End All Backlog By 2015?

[bojack]

I heard President Obama and VA Secretary told press their goal is to end all backlog by 2015. Is this true?

Is that a good thing or bad thing for us because won't they just rush the process (rushing menas less accurate I am guessing).

Thankse everyone.

I am still waiting for my decision (been fighting since 02/06/2014).

[63SIERRA]

by 2015 it will be even worse. More vets are getting educated on the process. Its not like it was even 10 years ago. Poor ole farmboy goes back to the woods. works his ass of until he dies and VA never paid a dime/. Now you can be in bunfunct Egypt, have a computer and get a good handle on your rights and benefits in short time. The internet brought transparency to alot of things in this world. The VA has been getting over for a long time, by not rendering veterans thier just compensation and benefits/ most just didnt know they were entitled. Them days are over. Once this country truly realizes the true costs of war, maybe our leaders wont go sticking thier nose in every conflict that comes along, and let other countries fight thier own battles. Countriesw like saudi arabia and Kuwait are filthy rich, and we go spill our blood to protect them, and get nothing in return. We are billions of dollars in debt, and fighting other countries battles. theres something wrong with that.

[TiredCoastie]

Just as an update on the status of the VA's quest to eliminate the backlog, it appears that since the new fiscal year began on October 1st, they haven't made any headway. If they maintain the forward motion averaged since the big push began in April 2013, the backlog should -- statistically -- be eliminated by the spring of 2016. However, the number of claims on hand nationally and those over 125 days old plateaued since October 1st, which pretty much means that whatever extra effort was being put toward getting through claims more rapidly has ended. We're now in the Holidays, and it is not likely that the extra effort will resume until after New Years, if it resumes.

There are two major factors, off-the-cuff, that may have put this political goal on the backburner:

1. There does not appear to be an appropriations bill for the VA, or anyone else for that matter.

2. The recent scandals in health care may have shifted whatever resources were available to the health-side rather than use them within the disability compensation-side.

Has anyone heard anything about trying to meet this goal recently?

[jbasser]

Don't believe it. It is not going to happen unless the VA starts up a machine gun denial program.

J

[Navy04]

J,

I totally agree with you. So what is going to happen is the VA will deny a crap load of claims, then jam the Appeals back log for another 10 years.

[john999]

I think vets are much smarter now than in my day. I think OIF/OEF has generated a couple of hundred thousand claims at least with no end in sight. With lowering barrier for PTSD and inclusion of new AO presumed the VA will never catch up. It is impossible for them to tie shoes and chew gum at the same time. Every one of my decisions right or wrong has been screwed up in some way. They get something grossly wrong. The internet and websites like Hadit help younger vets a lot. They don't have to depend on dumb ass DAV or VFW. Those two actually caused my claims to be denied in the past with screwball reasoning like asking for compensation for a personality disorder I did not even have. Thank you VFW. This was in the 80's but nothing has changed.

John

[Berta]

The ROs started the backlog problem.

Way before the 2010 Nehmer AO regs, and way before OIF /OEF

On past BVA reports to Congress, the BVA mentioned the fact that the VCAA was not being properly handled and had caused multiple remands from the BVA to give the claimant their proper DTA rights.

That has changed sigbnificantly but they are still failing to adequately develop VCAA letters in some cases.

Also OIG reports over the past years have also showed a consistent 16 % error rate in many ROs, and that is only 16% of about 100 claims they were able to review.

These were decisions that vets had already received, that contained detriment errors.

Personally I think an actual error rate on all RO decisions year by year would be much higher.

Can you imagine if McDonalds started giving 16% of their Big Mac customers a Fish sandwich instead?

Claimants need to know of the 2 most important regulations we have , next to the VCAA...38 CFR 3.156 and 38 USC 4.6.

It would be great if all those well paid vet reps out there knew of these regs too.

.In the BVA annual report to Congress last year the BVA made this interesting statement:

*Notably, 64 percent of remanded cases are not the result of any mistake on the part of VA, and are

often the result of additional development that VA must undertake due to the Veteran’s identification

of additional evidence after the appeal has been transferred to the Board, or the submission of new

evidence by the Veteran, which in turn triggers additional development as a result of VA’s statutory

duty to assist."

To me that means 36% of the cases remanded, ARE the 'results of mistakes' on the part of VA, to the claimant's detriment.

http://www.bva.va.gov/Chairman_Annual_Rpts.asp

36% of BVA claimants are getting a fish sandwish instead of the Big Mac they ordered.