If you've been following the fight over sleep apnea and tinnitus ratings, you've been watching the legislative track: a bill, a funding fight, a floor vote that hasn't happened. Running underneath it is a second track most veterans don't know exists, and it's the one that could change rating criteria without Congress voting on anything.
The VA has been rewriting its rating schedule body system by body system for years. Eleven of the fifteen systems are done. Four remain: mental disorders, respiratory conditions, ear conditions, and neurological and convulsive disorders. Proposals for all four have been published, and the department told Congress it expected to publish final rules for the respiratory and auditory pieces by the end of fiscal year 2026, which lands September 30.
Where things actually sit
As of the start of September, the Federal Register still shows the 2022 document as a proposed rule, while the regulatory agenda lists the matter at the final-rule stage. A VA spokesman has said no changes are planned or imminent, that the department is still working through substantial public comment, and that the proposal would need significant changes before being finalized. A House Veterans' Affairs Committee source has pointed to a later timetable than the January projection, with the committee chairman expecting completion by the end of 2026 or early 2027.
Translated: the deadline is real, the work is at the final stage, and nobody in a position to know is promising it lands this month.
What the proposals would change
The two that draw the most attention are the ones we've covered in the
legislative fight. On the respiratory side, sleep apnea criteria would shift toward evaluating how effectively treatment controls symptoms, rather than the current approach that leans heavily on whether a CPAP is prescribed. On the auditory side, the proposals rework how ear, nose, throat, and audiology conditions are evaluated, including the standalone tinnitus rating.
The mental disorders and neurological proposals get far less coverage and reach enormous populations. Anyone rated for PTSD, depression, anxiety, migraines, or seizure conditions has a stake in how those criteria get rewritten, and those two body systems have not been finalized either.
What this means for your claim
Nothing has changed yet. Today's criteria govern today's decisions. Rumors that ratings are already being cut are wrong, and we've written about
what protects a rating you already hold.
Claims decided under current criteria are decided under current criteria. This is the practical takeaway, and it's the same one we've given every time this subject comes up. If you carry a documented condition in one of the four unfinished body systems and you've been sitting on the claim, the schedule in force when your decision issues is the schedule you get. Waiting has a cost that has nothing to do with politics.
Treatment effectiveness is the theme to watch. The direction of the respiratory proposal, rating on how well treatment controls symptoms, runs against the principle the courts have been enforcing on
the medication question. How those two pull against each other is the fight worth watching over the next year, and it will be argued condition by condition.
Documentation beats speculation. Whatever criteria eventually apply, the record you build now, the
exams that describe your real function, the treatment history, the failures as well as the successes, is what any set of criteria gets applied to.
Where we come in
We're a veteran-led firm, and rating criteria fights are the daily work here, under whatever version of the schedule is in force. If you're holding an unfiled claim in one of these body systems, or a rating that already reads lower than your reality,
reach out and let's deal with the rules as they exist today.
