What Is a VA Compensation & Pension (C&P) Exam, and How Do I Prepare?

A compensation and pension examination, or C&P exam for short, is a medical examination provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs, typically to identify the cause of the medical condition that you filed a VA disability claim for. It can, in other types of claims, evaluate how severe that condition is and potentially how it impacts your ability to work. Many veterans are intimidated by this process because it involves you going to the VA, likely the closest VA facility that’s nearest to you, where you’ll be interviewed by a doctor, a nurse practitioner, a physician assistant, or even a nurse. It’s an unpredictable process, and the results of that will vary. Many veterans walk away from it feeling like they’re going to get denied, and they oftentimes are. The VA will order these exams, and many veterans feel like VA orders these exams to gather negative evidence against them. So, it’s absolutely critical that you have a disability advocate who will adequately prepare you for those examinations. It will involve giving you a list of questions that you can anticipate during the examination process, from what your health was like prior to service, exactly what happened to you in service, meaning the who, what, where, when, and why, and then the continuity of your symptoms since then. So, it’s really important that you have somebody that runs through those questions with you so that you can adequately advocate for yourself during an absolutely critical part of the VA disability process.