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hi and welcome to another edition of cck live my name is Matthew Fusco and I'm joined
today by my colleagues Michelle dattore in San agostini today we're going to be explaining how
to use disability benefits questionnaires or dbqs in VA claims so Michelle to start
us off could you maybe explain exactly what dbqs are DBQ stands for disability
for them as DB Hughes there are downloadable forms created for veterans to use in evaluation process
for VA disability benefits they're also the same forms that VA examiners often will use during VA
examinations for service connected conditions or conditions you're seeking service connection for
they're intended to speed up the process of the claims so for service connection
compensation it gives veterans more control over the disability claims
process it gives them a chance to kind of provide all the information ahead of time
so they don't maybe have to wait for getting scheduled for an examination
so these exams were created to answer a few different questions basically important aspects of
the disability such as symptoms severity possible causes of the disability any relationship to other
disabilities when going for service secondary service connection saying that you know maybe
you're seeking psychiatric condition secondary to your service connection or you're going for
service connection for diabetes they're also going to assess any conditions that are secondary to the
diabetes during that examination and they're also to capture information required by the VA rating
schedule for each disability that you're getting the form completed on awesome so now that we know
what dbqs are Sam could you maybe explain to us about how dbqs actually work yeah sure so how
dbqs work um so while veterans can access these forums online um you know they are not permitted
to fill them out themselves instead what a veteran needs to do is they have the option of visiting
a private or a VA healthcare provider who could complete the evaluation on their behalf but having
a private health care provider complete a DBQ is important to remember a few things um you know
number one the veterans should be accessing the form online through va's website it's downloadable
number two to have their doctor or health care provider complete that form number three veterans
should review the findings and save a copy for their records and then finally submit the forms to
the VA the Streamline use of these you know check boxes and standardized language on these DBQ forms
is really so that disability evaluation can be made quickly and correctly by the VA adjudicators
specifically Healthcare Providers will check a box next to certain descriptions that most accurately
depict the disability in question moreover you know also the use of dbqs also provides
veterans with an improved means to submit medical evidence to support their claims and is important
for veterans to be honest about their symptoms to ensure that all documentation accurately reflects
the level of impairment caused by a claimed condition or conditions um in some cases a DBQ may
even replace a compensation pension examination commonly a CMP exam this is helpful because CMP
exams often add to the long wait times experience throughout the disability claims process
great thanks Sam so you might be wondering what actual conditions are covered by dbqs so there
are currently more than 70 dbqs covering a wide range of medical conditions some dbqs
relate to a specific single condition something like hypertension arthritis prostate cancer
but most forms most DBQ forms can be used for several related conditions so there are also
DBQ forms for hard conditions generally or kidney conditions if there is not a DBQ for your specific
condition VA will use the DBQ that is most General and all-encompassing for whichever category your
specific disability fits into so for example let's say VA is looking for a DBQ that corresponds with
your diagnosed generalized anxiety disorder there are three different dbqs under the psychological
category of dbqs they are eating disorders PTSD and mental disorders and in this example since
generalized anxiety disorder does not have its own DBQ form you or the provider would
use the DBQ form for mental disorders as this form broadly covers the claimed condition in this case
generalized anxiety disorder according to the VA the most commonly requested dbqs are for hearing
loss and tinnitus for back conditions for knee and lower leg conditions and for mental disorders
now Michelle where if I'm a veteran where can I go to actually find a copy of the DBQ form
all dbqs are actually available on VA 's Buddhist so that they're available for
veterans so the veterans have more insight into the Examination for and it allows Private health
care providers to gain and information they need to evaluate a veteran's condition what a
veteran is trying to submit a medical opinion or this form from their doctor they're also on our
website as well so if you can't find them on va's website you would also be able to find them on
awesome and a little bit if you could Michelle explain about how exactly are dbqs helpful in
VA claims yeah so um dbqs are helpful in a lot of ways I would say the biggest way that
they are helpful is that you can counter maybe an unfavorable or a negative the examination
with an ex with a medical opinion or an examination that you're getting from your
provider your provider often is a specialist in their field they often know you they know
your medical history and they're able to provide a little bit more information into kind of the
condition and as well as their area of practice um veterans can submit these in support of their
application for benefits so they can submit these as part of a fully developed claim so
that they're not having to wait for VA to go out and get their CMP exam or their DBQ completed they
actually have this information ahead of time so that it speeds up the claims process months or
sometimes even years so that you're not waiting for that examination also some clients don't
some clients some veterans don't live in areas where the VA examination locations are easily
to get to there live in rural areas they live overseas and they would experience longer wait
times or just more difficulty traveling so it just helps with that aspect as well and again you these
people your providers know you a lot better than a VA examination that the examiner excuse me and
that they might have more insight again into your condition and be able to provide more information
than maybe a VA examiner one great thanks Michelle so Sam if you could what is the circumstance where
a veteran might not use a dpq form or where it might not be entirely necessary I guess
yeah Matt so there's certainly some instances where it's not possible or it wouldn't be
beneficial for a veteran to use a DBQ as we mentioned dbqs aren't always available for every
condition in which the VA rates and also in some rare instances you know a private doctor you know
maybe unwilling to fill out a DBQ on behalf of the veteran uh this means that a veteran will either
need to have another doctor who they treat with fill out a DBQ for that condition or just you know
choose not to submit a DBQ in that case another thing to consider is you also want to make sure
that you have the right kind of doctor filling out you know the relevant form for the right condition
that they treat and then another consideration too is that sometimes you know dbqs well I'm sorry
sometimes you want to make sure that dbqs uh you know cover conditions that are service connected
so in the context of say Aid in attendance you'll want to make sure that a DBQ is focusing on
conditions that result in the need for aid and attendance that are already service connected
all great points and yeah just to elaborate on having the right doctor filling out your form
too I think it's really important to underscore that if you're going to get your private provider
to fill out a DBQ form for you it's important to make sure that their specialty aligns with the
type of DBQ form you're asking them to complete so it might not necessarily always be beneficial
to have your doctor who treats you for Orthopedic conditions fill out your DBQ form for your mental
disorder or something like that so you always want to be cognizant of those things when you're
weighing whether or not it's beneficial to submit or to use a DBQ form in your particular case
well that seems like a good place to leave on we covered a lot of great information
thanks Michelle and Sam about how you can use gbq forms to your advantage in filing
VA claims for more information on this topic and many many others please take
a look at our blog and also be sure to like this video And subscribe to
our channel for more great veteran related content and as always thanks for watching
thank you
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