VA BENEFITS REFERENCE
VA Rating Codesheet Explained
The coded summary helps identify disability evaluations, diagnostic codes, dates, and applicable administrative or benefit entries.
The coded summary helps identify disability evaluations, diagnostic codes, dates, and applicable administrative or benefit entries.
What This Document Explains
Use the codesheet alongside the narrative and notice. Diagnostic codes identify the rating criteria, individual evaluations apply to specific disabilities and periods, and a combined evaluation summarizes the ratings in effect together. A hyphenated diagnostic code does not necessarily represent two separately compensable disabilities.
Read It Issue By Issue
VA manual guidance identifies fields such as jurisdiction, service information, applicable future-examination dates, special monthly compensation codes, and special notations. Some entries appear only when relevant, so there is no safe assumption that every codesheet has every field. Historical codesheets also need to be read in light of later decisions.
Keep The Packet Together
A static entry or lack of a routine future examination is not the same as P&T and is not an absolute bar to reassessment. Likewise, an administrative code does not supply the full medical or legal reasoning for an evaluation. Match each item to its narrative explanation before drawing conclusions.
Document Context
If you do not have the codesheet, request it through official records channels, identifying the associated rating decision where possible. Protect the actual file and obtain qualified help with inconsistencies. This site provides a fictional teaching example only and does not accept your documents or determine whether your decision contains an error.
Explore The Fictional Sample
- Notice Date And Document Type
- Issues Decided And Issues Deferred
- Reasons For Decision
- Review Options And Next Steps
Read Decision Terms · Annotated Sample Letter
Official Sources
Last verified 2026-10-25. Source publication or legal effective dates are shown separately where available.
- www.knowva.ebenefits.va.gov/system/templates/selfservice/va_ssnew/help/customer/locale/en-US/portal/554400000001018/content/554400000180524/M21-1,-Part-V,-Subpart-iv,-Chapter-1,-Section-B---Codesheet-Section
- www.uscourts.cavc.gov/documents/RosinskiDJ_17-1117.pdf
- www.ecfr.gov/current/title-38/section-4.27
- www.ecfr.gov/current/title-38/section-4.25
- www.ecfr.gov/current/title-38/section-3.327
- www.ecfr.gov/current/title-38/section-3.340
- department.va.gov/privacy/privacy-act-requests/
Check The Source. Get Accredited Help.
Use this resource to understand published information. VA and the official decision control individual benefits.