§1216a Determinations of disability: requirements and limitations on determinations

Summary

When deciding a service member’s disability, the military secretary in charge must, as much as possible, use the Department of Veterans Affairs’ disability rating schedule and any related rulings by the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. The secretary may not depart from that schedule or those rulings, except they may use different rules written together by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs if those joint rules would produce a higher disability percentage. When giving a disability rating, the secretary must count all medical conditions—alone or together—that make the member unfit to perform the duties of the member’s office, grade, rank, or rating.