Your C&P Exam, Start to Finish

C&P stands for Compensation and Pension. The VA orders this exam when it needs more medical information before deciding a claim. If your file already has enough, the VA can review your records instead and skip the appointment.

The exam is done by a VA clinician or by a contract examiner working for one of the VA's vendors. Some happen in person; others run by phone or video. Depending on how many conditions are on the table, it can last 15 minutes or well over an hour.

Three things about it catch people off guard:

• Nobody treats you. The examiner documents your condition and won't prescribe anything.
• Nobody decides your claim in the room. The examiner can't tell you a result. A VA rater makes the decision later, using the report along with everything else in your file.
• The examiner fills out a set form. It's called a Disability Benefits Questionnaire, or DBQ, and its questions line up with the rating criteria for your condition. Sometimes the VA also asks the examiner whether your condition is "at least as likely as not" related to service.

You can't book a C&P exam yourself. The VA or its contractor reaches out by letter, phone or email, so keep your address and phone number current on VA.gov and answer unfamiliar numbers for a while after you file.

Once you have a date:

1. Read the criteria for your condition in our rating guides. A back exam measures how far you can bend. A migraine exam asks how often attacks put you down. A mental health exam focuses on how symptoms affect work and relationships.
2. Keep a short symptom log for two or three weeks: the date, what flared, how long it lasted, and what you couldn't do.
3. Send new private records before the appointment so they're already in your file.
4. Bring what you actually use. A knee brace, a cane, hearing aids, a list of current medications.

If the date won't work, tell the VA facility or the contractor at least 48 hours ahead. Contract exams can be moved only once, and the new date has to fall within five days of the original. If nothing in that window works, tell the contractor, then call the VA so it can start scheduling over when you're available. Either way, rescheduling slows the claim down.

Exams often open with a casual "How are you doing?" A reflexive "doing fine" can end up in the report. Answer the medical question instead: what hurts, how often, and what it stops you from doing.

• Describe your typical day and your worst day. Joint and spine exams are supposed to account for flare-ups and repeated use, so say how often flare-ups come and what you lose during one.
• Stop moving when the pain starts, and say out loud that it hurts. The point where pain begins is part of what gets measured.
• Don't push through to look tough, and don't stretch the truth either. Examiners note when what you say doesn't match what they observe.
• Bring up what they skip, like missed workdays or medication side effects.
• For a mental health exam, bring notes with dates and examples so you aren't rebuilding the worst moments from memory in front of a stranger.

Skipping a C&P exam without a good reason has real consequences under VA rules:

• On an original compensation claim, the VA decides it on whatever evidence is already in the file. If the file is thin, that usually means a denial or a low rating.
• On a claim for increase or a Supplemental Claim, the claim is denied.

Good cause covers things like illness or a hospital stay and a death in your immediate family. The VA's own guidance also mentions terminal illness and homelessness. If something like that kept you away, contact the VA quickly and explain in writing. You can upload a letter through the claim status tool on VA.gov. With good cause, the VA schedules a new exam.

The examiner won't hand you results. To see the final report, you request it from the VA using VA Form 20-10206, the Freedom of Information Act or Privacy Act request. You can submit it online, by mail, or in person at a VA regional office.

When it arrives, check whether the examiner:

• Recorded the flare-ups and limits you described
• Got basic facts right: which side, which dates, which job you held
• Gave a reason for any opinion on service connection, instead of a bare yes or no

While the claim is still open, your own doctor can fill out a public DBQ for many conditions and submit it to the VA. The VA won't pay for that, and some DBQs aren't released to outside providers at all, including the medical opinion form and the initial PTSD, hearing loss and tinnitus, and TBI questionnaires. After a decision, an inadequate exam can support a Higher-Level Review, or a private medical opinion can be new evidence in a Supplemental Claim. Filing within a year of the decision also protects your effective date.