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Not all VA contract exams are accurate (per the VA’s own OIG)

Per the VA’s OIG “contract exams are a significant investment, and VA has spent nearly $6.8 billion since fiscal year 2017. Some of the exams produced by vendors have not met contractual accuracy requirements. As a result, claims processors may have used inaccurate or insufficient medical evidence to decide veterans’ claims. Therefore, it is vital for VBA to improve the governance and accountability of the program.

The OIG found that the contractors QTC, VES and LHI “failed to consistently provide VBA with the accurate exams required by the contracts.” The OIG notes that “ALL THREE VENDORS HAVE BEEN BELOW THE CONTRACT’S 92% ACCURACY REQUIREMENT SINCE AT LEAST 2017.” Most errors– including a significant number that “had the potential to affect claims decisions–” aren’t corrected before the claims processors decided the claims per the OIG.

See: https://www.va.gov/oig/publications/report-summary.asp?id=5152

If you’re in a situation where an inaccurate, incomplete or otherwise flawed C&P examination is impacting your claim, I’d be happy to give it an independent look for a second opinion. Even the VA’s own OIG notes that many of these exams have essentially been inaccurate. Sometimes these exams are simply inadequate and you need another psychologist to point out the errors that were made or fill-in-the-gaps due to contractors racing to get exams done quicky as opposed to acquiring all of the necessary information for a rating decision.

I can perform in-person exams in Columbus, Ohio and telehealth exams to more than half the states.

Todd Finnerty, Psy.D.