Feb 18, 2026
WASHINGTON — Yesterday, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) published an interim final rule that immediately changes how disability ratings are evaluated, prompting the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) to send a letter outlining its concerns to VA Secretary Doug Collins.
For years, courts held that VA could not reduce ratings based on the effects of medication, requiring evaluation of a veteran’s true functional impairment when evaluating a service-connected disability. This new rule reverses that standard, directing examiners to rate disabilities as they present, including the impact of medication, and to disregard unmedicated baseline severity.
“As a former Army nurse, it seems this rule change could have unforeseen and harmful downstream effects for veterans, which is why it demands serious public scrutiny and possible legislative clarification from Capitol Hill,” said VFW National Commander Carol Whitmore. “While VA has authority to amend the rating schedule, it must do so without adversely affecting veterans, which is why we invite dialogue with Secretary Collins and his team to ensure we are crafting benefits policy in a way that honors the sacrifices of our veterans and protects their earned benefits.”
This abrupt shift risks penalizing veterans for complying with treatment, particularly those with musculoskeletal injuries, chronic pain, and mental health conditions who rely on medication to function. Veterans whose conditions are made more tolerable by medication, thereby creating the illusion of bonafide improvement, may now appear less disabled and receive lower ratings on new or future claims.
VA justified the use of its emergency authority to issue an interim final rule without normal public comment by writing that “the [Ingram v. Collins] decision is the latest and most disruptive in a line of [Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, or CAVC] cases that have ignored the purpose of disability ratings and VA's longstanding historical practices and policies in assigning such ratings.”
The VFW disagrees with VA’s perspective and believes that Ingram and other CAVC decisions have served to reinforce the veteran-centric, non-adversarial VA benefits adjudication system. VFW also questions VA’s use of “good cause” to bypass public notice and is seeking clarity on regulatory analysis, side effects, fluctuating conditions and safeguards against unfair reexaminations.
In addition to its letter to the Secretary, VFW will post its public comments to the Federal Register and work with Congress to clarify its intent to ensure that the VA benefits system remains veteran-centric and non-adversarial.
Read the Federal Register announcement for the interim final rule here.