Veterans Affairs (VA) claims can be difficult to work with because of the sometimes daunting requirements. The VA wants evidence about how an injury occurred, whether it's related to the military and how much you're currently suffering because of the injury. Although the questions seem simple at first, there's a lot of medical evidence that goes behind determining whether you need disability compensation or if the injury needs to be reviewed and treated as an outpatient issue. If you're tired of being denied or being sent to basic medical visits for a much bigger problem, consider a few ways that enhanced evidence and legal assistance could push your claim further.
The Delayed Treatment Phase
After filing a claim for an injury, it's understandable that the VA wants to treat your injury first. If they can fix the problem as soon as possible, you can live a healthier life and the long-term costs of the injury can be mitigating by solving problems earlier. Unfortunately, the plan does not always work as intended.
Some visits to VA hospitals and clinics may not be enough to solve your problems. If you have back or leg pain, you may receive generic advice for exercise and a package of pain medication attempting to solve the problem with pain relief. Although there are many doctors in the medical system who seek to truly diagnose the problem, the past dependence on pain medication has not yet left the VA system despite major changes to the system.
During all of these medical visits, you could be wasting time that could be spent enhancing your claim. If the visits do not yield new results that could support your injury claim or appeal, ask for referral paperwork to see a medical professional outside of the VA system. All VA regions are different and you may receive different levels of resistance (or no resistance at all with added support) with getting new medical care.
Independent Medical Care And Legal Advice
The point of getting an outside-VA opinion is not just to have a second opinion. To build your documentation, you'll need a medical team that isn't avoiding your claim because of its difficulty or other situations.
If you don't know where to find a medical team that could help with your claim, contact a personal injury attorney. An attorney has experience with examining claim issues, building new claims based on past, successful claims and contacting people who can bring attention to your claim or appeal if it's been idle in the system for longer than you'd prefer.
The attorney likely has connection with medical professionals who have experience in injury claim systems. Not all doctors and nurses are specifically trained in claim systems, and may not know the most efficient ways to perform examinations. With a claim-experienced team, you can benefit from documentation, photos or even videos if necessary--all of which can point out the obvious and immediate importance of your injury.
Contact a personal injury lawyer (like those at Barton Smith & Barton LLP) to add more structure to your claim.
Share13 October 2015
