The VA has researched new treatments for arthritis, including anti-inflammatory and anti-rheumatic drugs, which are less expensive than established biological treatments. Rheumatoid arthritis can show up after youve been discharged for months. Only a. can efficiently guide a claim through the complex system and obtain maximum benefits. A person that is diagnosed with RA today has a much better chance of living a normal life than their grandparents did. There are outliers that break the curve in all of these situations. 1. You may be owed compensation. Lower ratings may be given for occasional incapacitating episodes. Many veterans begin to settle back into civilian life when their hand arthritis becomes too painful and debilitating to ignore. Ratings on both hands will trigger the bilateral factor bonus of about 10% additional compensation. To do this, the VA doctor will assign you a disability rating. For example, arthritis in the hands may cause depression if the condition affects participation in the same physical activities or completing the same tasks that you used to do. In these cases, veterans do not need to establish service-related connections, even if they do not have medical evidence linking their currently diagnosed arthritis to a particular incident or injury during service. These cookies are essential so that you can move around the website and use its features. VA rates rheumatoid arthritis under Diagnostic Code 5002. Since swollen achy ankles can be caused by a number of things, you might not look for the RA diagnosis right away. ODY1OGY5MDE2MzMzOWEyYWU5YjY5NzI0MDQ5MWE5NzliODUzMmJhYzg1MzI2 At first, most veterans may come to the conclusion that a VA disability claim is not necessary but after years of continued weight-bearing use, the pain can become more intense. How Arthritis Disability Is Rated by the VA | Cuddigan Law In addition, the VA rates dominant hand fingers at a higher rate than the non-dominant hand. considering multiple limitation of motion evaluations for a joint pain and multiple limitation of motion evaluations for a joint example 1: compensable limitation of two joint motions example 2: compensable limitation of one motion with pain in another example 3: noncompensable limitation of two motions with pain For instance, which pages you go to most. However, if you have a satisfactory range of motion but there is still pain, the VA will look to X-ray evidence for evidence of arthritis and assign a 10% or 20% disability rating. If anyone is looking for a firm that will fight for them and get everything that you are entitled to then wood and woods is your firm. Joint pain and arthritis in the hands is a common condition faced by veterans. In this case, a different disability that is now service-connected would have to be the cause of your arthritis. Odd jobs (marginal employment), dont count. For instance, knee flexion is the measure of how far you can bend your knee. As mentioned above, environmental factors have been identified as a potential trigger for rheumatoid arthritis. You may also be able to increase a disability rating for knee pain by combining the VAs bilateral factor. Usually, this disease affects the same joint on both sides of the body. If you were misdiagnosed as having RA but it turns out that you have fibromyalgia and PTSD, we need to get you compensated for the correct rating instead of 20% for arthritis.