Veterans who have served in the military can get knee pain and joint pain. Knee pain results due to weight lifting and weight bearing tasks in the military. Joining the military and then serving the country requires a lot of hard work and stress.
Temporary 100 percent VA Disability for Knee Replacement
Veteran affair department gives the rating of 10 percent to a veteran who has knee pain and 20 percent to the one who cannot perform daily work. If a person requires knee replacement then they must have a 100% rating. Two different types of knee replacement are available namely complete knee replacement and partial knee replacement. Each of these is discussed below in detail.
Complete Knee replacement by VA
Knee pain is very severe and serious stage of pain requires replacement. If the veteran has to get their knee replacement done, then they can contact the veteran affair department. The veteran will be given a temporary rating of 100 percent for knee replacement. All the expenses will be paid by the veteran department. The veteran with severe pain in knee and mobility problems might receive 60 percent disability rating from the department after a complete medical examination.
Related: VA Disability Ratings For Knee Pain
Partial knee replacement by VA
Partial knee replacement is also done under the veteran affair department. There is no fixed rating for this process. The rating is given on the basis of pain and muscle spasms. There are multiple diagnostic codes that are used by VA to rate the disability of knee. If the veteran has dislocated knee due to their service, then they will receive additional rating from the department other than their disability rating.
Medical care for knee pain and temporary ratings
Temporary rating of 100 percent is given only once when knee replacement is required. The rating remains until the knee replacement surgery is done. The veteran can have the temporary rating of 100 percent for one year at least.
After one year the veteran will go through a complete check up. All the factors will be examined such as knee flexibility, extension, and flexion. Also, instability is checked to confirm if the procedure was done successfully or not. After that a veteran may receive a rating of 60 percent for their knee disability from the veteran affairs department.
Individual Unemployability for knee pain
The veteran can receive the rating of 100 percent only once when they will require a knee replacement. Only knee pain will not get you total individual Unemployability benefits. If the veteran has disability rating of 60 percent for any other service connected issue then they can have a combined rating of 70 percent. Under this combined rating the veteran may receive total individual Unemployability benefits from the veteran affair department.
What are secondary conditions to knee pain?
Sometimes it may happen that you get knee pain secondary to other pain. This means that knee pain was resulted due to any other pain or disability. If the knee pain was there before and you get secondary service connected issues such as ankle injury, foot injury, etc then you might get additional benefits from the veteran affair department. You can claim knee replacement from veteran affair department even if you have honorable discharge from the service.