Medical Separation (IDES): the joint DoD/VA evaluation process

Understand what makes a service member's case enter this process in the first place.

• A Medical Evaluation Board (MEB) referral generally happens when a medical provider identifies a condition that may prevent someone from performing their military duties, not simply because a diagnosis exists.
• Having a medical condition does not, by itself, determine disability retirement or separation; the condition must be evaluated for its effect on the duties of the member's office, grade, rank, or rating.
• The Medical Retention Determination Point is reached when the service member's progress appears unlikely to permit a return to duty within the period allowed by service rules. The MEB documents whether medical retention standards are met; it does not itself decide the final personnel disposition.

Understand why these two pages on this site cover different things.

• IDES (the Integrated Disability Evaluation System) is a process, not an outcome. It's easy to confuse IDES with Medical Retirement, but they are not the same thing.
• IDES is the joint DoD/VA process that runs when your fitness for continued service is in question. Medical Retirement is only one of several possible endpoints that process can lead to.
• Depending on your final DoD disability rating and years of service, the same IDES process can end in Medical Retirement, disability severance pay, placement on the Temporary Disability Retired List, or a finding that you are fit for duty with no separation at all. The Medical Retirement page on this site covers that specific outcome in detail; this page covers the process that leads to it.

Understand the core mechanic that makes IDES "integrated."

• IDES uses a common disability-examination protocol so DoD and VA can use the same examination record instead of routinely duplicating the evaluation. More than one appointment may still be scheduled when different conditions require it.
• The findings support two separate determinations: DoD decides fitness for duty, while VA evaluates referred and claimed conditions under VA rules. If the PEB finds the service member unfit, it applies VA's proposed ratings for the unfitting conditions.
• The VA rating activity can run alongside the MEB and IPEB work, but IPEB adjudicators may not access a proposed rating until they have made the fitness determination.

Understand what "proposed" means and where the VA process continues after separation.

• A proposed VA rating provided during IDES supports the DoD disposition, but it is not the same document as VA's final disability benefits decision letter.
• For former active-duty service members, the current DoD manual describes a VA disability compensation delivery phase after separation or retirement. Reserve Component and other non-active-duty cases can follow different finalization rules.
• VA rating reconsideration within IDES is limited to proposed ratings for conditions the PEB found unfitting. Other disagreements with a later VA decision follow VA's applicable post-separation review options.

Understand the single most important distinction on this page.

• DoD's fitness-for-duty question and VA's disability-rating question are legally and practically different questions, decided by different agencies under different rules, even though they run on the same timeline within IDES.
• DoD's Physical Evaluation Board (PEB) asks: can this person continue performing their military duties? It only assigns a DoD disability rating to the specific condition(s) that make someone unfit for continued service.
• VA evaluates referred and claimed conditions under its own service-connection and rating rules. If the PEB finds a service member unfit, the PEB obtains VA's proposed ratings and applies the ratings for the unfitting conditions to the DoD disposition.
• A condition that VA rates but DoD does not identify as unfitting does not determine the DoD disposition. The agencies' different questions can therefore produce different sets of rated conditions without either agency predicting the other's decision.

Understand that enrollment in the DoD-only process depends on the case and service procedures.

• The current DoD instruction uses IDES for newly initiated duty-related cases. A Military Department may enroll a service member in LDES only in the circumstances the instruction identifies, including a member request with a compelling individualized reason or refusal to submit a VA claim for a potentially unfitting condition.
• LDES is administered entirely by DoD and does not include the IDES proposed-rating process. Before LDES enrollment, the service member must receive briefings on the differences and on VA's Benefits Delivery at Discharge program, then acknowledge those briefings in writing.
• The availability, election form, and case-specific effect of LDES are service-controlled matters. This guide does not recommend one process over the other.

Understand which contacts and notices organize the evaluation.

• Your PEBLO is the DoD case contact who explains the process, assembles the case file, and provides MEB and PEB findings. The VA Military Service Coordinator, or MSC, develops the VA claim and requests the disability examinations.
• The PEBLO coordinates notices about scheduled examinations and can work with the MSC on rescheduling. Follow the instructions and dates in the actual notices rather than using a general timeline as a deadline.
• The PEBLO provides administrative help but is not your legal advocate. DoD requires each Military Department to make government legal counsel available at no expense for rights, elections, FPEB proceedings, and service-level appeals.

Use current DoD goals as orientation, never as a promise for an individual case.

• The current DoD process manual sets an overall goal for DoD and VA to complete 80 percent of IDES cases within 180 days from referral to return to duty, separation, or retirement. Authorized leave and deferred time are excluded from that calculation.
• The manual also lists phase and stage goals as numeric averages. They are management goals, not personal deadlines, average completion promises, or a substitute for the dates in your notices.
• For former active-duty service members, the manual sets a separate goal of no more than 30 days from separation or retirement until VA issues the disability benefits decision letter. The manual identifies different treatment for some non-active-duty cases.

Understand why this pathway is structurally different from filing a claim on your own.

• IDES happens before you separate and is triggered by a fitness-for-duty referral; you don't apply to participate in it the way you file a standard claim.
• A standard VA claim, covered on this site's Standard ETS and Already Separated pathways, is filed by your own choice, generally near or after separation, and is not gated on a DoD fitness determination.
• If you are in IDES, the process already in motion generally addresses your pre-separation claim; the Standard ETS and Already Separated pathways describe a different starting point for veterans not going through a fitness-for-duty referral.

Avoid the most common point of confusion between these two related pages.

• Being in IDES does not by itself mean you will be medically retired; retirement is only one of several possible outcomes depending on your final DoD rating and years of service.
• This page does not predict which outcome applies to your case, what your DoD or VA rating will be, or whether you will be found fit or unfit.
• If you already know your DoD rating and years of service and want to understand the retirement-versus-severance threshold specifically, review the Medical Retirement pathway; this page focuses on the process that determines those facts in the first place.