disability Rating Playbook

Important information at the link concerning sleep apnea, tinnitus and mental health and how ratings would be restructed.

https://www.military.com/feature/2026/02/15/va-rewriting-big-pieces-of-disability-rating-playbook.html?ESRC=mr_260309.nl&utm_medium=email&utm_source=mr&utm_campaign=20260309


Military.com | By Haley Fuller
Published February 19, 2026 at 9:56am ET
Share

VA is in the middle of a multi-year effort to modernize the Veterans Affairs Schedule for Rating Disabilities, the regulatory framework that assigns percentage ratings intended to approximate average impairment post-service, as authorized by statute.

What VA Says It Is Doing, and Where the Answers Live

VA has described the modernization effort as necessary to reflect advances in medical treatment, updated diagnostic standards, and technologies that did not exist when much of the schedule was last revised.

The agency has stated that, once complete, this will represent the first comprehensive update of the rating schedule since its post-World War II restructuring in 1945, a claim reflected in VA’s own explanation of the project and echoed in oversight reporting by the Government Accountability Office.

When asked directly why VA is proposing changes to sleep apnea ratings and how those changes would affect veterans whose symptoms are controlled by CPAP therapy, VA Press Secretary Pete Kasperowicz declined to answer those questions in individualized terms. Instead, he pointed to the pending rulemaking and indicated the rationale for the changes is laid out in the Federal Register notice itself, while questions about how the proposal would work in practice remain under consideration as VA reviews public comments.