Sleep apnea, tinnitus and mental disorders VA Rating Schedule (VASRD) Changes may be coming April 2025 (or the can just got kicked down the road again)… probably the can just got kicked down the road again for at least some of the changes.
If you’ve been on the internet at all and are interested in VA disability claims you may have noticed plenty of talk about proposed changes to how the VA rates sleep apnea, tinnitus and the mental health disorders (the proposals were made back in early 2022).
However, people keep seeing website updates from the VA and claiming that the changes are coming on a specific date (most recently April 2025 based on a 4/00/2025 estimate). This isn’t something we really know. It is also quite possible that the VA has continued to just kick the can further on down the road (and right into a post-election potentially new administration). It is true that changes have already been made to all but these last three body systems, but that doesn’t mean the 2022 proposed changes are what the final rules will need to look like.
Remember, as I noted in this last blog post here, April 2025 is just a “prediction,” and the previous predictions have not proven to be accurate : June 2024? Sleep apnea changes? – Nexus Letters from a Psychologist
The dates with the “00” format are apparently agency predictions. Per this website under Timetable Actions: (under the tab How are the terms on the Unified Agenda tab defined?):
A date displayed in the form 12/00/11 means the agency is predicting the month and year the action will take place but not the day it will occur. In some instances, agencies may indicate what the next action will be, but the date of that action is “To Be Determined.” “Next Action Undetermined” indicates the agency does not know what action it will take next.
I wouldn’t get too excited if a YouTuber or Facebook or reddit post says “changes are here” until actual, final rules get posted in the Federal Register. That is when you’ll know that changes are here and what those final changes actually are. For example, Social Security proposed changes to their mental disorders listings years ago and after quite a long delay they published final rules which had many significant changes from the proposed rules based on the public comments that they had received.
Thanks,
Todd Finnerty, Psy.D.