How much weight do the C&P exams hold? Reading through my DBQ's, there are MANY, MANY incorrect/missing diagnoses I should have. It's almost like he didn't hear a word I said and went rogue. I have yet to receive my NARSUM. Does the NARSUM capture things from my record that the C&P examiner missed?
Comical C&P exams?
- Thread starter DisgRNtld_731
- Start date
It has a major impact on the ratings since the DOD must use the VA's ratings. The NARSUM may not be as affected but the NARSUM is more to determine fitness. If the NARSUM isn't good you can request an IMR and or a written rebuttal. For the VA DBQ's that's a big issue. You can login to VA.gov and see the claim that will have all the conditions lumped together. You can upload evidence too including a DBQ filled out by your doctor that will counter the poor one done by the C&P examiner. You can also upload a VA Form 21-4138 with the DBQ explaining that the C&P examiner didn't listen to the things you said during the exam and that the DBQ filled out by your doctor is a more accurate picture of your medical condition.
Also, don't wait to fix this. Your PEBLO will say to wait to see what happens and then you can do a VARR to try to increase your ratings. This would be bad advice as PEBLO's are paper pushers and don't know a lot outside of what they do. Try to get the proper ratings the first time! Then if the ratings are not correct you have a 2nd chance to fix it.
If you were examined by a doctor working for a contractor to the VA, call the contractor and make as many waves as it takes to get examined by another doc.
Thank you for this. Of course my PEBLO has said nothing about any of that, so I appreciate the input.
I had a very similar situation. I asked my MSC immediately about the issues in my exams and was told it would be caught by the raters. It wasn’t, the inaccuracies during my exams held through my proposed ratings and my narsum. It’s literally as though my records were not reviewed past initial appointments and I have years of records. I’m working with legal now to correct my NARSUM and will do a VARR so pretty frustrated with the whole situation. Wish I would have known/had someone tell to try to correct the issues before getting my proposed ratings.
In my opinion, the MSC and PEBLO are useless. They are just doing their job of processing things. One from the military side and the other from the VA side and they are ignorant to anything outside of their administration roles. What frustrates me the most is when they give advice that is outside of their lane and it sets up Soldiers to fail. Both of them just say that it will get fixed etc. and try to push everything along which is not the Soldier's best interest most of the time. Its not their future on the line and they don't seem to understand that what they are involved with has life changing financial consequences for each Soldier that they deal with.
I didn’t think my 1.5 hour C&P exam did a good job of reflecting my medical history either although my examiner was generally ok. Afterward I literally printed and highlighted every medical record related to every condition I claimed, especially symptoms that were relevant to the VA CFR and uploaded it as evidence as it’s own separate file. I have no idea if they actually looked at it but when I received my ratings they were what I expected and accurate/fair.
It's also good to make sure they use the correct questionnaire sheets. My PTSD eval for C&P was done on the general mental health disability benefits questionnaire, not the PTSD-specific one. There's a reason for, and important sets of questions on, the specific DBQs vs the generalized ones. Those little bits of specific info can be quite illuminating.
What was your outcome? I just recently started the med board process because of Ankylosing Spondylitis and need for monitoring while on Enbrel. I have an LOD from 2009 for lower back and hip pain but I wasn't diagnosed until a couple months ago. I have a VA rating for lyme disease arthritis. Just curious if anyone had a successful outcone. Ive been dealing with this for 13 years and the whole time i was told it was bursitis, chronic lyme arthritis and put on pain medication. I started a va claim before getting my p3 profile.
What was your outcome? I just recently started the med board process because of Ankylosing Spondylitis and need for monitoring while on Enbrel. I have an LOD from 2009 for lower back and hip pain but I wasn't diagnosed until a couple months ago. I have a VA rating for lyme disease arthritis. Just curious if anyone had a successful outcone. Ive been dealing with this for 13 years and the whole time i was told it was bursitis, chronic lyme arthritis and put on pain medication. I started a va claim before getting my p3 profile