Blumenthal & Murphy Introduce Bill to Improve Veterans' Medical Disability Exams

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) today introduced legislation to strengthen the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) process of evaluating the medical connection between a veterans’ medical condition and their military service when filing for VA benefits. When a veteran files a claim for disability compensation, VA often requires a medical disability exam to determine if a connection can be established between a condition being claimed and a veteran’s military service.

“Veterans deserve a VA system where their disability benefits claims are fairly and accurately decided in a timely manner. Strengthening and streamlining veterans’ medical disability exams is a critical part of doing that, especially as demand for these exams has increased dramatically in response to successes of the PACT Act. Our legislation will help improve this process for veterans in Connecticut and across the nation—giving VA resources to hire more medical disability examiners, improve training for staff, and access rural veterans living in hard-to-reach areas,” said Blumenthal.

“For years, veterans in Connecticut have been telling me about the huge problems they are having just trying to schedule a disability claim examination through the VA. Even when they can make an appointment, they often struggle to find reliable transportation to get there. It’s unacceptable, and I’m proud to join with Senator Blumenthal to introduce the Medical Disability Examination Improvement Act, which will streamline the VA’s disability exam system and ensure every veteran with a disability stemming from their service has full access to the benefits they earned and deserve,” said Murphy.

Between October 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, VA completed 2.5 million exam requests—52,000 more exams requests than the previous year due to the expansion of benefits under the PACT Act. The Senators’ Medical Disability Examination Improvement Act would ensure VA can handle this increasing workload by bolstering VA’s ability to hire more medical disability examiners and improving training for VA claims processing staff to determine if a medical disability exam is necessary if there’s already sufficient existing evidence to grant a claim.

Among its many provisions, the Medical Disability Examination Improvement Act would:

• Strengthen VA’s ability to hire medical disability examiners to conduct exams;
• Require VA to develop a mechanism for contract examiners to transmit evidence introduced by veterans during their exam for their claim; and
• Require VA to study and develop a plan to improve rural veterans’ access to quality and timely medical disability examinations.

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