(upbeat electronic music)
- Hi, my name is Zack Evans
and I'm a VA Disability Benefits Attorney
with Woods and Woods Attorneys
here in Evansville, Indiana.
So we're doing a series of videos
about common concerns that veterans bring to us
during the course of our representation
whenever they're being represented
for a VA compensation claim.
One of the things or concerns that we hear
from our clients pretty commonly is
I have this C&P exam coming up,
this Compensation and Pension Exam with the VA
and it's at my local VA hospital
and I don't know what to expect.
How do I pass this VA exam?
So it's a little bit of a misnomer.
It's not a test.
So they're not,
this isn't something that's going to be adminsitered to you
and you have to have the right answers
or anything like that.
This is a medical examination
so they're looking to bring you in
and they're going to do an assessment of how you're doing.
If it's a psychological exam,
they're going to assess the condition of your back
or your knees, depending on what type of examination it is.
The first piece of advice I have to give you is to go.
You have to show up to this exam to get credit for it,
so to speak.
Understandably, there's a lot of anxiety
leading up to some of these examinations.
Some people just don't like going to the doctor.
Sometimes it's unpleasant.
They've had unpleasant experiences
or it's just something that is not necessarily fun to do.
Unfortunately, because this is tied to your claim
that you have pending with the VA,
the VA can and will deny you
if you refuse to go to an exam
and if you're lucky enough to not have your VA claim denied
it will certainly delay it even further
so you don't wanna spend years in the appeals tracks
only to be denied even further or delayed even further
just because you didn't go to an exam.
Some exams can be unpleasant and that's understandably so.
The ones that we probably hear the most concern about
from our clients are those
regarding mental health examinations.
It's just because of the personal depth
that these exams can dig into,
but it's very important that you attend.
See if your spouse or close family member
can go with you,
even if they just wait in the lobby.
Sometimes having that person in the passenger seat
on the way to the exam,
can bring you to a calm enough place
that you're willing to open up to the examiner.
So if you have somebody that can go with you,
I would strongly suggest that you see
if they will accompany you.
Another piece of advice that I have
is plan something enjoyable and relaxing
for right after the exam.
Plan to visit a park, spend time with your kids or grandkids
or watch a favorite movie
and think about that as being the goal
that you want to get to when you wrap this exam up.
You may dredge up some unwanted feelings,
so afterward, plan to counter those feelings
with things that you enjoy so
that you can work through them.
So there's our preliminary sort of housekeeping
leading up to the examination.
Now, I wanna discuss the examination itself.
When you're in the exam room.
This is not a social event.
So view your entire conversation as something
that will affect your claim.
Everything you say or every piece of interaction,
every piece of verbal and non-verbal communication
with your examiner can show up as a piece of exam findings
and will essentially be used as evidence in your claim
either for or against what you're asking the VA for.
Whether it's service connection or an increase
or a finding of unemployability.
So if an examiner comes in and maybe you've seen him before,
maybe you've had a previous exam
with this medical professional and he says,
hi, how are you, Bob?
How are you doing?
It almost begs for a flat normalized response
because it's so casual,
but this answer will show up so if you tell him
oh, I'm okay or I'm fine
or it's a really nice day today,
that can color the severity of your exam
or it can counter-balance some of
the more personal conversation that may come up once
you get into how you're doing or how
your mental health condition is actually
affecting you day to day, even though it was
really only a salutation.
From the moment you walk in, you're being assessed.
So keep these kinds of things in mind.
The clinical discussion will be driven
by normal conversation cues,
and that's something to get you to open up to the examiner.
It's really important, though,
although I issued that disclaimer,
viewing your examiner with a critical eye
does not lead to your clamming up behind the wall.
You must be open, you must be completely honest
and unrestricted in your responses.
If an examiner tries to hurry you through your responses,
tries to cut you off whenever you're explaining something,
politely tell them that you're not finished
and explain to them that you'd like to be
given the opportunity to finish your response.
This is your exam.
Don't let them dictate the pace
of what you need to say to someone.
If you have things bottled up, you need to let them out.
This is your chance to be heard.
If you have pain in your knee.
Let's say you have an orthopedic examination
and you get out to a certain degree of flexibility
and you start to experience that pain
don't tough through that.
Don't tough it out.
You need to tell your examiner right when the pain starts
because this is one of the times where
being the tough guy will end up hurting you.
If that doesn't show up, your onset of pain,
then your attorney can't make an argument
for functional loss at that particular angle of flexibility.
So keep these things in mind.
You need to make sure that you're not filtering yourself
whenever you're in the middle of these examinations.
It's gonna feel like a conversation.
You may feel like you're being hurried or rushed,
but this is about you, this is about your medical evidence,
this is about your claims.
Make sure that you tell the examiner
everything that's going on
related to your condition that you're being examined for,
even if you're not being asked questions for that.
So what do I mean by that?
Commonly, whenever I review compensation and pension exams,
I see a standard battery of questions from VA examiners
and they'll ask you some run of the mill questions
that get to background and what you did 20 years ago,
what your time in service was,
and then there are very few questions
about how you're functioning, about how you're doing,
about how your depression
or your post-traumatic stress disorder
really affects you as a person.
Don't let them leave that part of the conversation out.
If there's something that you feel needs to be communicated
to your examiner, that the VA needs to find out about
about something you're struggling with,
this is your opportunity to make that concern heard
and it may be your only opportunity
to really get it on the record with the VA.
So if you have any other questions
about C&P exams, concerns about an upcoming exam
or concerns about previous exam results,
maybe something that doesn't match with how you're feeling
or what your rating is,
please give us a call at Woods and Woods.
We've love to help you out.
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