Who Hires/fires/oversees C&p Examiners

[fanaticbooks]

This is just pure curiosity....

I have read in here about a lot of incompetent C&P examiners. One of my hubby's was also not exactly on the mark (which I mentioned in his NOD info).

How are these people hired, evaluated for the position, and investigated/overseen on the job proficiency?

Do the raters inform anyone when multiple C&Ps come in that are badly done by that person?

Who does someone complain to about an examiner to try to change that incompetence.

As I said, I am just curious about this. Don't know if there is an answer, but thought I would ask. :)

fanaticbooks

[Notorious Kelly]

Good question, FB; I've never received one of those "How are we doing?" postcards or been invited to give feedback on their service.

[jbasser]

Beoieve it or not C and P exam personnel as well as clerical staff work for the VBA. They work at the VA but for the VBA.

J

[john999]

If I get a bad C&P I just go get some more evidence to refute it. Why argue with them when your best bet is to just outgun them?

[rakkwarrior]

John999

Excellent position...this is the last bastion of the old regime, the flawed and adversarial C&P examiner, there is no regulation in Title 38 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 3, 4, or 17 in regard to attitude of the C&P examiner, although there should be. In my opinion such a regulation should be equal to, or more decriptive as 38 C.F.R. 4.23. Those examinations which are hostile to the veteran should be considered inadequate for rating purposes, and returned for a proper examination by a different examiner. The original examiner should be counseled, and practices be monotored to ensure HE or SHE remembers why they are there, and that the majority of claimant are honest veterans who are seeking benefits to which they feel they are entitled...that the reviewing examiner in any instance should not allow their feelings to intrude on either the objective findings or the etiology of the condition where a nexus opinion is requested.

[Hoppy]

As a result of a really bad report written by a C&P examiner I researched this to great extent. Numerous service officers advised me to file complaints against C&P examiners with the director of the hospital that ordered the exam. The examiners work for or are contracted by the hospital.

I did find a department in the VA that took responsibility for reviewing C&P examiners. They claimed that their reviews were done randomly and that they did not react to complaints. However, about six months ago they were thinking about a trail program to use complaints from veterans as a requisite for reviewing an examiner. At that time they had developed a form for the veteran to fill out. However, the form had not yet passed an approval process. I will try to find the name of this organization and post it later.

There was a veteran who posted on hadit about five years ago that he complained to the director of the hospital and that they got him a new C&P.

A medical opinion based on

speculation, without supporting clinical data or other

rationale, does not provide the required degree of medical

certainty. Bloom v. West, 12 Vet. App. 185, 187 (1999).

Edited March 27, 2011 by Hoppy

[Hoppy]

The URL below is for the C&P exam program. I pasted a couple paragraphs from their website. The veterans satisfaction survey form # I was talking about is VA Form 10-0480.

In the past I have shown up to C&P exams to find out my primary care doctor was doing the exam. I have had C&P's performed by department heads. I know a VA staff treating clinician who wrote a report for me and stated in the report that she has performed C&P exams when requested by the hospiltal administration.

http://www.va.gov/CBO/cbo/cpep.asp

Compensation & Pension Exam Program

CPEP is a joint national office of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) whose mission is to promote continuous quality improvement of the Compensation and Pension (C&P) examination process, which lies at the heart of VA's disability benefit programs for Veterans. This process begins when the VBA Regional Office (RO) determines that additional medical information is needed to resolve a Veteran's claim for benefits. It concludes when the exam facility prepares and releases the disability exam report to the RO.

Quality Measurement. CPEP reviews the quality of exam requests and exam reports of targeted C&P exam types. These Quality reviews are conducted and reported monthly. CPEP's quality indicators are designed to highlight specific quality factors, which allow concentration of quality improvement efforts where they are needed. Plans are in progress to increase the number of exam types subject to quality review.