Who Actually Does The Ratings?

[rway]

When you have multiple disabilities, and have multiple C&P exams, who actually does the ratings? A team, a rating officier, who? I know the C&P exams are the guide for someone to rate you, but I also know one person alone does not have the knowledge in all fields of diseases and injuries. The C&P doctors only draw an outline for the rating, correct?

clueless,

rway

[Ricky]

rway, at my VARO it is done by a bunch of high school drop outs that read at a 3rd grade level and the only job they can keep is a government job JUST KIDDING! It is done by one person. There is no requirement that the rater been medically astute. He/she only needs to be able to take what the doc says and apply it using the standards in CFR 38. Now as vets we all know that even a high school drop out could take such a task and perform well at it, however, the VA seems to have trouble doing so. The rater makes the determination which is most of the time reviewed quickly by a coach or senior rater on the team. There used to be a system in place in which there were MD's assigned to the rating teams however, that no longer exists. Really its just billy bob the rater and you.

Edited March 27, 2007 by Ricky

[rway]

The reason I am asking is because I read online, that if you have all the symptoms for a certain rating, then you should write all the qualifing symptoms along with the scheduled rating from CFR38, that you wish to obtain. This would let the rater know what you are looking to get. I think it is an excellent idea, if it is pretty clear cut. I know there are borderline, instances, but this would help the rater. I asked my DAV rep. and he said that it was a bad idea. What do you think? I don't think that it would hurt.

rway

[theotherguy]

Did your DAV rep elaborate on why he/she thought that would be a bad idea? Personally, I don't think it will help any but I don't think it would hurt either.

[Guest RickB54]

When you have multiple disabilities, and have multiple C&P exams, who actually does the ratings? A team, a rating officier, who? I know the C&P exams are the guide for someone to rate you, but I also know one person alone does not have the knowledge in all fields of diseases and injuries. The C&P doctors only draw an outline for the rating, correct?

clueless,

rway

The sam rater, unless for some reason something gets defered.