Disability Evaluation System Expanded

Week of November 17, 2008

The Departments of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) announced the expansion of the Disability Evaluation System (DES) pilot to 19 installations across the country, representing all military departments. The pilot tests the new process design eliminating the duplicative, time-consuming, and often confusing elements of the two current disability processes of the departments. The pilot was recently expanded to Fort Meade, Md., and Fort Belvoir, Va.  The remaining 17 installations will be introduced to the pilot during a seven-month period from November 2008 to May 2009.  Key features of the DES pilot include one medical examination and a single-sourced disability rating.