VA Diagnostic Codes (DC)

Rated Analogously

Due to the the sheer volume and duplication of symptoms that the human mind and body can have, it is impractical for the rating schedule to have a rating for every single disability by name. In such cases that the Veteran's disability/disease/condition is not mentioned by name in the rating schedule, it will be rated under the most comparable rating.

Take for instance, there is only a rating for migraine type headaches in the schedule. If the Veteran has a diagnosis of tension headaches, the VA will rate under the Migraine schedule.

When an unlisted disease, injury, or residual condition is encountered, requiring rating by analogy, the code numbers will be “built-up” as follows:

The first 2 digits will be selected from the part of the schedule most closely identifying the part, or system, of the body involved; the last 2 digits will be “99” for all unlisted conditions. Then the next code will be the code the condition is being rated under.

So our example would be coded as 8199-8100; With first two digits of the first code being 81 (Central nervous system) then 99 showing condition is analogous. Then we have the second code being 8100 which is the code for migraines.