How to file your VA Claim
1. Locate all the military, private and VA medical records and make copies of everything. Make sure you keep a copy of all documents you send to the VA. If you don't have a copy or your service medical records you can get copies here:
Service Medical Records, "Military Records" and "Personnel Records: National Personnel Records Center (NPRC)
http://www.archives.gov/facilities/mo/st_louis/military_personnel_records/standard_form_180.html
2. Review your military medical records and make a list of every ailment that you had while on active duty make sure to use VA Form 21-526 to keep everything organized and in one place.
3. Compare all of your military injuries or diseases with ailments you may be having since your transition from active duty. This is critical to see if any ailment you are having since leaving active duty had anything to do with military service.
4. Gather any supporting documents you can to help support your case, we have listed several sources for you use.
5. Search our database to find a information related to the type of claim you are claiming.
6. Put together statements from all private doctors or other medical providers, have them state that your problems are DEFINITELY service connected. If the doctor uses the words possibly or probably it is possible the VA will deny your claim. If necessary get a second opinion, remember the more information you have the better your chances are your claim will not be denied.
7. Get statements from anyone who knows you and your issues (this includes your wife, kids, friends or co-workers). Have these individuals state how the problems affect you (example: It is hard to bend over, or squat, or hear, etc..)
8. Review all Veteran Appeals specifically relating your claim, this will ensure you have listed all the necessary information in your claim and now you have proof of others will the same diseases or injuries with approved claims. This makes it harder for the VA to deny your claim. This step is very important DO NOT SKIP IT. Listed below are the two links to assist you in your research.
Be sure to look up all Court of Veteran Appeals, US District Court, US Court of Appeals and Supreme Court decisions that affect your issues. Use these sites to support your other evidence. Do your own legal research! We have done alot of it for you just make sure you search this site thoroughly, It does not hurt to overload the initial information.
9. Go to the VA Web Automated Reference Materials System (WARMS). Look up what your issue is and determine the percentage that you want to apply for.
10. Now after you've done all the research now its time to get prepared for the C&P Exam. Everything you will need to do the research and get prepared for the C&P exams will be listed here so make sure to go through it and don't skip around.
11. What is a C&P exam and how important is the exam?
The C & P exam is one way of determining if your claim is valid and that there exists, in the opinion of the examiner, the objective medical evidence to support the diagnosis, the severity and if there exists a service connected event causing or aggravating your condition.
During this phase of processing a claim this may be the single most important step you'll take in providing the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) with enough evidence to award you your benefit in a timely manner. The C & P examiner doesn’t make the decision about your claim, that’s still up to a Ratings Specialist in VBA. That Ratings Specialist is likely to grant a lot of weight to this report and it’s very important that your are prepared for your C&P exam. Listed below are some important things to remember to ensure your C&P Exam is a successful one.
- Don’t miss this exam.
- If the timing is inconvenient, make it convenient.
- Be early by at least an hour or more.
- Don’t be 15 minutes late and complain.
- The examiners don’t accept walk-ins.
- If you must reschedule, do it far in advance. Be careful that you don’t telegraph a message to them that this isn’t important to you.
How you present yourself the day of the exam is vital to what the examiner will write about you.
Remember that you are presenting yourself at an appointed time to be evaluated for a disability. The provider won’t treat you or prescribe medications or listen to stories. Your exam will start without you even knowing it, from the time you sign in and enter the waiting room someone will be watching your actions so be aware of what you doing and saying to other people.
For example: On the way to your appointment, you may stop in to a fast food place near the hospital for a quick lunch. Bounding from your car and getting in line, you order up a combo meal and remark to the guy next to you that you’re about to face an ordeal but you’re sure you’ve got it beat…you elaborate a bit on your more-than-usual pronounced limp to your new friend, grab your lunch and soon you’re off to the designated meeting place.
You never realized the lady behind you in that line was your C & P examiner. She saw you looking hale and hearty about 2 hours ago and now you’re moaning and groaning, barely able to walk your back hurts so bad.
Lessons to be learned here. First, never fake it. Don’t try to convince these folks of symptoms you don’t have. This isn’t their first day on the job and there have been many attempts to deceive them before you came around and they see right through it. Then be aware your exam may begin in the parking lot or entryway into the hospital.
Always have a driver, even if you wouldn’t ordinarily need a driver, you may be nervous about your upcoming test and more likely to cause an accident. If you sometimes use a wheelchair or other assistive device for mobility, use it now. This isn’t the time to show how brave or tough you are and how you can do without your prescribed assistance. The examiner should see you at your worst, not at your best. I’d caution you again that you never want to deceive these folks but you do want them to see the reality of your problems. If the examiner asks you to partially disrobe and you usually need help getting shoes or shirt off and on, ask for assistance.
When you’re called in for your meeting with the provider, the first question you might hear is, “How are you today?” If your response is an automatic, “I’m fine doc, never better!” you may have made a fatal mistake.
You have about 40 minutes or less for this person to hear your history as you want them to understand it. Don’t waste their time with idle talk. Be as brief as you can and make points relating to your condition. Go in with notes in hand that you made a day or two prior to the exam. Have a copy of those notes to leave with the doctor. Don’t bring your entire medical record with you. If you have some papers that may not have ever been seen before and they’re directly relevant to your condition, bring copies, not originals.
Often enough the examiner is only interested in you today and won’t even look at your record. Those immediate impressions will be recorded and used in the process of making the decision to award or deny your application for disability benefits.
Prior to the meeting, understand what the examiner is going to look for. There are some 57 Disability Examination Worksheets that are in use today by VA C & P specialists. They cover almost every imaginable bodily malfunction in great detail. From acromegaly to thyroid disease the VA has nicely catalogued all the signs, symptoms and lab reports for us. Make sure to review each item that pertains to your specific claim.
Let’s assume you injured a joint of the shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, knee, or back while on active duty and you’re making a claim based on that injury. You know it hurts, it’s kept you awake at night and it’s interfering with your ability to accomplish tasks at home and at work. What do you tell the doctor about that?
You must provide them with details exactly as they want to hear them and as they apply to your condition. It’s not enough to say, “It hurts a lot doc”.
You’ll want to describe pain, weakness, stiffness, swelling, heat and redness, instability or giving way, "locking," fatigability, lack of endurance, etc. Fatigability is often overlooked by the Veteran patient; does the pain cause you to tire out easily or do you find you can’t complete some tasks because you’re ‘just worn out’ due to pain? That’s an important detail.
How is your condition being treated? Details of treatment - type, dose, frequency, response, side effects are necessary. Here the most overlooked details are side effects of treatments. Do the medicines make you nauseous? Do you become dizzy or sleepy? Does a medicine make your mouth dry? Have you lost or gained weight? Without these details the Ratings Specialist isn’t likely to favor your award.
Are there periods of flare-up of your joint problems or is it usually a constant problem? If there are flares, what are their severity, frequency, and duration and what are precipitating and alleviating factors? Do periods of a flare of your disease result in additional limitation of motion or functional impairment during the flare-up?
It’s up to you to provide detailed and precise comments to the C & P examiner that are in a language VA likes to use. It’s handy that VA has provided all that language for you in detail at the provided link…it makes it seem like an open-book test.
You have to play by their rules. Learn the drill and learn the language and go in prepared. When you go in prepared with notes and knowing what to say and what not to say, you make their task of awarding that disability benefit to you easier for them. Do their work for them up front, overwhelm them with the details of your personal disability and they’re much more likely to process your claim quickly and favorably.
I know this sounds like a lot of work, but I guarantee it will pay off in the end. Remember, as I stated earlier don't not skip around make sure you follow the steps and take the time to do the research. You need to know everything you can about your disease or injury and that means doing the research. We will provide you as much information here as we can, but know one knows you like you do. If you need to contact us send and email to:
info@cmpu.com
Finalizing Your Claim
After you finished pulling your information together, you need to find an organization that will represent you before the Veterans Administration; (Disable American Veterans) DAV is a good place to start. If there is any supporting evidence you can not find, either the veterans representative can try and find it or the VA is required under the Veterans Claims Assistance Act to find the documentation for you. You need to point out what documentation they need to assist you and you need to provide them enough information necessary to find it (Who, What, When, Where and How Much).