"trouble Looms"

[Berta]

"TROUBLE LOOMS AS VA ABRUPTLY ISSUES SECOND CONTRACT FOR AGENT ORANGE CLAIMS SYSTEM

On Sept. 3, the VA quietly posted a second procurement for the same claims processing system being developed by IBM but with a shortened delivery deadline."

Full story at

http://www.vawatchdog.org/10/nf10/nfsep10/nf091010-3.htm

This gets me- the new system is supposed to be an "automated " one for the new AO claims.

The reality is that these claims should be easy to do without automation.

If the veteran's exposure to AO is confirmed and they have one of the new presumptives, the only thing left is for a proper rating and award letter.

If vets have responded to any letters from VA regarding theirs claims- with current medical evidence, that too should speed up these claims significantly.

When this new automated procedure came out VA Watchdog made comment that the vet could possibly be denied by a computer instead of by a rater.

While VA touts that these claims will begin to be paid as soon as the 60 day VAC stuff is over-

they also say

"second procurement for the same claims processing system being developed by IBM but with a shortened delivery deadline."

to me that suggests 'situation normal - all ------ up'

Most vet orgs have offices in or near their VAROs-in a perfect world why not let the vet reps prepare the award letters and the ratings.VA VSRs cold then sign off on them.

I guess that sounds nuts but that could be faster and cheaper then this IBM "second procurement"-I wonder what happened to the 'first' procurement.?

[john999]

The computer geeks say "garbage in, garbage out". If the VA has a DD214 and the vet's claim for some AO disease the VA should just set up the C&P exam and then make the rating. All this talk about automating the claims process will probably mean that claims will get rejected based on some code or a box that is not checked. The vet will get a computer generated denial letter, and then off to the unautomated appeals process. The VA cannot just buy computers to save money on employing qualified rating officers. It is always about the money with the VA. They swallow a camel and chock on a gnat. They decide to grant SC for three new conditions and then try to save a nickle on processing the claims. I don't really see how computers will speed up a evaluation process that still depends on someone putting facts together and applying the law to make a rating.

[Tbird]

I think we will just have to wait and see, it is very hard to read the tea leaves, as it were, and figure out what is going to happen with anything the VA does. I'm from the Show Me state, so I'm a little less conversation and a little more action kind of person. Once we see how they proceed we will know.

[stillhere]

I am with you Berta, I think we all need to be very careful when we do get our awards and go over them good.

As many like to say when the government is involved no one knows what to expect!

Edited September 12, 2010 by stillhere

[LarryJ]

Okay, folks, let's think about this for a minute.

MyHealthEVets was supposed to be the cat's meow when it came to our healthcare, as far as us being able to access our health records, etc., etc., blah-blah-blah. We were supposed to be able to do wonderful things, right? Does it work...........the only thing that works is the re-ordering of prescription drugs...............

Now we have this NEW DEAL, this Ebennyfits computerized deal whereby we are supposed to be able to access ALL our records, our claims, our medical records, our prescriptions, our treatment history, our military records, etc., etc., blah-blah-blah...............heck, it's taken me three trips to the VAMC, four telephone calls, and, guess what, I can't even get from the Ebennyfits site to the MyHealthEvets site to access ANYTHING.....................I did have some of my old prescription records on the Ebennyfits site.......and now THEY are gone.

YEAH, they are gonna get these Cadillac Computer Programs where the programs will take care of all the INCREASE IN CLAIMS for AO. Uh-huh. You betcha. RIGHTTTTT!

Rots of Ruck, Charlie!

[jalexand]

This system contract does not bode well for Vets to begin with. The State of Indiana got involved in a big contract with IBM where IBM was to take over tha run Indianas Welfare System. This contract ended up being a SNAFU that did not work from the beginning. Heck faulty programing was resulting in otherwise qualified individuals being thrown off the system by the computers and the system was in melt down when the state was forced to fire IBM costing the taxpayors millions. This simply does not bode well for vets expecting a system that will speed anything up. More likely it will cause delays beyond belief.