(gentle music)
- Hello, and welcome to the VA,
excuse me, the Hill and
Ponton VA video blog.
I'm Matthew Hill.
- Carol Ponton.
- And today we'd like to talk
to you a little bit about,
we're talking about a series
on big mistakes vets make,
and problems that are
presented in their claim that
interfere between, interfere with them
getting the benefits they deserve,
and today, we just wanna talk briefly
on C&P exams, Comp and Pen exams.
- Compensation and Pension exams.
- And essentially, these
exams are issued by the VA.
The VA has a duty to assist
you to win your claim,
and if they feel that what's
missing to grant benefits
are either a medical opinion about
the disease being connected to service,
or a medical opinion about the rating,
the severity of the disability.
Then they're generally gonna
send you to a C&P exam.
We only see cases where there's
already been a denial, but
- So usually there's been a
Compensation and Pension exam.
- And that usually is the biggest
reason for denial, right, Carol?
- Exactly.
So, what is a Compensation
and Pension exam?
The person that's deciding
your case looks at the evidence
and says, okay, we're missing something.
Are we missing the
service connected problem?
Or, are we missing the diagnosis and how
bad your condition is?
So they will set up a
compensation and pension
exam to have you evaluated.
Now, they're gonna say on their notes
exactly what they're looking for.
You don't know, but if you call the people
that have set this up they will tell you
if it's a PTSD exam if that's
what you're claiming.
It's an exam for your back.
Maybe they're gonna do
some testing on you,
blood work to see if you have diabetes.
So, they will let you
know so you need to be
prepared for that exam.
If you're going in for
PTSD you should get,
there's a form that
the VA has and it lists
problems that anybody who has PTSD has,
nightmares, flashbacks,
lack of trust, anger
and if you don't have a problem in each
one of those little categories, you don't
have PTSD according to the VA.
So, you really need to figure out
what are they looking for.
Because it's not that our
veterans don't have it.
It's they usually talk
about what's bothering
the most that day.
- Right.
- So, they may have lots of nightmares
but they have an anger
problem and on the way
to the VA exam they got in a fight
with somebody that was driving near them.
So, you need to make sure, what are
they looking for so that you give them
all of those things.
- I would say on that,
if you know the exam
you're going in for you
get a buddy statement
or two or people who live with you or
close friends to just write what they
observe in you, not how
great a guy you are,
and all this stuff, but
you know today I see
Fred, I see him wincing
when he bends over.
He has to sit down after walking up a
flight of stairs.
- I help him with his yard 'cause he can't
do it anymore.
- And those are things
you wanna take with you.
We always recommend that our veterans take
somebody with them, a witness, a wife or
you know, a child or somebody.
The majority of the
time they're not gonna,
90 percent of the time, they're not gonna
let that person back into the exam
room with them.
However, if you have
these buddy statements
you can at least hand them to the person.
You know, I'd keep copies for myself but
you have these buddy statements
that you can hand to them
that doctors should review that.
Hopefully, they have
an understanding of how
bad it is but then, also note that
in their review.
- But, to be safe, you
should turn that in to
the VA separately.
- Yeah.
- We also find that the VA will often give
you a form to fill out
and you need to make sure
that form is complete.
If they're talking about
your back, talk about
pain going down your leg or the fact that
you're incontinent or the fact that that
makes you depressed.
This is your chance to put everything down
because often veterans
will go in and they're
there ten minutes or
less and then they end
up seeing this huge
Compensation and Pension
report, goes on for pages.
And, they go where'd they get
all this information?
- It makes it look like the doctor really
sat down and took time with you and
you know he didn't.
- A lotta times they just copy it off,
whatever the form was that you handed in.
So, if that's the case
you want to make sure
this form is complete.
The other thing that I tell veterans is
this is the one time
somebody, a doctor from
the VA is going to see you.
So, if you're going in
and most of the time
you're home in your pajamas and you don't
shave and you don't get your hair cut,
don't dress up for this person.
They want to know how are
you really functioning
in life and if that's the way you are.
- It's your chance to show them what your
day to day existence is.
- Yes.
- And you don't need
to put makeup on that.
- And that's a big mistake that I see.
The veterans, maybe the
spouse, maybe the person
that lives with them says you can't go
looking like that.
You need to take a shower.
You need to do this.
Well, if you don't usually
do it, don't do it.
Let them see how this
condition has affected you.
- Well, this is our blog
on C&P exams and their
importance and how we
see they can be messed up
and veterans not get the
benefits they deserve
due to what happened there.
Thank you for tuning in and again,
we have several other
big mistakes we see that
you should be able to
find on this channel.
Thanks.
(gentle music)
