The VA Disability System Is Failing -- and Veterans Are Paying for the Gaps By Loren Ryan Hawley

Loren Ryan Hawley, Founder & CEO, Shield of Odin, discusses gaps in the VA disability system & offers support

LAS VEGAS, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The VA disability system is collapsing under its own contradictions — and the latest national coverage is finally acknowledging what veterans have said for years.
Investigations by NPR and The Washington Post have exposed a benefits process that is simultaneously vulnerable to fraud and deeply adversarial toward the very veterans who legitimately need it. It is a system that manages to be too lenient with opportunists while remaining too dismissive of genuine service-connected conditions.
But the clearest sign of the system's breakdown isn't in the data. It's in the massive private ecosystem that has grown around VA disability claims — coaches, consultants, medical-evidence firms, legal support networks, independent clinicians, and veteran-run companies trying to help others survive the gauntlet.
Some critics claim these groups are "predatory."

The truth is far more complex.

The demand for these services exists because the VA's system makes it nearly impossible for many veterans to navigate the process alone. If the VA functioned properly, the industry surrounding it would evaporate.

A System Built on Self-Reporting but Defined by Distrust
The Washington Post described the VA disability program as an "honor system" heavily reliant on veterans self-reporting symptoms — particularly for conditions like PTSD, migraines, insomnia, chronic pain, depression, and Gulf War illnesses.

Yet in reality, the VA often treats those same self-reports with skepticism:

• C&P exams contradict medical histories.
• Claims are denied with boilerplate phrases like "not persuasive" or "insufficient evidence."
• Exposure-based conditions are minimized or overlooked.
• Veterans with extensive records are told their symptoms "cannot be verified."

This paradox punishes the honest and enables the dishonest.
The system's inconsistency creates space for abuse — and even more space for legitimate claims to be mishandled.

VSOs Are Overwhelmed — and Veterans Need More Than They Can Offer

Veterans Service Organizations were designed for a simpler era of disability claims. Today's claims require nuanced medical understanding:

• toxic exposures,
• neurological injuries,
• multi-system chronic illness,
• musculoskeletal deterioration,
• TBI,
• MST and PTSD,
• Gulf War undiagnosed conditions.

VSOs do critical work, but many are understaffed and lack the clinical expertise modern claims require. Veterans often wait weeks for an appointment, only to discover the complexity exceeds what a non-medical advocate can provide.

The VSO system is not failing by lack of effort — it is failing because the VA built a medical-legal maze that no volunteer-based network could ever hope to keep up with.
Into this gap stepped a wide spectrum of private organizations.

Not All Coaching Companies Are Predatory — Many Are Essential

The NPR story on Trajector highlighted a real problem: some companies charge high fees, make bold promises, or operate with confusing contracts. These groups deserve scrutiny, and some deserve consequences.

But condemning all coaching companies as "predators" is inaccurate and unfair.
Many coaching organizations:

• are run by veterans,
• are transparent about their fees,
• provide education VSOs simply cannot,
• help veterans understand the claims process,
• and operate in full compliance with federal law.

These companies didn't appear because veterans are naïve or desperate.
They appeared because the federal system became too complex, too inconsistent, and too medically dense for the average veteran to navigate alone.

If the VA disability process worked, coaching companies wouldn't exist.
But veterans need guidance, and many coaches fill that void ethically.

Where Shield of Odin Fits In

Shield of Odin does not provide coaching.
We do not give claim strategies.
We do not take a percentage of VA benefits.
We do not tell veterans what conditions to claim.
Our mission is extremely focused:

We produce medically sound, evidence-based documentation that the VA should have obtained in the first place.

We specialize in:

• Nexus letters
• DBQs
• Independent medical opinions
• Medical-legal evaluations
• Condition-specific clinical analyses

We exist because:

• C&P exams are often rushed.
• VA clinicians may not specialize in exposure-related illness.
• Veterans often receive inconsistent or incomplete evaluations.
• Complex conditions require deeper analysis than VA exams allow.

We don't "game" the system.
We simply document truth — clearly, clinically, and correctly.

Veterans Shouldn't Need Any of This — But They Do

Let's be blunt:

• Veterans shouldn't need coaching.
• Veterans shouldn't need private medical evidence.
• Veterans shouldn't need a second opinion.
• Veterans shouldn't need outside help at all.

But they do — because the federal system forces them to.
Fraudsters exploit these weaknesses.
Predatory companies monetize them.
Ethical companies respond to them.
And veterans get caught in the middle.

The demand for help is not the problem —
the system's design is the problem.

The Question Washington Doesn't Want to Touch

If the VA disability system truly worked, then why:

• are coaching companies overwhelmed?
• are private medical-evidence firms booked out for months?
• are predatory firms thriving?
• do veterans feel lost trying to understand their own benefits?
• do C&P exams contradict long-standing medical records?
• do VSOs struggle to keep pace with modern medical conditions?

The answer is obvious.

Veterans are turning to outside help not because they want to —
but because the VA leaves them no other choice.

And until Washington fixes the structural failures at the heart of the VA disability process, the private sector — the good, the bad, and the necessary — will continue doing what the system should have done all along:

Give veterans the fair, evidence-based support they earned in service to this nation.

SOURCE Odin Industries LLC