If your compensation and pension (C&P) exam report has errors, get the final report, then sort each problem into one of three types: a fact the examiner recorded wrong, something you reported that was left out, or a medical conclusion you disagree with. For each one, quote the passage, name the record that shows otherwise, and say why it matters to the issue VA is deciding. While your claim is pending, send that as a short statement with the contrary record; after a decision, it becomes part of choosing a decision review.

Start with the actual report and any separate opinion or addendum. The examiner cannot give it to you; the guide to requesting your C&P exam report covers Form 20-10206 and the other routes. A decision letter's summary of the exam is not the whole report.

Separate the kinds of disagreement

What you foundWhat to compareWhat your note should say
Wrong date, side of body, treatment or eventThe dated record and page, or what you know firsthand"The report says X. The record dated Y says Z."
A symptom or work effect left out or misdescribedYour notes from the time, earlier statements, treatment recordsWhat you reported, without inventing an exact quote you cannot remember
An opinion that ignores a key recordThe opinion's stated history and the record's passageThe missing or wrong premise, and whether the reasoning depends on it
A medical judgment that differs from another clinician'sBoth opinions and their explanationsThe disagreement and its support; do not call a difference of opinion a typo

Here is a fictional entry: "The May 6 report says I missed no work. My employer's attendance record dated April 14, pages 2 and 3, shows three absences for appointments. I told the examiner about the appointments but do not remember the exact words. Please add this record to my claim file and consider whether it changes the description of how the condition affects my work." That is narrower and easier to check than a claim that the whole exam was bad.

A wrong premise can cost an opinion its weight

In Board decision A25070945 (August 21, 2025), an April 2022 VA opinion against service connection for traumatic brain injury (TBI) mentioned only a childhood fall. It did not address the veteran's reported in-service head injuries or an August 2021 VA exam that had diagnosed TBI. The Board said the April 2022 opinion "appears based on incorrect facts and an incomplete review of the claims file," cited Nieves-Rodriguez v. Peake, 22 Vet. App. 295 (2008), and gave it no probative weight. It then relied on the August 2021 exam and granted service connection for TBI. Other issues in that decision had their own outcomes.

That is the question to answer for each row of your worksheet: which premise is wrong or missing, where is the record that shows it, and how does the examiner's reasoning depend on it?

What usually follows a finding of a bad exam

Expect a new or corrected opinion, not an immediate grant. In Claim Raven's analysis of 2024 to 2025 Board decisions, the Board found the VA exam inadequate in 38,115 condition records. Where the inadequate exam was tied to the outcome (27,680 records), 78.0% were remanded for more work rather than granted or denied. These are appeals that were already disputed, so the figures describe the Board's pattern, not your odds. The examiner-specialty analysis shows which kinds of exams draw the most adequacy findings, and the inadequate C&P remand case walks through one remand.

If your claim is still pending

VA's claim exam page lists ways to report a bad exam experience: the contractor's survey, a letter placed in your claim file, the contractor that scheduled the exam, VA's benefits line, or a regional office. A survey reports conduct; it does not put evidence in your file. To add the contrary record and your statement, use VA's pending-claim upload route, name the exam and issue, and keep the confirmation. Never alter the original report.

VA's Privacy Act page also explains how to ask VA to amend a record that is inaccurate or incomplete. Requests to amend benefits records go to the Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act officer at your VA regional office; requests to amend VA health records go to the Privacy Officer at the medical facility or through My HealtheVet Secure Messaging. An amendment request does not rewrite a medical opinion and does not replace responding in the claim itself.

Claim Raven's help center has a step-by-step checklist for an incomplete or inaccurate C&P exam, including a note to write right after the exam.

If a decision has already arrived

Check whether the record that corrects the report was already in your file before the decision. If it was, a Higher-Level Review can look at that existing record, and its optional informal conference is a call to point out the error; it takes no new evidence. If the correcting record is new, a Supplemental Claim can consider new and relevant evidence. A records request or amendment request does not stop the review deadline in your decision letter.

Copyable fact-and-source table

Report page and exact passageType: fact, omission or opinionYour source, page and dateWhy it matters to this issueIn VA's file before the decision?Action taken and receipt
Unknown / yes / no
Unknown / yes / no

To put what you observed firsthand into a clear statement, Claim Raven's free personal statement builder works without an account. Claim Raven sells other claim-preparation tools; this one cannot change a medical opinion or order a new exam.

Sources and scope

Checked September 23, 2026: VA's claim exam page, pending-claim upload page, Higher-Level Review and Supplemental Claim pages, the Privacy Act request page, and the full text of A25070945. Board figures come from Claim Raven's analysis of 2024 to 2025 Board decisions and count condition records, not veterans. The attendance-record entry is fictional.