Burns, scars, eczema, psoriasis, and other skin injuries are measured differently when it comes to your VA disability rating.
If you served in the military and you now have scars from burn injuries, you could be entitled to disability compensation. Likewise, if you have eczema, psoriasis, or other such skin conditions, you could be getting monthly compensation from the VA. But how does the VA decide how much money you’ll get for these conditions?
There are a variety of body coverage calculation methods that can determine how severely a burn or skin condition impacts your life. Read on to learn more about these methods and their specific conditions.
Table of contents
- The Rule of Nines
- Other Body Coverage Calculation Methods
- How Doctors Use these Calculations
- VA Disability for Burns
- Scar Severity by Location
- Continuing Skin Conditions
- Other VA Covered Skin Conditions
- How the VA Rates Skin Conditions
- How VA Disability Ratings Work
- Qualifying for VA Disability
- Getting a Diagnosis
- Proving a Service Connection
- Getting a Medical Nexus
- VA Disability Compensation Rates
- Learn More About VA Body Coverage Calculations
The Rule of Nines
When the VA provides a rating for burns and other skin conditions, they follow the rule of nines. This is a system that allows VA doctors to roughly estimate what percentage of a veteran’s body is affected by the condition or burn. Effectively, the rule of nines divides the body into sections, each of which represents roughly 9 percent of the person’s total skin area.
In the rule of nines, your head and neck represent 9 percent of your skin area, as do your chest and upper back. Each arm represents 9 percent, your abdomen and lower back are another 9 percent each, and the front and back of each leg represent 9 percent each. The remaining 1 percent of your skin area is in your genital area.
Other Body Coverage Calculation Methods
In addition to the rule of nines, there are some more detailed methods of calculating body coverage. These follow the same basic idea as the rule of nines – a doctor looks at which areas of your body are impacted and uses these estimates to calculate how much of your body is covered. However, these estimates can provide a more specific number than the rule of nines.
For example, the Lund and Browder chart counts the front and back of your torso as 13 percent of your body surface area each. The top of each of your arms is 4 percent, the bottom of each arm is 13 percent each, and each hand is 3 percent. You can also divide each of those areas in half by front and back; for instance, one of your palms would count as 1.5 percent.
The Lund and Browder chart uses more complex estimates for the head, thighs, and lower legs based on age. For an adult, the front and back of the head account for 3.5 percent each, with your neck accounting for 1 percent. Half of one thigh accounts for 4.75 percent, and half of one lower leg is 3.5 percent.
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How Doctors Use these Calculations
When a doctor, VA or otherwise, gets ready to assess your burns, they’ll use one of these methods to estimate how much of your body is impacted.
For instance, let’s say you have a burn extending over a large portion of the left half of your body. A doctor can see that your left arm, half of your chest and upper back, half of your abdomen, and half of your lower back have burns on them. This would add up to a total of about 22 percent of your body that is burned.
Doctors can use the other methods we discussed here in a similar manner. These calculations may give them a more specific estimate of your body coverage, which can be important for getting an appropriate VA disability rating.
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VA Disability for Burns
The VA rates a burn based on scarring, rather than just on how much of your body gets burned. If you have less severe burns in one area, for instance, those may heal with no further impact going forward. But if you suffered more severe burns, you’ll be left with scars that can continue to impact your life.
The VA rates a scar primarily based on how disfiguring they are and where it’s located on your body. Not only are certain scar locations more likely to cause daily challenges, but certain areas are also more likely to experience more severe scarring. For instance, facial burns may cause the skin to shrink back over the skull, leaving severe scarring and potentially limiting your ability to use your eyes, nose, mouth, or neck normally.
The Nexus Letter is like the missing link to a successful VA disability compensation claim. In this video, one of our veteran’s disability lawyers explains the importance of the Nexus Letter.
Scar Severity by Location
If you have severe burn scars in three or more of the following locations, the VA will give you an 80 percent disability rating. Those areas include your cheeks, chin, ears, eyes, scalp, forehead, mouth, nose, and neck. If you have scarring in two of those areas, you’ll get a 50 percent rating, and you’ll get a 30 percent rating if you have scarring in just one of the listed areas.
For scars in other areas of the body, the VA looks at how large your total scar area is. For instance, if you have one large scar that measures more than 144 square inches, you’ll receive a 40 percent disability rating. But if you have a scar that’s between six and twelve square inches, you’ll get a 10 percent rating.
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Continuing Skin Conditions
In addition to a disability rating for the burn scar itself, you may be able to get disability compensation for continuing skin conditions related to your burn. For example, depending on where your burn is located and how severe it is, it may impact your ability to produce sweat and natural skin oils. This can leave you with dry, itchy skin that will require ongoing treatment.
As your burn is healing, you may also be at increased risk of dangerous infections. Burned skin is much more vulnerable than healthy skin, and your immune system is compromised after a burn. You may get an infection of your lungs or even your bloodstream as the result of a burn injury.
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Other VA Covered Skin Conditions
In addition to burns, the VA provides disability compensation for a variety of other skin conditions aside from burns. Eczema and other inflammatory skin conditions are some of the most commonly covered conditions. Eczema causes scaly rashes that may itch, crack, ooze, or bleed, and you may have to take strong steroids to manage it.
The VA will also provide a rating for psoriasis, a condition that causes your skin cells to grow too quickly. This rapid growth can give you thick patches of skin that may be red, silver, or white. Since doctors believe psoriasis is the result of an overactive immune system, you may have to take immunosuppressants to treat it.
How the VA Rates Skin Conditions
With the exception of burns, the VA rates skin conditions largely by how much of the body is impacted by the skin condition. This is where those calculations we discussed earlier come into play. The more of your body is impacted by your condition, the higher rating you’ll get.
For instance, if 5 to 20 percent of your body is impacted by your condition, the VA will assign you a rating of 10 percent. If you have lesions or wounds on 20 to 40 percent of your body, you’ll get a 30 percent rating. If more than 40 percent of your body is impacted, you’ll get a 60 percent disability rating.
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How VA Disability Ratings Work
We’ve mentioned a variety of percentages and disability ratings so far, but what do they all mean? The VA uses your disability rating to represent how severe your condition is. This ranking is expressed as a percentage that can range anywhere between 10 and 100 percent and is usually rounded to the nearest 10 percent for compensation purposes.
Your disability rating represents how severely your injury or condition impacts your ability to live a normal, healthy life. The higher the rating, the more your life is impacted. This rating is also the primary determining factor in how much money you’ll get from the VA each month.
Use our VA disability calculator to estimate your
combined VA rating and monthly payment
Qualifying for VA Disability
In order to qualify for VA disability compensation, there are three criteria you must meet. We’ll discuss in a moment how to get what you need to prove these criteria to the VA.
First of all, you must have an official diagnosis for your condition from a VA-approved medical professional. In most cases, your family doctor will be able to provide this diagnosis or refer you to someone who can.
You must also be able to prove a service connection for your injury or condition. And finally, you must have a medical nexus provided by a doctor connecting the two.
Getting a Diagnosis
When you get ready to apply for VA disability compensation, your first step will be getting a diagnosis. If you received a burn in the course of your military service and you’re now applying for compensation for the scar, this may be less of a diagnostic process. Instead, your doctor will evaluate the severity of your scar and how it impacts your daily life, including your range of motion.
If you have another skin condition, your doctor may need to perform a number of tests during your appointment. They’ll start with a visual examination of your skin, and they may need to take some samples. They will also ask you about your medical history and any other symptoms you may be experiencing; answer them honestly.
Proving a Service Connection
Once you have your official diagnosis, you will need to prove a service connection with your military record. This is a specific event or set of circumstances during your military service that could have caused your injury or condition. In the case of a burn, this should be easy to prove, especially if you were treated for your injury by military doctors.
There will need to be a record of the incident or set of circumstances you use for your service connection. In the case of eczema or psoriasis, this could include exposure to dangerous chemicals such as Agent Orange. You may also be able to get these conditions rated as a presumptive condition, depending on when and where you served.
Getting a Medical Nexus
With your diagnosis and service connection in hand, it will be time to get your medical nexus. This is essentially an official statement from a doctor certifying that your condition was at least as likely as not caused by the incident in your service record. Your diagnosing physician should be able to provide this nexus.
Before you go to your diagnosing appointment, try to get hands-on your military service record. If you take this with you, you could get your medical nexus the same day you get your diagnosis. This could speed along your application process and help you get the compensation you deserve quicker.
You should also call our office to talk about your claim. We have nexus doctors on staff that work with veterans disability applications and appeals every day. We know what questions to ask so that we can paint a full picture of your disabled life for the VA judges. We know about the related hindrances that come from service-connected disabilities to help you get the full compensation you deserve.
VA Disability Compensation Rates
How much money you receive from the VA each month will dependon your disability rating. If you have a 10 percent rating, for instance, you will receive $152.64 per month tax-free. However, for ratings of 30 percent and above, your rating will depend on how many people depend on you financially.
| Disability Rating | Monthly Payment (veteran only) |
|---|---|
| 10% | $152.64 |
| 20% | $301.74 |
| 30% | $467.39 |
| 40% | $673.28 |
| 50% | $958.44 |
| 60% | $1,214.03 |
| 70% | $1,529.95 |
| 80% | $1,778.43 |
| 90% | $1,998.52 |
| 100% | $3,332.06 |
Here is a video of one of our Veterans Disability Lawyers teaching you how to use our VA Disability Combined Ratings Calculator.
Learn More About VA Body Coverage Calculations
If you suffered burns or have another skin condition, your doctors will need to determine how much of your body is affected. These body coverage calculations may seem complex at first, but it really comes down to variations on the rule of nines. The more the skin surface of your body is impacted by your condition, the higher your disability rating and compensation should be.
If you’d like help filing or appealing a VA disability compensation claim, call Woods and Woods, The Veteran’s Firm, today. We fight for veterans every day, and you don’t pay unless we win. Get in touch with us today and start getting the compensation you’re entitled to.
You can’t count any part of your body twice, but you can as for a higher rating because of the severity of your skin injury. You can also apply for a VA rating for a scar on the burn areas and a separate VA rating for a skin condition on the other areas. Very few veterans get a rating for only one condition, due to the nature of how our bodies work.
The purpose of the C&P Exam, oddly enough, is not to treat your skin condition. The doctor will ask if any medicines have worked, but the condition will also be viewed as it is, since not all medicines retain their effectiveness over time. The VA cannot delay your ruling while they wait for medicines to work. This may come up at a periodic future examination in five years, however.