Before the NWQ, the VA's practice was to
process a veteran's claim at the regional office in the State
where the veteran lived. The challenge was that some regional
offices had large backlogs and veterans in those states were
often left in limbo even if the regional offices in other
states would have been able to process the claims faster
because of not being so busy.
The NWQ is supposed to increase effectiveness and
efficiency by automatically assigning the claim to the regional
office with the most capacity. On its face this is a common
sense idea. The NWQ allows the VA to distribute its workload
evenly across the Nation to reduce waiting times for veterans
who file claims for benefits. However, there are some concerns
about whether the NWQ is actually performing as it should.
Unfortunately the VA claims backlogs have increased from about
76,000 backlogged claims on May 2, 2016 before the NWQ was
fully implemented to now almost, well as of February 4th
101,000. One has to question whether the distribution of work
throughout the NWQ is in fact more effective.
Rather than assigning a claim to a specific employee to
work the entire claim, the NWQ breaks up the claim into
individual tasks, such as scheduling a disability exam. After
one claim processor reviews a file and completes an action, the
NWQ will likely assign another claim processor for the next
step. The second claim processor then also has to become
familiar with the file to determine whether additional action
is needed for the VA to make a decision. It does not make sense
to me on how having multiple claim processors completely review
the same file can possibly save time.
It goes on to discuss the pro's and con's of the NWQ. One thing is certain: After Feb. 2017 the NWQ is a reality. Another portion of interest to Veterans and VSO's follows:
Quote
The VSOs used to receive an advance copy of the rating decision before it was
sent to the veteran. This practice gave the VSOs 48 hours to
review a proposed decision and raise objections before the
decision was finalized. But now that the NWQ has been deployed
VSOs complain that they no longer have a chance to review a
decision and try to resolve errors before any incorrect
decision is sent to the veteran. I hope the VA will explain
what steps it is taking to work with the VSOs to ensure the VA
decisions are accurate.
This seems to refute that age old process that where you live impacts how soon your claim is processed, or how likely you are to get benefits based on where you live:
Quote
One of the principal fundamentals of NWQ is to ensure that
veterans are served equally, regardless of where they live. A
review of claims from 2015 shows that in many instances the
timeliness of a decision was significantly impacted based
solely on the state in which a veteran lived. Some were
receiving decisions in 106 days while others took more than 213
days, nearly double the time.
Question
broncovet
In 2017, the VA switched to the "National Work Que" (NWQ). In theory, this should ease some of the problems between different VARO's.
Source: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-115hhrg29368/html/CHRG-115hhrg29368.htm
This is what the NWQ means:
It goes on to discuss the pro's and con's of the NWQ. One thing is certain: After Feb. 2017 the NWQ is a reality. Another portion of interest to Veterans and VSO's follows:
This seems to refute that age old process that where you live impacts how soon your claim is processed, or how likely you are to get benefits based on where you live:
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Top Posters For This Question
1
1
Popular Days
Oct 26
1
Oct 28
1
Top Posters For This Question
broncovet 1 post
Vync 1 post
Popular Days
Oct 26 2019
1 post
Oct 28 2019
1 post
1 answer to this question
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now