An informal Physical Evaluation Board review is a closed, paper-only proceeding in which three board members read your medical file and decide whether your condition makes you unfit to continue serving, and if so, what disability percentage to assign. You are not in the room. You do not testify. The rating the board writes down determines whether you leave the military with lifetime retired pay or a single severance check, with 30 percent as the dividing line between those two outcomes. Because everything turns on documents, the paperwork in your case file is effectively your only advocate at this stage, and the days after the decision arrives are when you have the most leverage to change it.
What the Board Is Actually Deciding
The IPEB answers one question: can you still do your job despite your medical condition? A service member is considered unfit when their disability prevents them from reasonably performing the duties expected of their office, grade, rank, or rating.1Department of Defense. DoDI 1332.18 – Disability Evaluation System The board uses a preponderance of evidence standard, weighing whether the record tips toward fit or unfit rather than demanding certainty. Deployability, safety risk to others, and whether reasonable accommodations could keep you in uniform all factor in.
The board does not rule on every medical condition you have. It only evaluates the conditions the Medical Evaluation Board referred as potentially unfitting. This is an important boundary. Under the Integrated Disability Evaluation System, the VA separately examines and rates all your claimed service-connected conditions for compensation purposes, but the PEB looks only at which conditions prevent you from doing your military job. A condition like mild tinnitus might earn a VA rating yet never be found unfitting by the PEB. The PEB’s fitness finding drives your DoD disposition; the VA’s broader rating drives your VA disability compensation after separation.
What Sits in the File the Board Reads
Because the IPEB never meets you, the case file is everything. Your Physical Evaluation Board Liaison Officer, or PEBLO, assembles it and is your main point of contact throughout.2Department of Defense. DoDM 1332.18, Volume 1 – Disability Evaluation System Manual: Processes If something is missing from that file, the board will not know about it.
The centerpiece is the Narrative Summary, or NARSUM. This is a physician-written report covering the history, current status, and prognosis of every referred condition, incorporating clinical findings from both DoD and VA examinations and explaining how those conditions affect your ability to function.2Department of Defense. DoDM 1332.18, Volume 1 – Disability Evaluation System Manual: Processes Your service treatment records from your entire career come with it to give the board a longitudinal view.
The file also carries a commander’s non-medical assessment describing how your condition affects your ability to do your current job, maintain readiness, and fulfill day-to-day duties. The statement is due within five days of the PEBLO’s request.2Department of Defense. DoDM 1332.18, Volume 1 – Disability Evaluation System Manual: Processes An honest, specific description of how your limitations affect operations carries weight. A vague, generic one does not, so keeping your chain of command informed about what you actually can and cannot do is worth the effort well before that statement is written.
How the Rating Gets Assigned
When the IPEB finds you unfit, it assigns a disability percentage using the VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities, codified at 38 C.F.R. Part 4.3eCFR. 38 CFR Part 4 – Schedule for Rating Disabilities The schedule assigns diagnostic codes to specific conditions and rates them in 10-percent increments from zero to 100 percent, based on the average loss of earning capacity the condition causes in civilian employment. The board matches your documented symptoms and functional limitations to the criteria for those diagnostic codes.
The percentage is not a measure of how disabled you feel or how much pain you experience. It reflects how closely your medical evidence aligns with the regulatory criteria for each increment. If your records show symptoms that fall between two levels, the board assigns the lower percentage unless the evidence tips toward the higher one. Vague descriptions of “occasional pain” will rate lower than detailed documentation of specific functional limitations, range-of-motion measurements, and flare-up frequency.
Why 30 Percent Matters More Than Any Other Number
Federal law draws a hard line at 30 percent. Under 10 U.S.C. ยง 1201, a service member whose disability is rated at 30 percent or higher qualifies for disability retirement, which provides monthly retired pay for life.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 1201 – Regulars and Members on Active Duty for More Than 30 Days Members with at least 20 years of service also qualify for retirement regardless of the percentage. A rating below 30 percent with fewer than 20 years of service leads to disability separation with a one-time lump-sum severance payment instead.
The difference between a 20 percent and a 30 percent rating can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime, plus access to military healthcare and other retirement benefits on the higher side. If you believe your condition warrants a higher rating than the board assigned, that belief alone is not enough. You need medical documentation that maps to the next rating increment under the VASRD criteria.
How Long the Review Takes and What You Get Back
The IPEB typically consists of three members: a field-grade officer serving as president, a personnel management officer, and a medical member.5U.S. Army. Physical Evaluation Boards They review the written case file in closed session, deliberate, and vote. The target timeline for the IPEB phase is 11 days from when the board receives the case file, within an overall IDES process that aims to complete 80 percent of cases in 180 days.6Lyster Army Health Clinic. IDES Timeline
Once the board decides, its findings are packaged into a formal notification. In the Army, this is DA Form 199; other branches use equivalent forms. The PEBLO delivers the results to you and explains what the board found, what rating it assigned, and what your options are. Because the whole informal review happens on paper, any errors or omissions in your records became the board’s reality. A missing diagnosis, an absent range-of-motion test, or a NARSUM that understated symptom severity all shape the outcome without the board realizing anything was left out.
Your Options After the Decision
After receiving the findings, you have a limited window to respond. The specific timeline varies by branch but is typically around 10 calendar days. Missing this deadline can result in automatic concurrence with the board’s findings, so treat the clock seriously. You have three choices.
- Concur. You accept the fitness determination and disability rating. Your case moves directly to final processing for separation or retirement. Concurrence makes sense when the rating accurately reflects your condition and the financial outcome works for you.
- Non-concur with rebuttal. You disagree and submit a written statement explaining why. A useful rebuttal points to specific medical evidence the board may have overlooked, misinterpreted, or underweighted, identifies procedural errors, or argues that the assigned rating does not match the VASRD criteria for your documented symptoms. A rebuttal that says only “I disagree” will not move the needle.
- Non-concur and demand a Formal PEB hearing. This shifts from a paper review to an in-person adversarial proceeding where you can testify, present witnesses, submit new evidence, and be represented by counsel. It is the most powerful tool you have, and also the one that takes the most time and preparation.
The second and third options can be combined: submit a rebuttal and demand a formal hearing. The election statement you sign locks in your choice and determines the next phase of the process.
Free Legal Counsel Is Available
Each branch of service provides free legal counsel to service members going through the disability evaluation process. In the Army, the Office of Soldiers’ Counsel provides both MEB Counsel and PEB Counsel at no cost. PEB Counsel offices are located at the PEB sites and can advise you on whether to concur, help draft a rebuttal, or represent you at a formal hearing. The other branches maintain equivalent programs.
Contact legal counsel immediately after receiving your IPEB decision. Deadlines are short, and an attorney who works these cases can quickly assess whether the rating is defensible or whether you have grounds to challenge it. If you think you missed a deadline, reach out anyway, because exceptions sometimes apply. This is the one point in the process where professional guidance can change the outcome, and it costs you nothing.
Permanent Retirement, Temporary Retirement, and Severance
If the board finds you unfit and your rating qualifies you for retirement, the next question is whether your disability is stable. A condition that has stabilized and is rated at 30 percent or higher places you on the Permanent Disability Retired List. If your condition might improve over time, you go on the Temporary Disability Retired List instead.7Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Disability Retirement
While on the TDRL, your retired pay is calculated using a minimum of 50 percent for the disability percentage method regardless of your actual rating, giving you a higher floor of income during the evaluation period.7Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Disability Retirement You will be periodically re-examined. If your condition stabilizes at 30 percent or higher, you transfer to the Permanent Disability Retired List. If it stabilizes below 30 percent and you have fewer than 20 years of service, you are discharged from the TDRL with severance pay. Think of the TDRL as a holding pattern while the military waits to see whether your condition improves, worsens, or holds steady.
For members rated below 30 percent from the outset with fewer than 20 years of service, disability severance pay is a one-time payment calculated as two months of basic pay multiplied by your years of service, capped at 19 years, with a minimum of six years used for combat zone injuries and three years for all other disabilities.8Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Disability Severance Pay That is why the 30 percent line drives so much of what happens next, and why the informal review, quiet as it looks on paper, is worth taking seriously from the moment the PEBLO opens your file.