Did you know there are more U.S. veterans filing for VA disability benefits than ever before?
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Veterans Benefits Administration worked its way through over 1.7 million disability compensation and pension claims in 2022. This broke a VA claims record set in 2021 by 12%.
With this in mind, you’ll need to be fully prepared prior to putting in a VA claim. More specifically, you’ll need to be ready for your disability compensation and pension exam.
So, how much weight does a C&P exam have? Well, you’ll be happy to hear that it won’t be the only factor the VA will consider. But that doesn’t mean you should overlook the importance of a VA claim exam.
Learn more about the VA disability compensation and pension exam below.
What Is a C&P Exam?
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reports that about 41% of post-9/11 veterans have recognized service-related disabilities. Additionally, about 25% of those veterans who served before 9/11 have recognized service-related disabilities.
If you’re a veteran and you believe you have a disability related to your military service, you’re entitled to put in a VA claim. This may make it possible for you to collect compensation tied to your disability.
But it’s worth noting that the VA does not automatically approve all veterans who put in VA claims. Instead, they ask them to go through C&P exams first.
And what is a C&P exam? It’s short for compensation and pension exam, and it’s a special type of medical examination conducted by a VA-approved doctor. This exam is designed to assess your condition so the VA can decide whether or not to approve your VA claim.
What Happens During a C&P Exam?
Initially, a C&P exam might not seem like it’ll be all that big of a deal to you, especially if you’re under the impression that your service-related disability is legit. But you don’t want to make the mistake of going into your C&P exam completely unprepared. It could lead to your VA claim getting denied.
For starters, you’ll need to know what happens during a C&P exam so you’re all ready to go when your VA claim exam gets underway. These are just a few of the things that’ll take place when your C&P exam starts:
- A doctor will perform a series of physical and/or psychological tests specific to your condition
- You’ll have blood work done to assess your overall health
- A doctor will ask you to perform certain tasks to further test your condition
But a C&P exam won’t end there. You’re also going to be asked a series of questions about everything from your condition to the symptoms you’ve experienced. It’ll help paint a clearer picture of what impact this condition is having on you.
In most instances, you’ll also need to complete what’s called a disability benefits questionnaire, or a DBQ. Disability benefits questionnaires will provide VA-approved doctors with even more information about the veterans they’re seeing, and they’ll play a big part in whether VA claims get approved or not. You’ll want to take your time when filling out a VA DBQ to increase your chances of having your VA claim approved.
How Much Weight Does a C&P Exam Have?
As we alluded to earlier, a C&P exam isn’t going to be the only medical evidence or evidence in general that the VA considers when deciding whether to approve or deny a VA claim. There will be other aspects that the VA will keep in mind when analyzing your VA claim.
But generally speaking, the answer to the question, “How much weight does a C&P exam have?”, is going to be “a lot.” If you don’t have a favorable C&P exam, it’ll almost always result in your VA claim being denied. It’s why you should take a C&P exam seriously and do everything in your power to have a great exam.
By doing this, you should be able to put yourself in a better position when it comes to being awarded 100% permanent and total benefits. And even if you don’t get 100% P and T benefits, you should be able to get something after going through the C&P exam process when you put enough effort into it and have a legit VA claim.
How Can You Prepare for a C&P Exam?
After hearing about just how important a C&P exam is, you should see why it’ll be imperative that you perform the proper preparations for this VA claim exam ahead of time. There are quite a few things you can do to get yourself ready for this exam.
Here are several of the best ways in which you can prepare for a C&P exam:
- Accurately document your disability and gather as much medical evidence to support your VA claim as you can
- Write down what a “good day” and a “bad day” look like for you as it pertains to your disability
- Know what’s in your medical records
- Show up for a C&P exam on time and be open and honest with a VA-approved doctor during it
- Bring a family member, a friend, or someone else you trust along to a C&P exam
You might also want to think about working with a company that specializes in helping veterans with a C&P exam and the VA claims process as a whole. Veterans Educating Veterans is a company that can provide you with a consultant who will guide you through the whole VA claims process and help you get the VA disability benefits you deserve.
Let Us Help You With the VA Disability Claims Process
Putting together a VA claim might sound like it would be a simple enough task. But as you’ve seen here, it can be more complicated than you might think.
After finding out the answer to the question, “How much weight does a C&P exam have?”, you should also see how important it’ll be for your C&P exam to go well. Veterans Educating Veterans can lend a hand when it comes to the C&P exam and assist you with the other aspects of a VA claim.
Contact us today to get started.