VA Office of the Inspector General Report Exposes C&P Exam Vendor Issues (by Jennifer Morrell, Delaware Law School Veterans Law Clinic)

Last month, the VA Office of the Inspector General (VAOIG) released a report exposing the subpar performance of the companies providing Compensation & Pensions examinations (C&P exams) for veterans in connection with their claims and appeals. The report does not come as a shock to anyone practicing veteran benefits law, but it should be alarming to the general public and to the veteran population. Why? The bottom line is that the contractors are making a significant number of mistakes, they were not being held accountable for the mistakes, and the mistakes were not being communicated to the VA employees who were issuing decisions based on these erroneous exams. All three companies were charged with maintaining an accuracy level of 92 percent. However, all three vendors have been below that threshold since at least 2017.  One vendor’s accuracy rate has been between 66-74 percent since 2017. The second vendor’s accuracy rate has been 72-78 percent since 2017. The third vendor’s accuracy rate has been between 87-88 percent since 2017. The VAOIG made four specific recommendations to improve the program, and VA—as of the date of the report—has taken action on at least two recommendations and has plans for corrective action regarding the final two recommendations.  

The report, released June 8, can be found here.