Dbqs - This Doctor Will Do Them

[ArmyDude1997]

Only musculoskeletal DBQs (back upper and lower, knees, feet, hips, shoulders, arms, hands, etc.). Nothing else. The VA does them for FREE but if you need help (i.e. your claim is taking too long, VA will not examine you, or you need a second opinion), this guy I believe is among the best most qualified orthopedic surgeons I've seen in my life. He will be fair so please bring all your evidence to him. He will get paid no matter the outcome (favorable or unfavorable) of the exam. I felt he was fair on my exam.

His contact information:

Regional Orthopaedic Medicine: Weiss David DO

Address: 201 Woolston Dr, Morrisville, PA 19067, United States

• Phone:+1 215-736-2410

IMPORTANT: His time is very limited because this practice is very busy. He did 3 (2 for claims for increase and one for new claim) DBQs for me and assured me that he could help other Veterans in a limited basis. He charged me $500 for all 3 which I thought was good. He also prepared a medical opinion for one of them. You should be LOCAL (NJ, PA, or even NY, DE, WV, or be willing to travel or flight to include hotel).

You can tell him if you want to that I referred you to him. Please be patient with him as I think he is a really good doctor but found the process with DBQs to be a bit tough, but he did them for me, and said he will help other Veterans if they call and adjust to his busy practice.

Just wanted to provide this information in case any Veteran needs it.

[Berta]

Thanks a lot

He might be the IM0 doc mentioned in this BVA decision.

"Dr. Weiss indicated in his report that the veteran had been
injured while jumping out of a helicopter repetitively in
Vietnam. Following examination, the diagnoses included
repetitive trauma disorder; herniated nucleus pulposus,
lumbosacral joint by MRI; post traumatic osteoarthritis,
lumbosacral spine; and myofascial pain syndrome. Dr. Weiss
concluded that the veteran had suffered a permanent
functional orthopedic impairment."

http://www.va.gov/vetapp99/files4/9935093.txt

This case was on remand and was prior to the VCAA Act.

Sometimes BVA decisions will hold the entire name or the initials of IMo doctors that could help others,regarding the same disability, if the initials can produce a name via a google search .

Edited June 12, 2015 by Berta

[ArmyDude1997]

Great info! He is a great physician. Cares a lot about his clients. I wanted to spread the word out to see if more Veterans will reach out to him.

[Okichewy1]

Cool little town there, used to live right down the road in Levittown. Wish I still did with a doctor that is willing to help out the Veterans like this.

[Andyman73]

ArmyDude,

Thanks for putting that out there. In another thread I asked if anyone knew of any Drs in SE PA, since they would be much closer to me than Dr. Bash. And Dr. Weiss is more in my price range, as well. I will copy his info, to have if and when I need to contact him.

Thanks again!

Semper Fi.

Andy

[dajoker12]

I am going to have to disagree with you.  I am a Veteran Service Representative for the Dept of Veterans Affairs for compensation on the rating side. For those unfamiliar with my job, there are two key figures processing compensation claims. RVSRs (raters) and VSRs; they do the medical side and we do the administrative side. Essentially my job is to do everything but rate the claims.  

That being said, I think that is foolish to advocate that DBQ's for musculoskeletal exams are the only worthwhile DBQs to submit.  One very worthwhile one to submit is Sleep Apnea. Yes, the VA will do it for free, but if you have a decent insurance policy, you can get DBQs done for a $25 co-pay w/ a medical opinion. One might make an argument that you could even essentially write up a medical opinion and save them the legwork and have them edit to their liking...........don't like the opinion........go to the next doctor and only submit the ones that are favorable to you. 

If you want to really cement your claim, get cross disciplines to and do multiple DBQs i.e. have an orthopedic surgeon and a podiatrist do foot and ankle DBQs and medical opinions. Have a chiropractor and an orthopedic surgeon do your knees, back, neck, hips, shoulders. Want to get sleep apnea, well, get a handful of "buddy statements" from people that you served with on active duty written on 21-4138 forms so that they become affidavits if you have no complaints/treatments/sleep study while on ACTIVE DUTY, submit them so they become part of your "C-file", see a sleep specialist for a sleep apnea DBQ, get a medical opinion for direct service connectedness...........make sure that he sees the buddy statements.........if you legitimately had sleep apnea in service, your buddies will make adequate statements. Then, if you have PTSD, see a psychologist and try to get sleep apnea secondary to PTSD. Double whammy. Lots of studies out there to corroborate that.

Make sure that you have your C-file.  Doctors filling out DBQs are supposed to have access to your C-file to adequately make a medical opinion. If you don't care about the medical opinion, then don't worry about it.

For presumptive issues such as gulf war i.e. chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, gastrointestinal, I wouldn't even bother trying to get a medical opinion as it will not carry much weight.

Again, DBQs accompanied by medical opinions, especially in number, are in your favor for getting a favorable decision. Don't like the PTSD rating that you just got last month............go right away and get a PTSD Review DBQ and Medical Opinion by a Psychiatrist, Ph.D. Psychologist or a Psychologist under a Ph.D. psychologist. 

Learn about the M 21-2 references.............google is your friend. Learn about the rating references...........google is your friend.............. Don't want your claim held up............take your damn time when filling out all of your paperwork and make sure everything is filled out completely and send us everything from the get-go.  I would suggest doing an intent to file call the 1800 827 1000 number, fax in a 21-0966 form etc.  That way everything will be back paid to whenever we receive that. Take your time filling everything out. If you want to claim dependents, have a 686c form filled out............every damn line that is there fill out.........don't have the information........get it.........I am guessing that you can get it quicker than 15-30 days, so get it. Have birth certificates of your kids and marriage certificate for your wife. We don't need social security cards....just numbers. Have records from private doctors scanned and ready to submit. If you have copies of your Service treatment records, DD 214's, OMPF (Personnel FIle) scan them and have them ready to submit (we still have to send out for them, but if we can't retrieve them, then we have them there ready to use as a last resort. If you are wanting to claim aid and attendance, have those forms scanned and ready to submit. Wanting to claim PTSD, have a 0781 or 0781/a scanned and ready to submit unless you were in combat and it is easily verified. Wanting to claim IU, have an 8940 and 4192 filled  out and scanned ready to submit. I would also suggest making a brief (5-6 sentences at most) statement on a 21-4138 for each contention you are claiming; be specific with what you are claiming.............don't say foot pain..........be more specific i.e. pes plan (flat foot)..........when did it start.......was an injury involved.........where did you initially get treated..........where have you continued to get treated............etc...   When filling out the 526ez be specific............ especially if you were in the reserves or the guard..........tell us the name of unit you were with, current address and contact information. If you have a line of duty reports (again, guard and reserves) better believe that you should submit those.  

It pays to take your time. You will be more likely to have a quicker turn around if you take your time and do everything completely.  If you don't like your rating, don't appeal it right away...........that should be the last resort.  Send it new and material (relevant) information. Do not get disheartened. For direct service connected exams, we can generally only send you out for exams if there is a complaint/treatment/injury in your service treatment records for a contention that you are making.  Secondary connected issues are different. This is why it is highly intelligent for anyone wanting to file a claim to actually be in possession of their service treatment records BEFORE filing for a claim.  It would also be intelligent to have a copy of your Personnel records which you can actually get off of DPRIS which can be accessed via va.gov or e-benefits if you got out of the service within the last twenty or so years.  If not, I would recommend downloading an SF 180 form and sending it out.........hopefully the government shutdown won't slow it down too much.  

Best of luck. 

 

[john999]

You know I served almost 50 years ago. Most of my closer friends at the time are either dead or I can't find them.  How are they going to step forward and write some statement that they remember me snoring or being sleepless when we were all sleep deprived and about half dead most of the time.