VA vows to end claims backlog: automation, teamwork and more staff are key to reducing the 650,000 VA compensation claims clogging the system

VFW Magazine, June-July, 2002 by John L. Davis

Calling it his "top issue," VA Secretary Anthony J. Principi has pledged to reduce the more than 650,000 benefits claims now mired in the agency's system. According to VA, it takes an average of nine months to rule on a claim. Principi's goal is to reduce that time to 74 days.

"We are falling short," Principi stated. "[Reducing the backlog] will take a combination of more staff to process claims and more training to reduce mistakes that require veterans to file an appeal."

The VA staff "needs to work hard. We also need to work smart."

BUDGET SUPPORT

Last year, "President Bush promised a top-to-bottom review of VA claims processing," Principi said.

This year, "[Bush] backed it up with a proposed $58 billion VA budget that includes $1.2 billion earmarked for reducing the time veterans must wait to get a decision on their claims," he added. "Priority in reducing [the backlog] is going to the oldest claims filed by the oldest veterans."

Veterans 70 years or older are the agency's primary focus. VA estimates these veterans are dying at a rate of 1,369 each day and have a typical life expectancy of less than 10 more years.

"America didn't have to wait when this brave generation was called to duty," Principi observed. "Our older veterans shouldn't wait in their hour of need while we make necessary improvements to speed up decisions on all veterans applications."

A special team of claims experts is "pulling the files of all veterans age 70 or older whose benefit applications have been pending for more than a year," said John McNeill, the assistant director of VFW's National Veterans Service. "There are about 6,000 of these types of claims still in the pipeline."

After tackling that workload, the Cleveland-based team will move to another 17,000 of the longest-pending claims of other veterans where the applications have been idle for more than a year.

At the same time, VA is focusing existing resources at nine centers on 58,000 lengthy claims delays for vets who have waited longer than a year for a decision.

"These applications often raise complex legal and medical issues," VA stated.

STRESSED SYSTEM

While skeptics still abound, VFW's McNeill believes the light at the end of the tunnel may indeed be the other side of the mountain.

"Measures instituted over the past several years have begun to pay dividends," he said. "In fact, only one year ago the number of backed up claims was down to 325,000, about half the total of today."

McNeill cites a 1999 ruling in the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims as the principal cause of the current logjam.

"The decision prevented VA from assisting veterans in filing claims until the veterans could show they would likely be eligible for benefits," he explained.

Calling it a "Catch-22", Congress responded by passing The Veterans Claims Assistance Act, which became law on Nov. 10, 2000. That legislation requires VA to help veterans obtain the data they need to file a claim, even if their eligibility is unclear.

"While [VFW] was pleased with its passage, the legislation directed VA to go back and re-examine all claims filed between July 1999 and Nov. 10, 2000. That instantly created 100,000 new claims on top of those already pending," McNeill said.

Vietnam veterans submitting claims for Type 2 diabetes also have swamped the VA system. "No one saw numbers of that magnitude coming," according to McNeill.

Throw in the record number of claims filed by Gulf War-era veterans (15% of those serving), and it is "no wonder that VA is presently overwhelmed," McNeill said.

HELP IS ON THE WAY

Proposed changes at the National Personnel Records Center in St Louis, Mo., also should help reduce the time for a claim to be adjudicated.

"At present, it takes about 54 days for the center to respond to a veteran's request for a copy or a document," McNeill said.

"Military records are stored in cardboard boxes on 10-foot-high shelves," he pointed out. "They are organized by branch, time of service or when the center received the records. All searches of the 55 million personnel files and 89 million supplemental records must be done by hand."

A congressional report released last summer took the center to task for its antiquated business practices and typically slow, response time.

"Until November 2000, the 230 employees at the center didn't even have telephones on their desks," McNeill emphasized. "If a record couldn't be found, workers had no way of contacting the requestor other than mailing back a handwritten form."

Now, however, changes under way should expedite the search process. Telephones are on every desk, and training classes on how to process claims more rapidly are required of every worker.

"VA also has its own people on site," McNeill said. "But until the center is fully automated and the records computerized, its goal of processing 95% of requests within five working days probably won't be realized."

FIELD PERSPECTIVE

Ted Sypko sees the workload rising. Sypko, VFW's service officer at national headquarters in Kansas City, has seen a lot of claims in the past 25 years.