Data / Federal rules / 2026-03068
Evaluative Rating: Impact of Medication
The Veterans Affairs Department published this final rule in the Federal Register on February 17, 2026. It took effect on February 17, 2026. Comments closed on April 20, 2026.
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What the agency says
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) amends 38 CFR 4.10 within the VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities (VASRD). This amendment clarifies VA's longstanding interpretation of Sec. 4.10 and, in doing so, amends the text to correct judicial interpretations that VA has concluded misconstrue the role of medication and treatment in evaluating functional impairment. Specifically, this amendment clarifies that veterans should be compensated for the actual level of functional impairment they experience and, therefore, that the ameliorative effects of medication should not be estimated or discounted when evaluating the severity of a veteran's disability at the time of the disability examination. This regulation is needed immediately to minimize the negative impact of an erroneous line of cases culminating in the recent decision of Ingram v. Collins, 38 Vet. App. 130 (2025), which could be applied broadly to over 500 separate diagnostic codes, requiring re-adjudications of over 350,000 currently pending claims. This in turn would overburden VA's claims adjudicatory capacity. In addition, Ingram requires VA to retrain all of its medical examiners and adjudicators to make assessments and decisions based not on the evidence before them but instead based on what they hypothesize the evidence would show if a veteran's disability were left untreated. For these and other reasons explained below, this regulation is critical to the integrity of the VA disability claims system.
Key facts
- Document number
- 2026-03068
- Type
- Final rule
- Action
- Interim final rule
- Agency
- Veterans Affairs Department
- Published
- February 17, 2026
- Takes effect
- February 17, 2026
- Comments due
- April 20, 2026
- Dates
- This interim final rule is effective February 17, 2026.
- Regulation ID (RIN)
- 2900-AS49
- Code of Federal Regulations
- 38 CFR 4
- Topics
- Disability benefits; Pensions; Veterans
- Pages
- 3
Other documents from the Veterans Affairs Department
| Document | Type | Published |
|---|---|---|
| Rescission of Outdated Veterans Choice Program Regulations 2026-15210 | Final rule | Jul 28 |
| Expansion of VA Process for 72-Hour Notification of Emergency Treatment 2026-13971 | Final rule | Jul 10 |
| Nondiscrimination in Federally-Assisted Programs of the Department of Veterans Affairs 2026-12924 | Proposed rule | Jun 26 |
| Implementing Regulation for National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA): Environmental Effects of the Department of Veterans Affairs Actions 2026-11973 · significant | Final rule | Jun 15 |
| Grants for the Rural Veterans Coordination Pilot; Rescission 2026-11752 | Final rule | Jun 11 |
| Processing Certain Veteran-Requested Veteran Readiness and Employment Benefit Changes Without Administrative Delays 2026-11195 | Proposed rule | Jun 4 |
| Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance 2026-10817 | Proposed rule | May 29 |
| Expanding Access to State Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs 2026-10084 | Proposed rule | May 20 |
Everything from the Veterans Affairs Department · Rules on disability benefits · Rules on pensions · Rules on veterans · Published in February 2026
Read from the Federal Register API, last updated 2026-10-23. The document on federalregister.gov is the official record; dates and dockets can change through later corrections. Free to reuse with credit to SpecStream under CC BY 4.0.