Using Memphis VA Health Care Records in a Social Security Disability Claim

How Social Security uses VA records in an SSDI or SSI claim

Social Security reads the records, not the rating. Under 20 CFR 404.1504 for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and its twin, 20 CFR 416.904, for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a decision by another agency, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, is not binding on Social Security. For claims filed on or after March 27, 2017, Social Security writes no analysis of that decision in its own determination.

The same two sections then require Social Security to consider all of the supporting evidence underlying the VA decision that it receives as evidence in your claim. A VA percentage is not a Social Security finding. It is a conclusion reached under VA's rules, and what Social Security weighs are the clinic notes, test results and examination findings that sit underneath it.

The two programs also run on separate tracks. Social Security's page for veterans says you must apply for SSDI and VA disability compensation separately, that each agency must follow its own definition and requirements, and that it may be possible to also be eligible for SSI, depending on income and resources. Our post on how a VA rating differs from a Social Security decision sets the two standards side by side.

Our role is the Social Security side only. We represent veterans who receive VA benefits in their SSDI and SSI claims, and we do not handle VA claims or VA appeals, so anything on the VA side of a case stays with the veteran or a VA representative.

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Which Memphis VA clinics can hold records for a disability claim?

Any VA site where you were seen can hold part of your record, and the Memphis system has sites well outside the city. The VA's about page for VA Memphis health care describes a service area of “a 53-county area of western Tennessee, northern Mississippi, and northwestern Arkansas,” anchored by the Lt. Col. Luke Weathers, Jr. VA Medical Center.

The system's locations page, read November 1, 2026, lists these addresses under “Health clinic locations”:

A clinic visit belongs on your Social Security application the same way a medical center visit does. List each clinic by town and street, with the approximate dates you were seen and the conditions treated there, so the treatment history on the application matches the record behind it.

For copies, the Memphis medical records office page names one in-person Release of Information location, at the medical center, and does not say whether a clinic releases its own records. The VA's national page on getting records from your VA health facility covers that case directly: “If you get care at a Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) or Outpatient Clinic (OPC), call the medical records office first to ask if they have your records.” Our Memphis disability lawyer page covers the medical center's own records office route and Social Security's expedited processing for some veterans, and neither is repeated here.

The VA's map and Social Security's map are drawn by different agencies. Social Security's hearing office data, read November 1, 2026, lists seven field offices under the Memphis hearing office, and none of them is in Jackson, Savannah, Holly Springs, Tupelo, Jonesboro or West Helena. Our guide to the Social Security offices that handle a Memphis claim explains how residence decides the hearing office.

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Downloading your own VA health records for a disability claim

You can review and download much of your VA record yourself, once you are signed in. VA's page on reviewing medical records online, last updated June 25, 2026, lists what the online tool shows:

• Lab and test results, including results of blood tests, X-rays, and other imaging tests.
• Care summaries and notes from your VA providers, including summaries of stays in health facilities.
• Vaccines, and allergies and reactions, including side effects from medications.
• Basic vitals, like blood pressure, height, weight and temperature.
• Information about health conditions your VA care team is helping you manage.

The records live in the My HealtheVet experience on VA.gov. VA's separate Review medical records online page says a veteran needs to be enrolled in VA health care and registered as a patient at a VA health facility to use it.

The page on reviewing records online states two limits. You can no longer use My HealtheVet as a personal health record, and you cannot add information to your medical records yourself. Information you entered in the previous version of My HealtheVet comes out as a separate self-entered health information report, a PDF that the page's steps send you to a section called “Download your medical records reports” to get.

A download is a working copy. It gives you the dates, the clinic names and the provider notes you need to fill out the medical sections of a Social Security application accurately, and it lets you spot treatment you had forgotten. For a complete copy, VA's national records page sends you to your VA health facility's medical records office with VA Form 10-5345a.

VA also reminds anyone who prints or downloads records that they become responsible for protecting that information. A file of VA treatment notes holds diagnoses, medications and mental health history, so keep it somewhere only you control.

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Where VA compensation exam reports and the VA claims file sit

They sit with VA's benefits side, not with the medical center's records office. VA's national page on getting records from a health facility says that if you need your VA compensation, pension or benefits records, you need to submit a personal records request to the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), and it links an online request for that purpose.

VA's paper version of that request is VA Form 20-10206, the Freedom of Information Act or Privacy Act request, in its August 2023 revision. Its section for compensation and pension records lists the claims file (C-file) and “DISABILITY EXAMINATIONS (C & P EXAMS)” as separate boxes, with room to enter the date of an exam in the remarks. A compensation and pension exam report is something a veteran asks VBA for, by name and date, on that form.

Those exam reports can be worth the extra request. An examiner who records how far you can walk, how long you can stand, or how a psychiatric condition affects concentration has put functional detail on paper, and 20 CFR 404.1504 makes the evidence underlying a VA decision part of what Social Security considers. The medical evidence a VA decision rests on, once it is submitted to Social Security, falls under the same rule.

Requesting your own claims file or exam reports is a records request, not a VA appeal, and the form itself is VA's. The VA side of a case, including any rating dispute, is outside what we handle.

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Putting Memphis VA records to work in a Tennessee disability claim

Start with a list, not a stack of paper. Write down every VA site that treated you, from the medical center on Pauline Street to a clinic in Savannah or Jonesboro, along with any VA compensation exams and their dates. That list drives everything else.

Then sort the records by where they come from. Treatment records come from the health care side, through the medical center's records office, after a call to ask whether it holds your clinic records. Compensation exam reports and the claims file come from VBA. Your own online download fills the gaps in dates and provider names while the formal requests are pending.

Every condition the records support belongs on the Social Security application, rated by VA or not. Social Security applies its own definition of disability, so a condition VA treated but never rated can still be part of the claim, and the notes from the clinic that treated it are the evidence for it.

For the statewide picture, such as the state's hearing offices and how TennCare ties in with SSI, see our Tennessee disability lawyer page. We talk with clients by phone or video and appear at hearings from Tennessee by phone or video, so a veteran in Millington, Dyersburg or Holly Springs does not need to travel to work with us.

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