TBI Residuals VA Rating: Live DC 8045 Facets

This is not a "mild / moderate / severe TBI" percentage. Note (4) says those labels describe the injury at the time it happened, not the current rating.

The three areas are still the structure

Live 8045 opens with three areas that may need evaluation:

1. Cognitive. Memory, concentration, attention, executive functions. Executive functions are listed: goal setting, speed of information processing, planning, organizing, prioritizing, self-monitoring, problem solving, judgment, decision making, spontaneity, and flexibility when an action is not productive. Not every function is affected in every veteran, and severity can fluctuate day to day.
2. Emotional/behavioral. If there is a mental-disorder diagnosis, evaluate under 38 CFR 4.130. If there is not, evaluate those symptoms under the 8045 facet table.
3. Physical (including neurological). Motor and sensory dysfunction including pain of the extremities and face; visual impairment; hearing loss and tinnitus; loss of smell and taste; seizures; gait, coordination, and balance; speech and communication including aphasia and dysarthria; neurogenic bladder; neurogenic bowel; cranial nerve dysfunction; autonomic dysfunction; endocrine dysfunction. The list is not exclusive. Rate unlisted residuals under the most appropriate code.

Cognitive impairment and subjective symptoms that do not have their own diagnosis go to the facet table. A residual with a distinct diagnosis that has its own code, "such as migraine headache or Meniere's disease," is evaluated under that code even if the diagnosis is based on subjective symptoms.

That last sentence is the one stale blogs skip. The facet table is the leftover bucket, not the only bucket.

How the facet table becomes a percentage

Live 8045: the table contains 10 facets related to cognitive impairment and subjective symptoms. Each facet has levels from 0 to 3, and some have a fifth level labeled "total." Not every facet has every level. Consciousness, for example, is only "total."

Assign 100 percent if "total" is the level for one or more facets.

If no facet is "total," assign the overall percentage from the highest facet:

The schedule's own example: assign 70 percent if 3 is the highest level of evaluation for any facet.

There is no 20, 30, 50, 60, 80, or 90 on this conversion table. If a chart shows those as "TBI ratings," it is mixing in other codes or inventing rungs.

The facet evaluation is treated as one condition when combining with other ratings under 4.25.

The ten facets, in the live order

Confirm the exact level wording on eCFR before you argue a level. Live headings:

1. Memory, attention, concentration, executive functions. 0 no complaints; 1 complaint without objective testing; 2 objective mild impairment; 3 objective moderate; total objective severe.
2. Judgment. Normal through severe, based on weighing alternatives from complex decisions down to routine ones.
3. Social interaction. Routinely appropriate through inappropriate most or all of the time. No "total" level.
4. Orientation. Person, time, place, situation. Levels climb by how many aspects and how often, up to total.
5. Motor activity (intact motor and sensory system). Slowing or decrease due to apraxia, from none to total.
6. Visual spatial orientation. From normal through getting lost, up to total.
7. Subjective symptoms. 0 no interference; 1 three or more that mildly interfere; 2 three or more that moderately interfere. Live text prints no level 3 or total on this facet.
8. Neurobehavioral effects. Irritability, impulsivity, aggression, apathy, and the rest, graded by interference with work or social interaction, up to level 3. No total level.
9. Communication. Spoken and written expression and comprehension, from intact to total inability to communicate basic needs.
10. Consciousness. Only total: persistently altered consciousness (vegetative state, minimally responsive state, or coma).

Note (2): examples at a level are examples, not a mandatory checklist. Note (3): instrumental ADLs are meal prep, housework, shopping, travel, laundry, medications, telephone. ADLs are basic self-care.

Separate evaluations, and the pyramiding brake

Live 8045 and Note (1) say the same thing in different sentences.

Evaluate each condition separately as long as the same signs and symptoms are not used to support more than one evaluation. If manifestations of the facet table and a comorbid mental, neurologic, or other physical disorder overlap and cannot be clearly separated, assign a single evaluation under whichever criteria better assess overall impaired functioning. If they are clearly separable, assign a separate evaluation for each.

That is how headaches and mental health get their own numbers when the schedule allows:

• A diagnosed headache condition can be rated under its own diagnostic code rather than only as a subjective-symptom example inside 8045.
• A diagnosed mental disorder is rated under 4.130, not under the neurobehavioral facet, unless there is no mental-disorder diagnosis.
• Hearing, tinnitus, seizures, visual impairment, and the other physical residuals go to their own codes when those codes fit.

What you cannot do is pay memory loss under the facet table and again under a mental-health rating, or pay the same headache both as a 8100 evaluation and as the entire subjective-symptoms facet. 4.14 is the general rule. 8045 Note (1) is the TBI-specific version.

Special monthly compensation can still be in play for loss of use, certain sensory impairments, erectile dysfunction, aid and attendance, or housebound status. That is a different regulation. It is not a DC 8045 row.

Evidence that belongs in the file

• The in-service injury or event, and the acute records if they exist. A "mild" label from the day of injury does not cap the current rating (Note (4)).
• Current neuropsych testing if the memory/attention facet is the fight. Level 2 and above on that facet want objective evidence on testing.
• Mental-health diagnosis and its own records, kept separate from the facet narrative so a rater can see what is separable.
• Headache logs if a separate headache code is claimed: frequency, duration, whether attacks are prostrating. That is the other code's language, not 8045's.
• Physical residuals with their own studies: audiogram, visual fields, EEG, gait exam.
• A statement about work, instrumental ADLs, and close relationships that matches the facet being claimed, without trying to load every facet at once.

The highest facet sets the 8045 number. Eight weak facets do not beat one well-supported level 3.

What the C&P actually measures

The TBI exam is a facet exam plus a hunt for separable diagnoses. Expect the injury history, cognitive complaints and any testing, judgment, orientation, social interaction, communication, motor and visual-spatial findings, a subjective-symptom list, neurobehavioral examples, and separate DBQs when headache, mental health, or other physical residuals are claimed.

A level 2 on one facet is 40. A level 1 across nine facets is still 10. If the report blends mental-health symptoms and TBI facets into one fog, that is a Note (1) problem. The fix is a file that separates the manifestations.

Older 8045 ratings

Note (5): a veteran rated under a version of DC 8045 in effect before October 23, 2008, may request review under the current 8045 even if the disability has not worsened. That is a review right, not a promised increase.

Quick answers

Is TBI still "three facets"?

The live code still uses three areas of dysfunction. The evaluation table is ten facets. The highest facet sets the 8045 percentage.

What percentages can 8045 itself assign?

0, 10, 40, 70, and 100, from the highest facet or a "total" level. Those are the only conversion numbers in the live text.

Can headaches be rated separately from TBI?

Yes, when there is a distinct diagnosis that has its own code. Live 8045 says to evaluate that residual under the other code even if the diagnosis is based on subjective symptoms. Do not also use the same headache as the entire 8045 subjective-symptoms evaluation.

Can mental health be rated separately?

Yes, when there is a mental-disorder diagnosis. Then emotional/behavioral dysfunction is evaluated under 4.130. If the same manifestations cannot be separated from the facet table, Note (1) says to use one evaluation, not two.

Does a "mild TBI" label from the date of injury cap me at 10 percent?

No. Note (4) says mild, moderate, and severe refer to the classification at or close to the time of injury, not to the current rating under 8045.

Why isn't there a 50 or 60 TBI rating on 8045?

Because the conversion table does not have those rungs. Other residuals rated under other codes can change the combined evaluation. They do not rewrite 8045.

Sources

• 38 CFR 4.124a, DC 8045: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-38/part-4/section-4.124a
• 38 CFR 4.130 (mental disorders, when there is a diagnosis)
• 38 CFR 4.14: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-38/part-4/section-4.14
• 38 CFR 4.25 (combined ratings)

Educational content only. Not legal or medical advice. Confirm against the veteran's actual notice and current eCFR / VA.gov. For claim-specific help, use a VA-accredited VSO, claims agent, or attorney.