
On January 25, 2013, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs
published a strategic plan to eliminate the backlog by May 25, 2015 – Memorial
Day. The Secretary stated, “We have a fix for this. We’re open for business.
And we will end the backlog in 2015.”
Claims pending more than 125 days are considered “backlogged”.
Approximately 590,000 claims were backlogged as of August 2012. In 2014 the
number of backlogged claims dropped to 309,000, evidence that the Secretary’s
plan seems to be working. Reports have
come from Congress, however, stating that the Secretary’s plan “does not
adequately articulate how the Department will meet its goals, and . . . does
not meet the established criteria of the Government Accountability Office for
sound planning.” This fuels that already serious doubt on whether the VA will
actually be able to fully meet its goals.
The VA’s backlog is a result of a number of factors. One of
the factors is the delay in obtaining service records. It can take up to a year
for the VA to receive some of the essential records it requests from the DoD
and Social Security. Additionally,
almost half of the claims processing staff have been in their current roles
less than 2 years and still require the supervision and review of the more
experienced claims processing staff who are thus diverted from their
responsibilities.
In May 2013, a bill entitled “Ending VA Claims Disability
Backlog and Accountability Act” was introduced in Congress to help regulate the
VA’s efforts to fix the backlog. The bill is meant to ensure that Veterans
Affairs will deliver on their commitment to eliminate the backlog in 2015,
guaranteeing that all new claims will be processed within 125 days at 98%
accuracy. Homeless veterans will also continue to receive top priority in
disability claims processing.
Once made into law, this bill would require the Secretary of
Veterans Affairs to submit regular reports to Congress, further detailing the
steps they are taking and their progress to date. This report must include
specific procedures used to assess the implementation of the plan and a
detailed time line for implementing each objective. Additionally, it would
require that all DoD, National Guard, and Social Security records be
transferred to the VA within 30 or 60 days of their request. Finally, this bill
would require the VA to establish a 3-year training program for newly hired
claim processors.
Many of the changes proposed in this bill were also addressed
in the Superheroes Fighting the Backlog Act.
The number the VA is reporting are not accurate. See the following post - https://plus.google.com/110321549524619427432/posts/MMGFxyiYa9A
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