Eczema, also known as dermatitis, is a common skin condition that manifests as a recurring rash. If you are a veteran of the U.S. military, you may have been exposed to environments that led to an eczema condition or worsened existing eczema. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA) recognizes eczema as a disabling condition for receiving VA health care benefits and monthly disability benefits compensation.
Stone Rose Law helps many veterans make initial and supplemental disability claims for eczema and all other disabilities for which the VA provides benefits.
Here, we discuss the VA ratings for eczema, how to file a claim with the VA to receive benefits for eczema, its causes and symptoms, and treatment for the condition.
If you have questions or would like help getting an eczema VA rating, then call us at (480) 498-8998 to talk with one of our VA benefits specialists and to schedule a free consultation.
If the VA accepts your disability compensation claim for eczema, then it will assign you a disability rating. The VA rates eczema at any of 0%, 10%, 30%, or 60%. Here is how the VA rates each of these levels.
At this level, your eczema covers less than 5% of your body, or you have characteristic lesions involving less than 5% of exposed areas, or disfigurement occurs on the head, face, neck, or results in scars, depending on your predominant disability.
The condition is minor, meaning that it does not significantly affect your ability to work or engage in day-to-day activities, and does not require more than topical therapy over the past 12 months.
A 0% disability rating does not qualify you to receive monthly compensation. But it does allow you access to other VA disability benefits, including treatment at VA healthcare facilities.
Here the eczema lesions cover 5% to 20% of the entire body or exposed areas. The condition requires intermittent systemic therapy like corticosteroids, phototherapy, retinoids, biologics, photochemotherapy, PUVA, or immunosuppressive drugs required for less than six weeks total over the past 12-month period.
This level means that lesions cover 20% to 40% of your full body or exposed areas. Your therapy consists of near constant systemic therapy using corticosteroids, phototherapy, retinoids, biologics, photochemotherapy, PUVA, or immunosuppressive drugs for six weeks or more, but not constantly, over the past 12-months.
At this highest level, eczema lesions cover more than 40% of either your full body or exposed areas. You require constant or near-constant therapy such as corticosteroids, phototherapy, retinoids, biologics, photochemotherapy, psoralen with long-wave ultraviolet-A light (PUVA), or immunosuppressive drugs over the past 12 months.
Even though an eczema VA rating by itself cannot be 100%, if eczema in combination with one or more VA disabilities means that you cannot obtain or keep substantially gainful employment, you may qualify for total disability benefits based on total disability individual unemployability (TDIU).
There are two main ways you can qualify for TDIU benefits with an eczema VA rating: schedular and extraschedular.
To find out more about how combined VA disability ratings work, see our VA Disability Calculator page.
If the VA considers your eczema condition to be uniquely severe enough to keep you from substantially gainful employment, the VA can give you TDIU anyway.
You file a claim for eczema using VA Form 21-526EZ. You can submit this form online, by mail, or in person at your nearest VA Regional Office.
A complete benefits claim must establish three elements:
Your primary care physician or a dermatologist can diagnose eczema through a physical examination and by inquiring about whether you have any family history of eczema to see whether it may be genetic in origin.
Many kinds of environmental factors of your military service can lead to the development or worsening of service-connected eczema. To receive VA benefits for eczema, you must be able to prove that your eczema developed or worsened during your time in service because of a service-connected event or environment, like burn pit exposure.
You establish a direct service connection through your military records, medical evidence like an official medical eczema diagnosis by a medical professional and systemic therapy treatment records, and by additional documentation including written statements of others, like family members, coworkers, or former service comrades who can attest to your service-related eczema symptoms and their effect on your daily life activities and your ability to work.
This supporting documentation becomes part of the application package you submit along with Form 21-526EZ.
The VA does not expressly identify eczema as a presumptive service condition, which is a condition that does not require you to prove a service connection. But it may still be possible to establish a presumptive connection in some cases, such as by establishing that you were exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, or Cambodia during the Vietnam conflict.
Even though burn pit exposure does not create a presumptive service connection, veterans of the Persian Gulf War may also be able to establish a presumptive condition if their eczema condition can be rated at a VA disability rating of 10% or more.
After you submit your disability claim, the VA may request you to undergo a Compensation & Pension (C&P) exam. The purpose of this exam is to give the VA an opportunity to gather additional information to decide whether to accept your claim and to assess the severity of your eczema condition.
A VA examiner performs the C&P exam. It usually consists of a review of your application documentation, including your private medical records, any VA medical records you may have, asking some questions about your condition and its effects on you, and sometimes a physical examination. If the VA schedules you for a C&P exam, it is important to make your appointment. Missing your exam can lead to delays in processing your VA disability claim or even result in claim denial.
If you are requested to attend a C&P exam, it is important to attend. Failure to attend an exam could result in the denial of your claim.
Eczema is a common condition. It is a non-contagious rash that occurs in flare-ups when your skin is irritated.
Millions of Americans generally and many military veterans have eczema. You can develop an eczema condition at any time during your life, from childhood through adolescence and adulthood. In some cases it is a genetic condition.
In addition to a rash, eczema frequently manifests through dry, scaly skin. Eczema flare-ups can last for a few days or weeks, depending on the severity of the condition. More severe cases of eczema can result in oozing blisters and, in the worst cases, skin infections.
Your active-duty military service could have exposed you to extreme environmental conditions that led to eczema. These environments include exposure to contaminants linked to eczema, like burn pits or Agent Orange, or to more mundane sources, like dirty living conditions in field environments or quarters.
Eczema can take any of the seven recognized forms. In alphabetical order, they are:
Depending on the severity of the condition, eczema can exhibit the following symptoms:
The itching sensation from eczema can be excruciating, so much so that it can lead sufferers to scratch until their skin bleeds. This bleeding worsens the condition and intensifies the itching sensation, leading to what the National Eczema Association calls the “itch-scratch cycle.”
No cure exists for eczema. Instead, treatment focuses on alleviating the symptoms, in particular the itching sensation.
Eczema treatments include topical medications like moisturizers, steroid creams, and antihistamine allergy medicines. In mild cases, these can be over-the-counter, and in more serious cases, they can be treated with other immunosuppressive drugs and phototherapy.
At Stone Rose Law, our board-certified VA claims lawyers assist veterans nationwide with affordable, high-quality legal assistance. Our veterans lawyers provide professional legal representation to military veterans, helping them through the VA process to receive all the veterans disability benefits they are entitled to.
A Stone Rose Law VA disability lawyer can help you prepare your disability claim, monitor your claim status, and consult with you before disability examinations at no cost.
If the VA denies your original claim, our VA benefits law firm will assign a VA disability appeals lawyer to help you prepare a supplemental claim with new and relevant information or to pursue a VA appeal with the Board of Veterans Appeals while providing free representation on a contingency fee basis.
For more information about how one of our VA disability lawyers can help you with your VA disability compensation initial claim, supplemental claim, or appeal, request a free assistance consultation at (480) 498-8998. Or, if you prefer, you can reach us online.
