There is an important distinction to be made between Vet Comp & Pen’s services and those of a Veterans Service Officer (VSO). A trained and accredited VSO helps Veterans understand and apply for any VA benefits they may be entitled to, including compensation, education, vocational rehabilitation and employment, home loans, life insurance, pension, health care, and burial benefits. In addition to assisting Veterans and their families with VA claims, VSOs also sponsor a range of Veteran-centric programs, such as providing transportation to and from VA medical center appointments, funds and volunteers for disaster relief, and grants.
Veterans Service Officers are accredited by the VA. The accreditation process for VSOs is pretty simple: They have a simple background check, and they have to study and pass an exam about the basic VA disability claim process. They have to be knowledgeable about the many services that are available to Veterans in their area. It’s not difficult to become a Veterans Service Officer.
The unfortunate reality is that VSOs are overworked. They have huge caseloads in many areas. They simply cannot provide the time and attention that Veterans really need to get the compensation they medically, legally and ethically qualify for. It used to be that the forms for filing claims had to be filled out manually, and VSOs could help Veterans fill those forms out, acting as power of attorney to sign and then file the claim for the Veteran.
But assistance with filling out forms is not what Veterans are struggling with when it comes to getting the benefits that they deserve. It only takes 10 minutes for a Veteran to file a new VA disability claim. It’s not challenging to walk someone through the process.
What Veterans need is accurate, appropriate, detailed medical evidence to support their claims. At Vet Comp & Pen, our experience has shown that if you rely solely on your C&P examination to determine your disability and rating level, whether or not a new VA disability claim could be service-connected, you are not covering all the bases. The system is overloaded right now, and the VA is understaffed. A C&P examiner might have 10 or 15 minutes to examine you and fill out a complete disability benefits questionnaire. Think about how short an appointment that is. They may not ask all of the questions they need to ask to dig deeper and capture your disability level and determine what your rating should be.
The C&P examiner might also not be knowledgeable about how a secondary disability may be related to a current service-connected disability.
At Vet Comp & Pen Medical Consulting, we can review the medical evidence that exists. If you don’t have the medical evidence that you need to support an increased rating or support a secondary VA disability claim, we can help you develop that evidence. A Veteran must document their level of disability as soon as possible because their rating will date back to that original documentation.
It’s very important that when a Veteran files a new VA disability claim, they provide evidence that they suffer a current disability that is compensable. Many Veterans file a claim without adequate evidence, and they don’t even get a C&P exam – they simply get a wrongful denial. Don’t let that happen to you.
The ultimate distinction between a VSO and Vet Comp & Pen comes down to process experts vs. professional medical consulting. We are professionals in understanding the medical evidence needed to give you the best chance to get the rating and the compensation you medically, legally and ethically qualify for.
Let Vet Comp & Pen review your case to see if you have the medical evidence you need to support an increased VA disability rating or support a secondary VA disability claim.
