Your VA Claim Exam
Video Transcript
Hello, I’m Eric Gang, the Veterans Disability Attorney. I want to talk to you today about VA exams.
VA exams are often that thing that stands between you and winning your VA disability claim. If you’ve been through this process for any length of time, you understand what I’m talking about.
The Gatekeepers
You go into these VA exams, you hope that it goes well, but then you find out that the examiner wrote something negative about your claim. In general, these doctors are not there to help you. I view the VA compensation and pension examiners as the gatekeepers. They are there to protect the government’s interests and they’re not there to do you any favors.
Knowing How to Refute
So, knowing how to refute these examination reports is oftentimes critical to winning a claim for VA disability benefits. There are a couple of things you need to keep in mind—strategies, I should say.
If you go for a VA compensation pension exam, you must take the time afterwards to go back to the VA and get a copy of that exam report. You’re not going to know what to refute unless you know what the doctor is going to say.
Waiting for a Decision
Unfortunately, most veterans do nothing. They just wait for the VA to make a decision and they get surprised—whoa, it’s a denial. Why is it a denial? Because they looked at that VA compensation and pension exam report, and it was negative.
So, if you can get that report before the VA makes a decision, then you have an opportunity to try to refute it. Number one, you should try to refute it based upon the actual exam report itself. You want to poke holes in it.
Poke Holes In It
You want to see if the VA examiner relied on an inadequate factual basis. Did he assume facts in order to reach his conclusion that are wrong? Did he provide an inadequate rationale? What that means is, did he just state a conclusion without backing it up with reasons?
You want to attack the examination report on those grounds.
Get Your Own Rebuttal
But most importantly, and perhaps the most effective way to refute a VA examiner, is to get your own rebuttal opinion from another outside expert. Basically, you take the examination report, you take a copy of your claims file, and give it to a private expert. You ask that private expert to write an opinion refuting that particular examination report. That is perhaps the most effective strategy available for refuting VA examination reports.
Always Have the Last Word
In general, you want to make sure that you always have the last word. You don’t want the VA examiner to have the last word. In our experience, we’ve strategized cases and we’ve made sure that our medical experts have the last word on things, or we can poke holes in their reports. Generally speaking, we come out on top.
So please, do not take these examination reports lightly. Take every opportunity to refute them and make sure you have the last word.