diabetes Hearing: Va Claims Adjudication Process

[allan]

: http://veterans.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseA...CurrentHearings

<http://veterans.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.CurrentHearings&rI

D=943&hID=250> &rID=943&hID=250

Hearing: VA Claims Adjudication Process

STATEMENT OF JAMES P. TERRY,

also see full statement at: DANIEL L. COOPER

http://veterans.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseA...CurrentHearings

<http://veterans.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.CurrentHearings&rI

D=943&hID=249> &rID=943&hID=249

Hearing: VA Claims Adjudication Process

STATEMENT OF

DANIEL L. COOPER

UNDER SECRETARY FOR BENEFITS

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

BEFORE THE

SENATE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS

March 7, 2007

partial reprint below..due to length

In addition, the aging of the veteran population that is service connected

for diabetes adds to the complexity of claimed disabilities. Approximately

253,000 veterans are service connected for diabetes, with more than 220,000

of these awards based upon the presumption of herbicide exposure in Vietnam.

As veterans with diabetes reach and move past the 10-year point since the

initial diagnosis, additional secondary conditions tend to become manifest.

VA has already begun seeing increasingly complex medical cases involving

neuropathies, vision problems, cardio-vascular problems, and other issues

directly related to diabetes. If secondary conditions are not specifically

claimed by a veteran, the rating specialist must be alert to identify them.

This increasing complexity of the disabilities adds to the increased

difficulty of our workload and the resources needed to adequately process

it.

The number of veterans submitting claims for post-traumatic stress disorder

(PTSD) has grown dramatically and contributed to increased complexity in

claims processing. From FY 2000 through FY 2006, the number of veterans

receiving compensation for PTSD has increased from more than 130,000 to

nearly 270,000. These cases present unique processing requirements to

obtain the evidence needed to substantiate the event causing the stress

disorder

*******

Appellate and Non-Rating Workload

A significant portion of VBA's workload comes from appeals of regional

office decisions, remands by the Board and the CAVC, and account maintenance

activities for beneficiaries already receiving benefits. As overall claim

receipts increase, so do appellate and non-rating related workloads.

As VBA renders more disability decisions, a natural outcome of that process

is more appeals filed by veterans and survivors who disagree with some part

of the decision made in their case. Veterans can appeal decisions denying

service connection for any conditions claimed. They may also appeal the

effective date of an award and the evaluation assigned to a disability.

Appeals of regional office decisions and remands by the Board and the CAVC

following appeal are some of the most challenging types of cases to process

because of their complexity and the growing body of evidence necessary to

process these claims. In recent years, the appeal rate on disability

determinations has climbed from an historical rate prior to 2000 of

approximately 7 percent of all disability decisions to the current rate of

11 percent. There are more than 130,000 appeals now pending in the regional

offices and the Appeals Management Center. This number includes cases

requiring processing prior to transfer of the appeal to the Board and cases

remanded by the Board and the CAVC following an appeal. There are over

30,000 additional appeals pending at the Board of Veterans' Appeals.

In 2006, VA completed over two million award actions of all types. Of that

number, more than 774,000 were award actions in connection with disability

rating decisions, and the remaining were associated with account maintenance

(dependency adjustments, death pension awards, income adjustments, etc.).

The number of veterans on our rolls has increased by nearly 400,000 in

recent years, and the total number of veterans and survivors on our rolls is

now over 3.6 million. The combination of the higher number of beneficiaries

presently on our rolls and the sustained and projected high levels of new

claims activity will result in continued growth in account maintenance

activities

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"Keep on, Keepin' on"

Dan Cedusky, Champaign IL "Colonel Dan"

See my web site at:

http://www.angelfire.com/il2/VeteranIssues/