Vets Still Face Long Delays From VA

[catman]

Months after the Department of Veterans Affairs told Congress it expected its processing time for veterans' disability claims to drop, agency internal reports show little or no progress.

Records show that the department is struggling in its attempt to reduce veterans' waiting time, in part because VA employee productivity nationwide is only three-quarters of what is expected. In some regional offices, it is far lower.

The delays mean tens of thousands of veterans who were injured serving the country are waiting far longer to have their cases decided than lawmakers - or even the VA - would like. The waiting-time measure is one of the agency's key goals to show how well it is serving veterans.

In March, the department was under fire from lawmakers for poor service. VA Secretary James Nicholson told Congress he expected processing times to drop to 145 days for the fiscal year, a target that itself had been changed from prior goals that aimed to bring the average to 100 or fewer days.

For the first 11 months of the 2005 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, the department's average time to process disability claims was 167 days, one day slower than last year, according to a Sept. 22 VA report obtained by Knight Ridder, parent company of The Inquirer. The average for August claims was 169 days.

Michael Walcoff, a top official in the VA's benefits division, said that Nicholson fully expected the department to meet its goals but that staff productivity had suffered throughout the year.

"The secretary had very high expectations for us," Walcoff said. "I am concerned about productivity. I believe we have the capacity to be more productive than we have been this year."

Many claims for disability compensation, which pays veterans for injuries sustained while serving in the military, take far longer than the average. The Sept. 22 report said 4,300 cases from August had taken longer than a year to decide. And while some categories of claims have shown improvement in the last two years, others showed a "marked deterioration in performance" and on balance things have not improved at all, the report said.

As a result, the backlog of pending claims is rising, just the opposite of what the department had anticipated. Only last year, VA officials said the backlog should drop to 250,000 claims nationwide. Instead, it is now above 350,000.

"We see a deterioration of service," said Randy Reese, the national service director for Disabled American Veterans, an advocacy group. "They are starting to go into a downward spiral."

It is frustrating to veterans such as Joseph P. O'Marrah of New Lenox, Ill., who first asked for an increase in his disability check in April because his back, shoulder, and other injuries kept getting worse, he said. By August, after exchanging letters with the VA, he called the Chicago regional office and was told that cases were taking 32 to 48 weeks, maybe longer.

"I don't understand why it takes them so long," said O'Marrah, who is 62 and served in the Vietnam War.

[Gimpy]

Originally posted by catman Months after the Department of Veterans Affairs told Congress it expected its processing time for veterans' disability claims to drop, agency internal reports show little or no progress.

Records show that the department is struggling in its attempt to reduce veterans' waiting time, in part because VA employee productivity nationwide is only three-quarters of what is expected. In some regional offices, it is far lower.

The delays mean tens of thousands of veterans who were injured serving the country are waiting far longer to have their cases decided than lawmakers - or even the VA - would like. The waiting-time measure is one of the agency's key goals to show how well it is serving veterans.

In March, the department was under fire from lawmakers for poor service. VA Secretary James Nicholson told Congress he expected processing times to drop to 145 days for the fiscal year, a target that itself had been changed from prior goals that aimed to bring the average to 100 or fewer days.

For the first 11 months of the 2005 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, the department's average time to process disability claims was 167 days, one day slower than last year, according to a Sept. 22 VA report obtained by Knight Ridder, parent company of The Inquirer. The average for August claims was 169 days.

Michael Walcoff, a top official in the VA's benefits division, said that Nicholson fully expected the department to meet its goals but that staff productivity had suffered throughout the year.

"The secretary had very high expectations for us," Walcoff said. "I am concerned about productivity. I believe we have the capacity to be more productive than we have been this year."

Many claims for disability compensation, which pays veterans for injuries sustained while serving in the military, take far longer than the average. The Sept. 22 report said 4,300 cases from August had taken longer than a year to decide. And while some categories of claims have shown improvement in the last two years, others showed a "marked deterioration in performance" and on balance things have not improved at all, the report said.

As a result, the backlog of pending claims is rising, just the opposite of what the department had anticipated. Only last year, VA officials said the backlog should drop to 250,000 claims nationwide. Instead, it is now above 350,000.

"We see a deterioration of service," said Randy Reese, the national service director for Disabled American Veterans, an advocacy group. "They are starting to go into a downward spiral."

It is frustrating to veterans such as Joseph P. O'Marrah of New Lenox, Ill., who first asked for an increase in his disability check in April because his back, shoulder, and other injuries kept getting worse, he said. By August, after exchanging letters with the VA, he called the Chicago regional office and was told that cases were taking 32 to 48 weeks, maybe longer.

"I don't understand why it takes them so long," said O'Marrah, who is 62 and served in the Vietnam War.

Well then, Mr. O'Marrah let an old southern country boy 'Splain' it to you, OK?

It appears that the Bush budget for the VA abandons efforts to improve on the intolerable situation in which VA has large backlogs of pending claims and in which benefits awards to veterans are delayed as a consequence. The Bush Budget Submission for FY 2004, for example, set a goal of reducing the average processing time for compensation and pension claims from a projected 165 days in FY 2003 to 100 days in FY 2004, with a strategic target of 90 days.

The Budget Submission for FY 2005 set a goal of reducing the average processing time for compensation and pension claims from a projected 145 days in FY 2004 to 100 days in FY 2005, with a strategic target of 90 days.

The FY 2006 Budget Submission revises these figures to show that average was actually 166 days in FY 2004, that the time will be reduced to 145 days in FY 2005, and that the goal for FY 2006 is also 145 days. The strategic target has been increased from 90 days to 125 days. This demonstrates that the resources requested are insufficient to meet a goal that VA portrays as a ?top priority.? These figures call into question the genuineness of this stated goal.

In its FY 2004 budget submission of February 2003, the Administration sought 61 fewer full-time employees (FTE) for VBA than authorized for FY 2003. Under the budget, C&P service would have no increase in FTE, but rather would maintain the FY 2003 staffing level, which was down by 190 FTE below the FY 2002 level.

The President?s budget submission for VA clearly does not remain fixed on the objective of strengthening VBA to make it better able to fulfill its responsibilities to veterans . Due to the war in Iraq and the many hostilities in which our Armed Forces are engaged today, we can only expect an influx of new veterans needing VA benefits and services.

Logically, more resources will be needed in some areas just to stay even with the workload. However, the President?s budget proposes major reductions in resources for the delivery of benefits and services to veterans. For VBA, the President?s budget requests 829 fewer full-time employees (FTE) for FY 2005 than authorized at the end of the fiscal year, FY 2003.

The request is 540 FTE below the FY 2004 level!


It's obvious that the 'problem' is compounded by the lack of funding for additional FTEs' to solve this problem and it will ONLY get worse before it gets better.

[Packo]

Gimpy and Trav,

Agree totally that this is a problem and will continue to be a problem probably forever. When I worked at the VA Medical gets first priority of FTE and benefits rates behind them and probably other things. I remember this problem then and it's still a problem now. With the increase in wounded and the TAP classes all GI's get now before discharge, the benefit system is bound to be clogged and it's gonna take more than liquid plummer to get it unstuck. Unlike us, who got no TAP classes and didn't know shit about our benefits, these kids are coming out today and being encouraged to file for benefits for "anything in your medical file". They are filing claims for everything from hangnails to coughs due to colds. This, though, does not leave the administration off the hook. If your gonna have a war, bullets and tanks, planes and artillery, are only the begining of the costs. They just passed a how many billion dollar PORKATHON in Washington and not a red cent of that goes to the VA. Bridges to nowhere and billions of more wasteful spending is what that atrocity was all about. Granted, I don't believe ANY administration has EVER given the VA what they need since Korea, and it only got worse after Vietnam, but the man I voted for told us Vets that we need not worry. Well, I'm worried. The Republicans in Washington are just as guilty as the Democrats in this spending orgy that has been going on, and to me, MORE GUILTY because they could have put an end to it and did not. Now I know that the VA gets more then it ever has in History, and I know that it has gotten more money then the predisessor gave it, but that doesn't mean that it's enough. When the doors opened to ALL Veterans no matter what their SC status, it swamped an all ready questionable system. So much of all the new funding is going to the medical side to keep appointment dates resonable for vets and to handle the huge increase, that something is going to suffer, and it's in the Regional Offices that do the adjudication. The VA needs to be fully funded with manditory extra money going to the VARO's for more people to help process claims. I challenge this administration to do this. I challenge the Congress to do this. I know it won't happen. They are too busy passing Pork to care about adjudicating some crybaby vets claim. Screw all these bastards!

Pack

[Gimpy]

My dear, wonderful Southern brother.

You have put this issue into a perspective and clarity that many of 'us' working with, and within the 'system', as well as those on the ouside looking in can appreciate and comprehend as well as anyone I've ever seen.

Thank you for your efforts, your service and your undying loyalty to your brothers in arms.

This country needs more like you my brother.

[BLUEHAWK]

Originally posted by Paco G
...The VA needs to be fully funded with manditory extra money going to the VARO's for more people to help process claims. I challenge this administration to do this. I challenge the Congress to do this.

With that much I would agree fully.

1. What actions, specifically, could this or any other administration take?

2. Congress approves or disapproves ALL funding measures, pork included.

3. What might be the cause of productivity at certain levels of VA being low?

4. Is the level of VA claims and other productivity noticeably lower than anything a civilian experiences in the private sector?

[Packo]

Gimpy, thank you my friend.

Hawk,

1. The DVA was elevated to a cabinet level position years ago. I believe the President, and I may be wrong, can say to his head of DVA...."This rating system is a mess. How much do you need to fix it? Put a solution on my desk. You have 30 days." When there is a disaster, or war, or attack like 9-11, the money flows as it should. Our VA system is a disaster. I believe, but may be wrong, he has the power to do what I'm thinking.

2. A Republican Congress, or Dem Congress, would not deny their President on an issue like this if the funding had to go through them. I can't imagine it. This Republican Congress is balking at his ridiculous, and I'm a Republican, pick for the supreme court. They could approve emergency funding for the VA.

3. Not enough people in the right places and too many restrictions on who can adjudicate claims. DVA does not allow veterans to adjudicate claims, nor doctors who are veterans to do Compensation and Pension Physicals because they could be "bias" toward the veteran. Well.....non-veterans could also be prejudical. It's crap. Also, the money, and there is good reason for this, is pumped into the medical side and the paying side. Adjudication and other administration functions suffer.

4. Well, that's an interesting question but there are not many "civilian" groups that function the same. I guess our courts are civilian and also backlogged. Insurance companies don't hurry to pay out benefits. At one time VA adjudicators got bonuses for adjudicating claims fast. Problem was, the fastest way to adjudicate a claim is to just deny it. Certainly they need more people in all areas of VARO administration....and they also need to quit hiring people that don't know squat about being in the service or combat. I ain't holding my breath. Oh, and one more thing. About the closest I can think of is Social Security. There is a system that denies most everybody no matter what their disablility is, and yes, there are tons of phoney's trying to get SS disablility, but even if your 100% by the VA, SS will deny you and let the court decide. How many people do you know that ever got SS without having to pay an attorney? I know of NOBODY and at one time all of my patients in the VA were rated 100% SC from the VA but had to hire attorney's to win their SS case. Another filed up fucked up system.


Pack

[BLUEHAWK]

Paco -

That was very helpful information... thank you.

[MORTARDUDE]

As I have said before, the only hope is for all the major Veteran's organizations ( maybe 10 ) should get together and start running full page ads in USA Today or TV spots and shame these bastards in Washington. When the war is over, the veterans will be forgotten again, unfortunately.

Larry

[Gimpy]

Packo and Larry said!

PS---Packo..............You're absolutely right in your assesment of SS disabilty as well. It took me nearly THREE FREAKIN YEARS to get my SS disabilty award AFTER I was awarded my 100% P & T from the VA and included an appeal of the SS's first denial.

I didn't hire a lawyer for this appeal but spent many, many weeks at my local library studying every appropiate statute and rule of law not to mention months and months of phone calls and trips to private and VA physicians to gather the necessary PROOF to make sure the SS administration could NOT deny the 'facts' of my case!

The SS adjudiction officer that granted my award told me he had NEVER seen such a thorough and comprehensive example of documentation to support a claim!

It's a sad state of affairs when many of this nations citizens (veteran or not) are either unable to hire an attorney or don't have the where-with-all to adequately pursue something that the majority of those who DO apply for SS disabilty are worthy of.

And, which is something our Government SHOULD be more willing to offer their vast resources to help these individuals with, rather than discourage them from doing.

[BLUEHAWK]

Only three years, brother Gimpy?

Shouldn't we be grateful it wasn't then called "concurrent receipt"?

I hear ya though, loud and clear.