The secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs has halted a rule Colorado Springs advocates feared could incentivize veterans to not take medications for serious conditions over concerns they see their monthly disability payments drop.

The interim final VA rule issued earlier this week stated that “if medication or treatment lowers the level of disability, the rating will be based on that lowered disability level.”

A disability rating determines the monthly payments veterans receive to compensate them for their loss of function. 

Secretary Doug Collins said on X, formerly Twitter, that the VA does not agree with the way the rule has been characterized, but his agency takes veterans concerns seriously.

“To alleviate these concerns, VA will continue to collect public comments regarding the rule, but it will not be enforced at any time in the future,” he said.

The leaders of local nonprofits and groups serving veterans raised their concerns about the change Wednesday during a roundtable with Congressman Jeff Crank, R-Colorado Springs. The event at Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center was also attended by staff who work for the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, Congressman Mike Bost, R-Ill.

“This is the No. 1 thing that’s blowing up my phone and my emails right now,” said Karen Kantor, executive director of the Honor Bell Foundation. Kantor, a veteran herself, has heard concerns from older Vietnam era veterans and female veterans of all ages about the change. 

Several advocates attending the roundtable expressed concern that the change would encourage veterans not to take their medication, including mental health medications, to preserve their rating and their monthly income. 

“That is extraordinarily dangerous,” said Joe Reagan, an Army veteran, the director of the Colorado Veterans Business Outreach Center and a Democratic candidate for Congress.  

VA spokesman Pete Kasperowicz said in a statement to Task & Purpose, a military-focused online publication, that the rule did not represent a change.

“This regulation simply formalizes VA’s longstanding practice of determining disability ratings based on Veterans’ service-related disabilities and any medications they are taking to treat those disabilities,” he said in the statement. 

But national veterans service organizations, such as the VFW, called on veterans Wednesday to reach out to Congress to express concern over the rule change. 

“This abrupt shift risks penalizing veterans for complying with treatment, particularly those with musculoskeletal injuries, chronic pain, and mental health conditions who rely on medication to function,” the VFW said in a news statement. 

Chairman Bost’s House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs staff told the group that the rule change would have only impacted disability ratings going forward. 

They also said they would collect feedback on the new rule from Crank and other Republican members of the VA Committee so that they can present Bost with different options for action. Bost could advocate that Collins change the rule. The committee could also work on legislation that would address the issue.  

Crank did not seem to support the rule. 

“We should not be saying, ‘Your rating will change if you take less medication,’” Crank told the group.

The Federal Register will accept comments on the rule through April 20.