The Relationship Between Disability Evaluation and Accession Medical Standards
Abstract
Anyone who is interested in enlisting in a military service undergoes a series of evaluations, including a medical examination. A military entrance processing station (MEPS), which is where the medical examination and other assessments take place, evaluates the recruit's health and fitness against U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and military service accession standards. These standards change over time, which means that the timing of a recruit's visit to the MEPS determines how strict the medical requirements are that he or she must meet. Recruits who are evaluated under a tighter standard and who are permitted to join are healthier, on average, at the time of enlistment than those who join under less restrictive standards. The strictness of the medical standard at the time of evaluation, and the overall corresponding health of recruits who enlist under the policy, can be correlated with future health and career outcomes. One potential career outcome is being medically discharged from military service with a disability. Service members who become injured or ill while serving can be referred for evaluation in the disability evaluation system. Prior to 2007, DoD and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs separately evaluated a service member's disability, but, in 2007, the two departments began implementing a joint program called the Integrated Disability Evaluation System. The system was fully adopted across DoD by the start of fiscal year 2012. Two adjudicating boards determine whether the servicemember meets medical retention standards and whether he or she is fit to continue serving. If neither of those outcomes is true, the service member is either medically separated (for an overall DoD disability rating of less than 30 percent) or medically retired (overall DoD disability rating of 30 percent or more).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1086250
Entities
People
- Gulrez S. Azhar
- Heather Krull
- Kathryn Edwards
- Kristin V. Abel
- Linda Cottrell
- Philip Armour
Organizations
- RAND Corporation