physical exam-remedial request chances for a "yes" on the questionaire

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future.mil.mom

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Hello. My son is due to take his physical in three days for the US Coast Guard Academy. He filled out the Dodmerb questionaire and had a single "yes" for "bone or joint injury". He had a groin pull where the muscle pulled away from the bone in June of 2014. He required no treatment...nothing. Just a two/three month restriction from his sport. There is no "current condition" and hasn't been for years. We will be giving the Dodmerb doctor this info on the form. Is it worth it to call the treating doctor from 2014 and request the records now and postpone the actual physical until we have records in hand to present? Are we guaranteed that he will be given a "remedial" requesting all medical records for this? Or should we simply go to the appointment with our information and hope that the follow up will be nothing due to the insignificance of this? Any advice would be appreciated!!!
 
DodMerb is a Yes/No Pass/Fail kind of thing. If/When you get the DQ, then you will need that medical documentation for the waiver board. No harm in getting it now and being ready. Always a good idea.

Its been a couple of years since we went through this so I might not be saying this all correctly. But Finally I got it through my skull that dodmerb qualifies/disqualifies only... and another board looks at the supporting information and makes the decision to extend a waiver or not. So, getting a DQ is just the start of the process. The process for a waiver.

When my DS had a few "Yes" answers, he had to send in reports from Orthopod, Derm, etc. This request came after the exam. Some, they were happy with and there was no DQ : one issue he got a DQ for and we had to go through the waiver process. He eventually got a waiver.
 
Thanks so much for your reply! I appreciate your feedback! So....it sounds like no matter what we can expect that "the powers that be" will require written documentation from his 2014 doctor to verify that this injury was what we said it was, right? Even if we claim it was minor, with no treatment, and my DS has been cleared for years?
 
They may want a letter from the Doctor indicating he is "released for unrestricted activities".
You may not be able to submit it until they ask for it, having it ready could not hurt.
 
future.mil.mom said:
Thanks so much for your reply! I appreciate your feedback! So....it sounds like no matter what we can expect that "the powers that be" will require written documentation from his 2014 doctor to verify that this injury was what we said it was, right? Even if we claim it was minor, with no treatment, and my DS has been cleared for years?
Click to expand...
Yes.
 
LLJ said:
future.mil.mom said:
Thanks so much for your reply! I appreciate your feedback! So....it sounds like no matter what we can expect that "the powers that be" will require written documentation from his 2014 doctor to verify that this injury was what we said it was, right? Even if we claim it was minor, with no treatment, and my DS has been cleared for years?
Click to expand...
Yes.
Click to expand...
My DS and a friend of his were both DQ for medical stuff that they hadn't seen a doctor for since grade school.( completely different ) Both were granted waivers. But both had to go thru additional testing to show they were now healthy. It's good you are starting dodmerb now. We were super stressed still waiting for clearance/waiver in March. He started kinda late. One week he got the waiver and the next week he got the appointment.
 
Thanks. So...I am calling the 2014 doctor first thing tomorrow and request the medical records now. Assuming though that we go to the exam without any doctor records, about how long does it take to hear from the day of the exam to the day we would hear that they require the follow up medical records? And do we have to wait until we receive a "snail mail" letter on the request to be able to send the records? Just trying to minimize the time line on all this.....although I know I should be patient. Haha.
 
It should not take long to hear back.
Once you take the exam you be able to check status on the DoDMERB site, https://dodmerb.tricare.osd.mil/UserLogin.aspx
Once they ask for information you could contact the assigned Technician regarding methods of submitting other than mail.
My son was able to email the first batch. you will be able to see via status on line when they have been received and reviewed, also typically within a few days.
if they ask for records they may also ask for the letter I mentioned above in my earlier reply
 
My DS went thru his initial exam with his paperwork filled out. He had 2 past medical issues that I thought would be flagged for more info but were not, no further medical doc's required at all (I also had already requested files from DR to support, as you are inquiring about). A third issue, that we thought was nothing, is requiring remedials currently. Similar to what other poster has said, a letter clearing him from his DR.

My point is, there really is no way to know what will require more attention and what will not. My theory is that his past issues that we thought were more significant have had much time pass. His more recent one, less significant, has not had enough time (occurred in June). So I agree that it does no harm to reach out to your DR for records of a 2014 incident, it may be that enough time has passed that they wont even look at it. So I would not postpone exam to wait to have records in hand.
 
My DS took his DoDMERB physical back in August and then received a remedial before a final determination was made by DoDMERB. The remedial was only a form that he had to fill out and email it back to them. Once they received it they made a determination and he was qualified. Every situation I'm sure is different depending on the condition/injury/illness/etc. that you are dealing with but in my opinion I would just go to the exam and get the process going. If they need further documentation of further testing they will let you know. It is a process and the sooner you get the process going the better in my opinion.
 
Minor No Treatment - probably shouldn't have been reported at all. (for future applicants)

Don't prepare mounds of paperwork until DoDMERB requests something. Then provide exactly what they ask for and nothing more.

This is especially true with 'minor no treatment' injuries. Be prepared to explain that not only is it fully healed, candidate has resumed a very active physical lifestyle and speak to examples.

You are a long way from any 'waiver' action. If anything a simple remedial asking for a written statement that no issues continue.
 
Thank you all again for your feedback. You all have been very helpful and reassuring. At the end of the day on the form we stated we didn't even know if it constituted a "bone injury" that warranted a "yes" or "no". We did go to the exam yesterday and the doctor was very nice. He even complimented us that we were very thorough. He was pretty open that nothing unforeseen was noted by him during the exam, which was a huge relief...after all, ya never know, right?

So today I did actually speak to the 2014 doctor and he is fully aware of DOD possible inquiry and thinks, in his experience (sports ortho), they may not even pursue it since he has been fully recovered (playing multiple high school sports) for years now and as you noted needed no medical treatment for it (except to lay off his sport for a few months). I am crossing my fingers.
 
Well to give all an update, my DS today was given the DoDMERB status of "Qualified"! They did make remedial requests for the 2 "yes" answers from the original medical questionnaire. However, the groin issue we were concerned about turned out to be less of an issue than a mild concussion my DS had almost 3 years ago. For the "groin yes", they only required a simple supplemental questionnaire for my DS to fill out. I had obtained all the medical documents from that injury (as I mentioned in this thread earlier) but they did not require it. For the concussion they wanted all medical records and a similar questionnaire to be completed. Luckily I did have all concussion info already with me going back to the original hospital visit to the follow up clearance notes from his school trainer and family doctor. My only guess as to why they were more concerned with the concussion was the residual longer-term possible effects of concussions...but that's just my guess.

For those about to enter this process with these physical exams, it took my DS a little under a month from the time we first heard from DODMETS (Concorde) to this "qualifying" status. We made the medical appointments for the same day and immediately. I contacted Concorde on several occasions following up on the medical exams results. There was a small delay there because apparently there was communication issues between the parties....so I definitely think its worth calling Concorde directly....they were very helpful. Once all the material made it to DODMERB it was very painless. The website gives clear updates and they were fast with feedback. Of course, it helped that we had records handy and my DS had minor follow up remedial issues. Thanks again for everyone's advice.
 
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