Claim Raven explanation
What this means
This law permits compensation for qualifying additional disability caused by certain VA care or specified rehabilitation and work programs, in the same manner as if the disability were service connected.
A treatment complication does not automatically qualify. For covered care claims, the law requires causation and the specified fault or unforeseeable-event basis. The implementing regulation explains how those requirements are evaluated.
How this helps your claim
Identify the additional disability and the precise event claimed to have caused it. Medical evidence should address the causal chain and the applicable legal element, not merely show that symptoms followed treatment.
What to check in your records
Use your decision, examination reports, and relevant records to check the following points.
- Gather records showing the condition before and after the care.
- Locate treatment, consent, and complication documentation.
- Identify evidence addressing causation and the applicable fault or foreseeability requirement.
Separate additional disability from the legal cause requirements
A claim involving VA care requires careful comparison of the condition before and after the relevant event. That can identify an additional disability, but the law also requires the applicable causation and further conditions. Worsening after treatment is not enough by sequence alone.
Keep the treatment record, consent information and medical explanations organized around the actual event. Covered rehabilitation or work-program situations can have different provisions from care claims. Read the implementing regulation for the relevant category rather than assuming one general malpractice description explains every section 1151 matter.
Is a section 1151 award identical to finding an injury occurred in service?
No. The statute provides compensation in the same manner as if qualifying additional disability were service connected. Its basis is the covered event and statutory requirements. That distinction matters when understanding what VA actually recognized and should not be replaced by an invented military-service history.
Official statutory text
38 USC § 1151
OLRC release through Public Law 119-102 (July 12, 2026). Layout and spacing are adapted for reading. The statutory text is shown here; publisher source credits and editorial notes remain in the linked official release.
§ 1151. Benefits for persons disabled by treatment or vocational rehabilitation
(a) Compensation under this chapter and dependency and indemnity compensation under chapter 13 of this title shall be awarded for a qualifying additional disability or a qualifying death of a veteran in the same manner as if such additional disability or death were service-connected. For purposes of this section, a disability or death is a qualifying additional disability or qualifying death if the disability or death was not the result of the veteran’s willful misconduct and—
(1) the disability or death was caused by hospital care, medical or surgical treatment, or examination furnished the veteran under any law administered by the Secretary, either by a Department employee or in a Department facility as defined in section 1701(3)(A) of this title, and the proximate cause of the disability or death was—
(A) carelessness, negligence, lack of proper skill, error in judgment, or similar instance of fault on the part of the Department in furnishing the hospital care, medical or surgical treatment, or examination; or
(B) an event not reasonably foreseeable; or
(2) the disability or death was proximately caused (A) by the provision of training and rehabilitation services by the Secretary (including by a service-provider used by the Secretary for such purpose under section 3115 of this title) as part of an approved rehabilitation program under chapter 31 of this title, or (B) by participation in a program (known as a “compensated work therapy program”) under section 1718 of this title.
(b)(1) Where an individual is, on or after December 1, 1962, awarded a judgment against the United States in a civil action brought pursuant to section 1346(b) of title 28 or, on or after December 1, 1962, enters into a settlement or compromise under section 2672 or 2677 of title 28 by reason of a disability or death treated pursuant to this section as if it were service-connected, then (except as otherwise provided in paragraph (2)) no benefits shall be paid to such individual for any month beginning after the date such judgment, settlement, or compromise on account of such disability or death becomes final until the aggregate amount of benefits which would be paid but for this subsection equals the total amount included in such judgment, settlement, or compromise.
(2) In the case of a judgment, settlement, or compromise covered by paragraph (1) that becomes final on or after the date of the enactment of this paragraph and that includes an amount that is specifically designated for a purpose for which benefits are provided under chapter 21 or 39 of this title (hereinafter in this paragraph referred to as the “offset amount”), if such judgment, settlement, or compromise becomes final before the date of the award of benefits under chapter 21 or 39 for the purpose for which the offset amount was specifically designated—
(A) the amount of such award shall be reduced by the offset amount; and
(B) if the offset amount is greater than the amount of such award, the excess amount received pursuant to the judgment, settlement or compromise, shall be offset against benefits otherwise payable under this chapter.
(c) A qualifying additional disability under this section shall be treated in the same manner as if it were a service-connected disability for purposes of the following provisions of this title:
(1) Chapter 21, relating to specially adapted housing.
(2) Chapter 39, relating to automobiles and adaptive equipment.
Related references
- 38 USC § 5107: Benefit of the doubt in VA claims
- 38 CFR § 3.159: VA duty to assist: records and examinations
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