Imos Suitable For Rating Purposes...clinician's Guide

[Guest morgan]

I talked with Ron Abrams recently and he said something that stayed in my mind because of the discussions here about how to get the VA to accept IMOs. Too many veterans have had them rejected or discounted, so maybe this will help in an appeal.

Ron says that the IMOs must match (as close as possible) the VA's Clinician's Guide to ensure suitability for rating purposes. I looked at the guide again and realized that it also could help in organizing a claim. Here's a link to the one I've found online. If someone has information on an updated copy, please pass along a link to it.

http://www.warms.vba.va.gov/admin21/guide/...iciansguide.doc

Edited August 30, 2007 by morgan

[Jay Johnson]

I found this rather interesting:

Approximately three to four hours are required to conduct a comprehensive initial compensation and pension examination for PTSD. This includes 90 minutes for interview assessment of trauma stress exposure and PTSD symptoms plus an additional hour to complete other portions of the examination. An additional 1.5 hours is required for review of psychological testing materials and preparation of a report of findings. (These time estimates may be adjusted downward, depending on the availability of an independent social-industrial survey completed by a social worker.)

3 to 4 hours???? At most, my wife got 30 minutes with a psych for a C&P and her first C&P was only about 10 min!

This is why the VA is not accepting the IMOs....they set up some bogus criteria that their own docs do not follow, but they use it as a rationale for dismissing IMOs when the private docs doesn't. No doctor in his/her right mind is going to block off 4hrs+ of his/her time for an eval; be it VA or otherwise.

This is EXACTLY what I suspected in the other thread....the VA has set up its own internal "regulations" that are there for the sole purpose of denying vets who seek IMOs.

How many of you have ever spent close to 3-4hrs in a C&P???

[free_spirit_etc]

The C&P examiner never even SAW my husband for his lung cancer claim. He merely looked at the medical records and decided that my husband cancer was not caused by asbestos exposure because he wasn't in any "occupational survillience programs" that weren't even BEING DONE by the Air Force at the time my husband was an electrician.

Also - though my husband's PFT's - even the one done THAT day at the VA - SHOWED reduced PFT values and dypsnea on hills and stairs, and though my husband had an 11 inch scar and an ENTIRE LOBE of his lung removed - the C&P examiner WITHOUT SEEING him determined that he had "NO shortness of breath or other apparent residuals" from his lung cancer.

????

Shouldn't THEIR OWN tests that showed shortness of breath - and huge scars and missing sections of organs be considered a "residual" of lung cancer?

Free

I found this rather interesting:

3 to 4 hours???? At most, my wife got 30 minutes with a psych for a C&P and her first C&P was only about 10 min!

This is why the VA is not accepting the IMOs....they set up some bogus criteria that their own docs do not follow, but they use it as a rationale for dismissing IMOs when the private docs doesn't. No doctor in his/her right mind is going to block off 4hrs+ of his/her time for an eval; be it VA or otherwise.

This is EXACTLY what I suspected in the other thread....the VA has set up its own internal "regulations" that are there for the sole purpose of denying vets who seek IMOs.

How many of you have ever spent close to 3-4hrs in a C&P???