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VA disability rating and compensation calculations, condition lookup, and 38 CFR authority search
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VA disability rating and compensation calculations, condition lookup, and 38 CFR authority search
Server tool list (11)
Raw names from tools/list. Only developers need these.
| calculate_combined_rating | Use this when a veteran has two or more VA disability rating percentages and wants the combined rating. Applies the 38 CFR 4.25 Combined Ratings Table procedure: pairwise combination in severity order, whole-percent rounding after each step, then conversion to the nearest 10. Returns combinedRating as an object holding both figures under their own names: rounded is the rating after that conversion, raw is the Combined Ratings Table value before it. The arithmetic for each step comes back alongside them. The optional bilateral argument tags the ratings that affect both arms or both legs; when it is supplied and one pair has a compensable rating on each side, 38 CFR 4.26 applies to those ratings first: they combine with each other, 10 percent of that value is added rather than combined, and the result enters the 4.25 combination as one disability. Without that argument no bilateral factor is applied. The 38 CFR 4.26(d) comparison across eligible groupings is exhaustive here for up to 16 tagged compensable ratings; past that the response carries combinedRatingWithoutBilateralFactor in place of combinedRating, labelled as a figure the bilateral factor has not been applied to, with a note that VA and accredited representatives compute that factor. The result differs from adding the percentages and from a simple product. It reports what 38 CFR 4.25 and 4.26 yield for the percentages supplied, not what VA has assigned, and it does not evaluate special monthly compensation. |
| compare_rating_criteria | Use this when a veteran names a VA diagnostic code and wants the rating criteria for it. Returns the VASRD criteria on file for that code at every tier, highest percentage first, with the condition name, body system and 38 CFR reference, so the findings each tier requires can be read side by side. It takes a diagnostic code rather than a condition name, and returns an empty result for a code that is not in the criteria table. Every response carries a source block: the 38 CFR reference for the code, a link to the current rating schedule at the publisher, and a scheduleSnapshot whose retrievedAt is the date this text was read from eCFR. That date is null here, with a note saying it is not recorded, so the criteria are usable as the schedule on file and the current text governs where the two differ. It is not a lookup of what a rating pays and it does not combine ratings. |
| analyze_rating_gap | Use this when a veteran gives a condition name and the percentage currently assigned for it, and wants that percentage compared against the VASRD criteria. Returns the tier that matches the current percentage, the next tier above it, and every higher tier on file for that condition, with the criteria each one requires. It reports when the condition is already at the highest documented tier, and when no criteria are on file for that condition name. documentedTiers lists the tier percentages on file for the condition, and currentPercentIsDocumentedTier says whether the percentage supplied is one of them: false means the figure does not correspond to a tier in the criteria on file, which happens when the rating came from a formula or a code this search did not resolve. For a veteran at zero percent, zeroPercentBasis is "documented" when a zero percent row for the code is on file and "unresolved" when the complete tier set could not be established, and zeroPercentUnderFourThirtyOne answers whether 38 CFR 4.31 is what assigns that zero: false where the schedule on file provides a zero percent evaluation or the rating is compensable, and null where the question is open. A null there is an unanswered question rather than a finding that 4.31 applies, because the rule turns on what the schedule provides for the code and this tool reads the criteria on file rather than the omissions in the schedule. It describes what the criteria require; only VA decides a rating. |
| calculate_rolling_window | Use this when a veteran supplies dates of incapacitating episodes and the question involves the 38 CFR 4.71a formula for rating intervertebral disc syndrome on incapacitating episodes, diagnostic code 5243. Totals the calendar duration of those episodes inside the 12 months ending on a reference date: the window opens the day after the same date one year earlier and closes on the reference date, with both ends counted, so an episode that began exactly 12 months before that date falls outside it by one day. That formula bands on total calendar duration in weeks, so weekend and holiday days inside an episode count, and only periods flagged as bed rest prescribed by a physician count toward a tier. Returns the window, a per-period breakdown, the tier the flagged episodes would support, and a separate employer-leave workday count that plays no part in that tier. Inside ivdsThresholdAnalysis, calendarDaysBelow60PercentThreshold and weeksBelow60PercentThreshold report how far the counted episodes fall below the 6-week duration that bands at 60 percent under that formula. They measure the reported history against a threshold in the regulation; they are not a target, since a veteran does not accumulate bed rest to reach a rating. The tier it reports is an estimate from the episodes supplied. It does not decide FMLA entitlement and does not apply to conditions rated outside diagnostic code 5243. |
| find_secondary_conditions | Use this when a veteran names a service-connected condition and asks what other conditions can follow from it. Returns conditions on file as medically linked to that primary condition, each with the strength of the supporting evidence, the medical rationale, key studies, filing notes and the diagnostic codes involved. An empty result means nothing is on file for that search term, not that no link exists. It does not diagnose, it does not establish that a particular veteran's condition is secondary, and it does not supply the medical nexus opinion a secondary claim needs. |
| check_presumptive_eligibility | Use this when a veteran asks whether a condition is presumptively service connected, or which conditions are presumptive for a given exposure or service era. Returns matching presumptive conditions with the service era, exposure type, required service, legal authority and evidence needed for each. At least one of condition, serviceEra or exposureType is required. Filters combine with AND: condition plus exposureType or serviceEra narrows to their intersection, and each filter needs at least one word of three or more characters or the query is refused. An empty result means no entry satisfies that exact combination, not that the condition is non-presumptive. Whether a particular veteran meets the service requirement depends on service records this tool does not read. |
| search_legal_authority | Use this when a question calls for the text of a VA rating regulation, the wording of a legal standard, or case law, searched by keyword, by exact citation, or by diagnostic code. Returns 38 CFR rating criteria for matching conditions; doctrine entries quoted verbatim from the regulation, statute or decision they come from, each with pinpoint citations, the date the text was captured, when that text took effect, and the reviewed holdings that construe it; and excerpts from Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims decisions with docket number, case name and relevance score. CAVC decisions are binding precedent for the Board of Veterans' Appeals. The citation parameter takes a section such as "3.310", "38 CFR 3.310(b)" or "38 U.S.C. 5107(b)", and a citation that cannot be read as a section matches nothing rather than being guessed at. A citation on its own is a complete call: query is optional when citation is supplied, and a call carries query, citation, or both. The limit parameter caps results per source, default 5 and maximum 10; the doctrine block is capped at four entries per response and reports the true total. The status field describes the answer in one of four words. "ok" means every component answered and this response carries each matched result it selected. "partial" means a matched result is missing from it, whether shed for the size budget, withheld as a criterion text too long to fit, or unreachable because a component could not complete its search. "no_match" means every component answered and none of them matched. "unavailable" means a component did not answer, so nothing in that response is readable as an absence of authority. statusReason gives the reason for that word in one sentence, derived from the same values as the word itself. A truncation object reports what was shortened, whatever the status: doctrinePropositionsTrimmed counts entries serving their first propositions while reporting their own true total, textBounded says a criterion text was w |
| prepare_cp_exam | Use this when a veteran has a VA compensation and pension examination scheduled for a condition and wants to know what it involves. Returns the examination type and typical length, what the examiner does, the questions examiners commonly ask, the Disability Benefits Questionnaire sections that apply, and records worth bringing. It does not return advice about what to describe, emphasize or omit at the examination. For a condition with a guide on file it also returns the rating tiers for that condition's diagnostic code, which is what the examiner's findings are scored against; any other condition returns a general exam guide. Educational reference about the examination process. It does not schedule, reschedule or contact VA, and the examiner's findings and VA decide the rating. |
| lookup_compensation_rate | Use this when a veteran wants the monthly VA disability compensation amount for a given rating percentage and dependent situation. Returns the monthly and annual amounts from the VA compensation rate table in effect, with the rate year and effective date. The rating is read to the nearest 10 percent, and dependents change the amount only at 30 percent and above. Children are counted as children under 18; school-age children 18 to 23, dependent parents and aid and attendance are outside what it models. It gives the published rate for that combination, not what a specific veteran is paid, and it is not a back-pay calculation for a past period. |
| compute_retroactive_pay | Use this when a veteran gives an effective date and a rating increase and asks what the retroactive amount would be. Returns an estimate of the difference in monthly compensation for each month of the period, with a per-month breakdown, the assumptions behind it, and its own disclaimer. Under 38 CFR 3.31 payment starts on the first day of the month FOLLOWING the month the award became effective, with no exception when the effective date is itself the first of a month, and the period runs through the month of adjudication, which is counted in full. VA rate tables take effect on December 1, so a payment year runs from December 1 through November 30 and December of one year is paid at the next payment year rates. Each month of the breakdown reports the payment year it was paid from (rateYear), that table effective date (rateTableEffectiveDate) and where the table came from (rateSource), and the tables the period drew on are listed once each in rateTables; a published table carries the VA page it was transcribed from, and a reconstructed table carries none, because it is derived rather than transcribed. Monthly rates for payment years 2000 onward are read from VA published rate tables; earlier years are reconstructed from the current published table back-adjusted by the SSA cost-of-living chain, and the result states which of the two the requested period used. A month past the newest published table is served from the newest one available, and the result then reports totalIsExact false with incompleteReason naming those months. The total is an estimate either way, because dependent status is taken as constant across the period. It handles an increase only: the new rating has to be higher than the previous one, and effective dates before 1990 are refused. It does not set an effective date and it does not report an amount VA has authorized. |
| find_claim_help | Use this when a veteran asks who can help them with a VA disability claim, or when they describe a crisis. The Veterans Crisis Line comes first, in full, when need is crisis, and no other need returns crisis content. Setting urgent true puts the veteran’s first action at the top of routeNow and does not change the crisis routing. Every result carries accredited representation routes: VA accredited Veterans Service Organizations, whose services on VA benefit claims are free, and accredited attorneys and claims agents, who may charge fees only for representation provided after VA issues notice of an initial decision on the claim (38 CFR 14.636(c) and 38 U.S.C. 5904(c)(1)). It also returns the VA Office of General Counsel accreditation search and the VA.gov find a representative tool, the state or territory veterans agency matching a two-letter state code, VA phone numbers suited to the need, the documents worth bringing, and links to the VA forms that need points at. It names no individual, firm or private directory. It does not prepare, submit or file any form, and it reads no account data, so the answer is the same for every caller with the same inputs. A two-letter code with no agency on file returns stateAgency null and coverage.stateResolved false, with the national routes unchanged. The askedFor argument carries the veteran’s own words. It does not change the routing and does not withhold it: a request that this tool or the model calling it act as the veteran’s attorney, agent or representative before VA, a request to supply words for a veteran or a clinician to use, which covers asking for a personal, buddy or lay statement, a statement in support, or a nexus letter the veteran already has to be rewritten, polished, tightened or cleaned up, to choose a decision review lane for the veteran, or to prepare or file a claim returns status ok with the same findings, plus a boundary object whose kind names the primary boundary crossed and whose kinds lists every bound |