Fast Letter: 07-04-07

[Wings]

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DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

Veterans Benefits Administration

Washington, D.C. 20420

January 31, 2007

 

Director (00/21) In Reply Refer To: 216

VA Regional Offices and Centers Fast Letter: 07-04

 

 

SUBJ: Additional Policy and Procedures Relating to Inquiry Routing and Information System (IRIS)

 

Initial IRIS policy and procedures were outlined in Fast Letter 04-12, Electronic Correspondence, and the National IRIS Quality Program was addressed in Fast Letter 06-10. However, several issues regarding IRIS have been raised through phone calls and e-mails sent to the Direct Services Staff. Some of these issues have been covered in prior messages, conference calls, or workshops, but warrant repeating based on numerous questions. The enclosure to this Fast Letter is intended to respond to those issues and confirm additional IRIS policy.

 

If you have any questions about the information in this letter, please e-mail the Direct Services mailbox: VAVBAWAS/CO/DIRECTSVCS.

 

 

 

/s/

Bradley G. Mayes

Director

Compensation & Pension Service

 

 

Enclosure: (1)

 

Additional IRIS Policies and Procedures

 

1. Documenting Messages

 

All IRIS messages, to include Veterans Assistance Inquiries (VAIs), must be documented with either a response to the sender or an Internal Note that explains in some detail the actions taken to resolve the issue.

 

For example, if a veteran needs a tax letter or a copy of the DD 214, the Internal Note should detail what was sent, when, and by whom. If a phone call is made, the Internal Note should contain a synopsis of the call to include messages left on an answering machine, or the fact that the veteran was not available and a letter was sent instead. If the VAI requires a review of the veteran’s records and the IRIS VAI is being used as a control document, then document the message by periodically annotating the status via an Internal Note, particularly if the VAI is pending beyond the 5-workday timeliness standard.

 

The use of Waiting Status is discouraged. If it is necessary to place a message in Waiting Status, the message must be reviewed periodically (at least once every 5 workdays) and documented with the status in an Internal Note. Coaches should remember that the clock continues to run for messages in Waiting Status.

 

2. Internal Note on Duplicates

 

All duplicate IRIS messages must be annotated with an Internal Note to indicate that a review of the message has occurred.

 

Please do not use the “Response” message block to annotate the message. If the responder uses the green “Response” typing field, the comments will be returned to the sender. The Internal Note may be a simple, "NAN - Duplicate message. See message #__________," or “Duplicate message. Original answered on _____. See message #_________.” Always refer back to the message number that contains the response. Then change Status to "Solved" and click on "Save." All duplicate messages must be reviewed for quality control purposes to ensure that messages are not being simply set to “Solved” just for the sake of closing items.

 

3. Assigning / Reassigning IRIS Messages

 

Before assigning or reassigning a message, make sure that all available media resources (to include print and electronic) such as SHARE, MAP-D, COVERS, VACOLS, etc. are used to research the answer.

 

For instance, do not reassign a “status of appeal” message to the Washington, DC VA Regional Office. That office has nothing to do with the appeals process, and most of the answers may be found in VACOLS.

 

When using the "Assign to / Re-assign to" feature of IRIS, coaches need to make sure that VSRs are selecting the line containing the forward slash ( / ). For example, “VBA NYC RO-C&P / PCT New York,” or “VBA-LGY Houston RLC/ LGYHOUS RLC.” Never select the line containing the office name by itself such as "VBA NYC RO-C&P." The reason the first line of the series for any office or group in the VA IRIS reassign list is never selected is that there is no e-mail notification address associated with that line. Therefore, no notice of a pending IRIS message is sent to the office or group. This is a quirk of IRIS that we have not been able to resolve.

 

If a person's name is in the line after the forward slash, "/", that selection may be made if you need to refer the message to that specific person. This is particularly true for referrals to a Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) Division. Most VR&E responders have individual IRIS accounts. An e-mail “tickler” message will be sent to the person whose name appears after the slash. Remember, this principle (selecting the line with the “/” in it) applies to any person, office, or group in the VA IRIS list to which you need to refer an IRIS message.

 

Except under extremely rare circumstances, a reassigned VAI should not be returned to the originating office once action has been completed. Simply note the action taken and close the VAI by changing the status to “Solved” and saving it.

Note: Never change the status of a VAI or other message to “Solved” when reassigning or returning the message to another person or office for any reason. The receiving office will not see a transferred message that is set to “Solved” unless someone comes across it by accident while reviewing the Quality Review list.

4. Creating an IRIS VAI

 

The following procedures should be used when creating an IRIS VAI:

 

Open the "Add New Inquiry" console by clicking on the "New Inquiry" icon.

Type "VAI" and a short summary statement on the "Summary" line (Required).

Type a complete statement of the issue in the blue typing area (Notice the "Customer Entry" radio button is dotted. Please leave as is.).

Fill in the "Customer Information." Leave the e-mail address entry blank unless the customer wants an electronic reply. Most VAIs and some normal IRIS messages will not have this e-mail address because the customer wants a response in some other manner. This is where most problems closing an IRIS arise.

Fill in as much of the "Additional Information" as possible or practicable. Make sure the “Type of Inquiry” is set to “VBA Internal.” Also make sure the "Type of Response" data box is properly annotated.

If this is an internal VAI (won't leave the Public Contact Team), just click on "Save."

If this VAI is to be referred to another office, select the office from the "Assign To/Reassign To:" pull down box (be very careful to highlight only one office) and click on "Save." Do not touch the status. Leave as “Unresolved.”

 

5. Closing a VAI or Other Inquiry

 

A common error in closing a VAI is to type a response in the green Response typing area.

 

A VSR will attempt to send the response and “Save” the VAI; however, nothing happens, or an error message appears. The reason is that IRIS associates an electronic response with a customer’s return e-mail address in order to send the customer an e-mail notification that a VA response is ready. Most VAIs do not contain a return e-mail address in the Customer Information section of the IRIS form. Other IRIS messages that are devoid of an e-mail address occur when the customer requests a telephone contact or a regular postal mail response. In all these described instances, the system will hang up if there are any typing characters in the green Response typing field and there is no return e-mail address. Remember to always document what was done to solve a VAI in the Internal Note section of IRIS, not the green Response typing field.

 

Solution to the hang up

 

Delete all typed information in the green response typing field. That means hidden or invisible characters such as spaces and carriage returns as well. To find these characters and complete closing the VAI:

Click anywhere in the green response typing field. If the cursor is anywhere but in the upper left corner, back space or highlight and delete from the spot the cursor is blinking back to the upper left corner.

Click on the Internal Note button.

Enter the note as to how the VAI was handled.

Change status to “Solved.”

Click on “Save.”

 

6. Referrals to a Finance Office

 

Do not use IRIS for referrals to a Finance Office.

 

VBA finance offices are not currently members of the IRIS user community. Issues like non-receipt of a benefits check might require a referral to the local finance office.

 

You cannot use IRIS for this purpose because we cannot encrypt a “Send to a Non-IRIS User” message. To address this issue, you must create a Report of Contact using VA Form 119, Report of Contact, and forward to the finance office. Please remember to encrypt your e-mail when you attach any electronic version of VA Form 119 containing sensitive information.

 

7. Quality Reviews

 

All IRIS messages, VAIs, duplicates, etc., are subject to quality review. (Fast Letter 06-10)

 

Although local quality review in field offices is no longer mandated for Distribution of Operational Resources (DOOR) input, coaches should still perform a random review of IRIS responses including duplicates. The review should determine that the duplicate was looked at and properly annotated. Although the National Quality Review will evaluate only the last response where multiple responses are contained in one IRIS message, the coach should review the entire message “string” to ensure total quality service.

 

A VAI needs to be evaluated during the quality review process to determine whether the employee’s actions were appropriate before changing the VAI status to Solved. The review is a quality assessment of the level of customer service.

 

Local quality review for performance purposes is encouraged.

 

 

 

[Christopher]

Keep em coming..these fast letters are very informative..thanks!

[william n]

i think these fast letters are fantastic..please keep them coming. I will definitely use this in my future inquiries using IRIS or 800#..when i ask a question, and get a half-#$@$ answer...they're going love me ,lol...thanks for sharing..william n

Edited December 20, 2007 by williamn