VA Back Pain: The Degrees That Decide Your Rating

The VA rates a lower-back strain (Diagnostic Code 5237) on how far you can bend forward: 10% at 85 degrees down to 40% at 30 degrees or less. That single goniometer reading can swing your pay by over $7,000 a year.

Bella hosts with co-hosts Erica, Fenrir, and Grace, decoding the General Rating Formula for the spine under 38 CFR 4.71a, the bed-rest path for disc cases, the flare-up rule that protects your bad days, and the leg-pain rating most veterans forget to claim. We keep the strain code, the ankylosis path, and the disc-syndrome path clearly separate so you quote the right rule for your own case.

In this video:

• The exact forward-flexion degree thresholds for 10, 20, and 40 percent
• Favorable versus unfavorable ankylosis and where 50 and 100 percent kick in
• How the intervertebral disc bed-rest formula counts incapacitating episodes
• The DeLuca, Mitchell, and Sharp flare-up rule and how to document a bad day
• Why sciatic radiculopathy is a separate, stackable rating under Diagnostic Code 8520
• The 2026 monthly dollar amounts at each back-rating level