VES SERVICES

[PACBRED]

Has anyone had a C & P exam with a nurse practitioner that wasn't interested in your disability but was looking for ways to state that your condition has improved? I've always had chronic lower back pain and was recently awarded 40% in 2016. After receiving that rating I then pursued IU and of course they set me up for a C&P exam. So after spending the morning with the nurse practitioner the exam lasted less than 30 minutes. So she had asked me to do certain movements which I was unable to perform and she did not measure or use any device to conclude her decision. So after weeks of waiting for the results I receive a letter stating that I had a normal range of motion. I was highly upset and was furious with the outcome. I then submitted evidence that my condition has not improved. I am also collecting Social Security disability due to my lower back and I sent them proof that I am no longer employed since 11/2016 and they sent me a form to give to my employer?? Go figure.... So they proposed to reduce my lower back % from 40 to 0. It is now a year and they have not reduced my lower back rating. So just recently I receive a call from the C&P clinic to have another examination for my lower back. So I asked the receptionist the same question is it a doctor that will be performing the examination? She stated no it will be a nurse practitioner. I informed the receptionist that I do not wish to have a nurse practitioner give her medical opinion due to the previous np and her medical opinion. So she told me to contact the Regional office to schedule me another C&P exam with a non va medical facility for this lower back C&P exam. So I receive an email from VES Services stating that I have a c&p exam with one of their medical providers at this facility. So it happens to be my old VA primary care Doctor who is no longer practicing at the VA clinic but with this VES Services agency. My concern is if I know this Doctor isn't a specialist for  my lower back why bother going through with this examination knowing that she was a primary care physician and not a back specialist ? I tried calling several chiropractors to see whether they can perform my C&P exam on my behave rather than the VES Services and they all seem to say that they don't do that examination. So now I'm concerned that they are really trying to reduce my 40% to 0. Does anyone have any suggestion or advice to this matter or have gone through with this process??? I have until next week to find a back specialist who is willing to perform the C&P exam before attending this VES Service examination. Anyone help.

[PACBRED]

So the saga continues. So prior to this C&P I have tomorrow with the VES contractors I had a MRI appt. So I go and pickup my report from release of information at the clinic. I was so upset with the report. The report nearly stated that my back healed itself overnight. The report states no herniated disc or bulging disc. The opening statement of report states 5 lumbar type vertebral bodies. No vertebral body fracture, suspicious lesion or spondylolisthesis/spondylolysis. No foci of abnormal bone marrow signal intensity. So throughout the report they mention no disc herniation or bulge. Mild degenerative facet arthrosis. Mild disc space narrowing; no disc herniation/bulge. Degenerative facet arthrosis with ligamentum flavum thickening. Mild central canal stenosis. Mild right neural foraminal narrowing. Minimal posterior disc bulge with tiny posterior annular fissure.  So this same clinic I was complaining about my left hip and so they did MRI and it came back normal??? What the f. I have 5 years of MRI and cat scan from other clinics that states other wise. So now I'm pist and confused. I'm taking 1800 mg of gabapentin for pain because my primary care doctor doesn't know what to give me for the pain she did prescribe me with methocarbamol and naproxen . I had an allergic reaction that I ended getting an epi pen. So my doctor checked my list of meds and put me back on gabapentin  due to my allergic reaction to the previous meds she prescribed me. All the MRI from the other VA clinics and University of Pennsylvania Spine institute states herniated and bulging disc. These Mri that I have dates back to 2014-2018 stating all of the above then the 2019 MRI states normal finding with degenerative changes maybe spondylolisthesis/spondylolysis. Anyone ever experience this type of overnight miracle of the back? SMDH 

[Richard1954]

"Has anyone had a C & P exam with a nurse practitioner that wasn't interested in your disability but was looking for ways to state that your condition has improved?"

 

I think the better question would be who has not had this problem.  Three years ago I had a NP who did a c/p exam on my left knee,  she decided it was not as likely stating it was a slop in my back yard that caused my left knee injury ( my claim was the service connected right knee buckled and I fell tearing  the meniscus of the left knee) ..  then 32 days later she went back and added a new statement citing part of a line from a document stating that an injury in one leg does not cause an injury in the other leg... the problem was that no such line existed in the document,  and the document was dealing with people who had a limp not knee problems. I  appealed the denial, and in the process made the examiner look like she was stuck on stupid. I  was afforded a new c/p exam from another N/P who also was a licensed chiropractor,. This guy spent 5 minutes looking at my knees, and 30 minutes talking with me,  the end result  was it was more likely than not that the right knee caused the left knee injury. I was finally serviced connected for the left knee secondary to the right knee.  Literally, tomorrow I have another c/p exam for my right knee, the last time it was rated for it was in 1986. I have two separate ratings on the right knee, one for instability , and one for limitation of movement with a torn meniscus.  I am attempting  to get an increased rating for both conditions  I hope to go from  two 10% ratings to two 30% ratings.  

As to your back injury, I am rated 60% for my back injury, backs do not just heal and even with surgery they are never right again. If I were you I would seriously question the latest MRI and produce copies of the former medical evidence, requesting a new MRI and Xrays. Its more likely that somehow someone mixed up your medical results with someone else. 

 

By the way my exam tomorrow is with another NP, who is 45 miles from my home and who does nothing but va c/p exams. I have always complained that C/p exams should not be done by a NP in fact they should only be done by a doctor that is qualified in  a specific field. ( that is asthma- a pulmonary doctor, or knees and back orthopedic  doctors...)  A N/P or a family med doctor are not qualified to perform specialist exams and then answer the question as to service connected or not... But lets face it the VA does not give a damn about the qualifications of an examiner, they just want to save money on the cost of the exam, so basically allow anyone in medicine to perform these exams.

Edited May 22, 2019 by Richard1954

[ShrekTheTank]

7 hours ago, PACBRED said:

So the saga continues. So prior to this C&P I have tomorrow with the VES contractors I had a MRI appt. So I go and pickup my report from release of information at the clinic. I was so upset with the report. The report nearly stated that my back healed itself overnight. The report states no herniated disc or bulging disc. The opening statement of report states 5 lumbar type vertebral bodies. No vertebral body fracture, suspicious lesion or spondylolisthesis/spondylolysis. No foci of abnormal bone marrow signal intensity. So throughout the report they mention no disc herniation or bulge. Mild degenerative facet arthrosis. Mild disc space narrowing; no disc herniation/bulge. Degenerative facet arthrosis with ligamentum flavum thickening. Mild central canal stenosis. Mild right neural foraminal narrowing. Minimal posterior disc bulge with tiny posterior annular fissure.  So this same clinic I was complaining about my left hip and so they did MRI and it came back normal??? What the f. I have 5 years of MRI and cat scan from other clinics that states other wise. So now I'm pist and confused. I'm taking 1800 mg of gabapentin for pain because my primary care doctor doesn't know what to give me for the pain she did prescribe me with methocarbamol and naproxen . I had an allergic reaction that I ended getting an epi pen. So my doctor checked my list of meds and put me back on gabapentin  due to my allergic reaction to the previous meds she prescribed me. All the MRI from the other VA clinics and University of Pennsylvania Spine institute states herniated and bulging disc. These Mri that I have dates back to 2014-2018 stating all of the above then the 2019 MRI states normal finding with degenerative changes maybe spondylolisthesis/spondylolysis. Anyone ever experience this type of overnight miracle of the back? SMDH 

Did they give you a copy of the MRI?  I know a couple of things about backs and that many problems never go away.  I would talk to them, but tell them you feel the MRI report is incorrect.  List all of the issues with you back and ask how all of those conditions from the 2018 MRI can miraculously disappear?  I would then ask for another MRI from another clinic and request a copy of the MRI.  I would then explain all of your pain and where and how it affects you.  Then explain all of the pain medication you are on.  

If this does not work I would then go to/call the Medical officer at the VA hospital in charge of C&P.  Appraise them of the situation and let them know you feel the MRI is not correct as none of you pain has gone away.  You also have the choice to call the Whitehouse Hotline and I have heard they can help also.

[Berta]

The VARO direct  tried to tell me my husband's 6 areas of significant brain damage, due to proven VA malpractice were somehow 'cured' at death. Her point was he was 100% Total for the stroke but not Permanent.

My medical evidence (most of it from the VA itself) revealed his brain damage was certainly Permanent when he died- it is even in the autopsy, and contributed to his death per my FTCA/1151 awards.

A former VA doctor told me (I had to pressure her to even give him a CT  scan) that the doctors at Syracuse read the Scan over the phone to her and then she told the veteran, (hospitalized for weeks by then with totally wrong diagnosis) that the scan revealed he had a brain tumor and they were prepping him to go to Syracuse for brain surgery-my husband was alarmed at first but suddenly said maybe the surgery will cure my PTSD-

I immediately went to the nurses station to get a hold of the Neuro doctor at Syracuse- and when he got on the phone, I told him what she said and that I am familiar with brain tumor, as my Army husband had one. I know neurology-He said he did not say the veteran had a brain tumor-but they would do an MRI to find out what is wrong  and he read  the whole scan report to me.I said right away- no, this is not a tumor, it sounds like an ischemic stroke-----he agreed and that is what it was. 

You have to fight this MRI report-we deal with idiots at every level of the VA.

Google the person who prepared the result narrative.

Dont forget there are possibly 12 dead veterans or more and an undetermined number of living veterans, whose pathology reports were all wrong and caused the Fayetteville AR  VAMC to contact over 33,000 vets who had gotten wrong  reports from him. He was actually a VA employee and not a contractor, so the lawyers lined up at their public meetings, and the VA had to advise many of their 1151 and FTCA rights.

When the direct said this was a "local incident' at the televised Town Hall I called thr WH Hot line immediately- I guess they didnt want the Secretary or even most of the public to know about it.

[vetquest]

I was once evaluated at the UCSF thermoregulatory lab and they put me in a heating and cooling blanket and tested my reaction to heat and cold.  They noted that they had never previously seen such low readings of sweat production and noted the mental disability that occurs when I was heated.  A evaluator for the VA put me under heat lamps and used litmus paper to determine if I was sweating and tried to invalidate the previous testing.  An accredited lab got positive results and an inexperienced doctor invalidated the results in slipshod testing.  Guess who won at the BVA though.