What Are Favorable Findings in VA Disability Claims ? | All You Need To Know

Leah explains the crucial concept of favorable findings in VA disability claims. These are positive acknowledgments by the VA, such as confirmed diagnoses, in-service injuries, or credible lay statements, that remain on record even if a claim is denied. Leah walks viewers through how to find and interpret these favorable findings in their rating decision letters, why they’re valuable in appeals, and how they can guide future claims. With clear examples and practical advice, she empowers veterans to better navigate the often-confusing VA disability process and encourages working with accredited legal professionals to strengthen their case.

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At Prestige Veteran Medical Consulting, a veteran-owned company, we specialize in Independent Medical Opinions (IMOs) known as Nexus letters.

The purpose of this channel is to empower YOU, the veteran, to take charge of your medical evidence and provide you with valuable educational tools and research to guide you on your journey. 

Understanding the unique challenges veterans face our commitment lies in delivering exceptional service and support.
Leveraging an extensive network of licensed independent medical professionals, all well-versed in the medical professional aspects of the VA claims process, we review the necessary medical evidence to incorporate in our reports related to your VA Disability Claim. 

Prestige Veteran Medical Consulting is not a law firm, accredited claims agent, or affiliated with the Veterans Administration or Veterans Services Organizations. However, we are happy to discuss your case with your accredited VA legal professional.

⚠️ DISCLAIMER
This video is not medical or legal advice and should not be substituted for advisement from your VSO, accredited agent, or Attorney.

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Episode Transcript

Leah Bucholz (00:06):
Guys, it's Leah B from Prestige Veteran Medical
Consulting. I'm a US Armyveteran physician assistant and
former compensation and pensionexaminer. So welcome back to the
Prestige channel. If you'renavigating the VA disability
process, there's a term youreally wanna be familiar with
and that is favorable findings.So what does that mean?
So in this video, we're gonnabreak that down. What are

(00:28):
favorable findings in VAdisability claims? Why do they
matter? How to use them to youradvantage? So let's just get
straight into it.
So what are favorable findingsin VA disability? So favorable
findings are like golden nuggetsin your VA decision letters,
those rating decision letters,which are super awesome and sort

(00:49):
of give you the keys to what'sgoing on. So since several years
now, VA has been legallyrequired to list any favorable
findings that they make duringthe decision process right there
in your rating decision letter.So this means that anytime VA
confirms something that supportsyour case, it must be
acknowledged in recording or itshould be, right? So let me give

(01:11):
you a few examples of that.
So favorable findings caninclude things like a confirmed
diagnosis of the condition, likeif you've got knee pain or back
pain, they're gonna say, hey, weconfirm that the person has
this. A verify in service event,injury or exposure, a medical
opinion linking your conditionto service, lay statements

(01:36):
accepted as credible can belisted in there. Acknowledgement
of continuity of symptoms overtime can be listed in your
rating decision. These are allpieces of that big puzzle that
VA is agreeing with. And that isreally huge, right?
So why does this matter? Whydoes that matter? So favorable

(01:56):
findings stay in your record,okay? Even if your claim is
denied right now today, thosefavorable findings are still
recorded. So if you and yourclaims agent appeal or file a
supplemental claim later, the VAprobably isn't going to reverse
those unless there's some kindof a clear error, right?
So they may help you support andstrengthen your case. So let's

(02:19):
say the VA denied you and deniedyour claim for a back condition,
but they made a favorablefinding that you had an in
service injury. That means theVA agrees that something
happened during your service.You just need stronger evidence
potentially connecting yourcurrent condition to that. So
boom, right?
Now you know where to focus yournext steps potentially. The VA
is gonna outline it and give youthose hopefully give you that

(02:41):
information. So always read thefavorable findings section
carefully. It can give youinsight into why your claim
might've been denied and why theVA does believe what they do
believe in your favor. Always,always work with an accredited
legal professional if you havequestions.
So a VSO, a claims agent or anattorney, they can be found on

(03:03):
va.gov. So some of these keytakeaways. Favorable findings
are things VA agrees with.Unless they're clearly wrong,
they're probably gonna bebinding to your case. You can
use them to support you and yourappeals.
Read that decision lettercarefully because the VA is
gonna explain what theirfindings are and sort of why

(03:24):
they made a specific decision,okay? The rating decision letter
will even talk about theevidence that was reviewed. Are
errors made in those ratingdecision letters? Yeah, of
course they can be. Butgenerally speaking, these rating
decision letters are gonna bepretty helpful and go over some
of that evidence that wasreviewed, favorable findings,

(03:46):
etcetera.
So if they say for example, hey,you have favorable finding of
degenerative, you had a backpain in service, we acknowledge
it on 07/07/1995. And anotherfavorable finding is that you
have a current back condition,right? They may say, it was

(04:07):
denied because there was no linkor nexus between the two. Well,
now you know, okay, VA is atleast acknowledging that I have
that in service event. VA isalso acknowledging that I have a
current medical condition.
I'm just missing that piece inthe middle, right? So you and
your legal professional can sortof focus on that or know how to
narrow it down, right? And youcan also know if maybe they made

(04:29):
a mistake. So they may sayfavorable findings, none, right?
But you know that you were seenin service five times.
Maybe that's a key to you tosay, oh, maybe they missed
something. Maybe my recordsweren't looked at right. It
could be a key or a map tohelping you see what your next
step might be, and it could alsobe a key or a map to

(04:51):
inaccuracies or things thatmight have been missed. That
evidence section can be superhelpful too. That's usually on
like the second page orsomething.
It talks about all the thingsthat they reviewed. So Doctor.
Smith, your treating orthopedicsurgeon wrote you a letter and
they don't have that in theevidence section, they could
have mislabeled it and labeledit something else or

(05:14):
miscategorized it or maybe theyjust never received it or
mishandled it or misfiled it orwhatever. And these are things
that you and like I said, ifyou're working with a accredited
legal professional, especiallyone that has access to the VBMS
or the system that they pull allthe records, they can sort of
look at all those items withyou, okay? And if you need
somebody like that, if you headover to va.gov, there's a great

(05:37):
search tool that will help youfind somebody that's in your
local area or anywhere.
You don't have to work withsomebody in your local area. I
had a VSO, fantastic guy,Anthony, love you. He was up in
New York State and I was here inTexas and he was just amazing.
So he helped me a ton. Samething with those accredited
claims agents and attorneys.

(05:57):
They don't necessarily have tobe in the state that you're in.
We're in a digital world. A lotof these hearings are done
virtually anyways. So I hopethis video was helpful to you
guys to understand whatfavorable findings were also so
that you can get used to lookingat those rating decision
letters. And I believe va.govhas put them on their website

(06:18):
now, which is amazing becausepeople used to have to call.
If you didn't have your claimsfile, which can take a little
bit to receive, if you didn'thave representation at all,
which you don't have to, youcould either request your claims
file and that could take quitesome time. Or if you just wanted
your rating decision letter, youcould call VA and they could

(06:39):
email you a copy or send you acopy. But now it's my
understanding, I'm pretty surefor probably about a year at
least now that VA is actuallyputting those in your va.gov
portal so you can go in thereand download it. Don't ask me
where exactly it is in there,but there's a way to navigate,
to find those rating decisionletters. And then again, go over
them because it And I'm nottalking about the cover sheet

(07:01):
because usually there's a coversheet that's like says, we made
a decision in your claim andthen it will say there's
enclosures including the ratingdecision letter and the rating
decision letter will give you agood breakdown of what you
claimed, what VA thought.
It's not gonna have your C and Pexams in there and stuff, but it
will have like it might havesome of the comments from the C

(07:24):
and P exams, it might not. ThoseC and P exams you have to get
separately. So I hope this washelpful. Again, that rating
decision letter can be a reallygood friend to you to understand
what the heck is going on. Sodon't give up, keep pursuing
those claims if you believesomething is related to your
service and utilize yourresources wisely, because there

(07:46):
are a lot of great folks outthere that, you know, your
county BSO or whoever who canassist you with that appeals
process.
Please So drop some comments,please like and subscribe, as
always thank you for watching.