VA Claims Research Center
Original, data-driven analysis of the more than 1.8 million published decisions of the Board of Veterans' Appeals. Findings that answer the questions veterans actually ask, drawn from the record, refreshed weekly, and free to cite.
Articles
Articles
Periodic, plain-English articles from RateMyVSO Research, grounded in published Board decisions and primary sources.
Newest article
When the DBQ Check Box and the Story Don’t Match
A checked box and the written explanation can tell different stories. What 49 Board decisions show, why the conflict can cut either way, and how to check your exam.
Article
How the VA Medication Rule May Impact Your Claim
The VA briefly tried to require ratings at the medicated level, then withdrew the rule. What Ingram means for examinations, untreated-baseline evidence, and the limits of 6,348 Board citations.
Article
Did the VA Use Your Intent to File on the Wrong Claim?
The VA used one Veteran's intent to file on a claim that gained nothing from it, then refused it for the claim that would have. What Hoffman v. Collins decided, and the filing histories worth a second look.
Article
The VA Can Accept the Account but Reject the Conclusion
One Soldier's sleep observations were credited and his burn-pit conclusion was not. A review of 168 Board decisions on what lay statements actually prove.
Article
The Hidden Fight Over Your TDIU Start Date
One Veteran won TDIU, but nearly nine earlier years remained denied. What 13,405 Board issues reveal about the hidden fight over the start date.
Article
The Medical Study Trap
Medical studies can strengthen a sleep apnea claim, but they rarely prove one Veteran's nexus by themselves. What 1,492 Board grants show about the role research actually played.
Article
Pain, Weight Gain, and Sleep Apnea
What 6,591 published Board decisions show about the missing medical links in weight-gain intermediate-step claims.
Article
The Presumption Trap
Veterans raised a presumptive or exposure theory in 242 strictly named GERD issues. The Board record shows what happened, and why IBS and GERD require different claim paths.
Article
Three Doors at the Board
Among 13,157 TDIU issues decided 2021 to 2025, the grant share on the merits was 62.9 percent in Direct Review, 72.8 percent in Evidence Submission and 70.6 percent in Hearing.
Article
The Spicer Split
Board citations of Spicer v. McDonough grew every year since 2023. Across 11,748 decisions, judges split three ways on how they apply it.
Article
The Canceled Surgery That Rewrote VA’s Secondary-Claim Rule
But-for causation is now the standard for secondary service connection, and it reaches conditions a service-connected disability keeps you from treating.
Article
One Opinion, Decided
What 20 recent Board outcomes show about sleep apnea claimed secondary to PTSD.
Article
Barry’s Ripple
How one 2024 Federal Circuit ruling is reshaping the top of the SMC ladder, and where Board judges are quietly splitting.
Article
When a Spouse Isn’t Enough
His wife said she was the reason he could remain at home. The Board agreed that he needed regular help, but still denied the benefit that could pay at the SMC-R2 level.
Original Research Reports
Our own analysis of the published record. Each finding in plain language, with the numbers in the page so they are free to cite.
Live and recurring research
Live and recurring research
The interactive explorer and the reports that refresh on their own weekly, monthly, and annual cycles.
100 conditions
Condition Data Explorer
Pick a condition and see the whole record as charts: real grant rates, why the Board denied service connection, the symptoms recorded in winning decisions, whether a private doctor's opinion moved the needle, and every secondary connection, with the Board's own words quoted and linked. Refreshed weekly.
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Monthly
Recent Board Activity
What the Board decided in the newest complete month of its published record: grant and remand rates by condition, the biggest movers, and the busiest judges. Refreshed weekly.
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Annual
The Board's Year
Year-over-year grant and remand rates from the newest complete calendar year of the record, by condition, with the biggest movers.
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Weekly
This Week at the Board
Each week, the structurally unusual Board decisions among the newest published cases, with the numbers behind each flag.
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Research report library
Research report library
Every published report, preserved in full. Each opens the complete analysis.
63.6 pt gap
The Appeal Gap
The ten most common VA disabilities: how initial-claim approval rates compare to Board of Veterans' Appeals outcomes for the same conditions.
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37% vs 30%
New Claim vs. Increased Rating
Board grant rates differ sharply between a first-time service-connection claim and a request for a higher rating, for the top 10 disabilities.
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Top 10
The Exam Problem
Why Board appeals for the ten most common disabilities get remanded, and the C&P exam defect the Board names most often.
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42.7%
The Missing Nexus
The single most common reason the Board denies service connection is a missing in-service event. See the split by element and by condition.
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59 → 20 mo
How Long a Board Appeal Takes
The 2019 AMA reform cut the median wait from about five years to under two. The wait by docket and by condition.
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352,303 appeals
Choosing a Board Docket
Direct Review, Evidence Submission, or Hearing. What VA's own published data show about how appeals ended in each and how long each is waiting, plus the case law that changed what a Board hearing is worth.
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41% vs 37%
The Theory Gap
The legal theory a claim is argued on tracks with how often the Board grants it. Secondary connection out-grants direct across the record.
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45% ↔ 21%
Presumptive & Toxic-Exposure Outcomes
Grant rates for Agent Orange, burn pits, PACT Act, Camp Lejeune, and radiation claims, and the one element most presumptive denials miss.
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16 → 44 pts
The Private-Opinion Edge
A private nexus opinion's grant-rate advantage at the Board nearly tripled over three decades. The widening gap, by decade and by condition.
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4.1M Issues
See the 1.9M BVA Cases at a Glance
Every published Board of Veterans' Appeals decision, 1992 to today, and what the full corpus shows about outcomes over time.
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94%
What Wins at the Board
Grant patterns and winning evidence across conditions, including the 94% grant rate when the medical opinion says "at least as likely as not."
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38,839
SMC Appeals
Special Monthly Compensation outcomes at the Board, broken down by SMC level, pathway, and the evidence that carried them.
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16% → 29%
The Rating Shift
The share of veterans rated 100% nearly doubled from 2019 to 2025. The climb in ratings, nationally and state by state.
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121,000+
DIC Appeals Data
Grant rates for survivor claims at the Board: cause-of-death, accrued benefits, and a 35-year trend that has quadrupled in survivors' favor.
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Data and analytics tools
Data and Analytics Tools
Interactive data exploration tools drawn from the public record. Explore them yourself and research the raw data on your own.
Appeal Outcomes by ConditionAMA-era grant, remand, and wait, condition by condition.
Judge AnalyticsGrant, denial, and remand rates for every Board judge.
Veterans by StateCompensation recipients and rating bands, state by state.
PFAS ExposureContaminated installations and the toxic-exposure link.
Search the DecisionsFull-text search of 1.9 million Board decisions.
Trending DenialsWhat the Board is denying right now, updated weekly.
Rating Transition ExplorerHow ratings move up or down at the Board, condition by condition.
Analogous BVA Decisions ResearchFind Board decisions with issues similar to your own.
VA Claims PulseThe latest movement in VA claims volume and backlog.
VA Appeals PulseAppeal wait times and 12-month trends for HLR, Supplemental, and the Board.
Grant Rate by Representative TypeHow BVA appeals turned out by DAV, VFW, attorney, and other representative types.
How the Board Uses 38 CFRGrant rate when the Board cites each rating regulation, section by section.
About this research. These articles and reports are aggregate, encyclopedic analysis of published Board of Veterans' Appeals decisions. They describe patterns in the record; they are not legal advice and do not predict the outcome of any individual claim. The figures refresh weekly as new decisions are published. Every article and report is free to cite and link with attribution.
Prefer one page for everything? The Report Viewer puts every report above, plus live grant-rate, wait-time, and exposure breakdowns, in one two-pane hub.
For help with a specific claim, find a VA-accredited representative. More reports are added as the analysis grows.