Servicemember is told by a military medical provider: "We would send you to the medical board for disability consideration except you don’t have enough time left on your contract."

Fact: The Integrated Disability Evaluation System (IDES) can begin at any point in a persons military service that a potentially disabling condition is discovered. If a person does not have enough time left on the contract to complete the process, there is a clear provision to extend the person's contract as long as needed to complete the process.

Despite this not-enough-time-left rumor being completely false, military members routinely call us after having been told this by a military medical provider.

We don't know why or how it this falsehood got started, but it does seem convenient for the military to keep repeating it. It lets them avoid having to continue paying someone, often in a limited duty capacity. and they avoid having to do all the work of processing the person's disability, when the military would rather ignore the rules and hand all the responsibility off to the VA which can't even give the servicemember all the same benefits.

Anyone being told that they don't have enough time left to go to the Medical Board can call the GI Rights Hotline 877 447 4487 to learn ways to prevent losing this right.