WHAT IS A NEXUS STATEMENT?
What is a Nexus letter?
A VA Nexus letter also called an Independent Medical Opinion is a detailed report created by a neutral, third-party doctor that explicitly links a Veteran's disability and current medical conditions to one or more injury events that occurred as a result of their military service. Its purpose is to help a Veteran appeal a previously denied disability rating increase claim. For this appeal to be successful, a Nexus Letter from a qualified medical professional is crucial when it comes to obtaining service-connected disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The "Nexus Statement" is the actual requirement of a 3-prong test to get service connected.
How Do I Get a VA Disability Nexus Letter?
Getting a high quality medical review, or Nexus Letter to help increase your VA disability rating can be a complex process. Southwest Law Firm will coordinate with a well qualified medical professional to review your disability status and help draft documentation that you can present to the VA with your disability claim.
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What does it take to get service connected?
Nexus Statements are so important, we dedicated an entire page to explain why. There are three requirements to winning a VA disability claim.
1. A current diagnosis. This means that you must have a condition and not just symptoms. For example, it is not sufficient to say that you have back pain. You must have a diagnosis such as degenerative disc disease. This takes valid, competent medical information and documents. In addition, you must have symptoms that are severe enough to warrant compensation. This means that your symptoms are severe enough to get payment under VA regulations. To determine the severity of your symptoms the VA will look at your medical records to gauge your symptoms. The more severe the more payment you receive. Again, this will require medical evidence.
2. An injury, illness, disease, or event acquired while you were serving in the military.
3. A nexus statement. This means that you must submit evidence and proof that your current disability was caused by an injury, illness, disease or event that occurred in service. This requires valid, competent medical information and documents. We may ask you to hire an expert doctor to provide the opinions that we need.
The nexus, or link, between your current disability and an in-service event is the hardest of the three to prove. A solid nexus statement is provided by way of an independent medical opinion (IMO) or an independent medical evaluation (IME). The IMO/IME is a professionally detailed report. The IMO/IME is written by a neutral third-party doctor or medical professional who is well versed in VA terminology and requirements. As a standard for VABenefits4Vets, we strictly only work with doctors. Simply put, a doctor's analysis (much like an attorney's analysis) carries much more weight than other types of medical professionals.