The Department of Veterans Affairs has retreated from enforcing a controversial regulation it rolled out Tuesday that required medical examiners to factor in the effects of medication when weighing disability ratings decisions.
In a post on X on Thursday, VA Secretary Doug Collins said the VA will continue collecting public comment on the rule but it “will not be enforced at any time in the future” as a result of the veteran community’s reaction to it.
“Many interpreted the rule as something that could result in adverse consequences. While VA does not agree with the way this rule has been characterized, the department always takes Veterans’ concerns seriously,” Collins wrote.
The department issued the regulation with “immediate effect,” meaning that it applied to veterans filing disability claims or appeals on and after Feb. 17 and those seeking any changes to their disability ratings after that date.
Under the regulation, those conducting medical exams for disability assessments were instructed to look at a veteran’s “actual level of functional impairment” and include any effects of medication or treatment.
The rule was written in response to several court cases dating to 2012 that interpreted the VA’s existing regulations as limiting the consideration of medication’s effects. Those cases stipulated that the VA secretary could issue a regulation with strict parameters on including medication as part of the instructions for assigning disability ratings.
In the rule, Collins wrote that the court decisions would force adjudicators to make assessments based on hypotheses if a veteran’s disability was left untreated, a standard he called “unquantifiable, hypothetical [and] unwarranted.”
But the announcement — and the manner in which it was initiated, as a final decision — infuriated veterans and advocacy groups, drawing criticism from individual veterans online and organizations such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, American Legion and Paralyzed Veterans of America.
In the first 60 hours of posting, the comments section on the Federal Register drew more than 10,000 responses. Veterans also filed at least one lawsuit calling for a review of the rule.
“All this does is provide a perverse incentive for veterans to forego treatment,” said Paul Jennings, an Army veteran and attorney for MilVet Law Firm, one of the plaintiffs in the suit. “It’s the VA — they’re there to take care of us. … So, it’s quite unexpected when you get a rule published with immediate effect stating it’s an emergency because the VA has taken the approach that this will result in veterans getting higher ratings.”
“Treatment to alleviate symptoms of a service-connected condition, including medication, should not be used in a way that decreases compensation for that disability. Such a notion could set up a slippery slope where a veteran with a spinal cord injury could be considered less disabled simply because he or she is able to use a wheelchair to ambulate,” Paralyzed Veterans of America CEO Carl Blake said.
The change also drew backlash from politicians who called for it to be rescinded. Disabled Army veteran and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said the VA “shamefully circumvented the normal rulemaking process” to implement a regulation that put “millions of veterans disability ratings and care at risk.”
“It’s self-evident that treating a Veteran’s service-connected disability doesn’t mean they weren’t injured serving their nation. It’s shameful, but not shocking, that the Trump Administration would implement a rule straight out of the Project 2025 textbook that threatens to punish our Wounded Warriors for following their treatment plans while disincentivizing them from seeking the coverage that they have earned because doing so puts their disability rating — and their coverage — at risk,” Duckworth said.
Before he announced he was pulling back from implementation, Collins fought back on the criticism, calling it “fake news.”
“What the Democrats won’t tell you: The rule simply formalizes VA’s longstanding practice — since 1958 — of determining disability ratings based on Veterans’ service-related disabilities and any medications they are taking to treat those disabilities. The rule will have no impact on any Veteran’s current disability rating,” Collins wrote on X.
According to the regulation, the change was needed because without it, the VA faced readjudicating 350,000 claims decisions, retraining its medical examiners, generating administrative costs and increasing VA expenditures because the department would pay out additional disability compensation “based on levels that “veterans are not actually experiencing.”
But veterans saw the rule as a betrayal of trust.
“The VA is not tasked with protecting taxpayers. They are tasked with protecting veterans. The VA’s goal is not to seek out victories — their goal is to ensure that veterans are properly compensated for their injuries,” Jennings said.
According to the regulation, the rule had the potential to have an economic impact of $100 million a year. It would have affected 350,000 claims and more than 500 conditions.
Patricia Kime is a senior writer covering military and veterans health care, medicine and personnel issues.
