Number Of Va Claims Poised To Hit 1 Million

[allan]

My note: Promises..promises..they have been going to lower this for more than 10 years.

Doesn’t matter who is in charge.. the VA does what they want, in their own Lil world. Govt starts a war

And makes no plans for those that are going to come home..ignore, deny til they die

Number of VA claims poised to hit 1 million

By Kimberly Hefling, Associated Press

Published: Thursday, June 18, 2009 7:34 a.m. MDT

WASHINGTON — This isn't the same as getting a free duffel bag for being the millionth person to go through the turnstiles: The Veterans Affairs Department appears poised to have hit the 1 million milestone on claims it still hasn't processed.

This unwelcome marker approaches as the agency scrambles to hire and train new claims processors, which can take two years. VA officials are working with the Pentagon under orders from President Barack Obama to create by 2012 a system that will allow the two agencies to electronically exchange records, a process now done manually on paper.

Meanwhile, veterans, some of whom were severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, continue to endure financial hardship while their claims are processed. They wait more than four months on average for a claim to be processed, and appealing a claim takes a year and a half on average.

Adding to the backlog are factors ranging from the complexity of processing mental health-related claims of Iraq veterans, to a change that made it easier for Vietnam veterans exposed to the Agent Orange herbicide to qualify for disability payments. The VA says it's receiving about 13 percent more claims today than it did a year ago.

The VA's Web site shows the department has more than 722,000 claims and more than 172,000 appeals it currently is processing, for a total of about 900,000. That is up from about 800,000 total claims in January, according to the site.

Since early 2007, the VA has hired 4,200 claims processors and with that has seen improvements in the number of claims it's processing. It's also working to modernize its system.

Last year, Congress passed legislation that sought to update the disability rating process. A hearing Thursday by a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee will look into whether the law's changes are being implemented and whether the VA will be able to handle a million claims.

Veterans advocates acknowledge there have been improvements in the claims process, but say it still is too cumbersome. They say some injured veterans from the recent wars are paying bills with credit cards, pending their first disability payments, at a time when it is challenging enough to recover from or adapt to their injuries.

"They keep talking about a seamless transition, but I can tell you I haven't seen it being very seamless," said John Roberts of Houston, who is national service director for the nonprofit Wounded Warrior Project, which helps veterans such as David Odom, 29, of Haleyville, Ala.

Odom, a former Army staff sergeant who did three tours in Iraq, said he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. With symptoms such as anxiety and anger, he finds it difficult to work. He said he's waited months to learn the outcome of an appeal that would give him higher compensation.

"It's added quite a bit of stress because I don't know what's going to happen. I want to know either way so I can figure out what my next step is," Odom said.

Former Marine Cpl. Patrick Murray, 25, of Arlington, Va., who was severely burned and had his right leg amputated after a roadside bomb explosion in 2006, considers himself fortunate. He got a job once he was discharged from the military, making for an easier wait as his case is processed.

"For someone that gets out of the military and doesn't have a job lined up, they have no income," said Murray, who works for a construction company. "They are sitting there making zero money, either racking up credit card bills or taking out loans, whatever it may be, all the while waiting."

Murray said the first claim he filed was lost. The second ended up at a VA office in Colorado, and the third was finally processed after a couple of months. It was mind-boggling, he said, to have spent 11 months in Walter Reed Army Medical Center and in outpatient care with stacks of medical files, only to find out he had to mail his records to the VA to prove he was injured.

"The biggest disappointment, I guess, is that it should be unnecessary," Murray said.

Ryan Gallucci, spokesman for the veterans group AMVETS, said his organization supports a law change that would make it less burdensome for a veteran to prove that an injury was from his time in war service. He said that may help with the claims process.

Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., who is chairing Thursday's hearing, said he's confident the claims process eventually will be improved.

"Veterans who are currently waiting, it can't come soon enough to them," Hall said.

"Keep on, Keepin' on"

Dan Cedusky, Champaign IL "Colonel Dan"

See my web site at:

http://www.angelfire.com/il2/VeteranIssues/

[john999]

1,000,000 claims backlog just means quicker denials in hopes the vets will just quit and go away. They probably have the janitors doing claims in their spare time.

The newspaper release says appeals take an average of 16 months.....what? How about 16 years. Deny til they die.

[WHOLESALE]

This is an unpresendented situation of backloggs stemming from the Afganastan and Iraq war, Bush regime.

Obama's got a mess to clean up. B)

Jay

1,000,000 claims backlog just means quicker denials in hopes the vets will just quit and go away. They probably have the janitors doing claims in their spare time.

The newspaper release says appeals take an average of 16 months.....what? How about 16 years. Deny til they die.

[Philip Rogers]

Jay, no offense but are you a moron??? Where do you get off making blanket statements like this??? Who says that the backlogs(w/one "g") stem from the current wars?? Statements like this only impugn your credibility. Please think before posting. jmo

pr

This is an unpresendented situation of backloggs stemming from the Afganastan and Iraq war, Bush regime.

Obama's got a mess to clean up. B)

Jay

[broncovet]

The backlog of claims continues to get worse. We Veterans have had politicians promise to reduce the backlog, and fail so many times it is ridiculious. Nicholson, for a couple years, actually reduced the backlog, but it has grown pretty much every year before and after that.

There is no sign that the Obama administration is going to reduce any backlogs..they have gotten worse even faster than with previous administrations growing about 25% since Obama took office.

Someone has suggested the "IRS" method of reducing backlog. The IRS accepts your tax return, and sends you a check within weeks, as long as a few basic things check out. Then, if you have defrauded the IRS, they come after you big time.

In other words, the IRS trusts its citizens, and they have done pretty well with this method.

THe VA, on the other hand, assumes every Veteran is a lieing, theiving, con artist, and no benefits can be paid until every little thing is carved out of stone.

It would appear that things should be the opposite way. In other words, once a person has served his country, honorably for 4 years, we should be able to trust him more than someone who has never served that we know nothing about.

I cant see why VA claims cant be paid in days or weeks, say, like IRS checks or unemployment claims. The answer is that VA likes it the way it is, because they are collecting huge bonuses for delaying and denying our claims. There is a big fishy smell coming up from the VA, and if it smells rotten, it probably is rotten. Even Hillary Clinton said that the NY RO was corrupt. Are we to believe that other RO's are NOT corrupt?

[Pete53]

I am not going to do anything with this thread unless someone attacks or impunes someones character. The VA has always been behind so this is nothing new and 2 Wars lasting this long has not helped any.

[purple]

I'm not sure the IRS method would work with the VA. When you submit a tax form the proof required is usually very little (for most ppl, a W-2). Plus, if an error is discovered...the IRS has it's ways of getting their money.

With the VA a ton of evidence is required, and it's sensitive information. If they paid everyone up front and later errors were discovered...getting money back from, lets say many of the vets who are unemployed-would be impossible at best.

The VA could do the economy a big service and begin to hire and properly train hundreds/thousands more raters. Perhaps the VAROs need a bailout of their very own to pare down this horrible backlog.