Va Press Release On Claims Today

[Berta]

VA » Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs » News Releases

Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs

VA to Expedite Claims Decisions for Veterans Who Have Waited a Year or More

April 19, 2013

Printable Version
Need Viewer Software?

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs announced today it is implementing an initiative to expedite compensation claims decisions for Veterans who have waited one year or longer. Effective today, VA claims raters will make provisional decisions on the oldest claims in inventory, which will allow Veterans to begin collecting compensation benefits more quickly, if eligible. Veterans will be able to submit additional evidence for consideration a full year after the provisional rating, before VA issues a final decision.

“Too many Veterans wait too long for a decision, and this has never been acceptable,” said VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. “That is why we are implementing an aggressive plan to eliminate the backlog in 2015. This initiative is the right thing to do now for Veterans who have waited the longest.”

Provisional decisions will be based on all evidence provided to date by the Veteran or obtained on their behalf by VA. If a VA medical examination is needed to decide the claim, it will be ordered and expedited.

“Issuing provisional decisions not only provides Veterans with applicable benefits much more quickly, but also gives them an additional one-year safety net to submit further evidence should it become available. Our door will remain open and if a Veteran has additional evidence, their case will be fast tracked,” said Allison Hickey, Undersecretary for Benefits.

If any increase is determined to be warranted based on the additional evidence received, benefits will be retroactive to the date the claim was initially filed. The initiative protects the Veteran’s right to appeal the decision. If no further evidence is received within that year, VBA will inform the Veteran that their rating is final and provide information on the standard appeals process, which can be found at http://www.bva.va.gov/

Throughout this initiative, VA will continue to prioritize claims for homeless Veterans and those claiming financial hardship, the terminally ill, former Prisoners of War, Medal of Honor recipients, and Veterans filing Fully Developed Claims. More information about filing Fully Developed Claims is available at: http://www.benefits.va.gov/transformation/fastclaims/

Claims for Wounded Warriors separating from the military for medical reasons will continue to be handled separately and on a priority basis with the Department of Defense through the Integrated Disability Evaluation System (IDES). Wounded Warriors separating through IDES currently receive VA compensation benefits in an average of 61 days following their separation from service.

As a result of this initiative, metrics used to track benefits claims will experience significant fluctuations. The focus on processing the oldest claims will cause the overall measure of the average length of time to complete a claim - currently 286 days - to skew, rising significantly in the near term because of the number of old claims that will be completed. Over time, as the backlog of oldest claims is cleared and more of the incoming claims are processed electronically through VA’s new paperless processing system, VA’s average time to complete claims will significantly improve. In addition, the average days pending metric - or the average age of a claim in the inventory - will decrease, since the oldest claims will no longer be part of the inventory.

While compensation claims are pending, eligible Veterans are able to receive healthcare and other benefits from VA. Veterans who have served in recent conflicts are eligible for 5 years of free healthcare from VA. Currently, over 55% of returning Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans are using VA health care, a rate of utilization greater than previous generations of Veterans.

Veterans can learn more about disability benefits on the joint Department of Defense—VA web portal eBenefits at: https://www.ebenefits.va.gov/ebenefits-portal/ebenefits.portal.

# #

return to top

[jbasser]

Get ready for a host of Low Balled decisions and rush denials.

Basser.

[Rover]

Bronco,

I stormed the castle down in Detroit Last Monday and one of the things I wanted answers on was a dependent claim. At one time I had 4 of them chating in the corner behind the service desk trying to figure out what was happening. In relation to my Dependent claim the person indicated that one of the reasons no work had been done on my dependancy claim was that Detroit still had the paper system and was transitioning and my dependency claim was filed using the online dependent application...I asked "are you telling me my dependancy claim hasn't been worked, because it was filed in the on-line system" She got one of those looks in her eyes just like a deer in the middle of the road in the glare of an F150's headlights. Her nervous reply was "well I really don't know", she even had less of an answer when I plopped down a copy of the dependancy section from M21-1MR that states if the VA is made aware of the intent to continue school after the age of 18 the dependent should not be removed from the award and proceeded to inform her that I had the return receipt for VA's acceptance of the package that included his acceptance letter, deposit receipt and suggested freshman schedule. She indicated she couldn't explain that, but assured me they would include that with the promulgation work for the decision eBenfits says was mailed on the 26th of March.

I only mention this in the rare occasion that you might be receiving the same excellent service due to the same situation (dependancy app filed on-line?).

Best regards,

I'm too waiting closure on dependent claim and eBenefits to post evidence sent in twice. Also i'm awaiting two years of retro pay since 1 Dec 2012.

[Notorious Kelly]

The Process IS The Problem.

If they don't address The Processs, this may briefly improve longer wait claim numbers but will legthen claim times for the rest.

Kick the can - why can't we get real leadership who will audit the VA for what's wrong instead of accepting their excuses and failure.

[indyman]

If the percentage of denials increases to a higher rate, I think the VBA will implode if they aren't already.

[Berta]

Broncovet is right:

“ I have no idea why it took 5 years for Shinseki to figure out the oldest claims deserve to be handled before the newer ones. It seems like a second grader should be able to figure that one out in 20 minutes. “ Yeah !!!! Duh and double DUH!

Does this VA statement indicate the 'pick and choose' RO attitude I feel some of us have been victimized by?

Jcolwell said:

“Will this help expedite the NODs at regional offices ( appeals ) or not ? “

I have no idea. Probably not. I am, still bothered by info a VARO Buffalo employee told me years ago...that NODs are color coded by the month ,and then worked on only after one year has passed.

All the more reason a claimant should consider asking the VA to CUE itself, if their initial decision contains a legal error to their detriment. That doesn't stave off the NOD deadline but if someone at the RO will actually read this request, it could save YEARS of being in the system. I got a proper award in mere weeks after a ridiculous denial under Nehmer last year by using this tactic.

Vync said:

“I have a strange feeling this will only impact 'original' claims, not appeals of any sort.”

Yeah, me too... it is the appeals and those lengthy BVA remands ,for a re -do of what RO failed to do in the first place, that clogs the system up more then the new claims,in my opinion.

A Remand ( Re Do) means federal VARO employees,well paid by the taxpayers, have no accountability at all for the initial mistakes they made in the first place, on the initial claim, mistakes that cause the remand.

I read BVA decisions every day. It stuns me how many claims with a POA are remanded for stuff,that in some cases, the POA could have straightened out themselves at the RO level,right away.

Part of all this backlog rests on the POA vet reps and NSOs themselves, as well as the R0s.And I think many reps are in cahoots with RO employees who control our claims.

I say Send in Petreaus

Edited April 20, 2013 by Berta

[broncovet]

People who work at McDonalds figure this out in 10 minutes. If your customer is still waiting on his order, and "new" customers are getting their order filled, then people will get mad. VA benefits are NOT processed "in the order received"...if they were, then there would be no claims over a year old. Its all hogwash.