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VA HOPES TO CHIP AWAY AT DELAYS IN PROCESSING

DISABILITY CLAIMS -- "Probably in 2010 we could see some

improvements if Congress keeps the money coming in..."

For more information about the VBA, use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=vba&op=and

Story here... http://www.wacotrib.com/news/co
ntent/news/stories/2007/12/23/12232007wacvetclaims.html

Story below:

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VA hopes to chip away at delays in processing veterans' claims

By David Doerr
Tribune-Herald staff writer

Veterans who applied for benefits last year waited on average six months before a decision was made on their claims, according to a recent Department of Veterans Affairs Report.

It took the VA 183 days to process compensation claims during the 2007 fiscal year, according to the department’s annual performance and accountability report. That’s longer than any of the other five years tracked in the report and 58 days longer than the VA’s long-term goal for claims processing decisions.

Long waits for claims processing is not a new issue for the VA, and it hasn’t gotten any better since 2004, when the average processing time was 166 days.

Randy Reese, national service director for the Disabled American Veterans organization, said waiting six, eight or 10 months for the VA to process claims can be a demoralizing experience. Veterans are often left in financial straits while waiting for checks from the government, he said.

“We have an enormous client base that we represent before the VA as their advocates,” he said. “The longer you have to wait, the more times you have people who are disgruntled or dissatisfied.”

There are many factors the VA can cite as reasons for the growing waiting period, including an increase in the number of claims filed and the more complex claims associated with battlefield injuries.

Another obstacle to faster claims processing is new legislation that requires the VA to explain why their claims are rejected and how the problem can be fixed. The notification requirements in the Veterans Claims Assistance Act put the minimum time to process a claim that requires a rating at 120 days, Reese said.

The time it takes to gather medical and military records to support a claim and to schedule doctor’s exams for the rating process can also cause delays.

And because the VA gives priority to claims that have been pending the longest, that can slow down the agency’s completion rate as it devotes more resources to expedite older cases.

Carl Lowe, director of the VA’s processing office in Waco, said that working to reduce the average number of days a claim sits pending and the average number of days to complete a claim is a juggling act.

“I would be glad if we didn’t have old cases, but sometimes we do, and if I don’t press our guys to work them, your days pending will go straight on up,” he said. “If you work on one, you are going to have a negative effect on the other one. It’s a never-ending battle that we have.”

Long-term goals

Nationally, the VA had a 132-day average for claims pending. The Waco office, which covers 164 of Texas’ 254 counties, had an average 114-day average for pending cases.

The Waco office’s 177-day average to process claims in 2007 was shorter than the VA’s national performance. However, Lowe acknowledged that they have a long way to go to meet the VA’s long-term goal of reducing the average wait time to 125 days.

Hiring more claims processors is one way to reduce the national backlog of more than 408,000 pending rating cases.

U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, has worked this year in Congress to increase the VA’s budget to hire a total of 2,600 claims processors to help reduce the wait time. The agency has been hiring aggressively to deal with the problem, he said.

“A combat wounded veteran should not have to wait six months to receive his or her benefits,” he said. “It will take several years to reach the (long-term) goal because there is a limit to how many people can be trained at one time.”

This year, the Waco office has already hired 72 additional processors and another 28 are on their way, Lowe said.

But it can take up to two to three years for a new hire to become fully productive, so it could take a while to see waiting times drop significantly.

Reese said the bump in funding provided to the VA this year is a step in the right direction, but the increases will have to be sustained if lawmakers want the VA to get ahead of the problem.

“It will take (the new hires) a year or two to get them up to the par,” he said. “Probably in 2010 we could see some improvements if Congress keeps the money coming in so they can keep that staffing level and encourage those employees.”

ddoerr@wacotrib.com
757-5755

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Larry Scott  --

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