Guest Berta Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 VETERANS RESOURCES NETWORK http://www.valaw.org Chairman Buyer Foresees Additional Claims Staff For VA From: Veterans Press <Vetspress@mail.house.gov> To: PRESS_RELEASES-VR00@ls1.house.gov Chairman Buyer Foresees Additional Claims Staff For VA Washington, D.C. - Yesterday, at a full Veterans' Committee oversight hearing on claims processing at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Chairman Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) heard testimony of excessive wait times for claims decisions and clear indications that VA needs more claims adjudicators. The backlog of pending claims and the time it takes VA's Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) to process a claim has increased over the past two years. Major concerns cited yesterday beyond the backlog of claims included: * A lack of quality in claims decisions; * A need for medical staff who conduct disability examinations to have a greater knowledge of health issues specific to veterans; * The perception that some claims processors have a complacent or dismissive attitude about their work. "Veterans just want to be treated well. They recognize that something is not right and they are making a claim. How they are treated is important. It is about quality and attitude," Chairman Buyer said. Dr. William Jones, a retired U.S. Air Force flight surgeon, recounted his own tribulations with the VA claims process system over the past six years. Characterizing the claims process, he said, "the process is programmed to procrastinate . . . there appears to be little motivation to move the claims forward." Ronald Aument, VA's Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits, said that Dr. Jones' case showed how the claims adjudication process has gotten overly complex. He discussed VA's challenges to making "timely, accurate, and consistent" claims decisions, in the face of a steadily increasing claims workload. "It is unconscionable that some veterans are waiting up to five years to receive a decision on the benefits they are entitled to receive. This must change. The VA must be given the resources needed to improve the process," said Committee Member Tom Udall (D-N.M.). Buyer, at the hearing's conclusion, asked representatives of veterans groups who had provided testimony, including the VFW, The American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and AMVETS, if they thought that VA needed more claims adjudicators. Hearing their unanimous agreement that additional VBA staffing would help resolve the claims backlog and problems with quality decisions, Buyer said, "the increase in disability claims can be directly related to the increase in U.S. military operations abroad. Doing more with less is not a strategy of success." "We will need to increase the staffing at both the regional compensation office level and at the Board of Veterans Appeals to attack this backlog and prepare for the anticipated increases in additional claims," Buyer said. "I look forward to working with Ranking Member Lane Evans, veterans groups, and the Administration to come to a viable solution to resolve this pressing concern." Testimony provided by: Panel 1: William B. Jones, M.D., Col., United States Air Force Reserve (Ret.) Panel 2: Mr. Ronald R. Aument, Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits, VBA Honorable James P. Terry, Chairman of Board of Veterans' Appeals Panel 3: Mr. Donald Mooney, Assistant Director for Resource Development Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Commission at The American Legion Mr. James Doran, National Service Director of AMVETS Mr. Brian E. Lawrence, Assistant National Legislative Director for DAV Mr. Blake Ortner, Associate Legislative Director of PVA Mr. Quentin Kinderman, Deputy Director, National Legislative Service VFW ### VETERANS RESOURCES NETWORK http://www.valaw.org Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest allanopie Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 Maybe Buyer Is Starting To Get It? Hello Berta, These guys can do all the flipfloping they want. It won't wash the blood from their hands or make them sleep any better at night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fla_viking Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 Dear Fellow Veterans & Friends. The bad faith claims tacticts are delibert and used to dely claims. If they were to hire one ajudicator per vet. They would stilll make it last 3 years to get out of the RO. The type of claims work where they just photo copy previous decisions, or just look at what you dont have as a disaboity and deny your claim on that. There is no skill or real examination of our claims going on now. THey have denied our claims even before they get them. For what they do and how they deny our claims. THe staffing now is more then enough. All they have to do is deny my claim so I can take it to BVA. That is not going to change with new ajudicators. They complain about quality of decisions. That has been an ongoing issue for 75 years. If they really wanted honest reviews of our claims that would have been worked out. Every few years they throw us vets these bones to keep us quite about the abuses were going through. Vets hope that with patients the VA will impliment these promises and the problem will be resolved. for the past decades its always been the same story, differnt directors. Terry Higgins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jim S. Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 Although I feel that more rater's are needed to help with the back log of claims, increasing the number of raters will not be of help to the Veteran unless the quality and accuracy of these raters is also improved. What good are more raters, if they continue to rubber stamp claims with denials, just to show that the backlog numbers are being delt with. Increase the number of raters, YES! But also impliment some type of oversight authority to see that the quality and accuracy of the claims being decided upon are being improved as well and cite those raters who are not making the grade and replace those who do not. Supervisors are not doing their jobs in following up on Veterans complaints of poor adjudications by raters and poor exams by examiners. Three strikes a year and you should be out waliking the bricks for a new job like the rest of the population. No! Numbers is not the only thing to be fixed to make the system better. Jim S. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Johnson Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 I agree with terry, more raters aren't going to fix the problem. Take SS for instance.....their approvals are usually quite quick (for better or for worse) and they do not bog down the process with endless regulations and red tape. It can be difficult to get SS at first, but once you've proven you're need for aid they only care if you're working or not and, generally, take your word for the level of disability. The VA, on the other hand, treats every exam like an inquiry to prove SC, level of disability, ability to work, etc., which grinds the system to a halt. In my opinion, the regulations need to be changed to better protect established claims....if someone has a disorder that is not likely to get better then C&P and the adjudication process is needless. It should be enough for the veteran to say he/she still believes that the old rating is still valid, rather then treating each reexamination as a new claim. I bet most of the claims before the VA today are for existing conditions....does anyone have access to records which show how many claims are newly opened and how many are "reexaminations"? I would be interested to see...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HadIt.com Elder Pete53 Posted December 9, 2005 HadIt.com Elder Share Posted December 9, 2005 I have been hearing this crap since Bush 1 was President and Derwinski was its Secretary and also cited many times on bad VA Claims handling. It has not changed the waits are just as long or longer. Mine took over 5 years and in my opinion should have been decided in 5 months. I have not seen one sign whatsoever that the current Administration really wants to settle claims any faster. If anything they have invented new ways to drag them out including DRO's and AMC. More hurdles for many Vets. Talking about it and doing something are two different things. Veterans deserve real choice for their health care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HadIt.com Elder john999 Posted December 9, 2005 HadIt.com Elder Share Posted December 9, 2005 I think Buyer and all the rest are hoping the vets will die off and leave them in peace. The main driving force in the VA claims process is delay, delay and then delay some more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Question
Guest Berta
VETERANS RESOURCES NETWORK
http://www.valaw.org
Chairman Buyer Foresees Additional Claims Staff For VA
From: Veterans Press <Vetspress@mail.house.gov>
To: PRESS_RELEASES-VR00@ls1.house.gov
Chairman Buyer Foresees Additional Claims Staff For VA
Washington, D.C. - Yesterday, at a full Veterans' Committee oversight
hearing on claims processing at the Department of Veterans Affairs
(VA),
Chairman Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) heard testimony of excessive wait times
for
claims decisions and clear indications that VA needs more claims
adjudicators.
The backlog of pending claims and the time it takes VA's Veterans
Benefits
Administration (VBA) to process a claim has increased over the past
two
years. Major concerns cited yesterday beyond the backlog of claims
included:
* A lack of quality in claims decisions;
* A need for medical staff who conduct disability
examinations to have a greater knowledge of health issues specific to
veterans;
* The perception that some claims processors have
a
complacent or dismissive attitude about their work.
"Veterans just want to be treated well. They recognize that
something is
not right and they are making a claim. How they are treated is
important.
It is about quality and attitude," Chairman Buyer said.
Dr. William Jones, a retired U.S. Air Force flight surgeon, recounted
his
own tribulations with the VA claims process system over the past six
years.
Characterizing the claims process, he said, "the process is
programmed to
procrastinate . . . there appears to be little motivation to move the
claims
forward."
Ronald Aument, VA's Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits, said that
Dr.
Jones' case showed how the claims adjudication process has gotten
overly
complex. He discussed VA's challenges to making "timely, accurate,
and
consistent" claims decisions, in the face of a steadily increasing
claims
workload.
"It is unconscionable that some veterans are waiting up to five
years to
receive a decision on the benefits they are entitled to
receive. This must
change. The VA must be given the resources needed to improve the
process,"
said Committee Member Tom Udall (D-N.M.).
Buyer, at the hearing's conclusion, asked representatives of veterans
groups
who had provided testimony, including the VFW, The American Legion,
Disabled
American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and AMVETS, if they
thought that VA needed more claims adjudicators.
Hearing their unanimous agreement that additional VBA staffing would
help
resolve the claims backlog and problems with quality decisions, Buyer
said,
"the increase in disability claims can be directly related to the
increase
in U.S. military operations abroad. Doing more with less is not a
strategy
of success."
"We will need to increase the staffing at both the regional
compensation
office level and at the Board of Veterans Appeals to attack this
backlog and
prepare for the anticipated increases in additional claims," Buyer
said. "I
look forward to working with Ranking Member Lane Evans, veterans
groups, and
the Administration to come to a viable solution to resolve this
pressing
concern."
Testimony provided by:
Panel 1: William B. Jones, M.D., Col., United States Air Force
Reserve
(Ret.)
Panel 2: Mr. Ronald R. Aument, Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits,
VBA
Honorable James P. Terry, Chairman of Board of Veterans' Appeals
Panel 3: Mr. Donald Mooney, Assistant Director for Resource
Development
Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Commission at The
American
Legion
Mr. James Doran, National Service Director of AMVETS
Mr. Brian E. Lawrence, Assistant National Legislative Director
for DAV
Mr. Blake Ortner, Associate Legislative Director of PVA
Mr. Quentin Kinderman, Deputy Director, National Legislative
Service VFW
###
VETERANS RESOURCES NETWORK
http://www.valaw.org
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