When veterans have service-connected medical conditions that impair their social or professional functioning or ability to perform daily activities, they may qualify for disability benefits from the VA. Although military service can cause disabling health conditions, a service-connected condition can also lead to a secondary condition – a medical condition caused or worsened by a primary service-connected condition. Veterans may also qualify for disability benefits for secondary conditions. As a result, veterans should understand how secondary conditions can affect their VA claims.
What Are Secondary Service-Connected Conditions?
The VA defines a secondary service-connected condition as a medical condition caused or aggravated by a primary service-connected condition. Examples of secondary conditions include:
- Insomnia caused by service-connected post-traumatic stress disorder
- Depression caused by a service-connected amputation
- Hip or back pain resulting from an altered gait caused by service-connected arthritis in the knee
Although a veteran’s military service does not directly cause a secondary condition, the VA weighs secondary conditions equally to primary service-connected conditions, allowing veterans to recover disability benefits for secondary conditions like they can for primary conditions.
How Secondary Conditions Affect VA Disability Claims
A veteran who has a secondary condition must establish a medical link between their secondary and primary service-connected conditions. As a result, veterans usually must present narrative letters or testimony from their treating physicians or other medical experts to explain the medical connection between primary and secondary conditions.
When a veteran has a secondary condition, they will receive a combined disability rating based on their primary and secondary conditions. The VA uses a chart that assigns combined disability ratings for two individual ratings. When a veteran has a primary and secondary condition, the VA will reference the combined rating for the veteran’s primary and secondary conditions, and round that combined rating to the nearest multiple of 10. When a veteran has three or more primary and secondary conditions, the VA first determines the combined rating for the veteran’s two highest-rated conditions, then combines that initial combined rating with the veteran’s next-highest rating, and so on until the VA has combined all the veteran’s conditions, again rounding the final combined rating to the nearest multiple of 10.
Combined ratings can make veterans eligible for Total Disability based on Individual Unemployability, which qualifies a veteran for 100 percent disability benefits even if they have a lower disability rating. A veteran may qualify for TDIU if they have a combined disability rating of at least 70 percent with at least one disability rated at 40 percent or more, and the veteran cannot perform substantial gainful employment as defined by federal regulations.
Why Recognizing Secondary Conditions Matters
Recognizing the importance of secondary conditions matters for veterans, as many veterans with primary service-connected conditions may not understand the connection between those conditions and other disabling health conditions they have. Furthermore, veterans may not know that medical conditions caused or aggravated by a primary service-connected condition also qualify for VA disability benefits. Secondary conditions can significantly increase a veteran’s disability compensation and qualify them for other VA benefits, such as free healthcare, especially when a secondary condition makes a veteran eligible for TDIU. Finally, secondary conditions and their compensability recognize the full extent of the effect that a veteran’s military service has had on their overall health.
Contact a VA Disability Lawyer Today
When a service-connected condition causes or aggravates another medical condition, you may have a secondary condition that qualifies you for additional VA disability benefits. Contact Coskrey Law today for a free, no-obligation consultation with a VA disability attorney to discuss how secondary conditions can affect your claim.