Strange C&P Exam
I'll start by saying I immediately emailed my VSO the way the exam was conducted and waiting on a response.
Yesterday I had my first exam with LSGS, going over a TBI DBQ. This was my third exam for this. My first exam last year was a five minute conversation on the phone and the examiner said that concludes the exam. A month later I received a denial of TBI and Migraines.
I got 2 more buddy statements from another witness to the incident and the soldier who had to watch over me the last few days of the training event.
Submitted supplemental claim, denied again. Got with my VSO and we found that the VA didn't actually send my diagnosis of TBI and Migraines to the examiner. Submitted HLR and the VA came back with DTA Error with favorable evidence for both.
My second exam was at the end of May this year and that examiner txt me from his personal cell at 7am saying he was double booked for my appointment time and I would need to reschedule or come in earlier to not get a delay. He said the whole process only takes 10-15 minutes. I changed my schedule and went to his office 3 hours before my original appointment time. I waited in the lobby for 10 minutes and he came in the door late apologizing and thanking me for being flexible. Their system was down so he said he would write down all the notes in a word doc and submit them later when the system was back up. He was right, I was in the exam room for no more than 10 minutes. He then followed me out got back in his car and sped off.( I have a personal statement prepared and saved the text conversation and sent the docs to my VSO). A few weeks ago the VA denied it saying that the results had conflicting data and needed to schedule me a new exam.
Yesterday (virtual appointment this time), the doctor with LSGS spoke to an AI voice recording service almost the entire time of the 1.5 hour exam. He audibly documented any interaction he was doing. Ex: opening veterans document 12B, copying data from doc 12b to new form, computer analyze document 42C and extract relevant data to current TBI claim notes. I didn't speak for the first 20 minutes except to state my full name, which the doctor then said because my computer can hear you I am going to repeat everything you say to record it. Then he asked me a yes or no question to the 10 facets of TBI. Do you experience memory loss, emotional distress, disorientation, headaches, etc. finally after all of those another 20 minutes of silence and then he says that concludes the exam thank you.
I responded, sir I have not even explained a single symptom to you and only answered yes or no questions. He repeats what I said and then says waiting on the computer to respond, follows up with this exam is only the initial and symptom explanation/discussions are not required only a yes or no to the questions provided, further exams will be scheduled based on the provided answers.
Is this normal? None of my other exams have gone like this. It felt very robotic and as I stated i barely spoke the entire exam length. We never had a discussion. I thought when you answer yes to certain questions it basically adds new dbqs that are associated and further lengthens the exam time. I'm not sure why a specialist was needed for this since it was entirely administrative, a nurse could have gone through those questions if that's really how an initial TBI exam is to be conducted. My exam in May although was rushed, the doctor would still ask clarifying questions, how long do your migraines last, how many times a week, but requested i just give him short details.
This whole process has been very discomforting and I'm not sure what is going on with the VA.