C&P exam question about thorasic spine & claim timelines

[Kihr]

I am a little confused, I have "psoriatic arthritis, also claimed as back condition" as my current and only rated condition 20%, which was from my initial claim 10 years ago.  They were submitted as 2 different items, "back pain" & "psoriatic arthritis" but combined.  Anyway, I submitted a claim in september for an increase to my P.A. and a few other new claims related to tgr P.A. and had C&Ps in November.  I have been waiting ever since with no updates, denials, deferrals, granted claims etc.  Last week I get a call for a contractor exam about my back.  I was a bit confused, about why I was having the exam but it is what it is so I went today.

The examiner said "you are not rated for a back condition, you have no official diagnosis for your back, it just says back pain."

"I don't know why you had an x-ray without a diagnosis, the x-ray said there was no arthritis in your back. So I don't know why they combine these as a single rating."

I am not entirely sure why I had this exam, it makes me a little nervous about all of this.  

1.) Any reasons my 5(in total including P.A. increase) claims would have no decisions made at all after nearly a year?

2.) Should I be prepared for bad news?  Is it likely they will just deny all of them because they have not done any grants approved?

3.) Has anyone had an issue like this they can shed some light?

4.) Assuming there are no further exams, is 4-6 weeks a good guess for a decision length from this C&P?

[Richard1954]

I know that C/P exams are stressful at least for most of us.  Recently , I had a exam from a contractor for my right knee injury of 1975 which has been service connected for a torn meniscus since 1986. The  examiner (another NP )stated two things to me.. 1. you have over 100,000 pages in your c/p file, and I am not going to read it    2. She indicated there was no  record of a torn meniscus in my records  even after  she noted that I had surgical scars on my knee for a surgery in 1996 conducted at the VA in Fayetteville NC.   Her c/p exam resulted in a denial....  for an increase, and 0% for the scars

I have been trying to get a copy of the exam since Jan 2019 and still don't have it so I still have no idea what she wrote or why she wrote it.. but.. I still filed my NOD preserving the award date and indicated in the NOD that I may added reasons for disagreement after I receive a copy of the exam.  I  have been very successful in discrediting c/p exams were examiners did not do the job correctly. 

Just because an examiner recommends denial, it just means you appeal and wait a while longer. 

The point I am making is most of these contracted examiners have no idea how to properly conduct an exam for C/P purposes, even though they do attend some minimal  training.    

Under the new system I have had awards two weeks after the C/P exam they are getting  fast but that just means they make more mistakes