Backlog Grows Despite NWQ

[MikeHunt]

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/02/14/va-disability-claims-backlog-grows-despite-paperless-fix.html

 

In short, VA decided scattering claims all over was going to help-

In addition to points in the article, especially the cong's astute observation, people don't want to work hard claims, and send them along by various means, so someone else gets them.

If you got assigned something, and saw it through from start to finish- As you might imagine, you have more familiarity with the claim, and more ownership.

[Buck52]

seems to me this was out last year Mike!

[Carl the Engineer]

Mike,

I found this out last year when part of my claim was reffered twice.  Both times the RO's asked the examiner a question and I had a paper C&P (a C&P where the Veteran does not attend) and then was inturn asked to opine on whether "greater than 50" etc.

What I found disturbing was that in the past all my stuff was done at the RO in Milwaukee, but now it went to two different states, far away.

Talk about reinventing the wheel at each step when one RO should be looking at the Veterans record (or a specific claim) the whole way through.

What I did see in myHealthyVet was that at each stop it did give the RO's name and phone number.  I don't think it did that before, because it was always at the same place.  I'm not sure if  you can call them and talk to them or not, but the name and number is there.

Anyway, no customer caring at all and yes, passing the buck (see what I did there Buck) to someone else who has to ask the same questions, again.

Hamslice

 

[Berta]

Ben Krause has an article today on why the backlog grew last month:

http://www.disabledveterans.org/2017/02/16/want-to-know-why-the-va-claims-backlog-increased-last-month/

[broncovet]

I read Ben Krause article, and some of the comments.  Its very bad.  Apparently there were hundreds of thousands of claims "not in the system" and, after those were added, the BVA backlog will be about 6 or 7 years.  I think longer.  Many of the Veterans wont be still alive by the time their appeal is decided and implemented.  

[Berta]

The backlog didn't impact on Bonuses!

http://www.disabledveterans.org/2017/02/17/veterans-sound-off-va-bonuses-despite-backlog-slip/

[MikeHunt]

On 2/15/2017 at 10:07 PM, Hamslice said:

What I found disturbing was that in the past all my stuff was done at the RO in Milwaukee, but now it went to two different states, far away.

... passing the buck ...to someone else who has to ask the same questions, again.

 

The hiring freeze only took effect late Jan, and RO's hired like drunken sailors before that-

Lets say about 20% new VSRs, and multiple series of hirings before that. These people aren't stupid- They knew what was going to occur.

Of course, blaming the hiring freeze resonates, even if on it's face the excuse doesn't make sense. Again, these people aren't stupid.

As the cong woman said in the article, the claim goes to multiple people- Ham had it exactly right- now a new person has to go through everything, and the goal is to "advance" it (get it off your desk). They're hammered, and I mean hammered to get that done.

About 50% of the time, the previous person has made some type of mistake, mostly unintentionally, and the new person has to double check the work.

You don't need a degree in anything to figure this is inefficient. With inefficiency, you need more people, more people raise your 'number of persons supervised', and, hence, your pay.

These people aren't stupid.