Respiratory system
VA rating for sleep apnea, diagnostic code 6847
Sleep apnea is rated under diagnostic code 6847 in 38 CFR 4.97, at 0, 30, 50 or 100 percent. The steps are not a severity scale in the usual sense. The 50 percent criterion asks whether a breathing assistance device is required, and the 100 percent criterion asks about respiratory failure or a tracheostomy.
Published 2026-08-21. Last updated 2026-09-11. Written and reviewed under Veteran Health Network's institutional review process.
What each level requires
sleep apnea is rated under diagnostic code 6847, which the schedule calls "Sleep Apnea Syndromes (Obstructive, Central, Mixed)", at 38 CFR 4.97.
100 percent requires
In plain English
Chronic respiratory failure with carbon dioxide retention, or cor pulmonale, which is right-sided heart failure caused by lung disease. A tracheostomy on its own also reaches this level.
As written in 38 CFR 4.97
Chronic respiratory failure with carbon dioxide retention or cor pulmonale, or; requires tracheostomy
50 percent requires
In plain English
A breathing assistance device is required, with a CPAP machine given as the example. This level turns on the device being required rather than on how severe the apnea is, which is why it is the level most often decided by what is written in a prescription and a treatment record.
As written in 38 CFR 4.97
Requires use of breathing assistance device such as continuous airway pressure (CPAP) machine
30 percent requires
In plain English
Persistent daytime sleepiness. The regulation says persistent, not occasional, and attaches no frequency or test result to it.
As written in 38 CFR 4.97
Persistent day-time hypersomnolence
0 percent requires
In plain English
Sleep disordered breathing is documented, usually by a sleep study, but there are no symptoms. Zero percent is a rating, not a denial.
As written in 38 CFR 4.97
Asymptomatic but with documented sleep disorder breathing
Regulation text reproduced from 38 CFR 4.97, read on 2026-08-21. Read the section at the eCFR. Part 4 is amended on a rolling schedule, so the date above is the date this text was checked and not the date it was written.
Where the ladder actually bends
Derived from the regulation
Read the four criteria in order and the shape of code 6847 is unusual. Three of the four describe a clinical state. The one in the middle does not. At 50 percent the regulation says "Requires use of breathing assistance device such as continuous airway pressure (CPAP) machine", which is a question about what a clinician has prescribed and whether the record says so.
That makes the gap between 30 and 50 percent different in kind from the gap between 30 and 0. Thirty percent reads "Persistent day-time hypersomnolence", and hypersomnolence is a symptom somebody reports and an examiner records. Fifty percent reads as a fact about treatment.
Nothing here says which level any particular record supports. It says what each level asks, which is the part that is knowable from the regulation alone.
Is this text current, and when did it last change?
Derived from the regulation
Code 6847 arrived with the 1996 rewrite of the respiratory schedule, and the criteria above are the ones that arrived with it.
Its row in Appendix A to Part 4 is one line: "Added October 7, 1996."
Section 4.97 carries a Federal Register line of its own underneath, and it dates the section rather than code 6847: 61 FR 46728, Sept. 5, 1996, as amended at 71 FR 28586, May 17, 2006. Read 2026-08-21.
What cannot be combined with it
Derived from the regulation
Section 4.96(a) sets a rule specific to this part of the schedule. Ratings under diagnostic codes 6600 through 6817 and 6822 through 6847 are not combined with each other. Where more than one applies, a single rating is assigned under the code reflecting the predominant disability.
Code 6847 sits inside the second of those ranges, so it is inside the restriction. A veteran carrying both a sleep apnea rating and a rating for asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is inside a rule that most rating tables do not print anywhere near the criteria it governs.
The general bar on rating the same disability twice under different codes is at 38 CFR 4.14.
Questions
Does the 50 percent criterion require a CPAP machine specifically?
No. The regulation says a breathing assistance device is required and gives CPAP as an example, using the words "such as". The example is not the requirement.
Is there a level between 50 and 100 percent?
There is not. Diagnostic code 6847 prints four evaluations, 0, 30, 50 and 100, and nothing between the top two.
See every level beside the regulation it comes from
The rating threshold cheatsheet shows all of the levels for sleep apnea in one view, plain English on the left and the regulation itself on the right, in a layout built to print.
It is free and it never says which level anyone meets. It describes what each one requires and leaves the reading to the person whose record it is.
Sources
- 38 CFR 4.97, Schedule of ratings, respiratory system (Electronic Code of Federal Regulations)
- Appendix A to Part 4, Table of Amendments and Effective Dates Since 1946 (Electronic Code of Federal Regulations)
- 38 CFR 4.14, Avoidance of pyramiding (Electronic Code of Federal Regulations)
Accuracy owner Brayden Marley. Part 4 is amended on a rolling schedule, so the retrieval date above is what this page is accurate as of.