March 30,2015 Backlog Stats

[Berta]

VA Backlog reduced

VAPress Release March 30,2015

In part:
"Washington – The federal initiative to provide timely decisions on disability payments to Veterans has crossed a major milestone in its final sprint to eliminate the backlog of Veterans’ benefits claims.

The major transformation effort to apply new technology and process solutions has paid off at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). It reduced its inventory of backlogged claims from a high of 611,000 claims in March of 2013 to fewer than 200,000 this week, while at the same time improving decision quality."


http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=2691

I dont think it is due to 'technology ' and processes ,as much as due to the fact that vets have complained to Secretary Bob and to Under Secretary Hickey.

'Backlog 'is an odd word when VA uses it....does it mean RO backlogs have been reduced, by decisions that might well be denials, only to perhaps increase the backlog at the BVA, and adding to the remands, that are often for a re=do of what the RO failed to do in the first place?

And of course there are all those missing claims of Phila VARO....

are they included as 'backllogged' claims

or just stuffed- into- file -cabinets -hoping- to -never -see -light -of- day

claims?

VA semantics are often illusive.

[rootbeer22]

Folks

Although I'm sure they are trying, the stats are not showing the entire story with relation to the backlog.. .?Although, there's been a very big drop as claims being finished this year, we need to correlate or compare them against any significant increases against the NODs, DRO Reviews and mostly increases in appeal stats to see how thourough the work was? So, if there is a clear and significant drop in the backlog and no increase in Nods, DRO Reviews and Appeals this year then this is a winner policy? However, if the opposite is true then there's an even bigger problem as vets will wait years as their claims go thru the years and years of appeals. Frankly, a lot of people are being paid overtime this year to bring the backlog down and around Aug/sep senior bosses are going to want to see results are really going to be - especially at Bonus Time? So, we'll see how it goes...

Edited April 1, 2015 by rootbeer22