Vetrify

Methodology

Last updated: September 22, 2026

This page explains where every class of number and relationship on Vetrify comes from. Our editorial policy covers how content is written, reviewed, and corrected.

Compensation rates

Monthly compensation amounts on pay pages, condition rating pages, and calculators come from the VA's published rate tables for 2026, effective December 1, 2025. We last checked every amount in those tables, dependent rates and added amounts included, against the VA.gov rates page on September 22, 2026. All amounts matched exactly. Rates are updated when the VA publishes new tables after each annual cost-of-living adjustment; historical amounts are not silently overwritten. Each year's tables are published as a JSON file on our open data page.

Service-connected disability counts

Where a condition page shows an exact count, it is the number of service-connected disabilities of that kind among veterans receiving compensation, from the VBA Annual Benefits Report (FY2025), "on the rolls" as of September 30, 2025. The report counts disabilities, not veterans: a veteran may be compensated for more than one. The report breaks out roughly the thirty most prevalent disabilities; we matched each to our condition pages by VASRD diagnostic code. Conditions the report does not break out show a clearly labeled Vetrify estimate instead. Counts are refreshed when a new Annual Benefits Report is published.

Rating criteria

Rating tiers and criteria summaries are educational summaries of the VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities (38 CFR Part 4). Each condition page links to the exact eCFR section for its diagnostic code in its "Official sources" section; the regulation text is authoritative. Combined-rating math in our calculators implements the Table I procedure in 38 CFR § 4.25: ratings are sorted highest first and each one applies to what is left, not to the whole. Payment is then read at the nearest 10% tier, which is a separate step and the reason a combined 68% pays at the 70% rate. The calculator in the Vetrify app also applies the bilateral factor (38 CFR § 4.26) to the arm and leg conditions a veteran marks with their side: the paired ratings are combined, 10% of that combined value is added, and the result is combined with the rest. The calculators on this site take no side, so they do not apply it, and a veteran it applies to may land a step above what they show.

Vetrify estimates

Approval outlook and typical-rating figures on condition pages are Vetrify editorial estimates, informed by VA published claims data and the structure of the rating schedule (for example, a rating tier whose criteria require CPAP use anchors the typical rating for that condition). They are labeled as estimates wherever they appear and are not official VA statistics. They describe patterns across claims in general, never a prediction for your claim.

MOS-to-condition mappings

Military job (MOS/AFSC/rating) pages list conditions worth investigating based on editorially curated associations between a job's typical duties and exposures and the conditions commonly claimed by veterans who held it. These are starting points for research, not statistical claims. An occupational association is not service connection, and it is not a statutory presumption. A claim still requires a current diagnosis, an in-service event or exposure, and a medical nexus (or a qualifying presumptive basis under rules like the PACT Act).

Secondary-condition relationships

Secondary-condition suggestions describe commonly associated pairs, biomechanical, medication-related, or physiological pathways under which one condition can lead to or aggravate another. Legally, secondary service connection under 38 CFR § 3.310 requires evidence that the service-connected condition caused or aggravated the secondary one, usually including a medical nexus opinion. Listing a pair on Vetrify means the relationship is worth investigating with your clinician, not that entitlement is automatic or established for you.

Limitations

Vetrify summarizes public rules and data; it does not have access to VA adjudication records, and no page here predicts the outcome of an individual claim. Regulations change, where our summary and the current regulation differ, the regulation controls. Report errors via hello@vetrify.ai.

Official sources

  1. 38 CFR Part 4, VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities
  2. VA.gov, 2026 veteran disability compensation rates
  3. VBA Annual Benefits Report (FY2025), VBA statistical reporting on compensation recipients