Diabetic retinopathy VA rating
The VA rates diabetic retinopathy under DC 6040, and most ratings land in the 0–100% range. What decides yours is the criteria below and what your record actually documents.
This code covers Diabetic retinopathy / eye conditions.
What the criteria ask for at each level
DC 6040 - 38 CFR §4.79
| Rating | What the record has to show |
|---|---|
| Two ways, whichever pays more | Eye conditions are rated on visual impairment (acuity and field, under DC 6061–6091) OR on incapacitating episodes - whichever produces the HIGHER evaluation. Most veterans are only ever assessed on the first, which is why the second is worth raising. |
| 10% | One or two incapacitating episodes in the past 12 months. |
| 20% | Three or four incapacitating episodes in the past 12 months. |
| 40% | Five or six incapacitating episodes in the past 12 months. |
| 60% | Seven or more incapacitating episodes in the past 12 months. |
The schedule's own words
Ratings turn on specific terms, and a record that describes the same reality in different language often reads as a lower rating. These are the words this code measures:
- an incapacitating episode for the eye means a clinic visit to a provider SPECIFICALLY FOR TREATMENT - injections, laser, surgery, immunosuppressants. It does not require being bedridden, which is what the phrase suggests and what stops people counting their visits
- visual acuity
- visual field
- whichever results in a higher evaluation
Evidence that moves this rating
- Ophthalmology exam with acuity and visual-field testing
What your statement has to cover
Doctors chart symptoms; they rarely chart consequences. That part is yours, and it is usually what separates a documented rating from a reported one.
- Almost always secondary to service-connected diabetes - file it as such.
- Describe functional loss: night driving, reading, screen work.
Our Statement Builderwalks through the questions that produce that kind of statement, in the schedule's own terms.
Before you spend money on this claim
VA ratings do not add. Each new rating applies only to the part of you the VA still counts as unimpaired, then rounds to the nearest ten - so from 70%, a new 10% condition leaves you at exactly 70% and changes your payment by nothing.
That does not make the claim worthless; it can still matter for TDIU, for SMC, or later when something else is added. But it is worth knowing before you pay for a nexus letter rather than after. Check what one more condition does at your rating - it takes a minute.