Incredibly Rude Psychiatrist

[Shalia]

I have an IU claim in. I'm currently rated at 70% for bipolar (and have a few other SC issues) and they sent me to a psych. to reevaluate. The guy was a JERK. He started out the visit with telling me off because I prefer to see female APRN's (abuse issues in my past, what can I say?) and then got mad at me when I referred to the woman I see as my doctor. (Force of habit, and besides, she has a Ph.D. so it's not entirely inaccurate.)

I tried to tell him why I couldn't work right now, and he kept telling me things like "all I hear is you are making a willful decision to quit working" and telling me I have no valid excuse for not working. When I mentioned things like I have difficulty with concentration and memory he said I was lying because I can go to school. Well, school lets me have double time on tests, has other people take notes for me, AND lets me record all my classes onto tapes so I can listen to them again if I forgot stuff. Work doesn't let you do that stuff. And with all my accomidations I'm barely passing.

But he told me "there's a time for you to be talking and a time for me to be writing, and right now I'm writing so you need to stop talking". He was so dismissive and rude I can't imagine how I'm going to get a fair write up from him when he decided before he even talked to me that I was just "willfully deciding to give up a good job I've had for years". Can I get another doctor? Or am I screwed? Do I take notes in case I need an appeal? He was the rudest doctor I've had the misfortune of seeing in my life, and I feel like I won't get a fair shake from him.

I'm so frustrated. I'm almost afraid my percentage will go DOWN now, not up like I was praying for, because of this jerk. I'm *not* OK, and he made it sound like I was just being lazy. I'm so frustrated. I want to scream or throw something.

What do I do?

Shalia

[Pete53]

I will bet that the C&P Shrink was over 65 and completely out of touch with current practice. You should also get a copy of anything done to you for your own records.

[mssoup1]

Shalia,

I can sympathize with you because we have been there, done that before. There is one C & P examiner at our local VAMC who is, IMO, a poor excuse for a doctor. He is also rude, had to apologize to me for jumping down my throat while I was there with my husband and writes the worst C & P reports that I have ever seen. If you are lucky enough that you can even get him to write up the report.

I called the Directors Office at the VAMC. Really sounded like they were concerned about some of the treatment we were receiving and told me that someone would be calling me back. She felt sure that the Director would be interested in hearing what we had to say. Well, never got a call back from anyone. They did give my husband another C & P exam after I filed a complaint with the VARO that the exam he got was inadequate. I also stated that I did not want this same examiner examining my husband for the second C & P exam. I did all of this before they had a chance to deny his claim, as I got a copy of the C & P exam as soon as possible after the exam was done. I immediately sent a letter to the VARO explaining how inadequate the report was and they could in no way use it in order to decide my husbands claim.

When talking to our Patient Advocate concerning Dermatology treatment at the VAMC, she indicated to me that getting doctors, expecially Dermatololgists, is a real big problem in our area. Maybe that is the reason for the type of doctors we see at some of the VAMC's. Apparently, it seems, they are having to hire who ever they can in order to have enough doctors to see the patients they have. A lot of them act like they really don't want to be there.

Also, I agree that you should take someone with you on your visits, if at all possible. You may find a few doctors who don't really want the other person in the examining room with you, but they cannot deny you if you tell them you want that person in there with you. We had one of my husbands doctors who didn't seem happy that I went in with him, but after a while, I guess she knew I was going to be there so she finally just accepted the fact of me being there.

If you feel that you cannot get anywhere at the VAMC, also try calling the Patient Advocates office. They are there to assist you and if they are doing their job, they will. Had problems with our Patient Advocates office at first, but I have been real pleased lately with them. Don't know what happened, but if you call now with a problem, they are really quick at trying to get it resolved.

I have been in the system ever since my husband was discharged and I guess I have been there and seen just about everything in both the VARO and VAMC systems. You just need to hang in there and fight as hard as you can. If you give up the fight, then they win, not you.

My husband is now I/U P&T, which means no future exams, so I hope that we are through with the VA claims process for a while. It has been a very hard and long road for both of us, but we hung it there, kept up the fight and finally won.

As they say, you must fight for what you want and the harder you fight the better chance you have of winning. So never give up.

mssoup1

[sixthscents]

I have delt with this problem time and again in helping develop claims. The C&P examiner GAF's (Global Assessment of Functionality) the veteran at 70 or higher, but states they have PTSD, and then the VA slaps a 10% rating on it.

What I do is ...immediately (within 7-10 days) file a NOD

2. Schedule an intake appointment with PACS, they will re GAF new patients, and their GAF is normally closer to realistic. (To ENSURE that PACS re-Gafs, go into emergency room, they have a psych doctor present at all times, and complain to him of your problems...anxiety, depression whatever they may be. Normally he looks up the C&P GAF and annotates that the veterans needs a NEW GAF upon intake to PACS.)

3. If you suffer from chronic pain, get a referral from your primary care to pain management....they also do a GAF on intake (people who suffer from depression have less beneficial effect from pain medications etc.)

You can then use these 2 GAfs to counter the "arbitrary", and "lasse-fair" evalution you rceived from the oviousl "biased" and "uncommunicative" initial CP examiner.

Further...dispute everythig the guy said in his C&P...thay often make Glaring mistakes and GLARING omissions that you can easily point out.

Also, during you new gafs make sure you have your spouse/significant other or family member with you if possible to back you up and clairify your satements. This is really important. Further statements in support of claim from co-workers aout how you have chaned at work and how i has affectd your work haits are equally important. Remember the F in GAF is functionality. Statements which supporta decrease or marked change in functionalit directly affect the rating.

*** sorry about the spelling...nw kyboar is driving me nuts ***

[Hoppy]

Another two cents worth. Pay particular attention to the way the rating schedule differentiates between a schedular rating and tdiu. The symptoms of confusion needing note takers etc. might be covered by the schedular rating. Most of the people I know on tdiu got the rating after they had not had any motivaion to even seek work for 3 to 5 years. Aslo, they were actually compelled not to work by by a series of negative events that occurred in the work place prior to their dropping out of the labor market. I am not saying that this is a requirement. However, it was just the facts of the cases that were given tdiu.

[Shalia]

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

What's a "schedular difference between TDIU?" or whatever it said? I don't even know where I'd look.

I've been told by multiple doctors at teh VA to get IU. I just didn't think I needed it till this summer.

Shalia

[Shalia]

What's an IME as well?