After feedback from veterans, advocacy groups, lawmakers, and other stakeholders – 20,000 of whom provided comments via the Federal Register – the VA fully rescinded an interim final rule that may have punished veterans for receiving medical treatment.

VA Secretary Doug Collins announced Feb. 19, two days after the new rule was published, that it would not be enforced. The official recission echoes Collins’ Feb. 19 statement, which said the rule served to clarify existing policy, but notes the department “recognizes that many commenters construed the interim final rule as something that could result in adverse consequences.”

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MOAA was among those commenters, noting that the rule “fails to account for treatment burdens, creates harmful incentives, destabilizes access to benefits, and was promulgated without adequate public input.” While the VA’s Feb. 27 move to rescind the rule represents a first step toward rebuilding trust with the veteran community, three other key recommendations from MOAA’s public comment should come next:

End the Legal Fight

The VA’s short-lived rule change came after the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims ruled against the department in Ingram v. Collins, stating that the VA should issue disability ratings based on the severity of a veteran’s condition, following precedent “requiring the discounting of beneficial effects of medication.”

In the rule, the VA said the court “erred” in its determination, and noted the case and other recent judicial rulings as grounds for rapid passage of the clarifying regulation. MOAA and other stakeholders disagree with this interpretation, and so long as the VA proceeds with appealing Ingram and similar cases, veterans’ benefits would remain under threat.

“Continued pursuit of an appeal is in direct opposition to the halted enforcement of the [interim final rule],” MOAA wrote in its public comment.

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Clarify the Ratings Process

The rescinded rule had been meant to “reaffirm the proper understanding of VA policy,” according to the rule text. And while the rule is going away, such reaffirmation is still sorely needed.

The department should state clearly that a disability rating will not be reduced based on the effects of treatment, and that a veteran’s ability to address chronic injury or disease with medication should not be confused with “medical improvement.”

Many veterans suffer a reduced quality of life from effective treatments – anything from moderate to severe side effects to medication and treatment needs that disrupt life’s regular rhythms. They should not worry about losing earned benefits while they deal with these second-order effects.

Keep Veterans Healthy

By weighing medication as part of a VA disability rating (and subsequent benefits), the department inadvertently created an incentive for veterans to skip treatments prior to an evaluation, or otherwise mask any treatment-related improvements.

The VA can address this concern moving forward by releasing guidance that would “explicitly prohibit adverse rating consequences tied to treatment compliance, ensuring veterans are not discouraged from following prescribed care,” MOAA wrote in its public comment.

[MOAA SITREP: The Major Richard Star Act]

The Next Step

MOAA and fellow veterans service organizations will continue to engage with the VA on this issue; the lack of engagement with such groups has been cited by many as contributing to the confusion caused by the recent rule, which was passed without a traditional feedback period.

No veteran should feel that undergoing treatment for an illness or injury could lead to unexpected downgrades in their service-earned benefits. Keep up with this issue and other MOAA priorities via our news page.