Va Press Release On Claims Today

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Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs

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

April 19, 2013

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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.

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[john999]

I think the government will just award a bunch of claims since this is the easiest way to get the backlog, including appeals, back to an acceptable level. I know this sounds unlikely, but what faster more permanent way is there to reduce the backlog without creating a firestorm among vets, VSO's and the public? Most of the vets will take their 10% to 30% and go away for a few years. The disability backlog is just part of the 2-3 trillion dollars that OIF/OEF will cost the public over the next 30-40 years. According to military it will take all of this year and at least part/most of 2014 just to get out stuff out of Afghanistan. What do we do with all that stuff since a lot of it may be in bad shape or obsolete? I don't think we can get away with dumping it in the ocean this time. Our government is still paying big time for Vietnam. Who do you see when you visit local VAMC: broken down Vietnam Era vets. The actual RVN vets will die from AO, so their spouses will get DIC I hope.

John

[meghp0405]

AF Butch,

And that may very well be the way the VARO in Portland is handling dependency claims.

I can tell you that at the Louisville, KY VARO, I have submitted dependency claims with a VA FM 21-526ez (FDC) and some have been done within 30 days, and that's a fact!

I guess it really depends on the VARO's how they work those claims..

[aggie54]

This probably doesn't have anything to do with this topic so my apologies . This morning my wife and I went to church, and in front of me sat an elderly veteran. This veteran had a cap which he took off and sat it behind him on the bench as we prayed. As I was praying i look down to see the cap, and I notice that the cap stated that he has served in WWii, Korea , and Vietnam, this veteran also had a Marine Corps Sgt Major emblem on his cap. This veteran must have been in his 80's or maybe even older, but the thing that got to me was the fact that every time he would stand, or sit he would pick up his cap, and I was so amazed on how much pride he showed of his cap , and his service to our country. Now, my question is this, why can't we have more people like this Sgt Major that showed so much pride and love for what he believes in, and do they right thing for our country and our fellow veterans?

[Chuck75]

I am NOT an advocate of the VA! They have caused me years of delay and aggravation with claims.

But! The problem is more with Congress and the way the laws are written, and the way that Congress permits the VA to write regulations that narrow the meaning of the laws.

Then, if that isn't enough, the VA is a prime example of a bureaucratic entity that looks after itself first! More man hours mean a bigger organization with more employees.

More employees translates to more levels of management, More levels of management, in turn justifies higher and higher management positions, and more money all around,

except for those that are "served".

Until Congress gets serious, things will not change in any real way. The bureaucrats will continue to behave the way that they have for decades. Management will not change it's spots.

Penalties must be put in place, and enforced. The penalties must also involve compensation to veterans for delays and improper denials.

Court review of cases is currently setup in a way that allows the VA to stand behind things that favor the VA, not the veterans.

The "non adversarial" system, in practice, is anything but.

It's gonna get worse, unless things change. The VA is currently digitizing records. But, they are stopping before older claims files are complete. My file was only digitized back to 2006, which is effectively "top sheeting" my file.

[AFButch]

Not sure where they are going with that statement but in their press release they are supposed to: 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. Makes you wonder why the RO's basically do what they want and no one is accountable when they skirt directives. Must be nice to run amuck and get away with it daily.

UPDATE TO MY DEPENDENCY CLAIM: Just to keep my record clear there has been some change to my dependency claim which means THE VA IS working on these non-rated claims, at least in the Portland, Oregon RO. My claim remains in the Decision Waiting Approval phase but a message about it was determined it needed further review now appears on Ebenefits. I made contact with the Outreach Specialist who has attempted to assist me with this claim. He did a quick check and found that a decision has been made but that the notification letter was returned from the approval person to the development person for corrections. (An internal issue, nothing will be required from me.) The dates on projected completion went from over-due (sorry we know this is over-due, we will get to it when we can message) to actual dates. Phase completion as early as this week. Claim completion as soon as the end of June. I have seen these dates change twice over the last 13 months so I remain optimistically hopeful, NOT excited about it. The Outreach Specialist was as surprised as I was to see work progress (or regression) because he was flatly told these claims would NOT be worked on until the earliest JULY. I continue with wishful thoughts for ALL backlog issues to be resolved for ALL of us!!!!!!!!!

[meghp0405]

I agree with Chuck75, it all begins in Washington where laws are generated and passed. It's really time to start replacing those politicians that are not military friendly.

This wasn't meant to be a political post, but it is what it is, we need military friendly's in DC.. JMHO!!!