An expert committee is reviewing medical aspects of the veteran's disability and compensation procedures and programs. Central to that study will be a comprehensive review of the Veterans Administration's Schedule for Rating Disabilities (VASRD).

Specifically, the committee will

• Conduct a comprehensive review of the VASRD. Assess whether the schedule is an appropriate, valid, and reliable instrument for evaluating medical impairment and determining degree of disability.
• Examine adequacy and appropriateness of medical criteria used to qualify veterans for special purpose and ancillary benefits.
• Analyze the current application of Individual Unemployability, an extra-schedular benefit, to determine whether the VASRD descriptions need to more accurately reflect a veteran's ability to participate in the economic marketplace.
• Determine if the methods for determining and coding impairments and the methods for determining their severity are medically sound for single and multiple conditions.
• Assess the medical criteria currently used to qualify veterans for secondary and aggravated service-connected conditions and how to exclude effect of natural disease progression.
• Assess how medical expertise is used to evaluate veterans throughout the claims process. Comment on the appropriateness of medical credentials and training requirements needed to support the disability evaluation and rating process.

Read more information about the study, including a more detailed statement of work, short biographical descriptions of the committee members, and the schedule of meetings.

A separate IOM committee is reviewing the evaluation of the presumptive disability decision-making process for veterans.

The project is commissioned by the Congressionally established Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission and is funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The approximate start date for the project is January 11, 2006.

A report will be issued at the end of the project in approximately 15 months.
 

For more information contact:

Mike McGeary
Phone: 202.334.1745
Fax: 202.334.2685
E-mail: mmcgeary@nas.edu