GAO Findings Indicate Some Disabled Veterans Not Receiving Benefits They Are Due

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Lane Evans (D-IL), Ranking Democratic Member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said today that veterans may be underpaid due to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) failure to consider pain and fatigue in medical evaluations of claims for service-connected disability benefits.  Evans released a report he requested from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concerning veterans who are disabled during military service by joint and spine conditions. 

The GAO found that ten years after the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims ruled in DeLuca v. Brown that the VA must consider the effect of pain and fatigue on claims involving joint and spine disabilities, 22% of VA medical examinations still do not comply with the criteria.  VA has improved since 2002 when 61% of the examinations failed to meet the criteria.  GAO attributed the improvement to a requirement incorporated into the performance review of VA medical directors.

Veterans who suffer from “flare-ups” with increased pain, fatigue or other symptoms related to their joint or spine disability may receive a higher rating from the VA.  A higher rating entitles the veterans to increased VA compensation benefits.  If the examination is not properly conducted the rating may be too low.  GAO also found that DeLuca compliance varies around the country from a low of 57% in the Northeast to a high of 92% in the South Central states.

“It is certainly discouraging to learn that ten years after the Court required VA to consider the effect of pain and repetitive motion on disabilities, one out of every five veterans still receives an inadequate medical examination,” said Evans.  “VA must improve the quality of its medical examinations and VA regional offices must improve the quality of their examination requests.  I strongly encourage the VA to only rate claims that comply with DeLuca,” continued Evans. 

The GAO report will be considered at a hearing of the Veterans Affairs’ Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs scheduled for October 20, 2005.

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