GERD & IBS VA Rating: What Changed and What Counts

The VA rewrote the rating rules for the whole digestive system in 2024. For these two conditions, the changes that matter most:

• GERD got its own code, 7206, and is now scored on esophageal stricture: narrowing of the esophagus that makes swallowing hard, documented by a barium swallow, CT scan or upper endoscopy. Heartburn controlled with a daily pill, with no stricture on record, usually rates 0%.
• IBS (code 7319) is now scored on frequency, counting how often abdominal pain tied to bowel movements showed up over the past three months.

If you were already rated, the VA said no rating would drop because of the new rules alone. A reduction still needs evidence that you actually improved. Claims pending on May 19, 2024 were decided under whichever version helped the veteran more, and new claims and increase requests use the current tables below.

Before you ask for an increase on an older GERD rating, compare your records to the new table, because a fresh exam will judge you by it.

A few terms in that table carry the weight. Dilatation means stretching a narrowed esophagus, usually during an endoscopy, and the number of sessions per year separates 30% from 50%. A stricture is recurrent when the narrowing returns within four weeks of reaching the target width, and refractory when five sessions spaced two weeks apart can't reach it. Keep every procedure report.

Two neighboring codes are worth knowing. A hiatal hernia is now rated with the same stricture criteria, and Barrett's esophagus has its own levels based on the grade of dysplasia a biopsy finds.

Here is how that plays out. Pain tied to bowel movements about twice a week, along with urgency and bloating, meets the weekly mark for 30%. Pain on three days a month, with changes in stool form and frequency, fits 20%.

Because the window is the last three months, a symptom diary is the strongest evidence you can create yourself. Note the date, whether the pain came with a bowel movement, and which of the listed symptoms showed up. Share it with your doctor so the pattern lands in your medical record too.

The digestive section has an anti-stacking rule. A long list of codes, including 7301 through 7329 (the range IBS falls in), can't be combined with each other. When several apply, the VA assigns one rating under the condition that dominates the picture and can raise it a level if the overall severity calls for it.

GERD sits in the esophagus group, outside that list. So a GERD rating and an IBS rating can stand side by side, as long as each one rests on its own symptoms and nothing is counted twice under 38 CFR 4.14.

Gulf War and later service

IBS falls under functional gastrointestinal disorders, one of the medically unexplained chronic multisymptom illnesses covered by the Gulf War presumption in 38 U.S.C. 1117 and 38 CFR 3.317. You don't need to prove a cause if you served on or after August 2, 1990 in the Southwest Asia theater: Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and the nearby gulfs, seas and airspace. The PACT Act added Afghanistan, Israel, Egypt, Turkey, Syria and Jordan to that list in 2022.

The PACT Act also dropped two older limits. The law now covers a qualifying condition that appears "to any degree at any time," so there is no 10% threshold and no cutoff date. The text of 38 CFR 3.317 still shows an old December 31, 2026 date because the regulation hasn't been updated to match the statute, and VA's eligibility page lists no deadline. Filing sooner still matters for a different reason: your effective date runs from the day the VA receives your claim or intent to file.

GERD isn't classed as a functional disorder, so it usually needs a direct or secondary link instead.

Secondary links

• GERD from years of anti-inflammatory pain relievers (NSAIDs) taken for a service-connected back or joint
• GERD or IBS worsened by PTSD, depression or anxiety, with a medical opinion explaining how
• GERD alongside service-connected sleep apnea, when a doctor connects the two

A nexus letter that names the medication or condition and explains the mechanism is what carries these claims.