What is a Disability Benefits Questionnaire?

Disability Benefits Questionnaire (DBQ) is a form any veteran can download, take to their primary care doctor, and get a medical evaluation for veteran’s disability benefits. These forms can be found on the VA’s website, and will hopefully help streamline the notorious VA backlog. By allowing veterans to be evaluated by their own doctors instead of a VA health care facility, veterans can get evaluated much faster.  

Disability Benefits Questionnaire’s use standard medical language and a simple checkmark system so anyone with a medical license can easily fill-out a VA DBQ and send it to the VA without any communication errors.

There is a separate DBQ for each disability, so veterans need to be sure to bring the right form to the evaluation. DBQ’s cover more than 70 different medical conditions, some are very specific and others are broader. The following conditions can not be evaluated using a VA DBQ:

• Initial Examination for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Hearing Loss and Tinnitus
• Residuals of Traumatic Brain Injury
• Cold Injury Residuals
• Prisoner of War Examination Protocol
• Gulf War Medical Examination
• General Medical Examination for Compensation Purposes
• General Medical Examination for Pension Purposes

The VA feels that these conditions are best evaluated at a VA facility because of the specialized training and/or equipment needed to properly evaluate the medical condition.

Once the doctor has completed the Disability Benefits Questionnaire, the doctor’s office or the veteran can mail or fax the form to the VA Regional Office that will be processing the claim.