so
welcome to cck live my name is kayla d'onofrio i'm joined today by frank padula and matthew fusco
and today we're going to be discussing what veterans should expect at a va compensation
and pension exam a compensation and pension exam or a c p exam for short is a medical examination
of a veteran's disability that's performed by a va contracted provider va uses c p exams to gather
more evidence on a veteran's claim condition before they issue a decision and assign a rating
so va will specifically use these for two primary reasons the first is to confirm or
deny service connection meaning that they're looking to confirm that you have a disability
and that it's related to service so usually providing that nexus element and the second is
to establish the severity of a condition looking at the symptoms the severity and how they align
with the rating criteria for that disability so that va can assign an appropriate rating
since medical evidence is crucial to a veteran's disability case cmp exams are provided by va at
no cost to the veteran and this is part of their duty to assist and i just want to make a note that
medical evidence but specifically cmp exams are one of the primary things that va is looking at
when they are adjudicating claims and if you are scheduled for an exam it is really crucial that
you do attend the exam if you don't attend the exam it is a reason that va can use against you
to deny your claim or deny you an increased rating so if it is scheduled um we really do encourage
veterans to to attend them if they can but matt how does va go about scheduling exams sure so
after applying for disability compensation va will send a notice either informing you that an exam
has been scheduled or indicating that you will need to schedule an exam on your own behalf if the
exam is already scheduled for you va will provide you with the date the time and the location that
it will take place and on the flip side if you are responsible for scheduling the exam yourself
you're going to want to respond promptly by reaching out to the compensation and pension
department at the va in order to get that exam schedule either way no matter how it's scheduled
if it's for you or if you're scheduling it yourself it's very very important to attend
cnp exams once they are scheduled um we can't underscore this enough if you do not attend
your compensation and pension examinations there's a high likelihood your claim will
get denied because of that so we really want to stress the importance of attending all cnp
examinations that you are scheduled for thanks matt and what can veterans reasonably expect to
happen during an exam prank so during the exam the examiner may physically examine the veteran and or
ask questions about the veterans service their disability and the connection between the two
with that being said it can be helpful for veterans to go into the exams
prepared to talk about their symptoms and how those symptoms affect their day-to-day life
it's also important to mention that prior to the exam the examiner will review the veterans claims
file so they're familiar with the case you know and along those same lines va examiners might
complete a disability benefits questionnaire or dbq for short when each dbq is drafted to
correspond with a specific disability and is formatted for examiners to check a box
on the form next to descriptions that most accurately depict that disability in question
these exams can last anywhere between 10 minutes to an hour long maybe more sometimes but if the
exam is very brief you might not have enough time to present the examiner with the complete
picture of your disability um with that being said it might be helpful to take notes during your exam
just to document its brevity and to note whether or not you were able to sufficiently describe your
disability to the examiner yeah that's a really good point frank there's a lot of different things
to sort of keep in mind when it comes to these cnp exams um to include the fact that they're just not
always as helpful as or thorough as we would hope that they would be so a couple of other things to
consider when attending the exam is just really being honest about your symptoms with the examiner
so that means don't downplay your symptoms but also don't over exaggerate your symptoms
if you over exaggerate your symptoms va will call this malingering and they'll use it as a reason
to deny you and similarly if you downplay your symptoms it'll sort of allow va to assign you a
lower disability rating than maybe accurate to the symptoms that you're experiencing
so to that end if you are someone who does not normally get dressed up or showered or shaved
daily then don't show up to your exam that way show up the way that you would look on
any given day based on how your condition impacts your mental or your physical abilities
an examiner's impression of you will be reflected in their report there is usually a section in the
report where they sort of describe your general appearance your demeanor um so all of this will be
reflected in sort of an objective view from the examiner and if you tell the examiner that you
have trouble getting motivated to take a shower or to shave and then you show up looking like you're
headed to a job interview this may give the doctor the impression that you're over exaggerating your
symptoms when you're reporting them other things that you might want to consider including in your
exam is bringing a friend or a family member to your exam especially if there's someone that you
maybe live with or you spend a lot of time with and they witness your symptoms on a regular basis
and how they impact your daily life or if there's someone that assists you with
kind of moving through your day-to-day activities it can also be really helpful to bring a notebook
or a phone with notes detailing your symptoms your flare-ups your other struggles so that you
don't forget anything when the examiner asks i know it's super common to get sort of anxious
before these exams and that can definitely lead to forgetting symptoms or your disability may cause
a memory impairment so it can be really helpful to just have that written down and ready to go
for what an examiner asks matt what can veterans expect to happen after the exam is completed
so after the exam the examiner is going to write up a report that includes a review
of the exam's findings this might include any clinical test results any medical literature
used by the examiner to determine the etiology or the cause or origin of a disease or condition
if the examiner is trying to confirm or deny service connection they're going to write up a
medical opinion that states whether or not it is at least as likely as not or 50 chance that your
disability was incurred in or aggravated by your military service the cmp exam once it's completed
is then added to your claims file as part of the evidence va will use to make a decision
but we just want to note that while cnp exams themselves do carry a lot of weight in the in the
claims process the examiner completing your cmp exam is not the individual who is going to issue
final decision on your claim that will be someone an adjudicator at the va not the medical examiner
themselves so that distinction is just important to to understand yeah absolutely thank you matt
and frank are veterans able to get copies of these exams once they are completed yes so veterans have
the right to request and obtain a copy of their exam from va uh va does not issue the veteran a
copy of the report unless they specifically request it you can send a letter requesting
a copy of your exam report to your regional office and if desired you can also request
your examiner's credentials just to ensure that they were qualified to evaluate your disability
and as mentioned before va decision makers often place significant weight on these exams when
deciding claims that means it's really important to review the exam to determine if the results
were favorable and ensure it was com filled out completely and thoroughly and reflecting the most
accurate information possible and what should veterans do if they don't agree with the exam
results i think we've all seen plenty of exams that are not great quality they're not thorough
so what options do veterans have if that's the case well if they disagree with the exam results
they could consider disputing or countering the examiner's report by doing a number of different
things they could gather additional evidence such as buddy statements and late statements
they can ask their own doctor to fill out a dbq or write a medical opinion for them
they can request a hearing with va or they can hire an accredited representative to assist you
with an appeal or help gather that additional evidence that i just mentioned
yeah that's really good points these you know like we've said time and time again these exams are
tend to not be great and it is something that va relies on heavily so if they're not the
results that you were hoping for or they're not super supportive you're not necessarily stuck
with that um and you can definitely give other evidence to va adjudicators
um that they can consider before they make a decision on your claim um but i think that's
really a good place for us to wrap up today thank you all so much for tuning in be sure to
check out our blog for more detailed information on the topics discussed in this video and also
subscribe to our channel to stay up to date on the latest veteran related news and insider tips
you