VA Disability Claim Decision Rating Calculation

[RBrogen]

Does anyone know if you can request that the VA provide you with the actual calculation they did to arrive at their final combined rating?  Something like this:

Bilateral Conditions

      20% Right Shoulder Condition     

      10% Left Knee Condition

      10% Right Knee Condition

Bilateral Conditions Results =  20% + 10% = 28% + 10% = 35% + 3.5% Bilateral Factor = 38.5 (39%)

Bilateral Conditions 39%

Tinnitus 10%

Jaw 10%

Combined Rating = 39% + 10% = 45% + 10% = 51% (51% Final Combined Rating)

 

Edited March 18, 2019 by RBrogen

[Buck52]

They give a close estimate percentage to your condition  ...

if the condition is at 4% you get a 0% S.C....If it was at 6%you get a 10% rating. they round the numbers at .5.0%   below the 5 % would go toward the 0% above 5% they round it off at the 10%   & all the way to 100%

How they come up with the % like they do is any body's guess

They have a special calculator they use for VA Math.

you have  combined  50% rating  at 51%

now if you had the 50% rating before the 2 -10%ers  10%tinnitus and 10% for Jaw...your combined rating should be 70% combined.

[RBrogen]

4 minutes ago, Buck52 said:

They give a close estimate percentage to your condition  ...

if the condition is at 4% you get a 0% S.C....If it was at 6%you get a 10% rating. they round the numbers at .5.0%   below the 5 % would go toward the 0% above 5% they round it off at the 10%   & all the way to 100%

How they come up with the % like they do is any body's guess

They have a special calculator they use for VA Math.

you have  combined  50% rating  at 51%

Hey Buck ... thanks for responding.  Yeah I did have all of the info on "VA Math" rounding up/down etc, including the bilateral factor situation but I am curious how we can tell whether they made any errors with the calculation without having their exact process like I showed in the OP.

[Buck52]

They give a close estimate percentage to your condition  ...

if the condition is at 4% you get a 0% S.C....If it was at 6%you get a 10% rating. they round the numbers at .5.0%   below the 5 % would go toward the 0% above 5% they round it off at the 10%   & all the way to 100%

How they come up with the % like they do is any body's guess

They have a special calculator they use for VA Math.

you have  combined  50% rating  at 51% 39% plus 10%  plus another 10% is 51.4% rounded out at 50%

now if you had the 50% rating before the 2 -10%ers  10%tinnitus and 10% for Jaw...your combined rating should be 70% combined.

[RBrogen]

1 minute ago, Buck52 said:

They give a close estimate percentage to your condition  ...

if the condition is at 4% you get a 0% S.C....If it was at 6%you get a 10% rating. they round the numbers at .5.0%   below the 5 % would go toward the 0% above 5% they round it off at the 10%   & all the way to 100%

How they come up with the % like they do is any body's guess

They have a special calculator they use for VA Math.

you have  combined  50% rating  at 51%

now if you had the 50% rating before the 2 -10%ers  10%tinnitus and 10% for Jaw...your combined rating should be 70% combined.

Right ... the post I used as an example was just numbers I put there for sake of discussion ... my own numbers are more complicated which is why I was trying to figure out if they provide the actual calculation.

For example my numbers are:

20% - original disability for chronic lower lumbar strain

Latest decision added these conditions:

10% - Left Knee Arthritis

10% - ddd, cervical spine, with spinal stenosis and IVDS

10% - Right Knee Arthritis

0% - Bilateral hearing loss

20% - Right shoulder s/p arthroscopy with subacromial decompression and excision of distal clavical due to shoulder impingement

0% - Right shoulder surgery scars

20% - radiculopathy right upper extremity

20% - radiculopathy left upper extremity

So there are several potential bilateral elements but not knowing exactly what they do then it's hard to see how the get their number.

 

[Buck52]

well they use a rating chart  depending on how bad your conditions is rating  or the severity of them.

  they get that information from a rating schedule  manual and the Dr's them self.

[RBrogen]

1 minute ago, Buck52 said:

well they use a rating chart  depending on how bad your conditions is rating  or the severity of them.

  they get that information from a rating schedule  manual and the Dr's them self.

Right ... what I'm actually wondering is once all of the ratings have been decided on the severity etc. and they have all of the individual issues with a number, I want to know what issues they actually combine for the bilateral factor.  It is just guess work with trying to understand what ratings were used if I don't have that ... for instance ... do they consider my radiculopathy left and right conditions into the bilateral?  Common sense would say yes but without knowing for sure it's a guess.