What changed

The Gulf War illness guide, the undiagnosed illness rating page, the PACT Act overview and the presumptive conditions post now set out what the statute and 38 CFR 3.317 each say about when an undiagnosed illness must appear.

The Agent Orange presumptive guides, the hypertension page and the coronary artery disease page now set out the dates the PACT Act gives for the hypertension presumption, including the October 1, 2026 date on which it applies to every claimant.

The endocarditis, pericarditis, pericardial adhesions and hypertension pages now set out the rating levels the schedule prints for each code, and the bradycardia page says what an asymptomatic finding means for a claim.

The twelve heart disease pages under 38 CFR 4.104 now set out the General Rating Formula in the schedule's own wording: the workload in METs at which heart failure symptoms develop, and cardiac hypertrophy or dilatation at the 30 percent level.

The fifteen pages covering arteries and veins and heart rhythm under 38 CFR 4.104 now set out each code's own rating levels and criteria in the schedule's wording, reviewed against the current section.

The six joint replacement pages under 38 CFR 4.71a now list the major and minor figures the schedule prints for the shoulder, elbow and wrist, and the aortic aneurysm page lists the two evaluations DC 7110 assigns.

The nine cardiovascular pages under 38 CFR 4.104 and the six joint replacement pages under 38 CFR 4.71a now set out each code's 100 percent period, how long it runs and what date it starts, in the schedule's own wording.

The gallbladder removal page sets out the 30, 10 and 0 percent criteria in the schedule's own wording, and the pages covering temporary 100 percent convalescent ratings now follow 38 CFR 4.30.

The chronic cholecystitis page sets out the 30, 10 and 0 percent criteria in the schedule's own wording, reviewed against the current §4.114.

Searching for achalasia, cardiospasm, dumping syndrome, pyloric stenosis, Zenker's diverticulum or a lip injury now goes straight to the page that sets out how each one is rated.

Eye, infection, lung, mental-health, dental, hormone and women's-health pages now carry a Commonly Linked Secondary Conditions block, with each condition linked to its own rating page.

Lip injury, esophageal spasm and diverticulum, chronic gastritis, postgastrectomy syndrome, stomach stenosis, stomach injury and gallbladder injury are each rated under another §4.114 code. Each page now names that code and sets out its criteria.

Hepatitis C is now covered on one page, which sets out the DC 7345 criteria that decide a DC 7354 rating and answers ten common questions about treatment, a cure, weight loss and cirrhosis.

Sixteen pages in the 38 CFR §4.124a neurological block were reviewed against the current schedule — Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, stroke, brain cancer, myasthenia gravis and eleven others. Each now shows the figures its own diagnostic code carries.

Fifteen condition pages were reviewed against the current 38 CFR §4.73, §4.114 and §4.124a — the spinal cord tumor, syringomyelia and chorea codes, plus liver injury, gallstones, chronic enteritis and anal fistula. Each now shows the figures and pathways its own code carries.

The long, ring and little finger pairings share one line of DC 5219, so they are now covered on a single page, which also sets out the favorable-ankylosis figures under DC 5223.

The body-system cards on the ratings hub and the site directory now count every condition page they cover, across eight body systems.

Nine pages covering ankylosis of the digits were reviewed against the current schedule, which sorts these claims by how many digits are fixed and whether the position is favorable or unfavorable. Each page now shows the diagnostic code and rating table that go with it.

The questionnaire now starts by asking what you are trying to figure out, marks every optional question as optional, offers 'I'm not sure' for discharge status, and splits its longest screen into two shorter ones.

Arm limitation of motion, finger ankylosis and the thumb, finger and toe amputation pages now match the current schedule's tables, and five overlapping pages were consolidated into the fuller page. The Crohn's and ulcerative colitis guides moved to URLs that name them.

Laryngeal stenosis, pleural disease, pancreatitis, hepatitis, inflammatory bowel disease, immune thrombocytopenia and the schizophrenia-spectrum pages now teach today's codes and criteria; four overlapping pages were consolidated into fuller guides.

Every amputation and anatomical-loss page now shows the diagnostic code and percentages the current schedule assigns, including the major/minor hand columns and the special monthly compensation rules.

Silicosis, talcosis, pneumoconiosis, asbestosis, pulmonary hypertension and aspergillosis now show the schedule's own criteria; four overlapping pages were consolidated into fuller guides.

Each page now teaches the code VA uses today — and where a code has been retired, what 38 CFR §3.951's rating protection means for veterans still rated under it.

Digestive, hearing, dental, kidney, tuberculosis and eye pages updated to the schedule as it reads today, including the May 2024 digestive revision.

The eye pages now show the General Rating Formula for Diseases of the Eye as §4.79 applies it; the bone-tumor pages carry their current diagnostic codes.

Hand, finger, spine and joint pages updated to the musculoskeletal schedule as rewritten effective February 7, 2021.

Rectal prolapse, peritoneal adhesions, sphincter control, liver transplant, chronic hives, psoriasis and chloracne now carry full explanations and the current criteria.

Five new posts, each answering one question: the silent counselor, the subsistence allowance, retroactive induction, feasibility denials, and what BDD does and does not buy.

Veteran Readiness and Employment now has four full guides: the core program, the subsistence allowance, retroactive induction, and appeals and discontinuance.

A complete guide to Benefits Delivery at Discharge: the 180-to-90-day window, the 45-day availability rule, the separation exam, and the effective-date rules.

Enrollment verification, GI Bill overpayments, and the student-loan discharge for disabled veterans — each verified against primary sources.

Where H.R. 9237 stands, what Section 108 would change for sleep apnea and tinnitus ratings, and the protections that already apply to existing ratings.

The post now reflects VA's July 2026 final rule on the 72-hour notification and explains how other insurance actually interacts with VA payment.

For programs starting on or after August 1, 2026, DEA no longer pays for secondary-level training; everything at the post-secondary level continues.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill end to end: percentage tiers, entitlement, the housing allowance rules, Yellow Ribbon, transfer deadlines, and mid-program school approval.

A post and a claims guide on the 48-month cap and the Rudisill and Perkins decisions that restored dual eligibility — VA is reviewing files automatically.

Each benefit now shows its actual published rate — or says plainly when no dollar figure exists — instead of one summed estimate.

Sixty-two of the ninety benefits the briefing can match now link to the guide that explains them; where no honest guide exists yet, the card links nothing instead of guessing.

Kidney, endocrine, gynecological and blood pages updated, including the GFR-based renal formula VA adopted in November 2021.

Every skin page that was still a placeholder now has the full write-up: what the condition is, the rating criteria, the evidence that supports a claim, and what to expect at the C&P exam — each checked against the current 38 CFR §4.118. Existing links and bookmarks still work.

All 51 state pages now ship their complete text in the page and link the state's own veterans agency directly.

Hammer toe, spondylolisthesis, knee flexion, coronary artery disease, the National Work Queue explainer, and Iowa's state page.

All 844 rating articles now offer the briefing at the end — optional, no signup, and it runs entirely in your browser.

Each body-system hub now opens with how VA rates that system, and the rating articles carry their complete text in the page.

All 980 pages carry structured data generated from the same source as the visible page, and page titles now follow one style.

The briefing page carries a heading for screen readers, related-condition labels show each diagnostic code once, and links on the results and claims pages go straight to their destinations.

Seven posts on rules nobody has a duty to tell you about: DIC, the GI Bill transfer window, funding-fee refunds, the Chapter 35 cliff, and Yellow Ribbon.

The combined-rating calculator now walks through VA math — the whole-person formula, the bilateral factor, and the 2026 rate table — as regular page text.

First claims, burial benefits, TDIU, nexus letters, the claim timeline, and back pay — each roughly doubled in depth with 2026 figures verified.

Every procedural guide now ships its full body in the page itself, so guides read completely in reader mode, on slow connections, and with JavaScript off.

Four guides that lived at two addresses now have one canonical URL each, the glaucoma article lives at its DC 6013 page alone, and old bookmarks land where they should.

The site now publishes a real RSS feed at vetdebrief.com/api/rss — the 30 most recent guides, readable in any feed reader. A way to follow new content without giving out an email address.

Reading the rating criteria for your condition is step one. Every rating article now ends with the same five links for what comes next: how to file a claim, how ratings work, how to get a nexus letter, back pay and effective dates, and the combined-rating calculator.

CHAMPVA vs. TRICARE, veteran ID cards, DIC, the PCAFC caregiver program, CRDP, and how ratings work — rates verified for 2026, including the CHAMPVA family cap.

Rating articles and state pages now show who wrote them and when they were last reviewed — Matt: Army veteran, OEF deployment, five years in VA's HUD-VASH program.

Text contrast meets WCAG AA in both themes, rating tables read correctly to screen readers, breadcrumbs are labeled, and the search box carries the semantics assistive software expects.

State, blog and cross-reference data now load only where they're used, and the homepage images were re-compressed — noticeably lighter on mobile connections.

The final round of the coverage push: digestive, neurosyphilis, movement-disorder, mental-health and women's-health codes, all cross-linked.

Dental-oral, eyes-vision and skin-conditions reach full coverage, plus brain-and-nerves and muscle-injury additions.

Nine articles from marginal ulcer to ectopic pregnancy, covering trauma residuals, deployment infections, and two protected legacy codes.

Silicosis, amebiasis, femoral hernia, leishmaniasis, lumbosacral strain and schizophrenia residual type, cross-linked both directions.

ALS, narcolepsy, duodenal ulcer, gallstones, cholangitis, ventral hernia, monocular blindness, ureterolithiasis, two schizophrenia codes and a gynecological neoplasm code.

Forty-three article pages restored with proper rating tables and a defensive guard, and the coverage-gap report committed.

Hit a 404 or scrolled the claims hub without finding what you needed? New 'Looking for something we don't cover?' prompt on those two pages so veterans can flag content gaps. Same zero-friction form as the bug report — no email required.

Auto-derived 3-5 procedural cross-links for the 565 rating articles that previously had none. Every article now surfaces a Related guides block pointing to the right C&P, secondary, presumptive, or SMC procedural guide for that condition.

The reverse cross-link map (procedural guide -> rating articles that use it) now covers every guide that's linked-to. Long lists like C&P Exams cap at 30 with a 'Show all' button so the page doesn't get buried.

Print any rating article or blog post for a VSO appointment and you get a clean serif layout with no nav, no footer, no buttons, no dark backgrounds, and every link's URL shown after its text. Was: print also rendered the nav, footer, and dark theme.

Added a form-render-time challenge (rejects submissions under 2s), link-count filter, character-repetition filter, and name-field URL/tag detection. Bots get a silent success response so they can't tell they were rejected.

Audited all 49 blog posts with a wider phrase list. Six titles or descriptions still had 'you've earned' or 'you're owed' framing — rewrote them in plain descriptive language (combat benefits, back pay, National Guard, post-briefing).

Small 'Spot a problem on this page?' link at the bottom of every rating article, blog post, and state page. Opens an inline form — type the issue, hit send. No email signup required. Goes straight to Matt with the page URL attached.

Long-tail conditions (sciatica, epilepsy, Parkinson's, stroke, deviated septum, cataracts, Crohn's, cirrhosis, hernia, thyroid, BPH, kidney transplant, frostbite, and more) now surface 3-5 relevant procedural guides in the Related guides block.

Expanded /about with a real bio — four-plus years Army artilleryman, OEF combat deployment, and five years at the VA's HUD-VASH program as a housing and peer specialist.

Nav, hero, footer, and section backgrounds all switch cleanly to a cream surface in light mode. No more dark stripes between sections.

The Enlistment row header on the briefing reads as light-warm text on the dark warm surface in dark mode.

A human-readable directory listing every rating category, claims guide, state benefits page, and blog post in one place.

New button on the results page that prints just the Priority Actions block as a clean VSO worksheet — empty checkboxes, struck-through done items, inline VA.gov URLs.

When a returning veteran loads /results with persisted Priority Actions progress, a quiet banner shows last-visited time and remaining items.

173 entries mapping how a veteran actually thinks ('ringing in ears,' 'can't sleep,' 'BPH,' 'sciatica,' 'CUE,' 'C-file') to the right rating article or claims guide.

64 rating articles surface a "Related guides" block; 13 procedural guides surface a "Conditions this applies to" block. Cancer-from-toxic-exposure and PTSD-to-C&P trails are now obvious.

Cmd/Ctrl+K (or "/") opens a search modal that spans rating articles, claims guides, state benefits, and blog posts. Mid-query state matching means "texas property tax" finds Texas.

Type "hazlewood," "calvet," "vectr," or "chapter 115" and the right state surfaces. 22 states have known named-program synonyms.

Six journey cards — filing your first claim, denied or rated too low, toxic exposure, worsening condition, VA wants to reduce your rating, just separated — each expand to 5-8 curated guides.

16 high-traffic conditions (Back Pain, PTSD, Tinnitus, Sleep Apnea, etc.) as direct tiles. Plain-language search bar. Body-system grid sits below as Layer 3.

Replaced the funnel-style homepage with a 5-card intent splitter pointing at the briefing, ratings, claims guides, state benefits, and the calculator. No more "you did your part, get yours" framing.

Moved /ratings/mental-health/ptsd-9411 → /ratings/mental-health/ptsd. Old URLs 301-redirect. Sitemap regenerated.

Each briefing step now shows a one-line preview describing what that answer unlocks. Informational, no dollar bait.

Priority Actions became checkable items with localStorage progress, "View rating criteria" deep links, and a dynamic "X of Y done" header.

Removed every affiliate link, social-proof section, composite veteran profile, and dollar-figure marketing surface. Ungated the briefing PDF. Rewrote the subscribe form and welcome email to notification-only. Stripped the 'find every benefit you've earned' framing site-wide.