[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 112 (Thursday, June 10, 2004)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 32449-32450]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-12723]


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DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

38 CFR Part 4

RIN 2900-AJ60


Schedule for Rating Disabilities; The Spine; Correction

AGENCY: Department of Veterans Affairs.

ACTION: Final rule; correction.

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SUMMARY: In a document published in the Federal Register on August 27, 
2003 (68 FR 51454), we amended a portion of the Department of Veterans 
Affairs (VA) Schedule for Rating Disabilities that addresses the spine. 
The document inadvertently omitted text that previously appeared in the 
table of the proposed rule published in the Federal Register on 
September 4, 2002 (67 FR 56509). This document corrects that omission 
by reinserting the two missing notes (pertaining to code 5243) into the 
table.

DATES: Effective Date: This correction is effective September 26, 2003.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Audrey Tomlinson, Medical Officer, 
Policy and Regulations Staff (211B), Compensation and Pension Service, 
Veterans Benefits Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, 810 
Vermont Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20420, (202) 273-7230.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: A final rule, RIN 2900-AJ60; Schedule for 
Rating Disabilities; The Spine, was published on August 27, 2003 (68 FR 
51454) (to be codified at 38 CFR 4.71a). Two notes that provide 
guidance with regard to rating intervertebral disc syndrome (diagnostic 
code 5243) that were published in the proposed rule in the Federal 
Register on September 4, 2002, (67 FR 56509) were inadvertently omitted 
from the final rule. As noted in the proposed rule, the amendments made 
editorial changes to the evaluation criteria for intervertebral disc 
syndrome to make them compatible with the new

[[Page 32450]]

general rating formula and did not represent any substantive change.

Administrative Procedure Act

    The change that this final rule makes merely corrects the omission 
of two notes (``Note (1)'' and ``Note (2)'') from the Spine Table. 
Accordingly, there is good cause for dispensing with the notice and 
comment and delayed effective date provisions of 5 U.S.C. 552 and 553.

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For the reasons set out in the preamble, 38 CFR part 4, subpart B, is 
amended as set forth below:

Subpart B--[Amended]

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1. The authority citation for part 4 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: 38 U.S.C. 1155, unless otherwise noted.

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2. In Sec.  4.71a, the table titled ``The Spine'' is amended by adding 
Notes 1 and 2 at the end of the entries under the heading ``Formula for 
Rating Intervertebral Disc Syndrome Based on Incapacitating Episodes'' 
to read as follows:


Sec.  4.71a  Schedule of ratings--musculoskeletal system.

* * * * *

    Note (1): For purposes of evaluations under diagnostic code 
5243, an incapacitating episode is a period of acute signs and 
symptoms due to intervertebral disc syndrome that requires bed rest 
prescribed by a physician and treatment by a physician.


    Note (2): If intervertebral disc syndrome is present in more 
than one spinal segment, provided that the effects in each spinal 
segment are clearly distinct, evaluate each segment on the basis of 
incapacitating episodes or under the General Rating Formula for 
Diseases and Injuries of the Spine, whichever method results in a 
higher evaluation for that segment.


    Dated: May 27, 2004.
Robert C. McFetridge,
Director, Regulations Management.
[FR Doc. 04-12723 Filed 6-9-04; 8:45 am]
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