VA Claims: Dance With the Devil (1-6 Months Out)

Welcome back! Today we are getting to “zero day;” the day you conduct your VA screenings with the VA-appointed physician. Like last week’s article, this title is meant to be in jest, as the title is not to insinuate that the screening physician(s) are the enemy or evil. It’s truly just meant to be a catchy play on words.

However, as we also discussed in last week’s article, the VA-appointed physician needs to see what your worst days look like, so one might see how there is a bit of a performance involved. And just like I think I’ve said every week so far, just don’t lie or exaggerate, or else you’ll actually hurt your claims. Before we dive headlong into the appointments, however, let's discuss some advice I would give to you about a week before you scheduled appointments....

Break Yourself Off…Within Reason

This last piece of advice that I will discuss leading up to your evaluation is to consider making your evaluation a bad day for you.?I’ve heard of folks hitting the gym, rucking, running, and generally exercising their rear ends off every day for about a week prior to their evaluation.?I’m not opposed to this.?I did this myself, albeit I only did it for a couple days in the weight room, not an entire week.?Theoretically it will exacerbate your some of your conditions leading up to your appointment so the doc can see what your bad days actually look like.?

My caution with this is be careful.?Don’t go and actually make your condition worse.?Again, the doc is going to have all your records, therefore they’re going to have a generally solid idea of how bad your condition is.?I would hate for you to be in legitimately worse shape than your records suggested because you decided to take the 100lbs dumbbells for a ride on the chest express the day before, when you normally only put up 75lbs, and tear that labrum even worse. With my safety brief out of the way, now let’s get to the main event of this series...

If you choose to beat your body up in preparation for your screenings, please just be careful. The last thing you want to do is be in legitimately worse shape than your records suggest.

The Dance with the Devil

Again, my title is a bit misleading because the VA evaluator is not the devil.?They are not the enemy, and they are not there to disprove your claims.?They’re merely an extra set of eyes to confirm what you say is legitimately wrong.?My titles are for tongue-and-cheek purposes, not to insinuate that these are actually bad people.

So as I said, this is it.?This is the culmination of all of your preparations, research and education, and gauging of your ailments.?Now it’s show time.?And while I’m sure experiences may vary; I’ll illustrate what to expect based on what I went through.

First off, arrive prepared.?Make sure you have that packet for each appointment.?Now again, if you’re like me, you may have multiple appointments over multiple day.?I had 9 appointments on 5 different days spread out over the course of 1 week.?My first day was 4 appointments, 3 in one location starting at 8am, and the fourth in another location at 2pm.?It was an all-day affair.?I brought all the paperwork for that day; 4 appointments worth.?As I think is the norm, my first appointment was the big one:?The head-to-toe evaluation with the physician to go over the majority of my claims.

If you recall, I encouraged you to type everything onto your packet forms rather than handwriting them, regardless if your handwriting is atrocious like mine. Allow me to use my experience to explain the drive for this suggestion.?As you recall, my “main” appointment was at 8:00am.?I got to my appointment plenty early, checked in and handed them the portion of my packet for that particular appointment.?After a bit, I was called to a back examination room, and eventually the physician walked in.

Arrive early and prepared. Have all your documents in order to turn in when you arrive. If you’ve followed my advice up to this point, you should have nothing to worry about.

The doc sat down, and you could tell they were a bit rough around the edges.?Slightly disheveled and a bit tired.?I thought, “Oh boy, this doesn’t bode well.”?But once the doc sat down, they looked at me, smiled and said, “I just need to thank you.”?Of course, I’m thinking, “Uhhhh…you’re welcome...I guess?”?

The doc proceeded to tell me that they were not the physician that was scheduled to evaluate me that day, but rather they were a physician from about 4 hours away in North Carolina (I was in Virginia Beach).?The night before, they had received a phone call that the physician scheduled to evaluate me today was calling out, and they needed this physician to drive – practically through the night – up to Virginia Beach to fill in.

Needless to say, I’m beginning to think that this may not be going in my favor.?The doc proceeds to tell me that they are exhausted, a little annoyed that they were notified so late about the need to travel up to my location, and were generally having a rough morning.?“Great….just great” I think.?But then they smiled at me again and said, “But when I received your packet, I have to admit, it made my morning a little better.?You have no idea how many packets I get that are a) barely filled out with minimal information, and b) are written so poorly that I can barely read them.?And so I just want to thank you for taking the time and effort to hand in such a professionally and organized packet.?So let’s get to work.”

The ice was broken, the tension had lifted, and the rest of my evaluation was very pleasant and laid back.?I showed the doc my worst days, and while it wasn’t short (about 2 hours), it flew by.?I demonstrated everything that hurt that was in accordance with the claims I had filed, in line with the severity of each ailment as it was documented in my medical records, and without exaggeration or deceit. It turned out to be a relatively pleasurable experience.

And that folks, is why I encourage you to be as thorough as possible when filling out your packets, and to type everything in.?Because your doc may not have had to driven through the night to get to you for your evaluation, but chances are they get a lot of poorly completed and illegible packets.?Why make their life harder than it needs to be??Why not do something that may brighten their day a bit??I’m not saying to bribe, charm, or sway them.?But if you can make their job a little easier, well…. let’s just say that the “Halo Effect” is a scientifically proven fact…

Why make the physician’s life harder than it needs to be??Why not do something that may brighten their day a bit??I’m not saying to bribe, charm, or sway them.?The “Halo Effect” is a scientifically proven fact…

That is it, folks. That is really I need to share about your screening appointments. If you’ve done everything I suggested up until this point, then there’s really not much else to say. Go in there, be respectful, be honest and forthcoming, and your experience should be a relatively good one that results in a fair and accurate assessment. There’s no secret or magic formula to result in a magical outcome. You already have all the tools and knowledge you need.

Please join me next week for what should be our final installment of the VA claims process, where I’ll be discussing the remainder of the process after the screenings; from receiving your results to researching your benefits. And as always, if you found some useful information here, and if you enjoyed it, please like, share, and comment. Be well until next week, and just remember, you’re not in this alone!