Army Times: VA Attorney Testifies on Board of Veterans Appeals Corruption

Army Times: September 10  By Leo Shane III 
Staff writer

A senior attorney at the Board of Veterans Appeals told lawmakers Wednesday that managers at the agency covered up delays in appeals processing and doctored records to protect their performance bonuses.

Lawmakers said they were dismayed not just at the allegations but how closely they echo earlier VA scandals of case manipulation and whistleblower retaliation that have been the source of months of oversight and criticism.

In testimony before the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Kelli Kordich, an Army veteran and 15-year employee at the board, described “corruption and blatant disregard for our nation’s veterans” and “a toxic management system that uses a culture of fear and intimidation to attain its goals.”

Leaders at the board denied the charges, saying lengthy delays in processing appeals — an average three year wait — are a result of the complexity of the issues involved and the increasing workload of the board.

But the allegations cast doubt on reports from the board that it’s processing cases at record rates, and represent more headaches for VA officials who are trying to restore public confidence in their work and data.

Kordich detailed problems with cases that sat on senior leaders’ desks awaiting final signatures for hundreds of days. When VA leadership was alerted to the problem, Kordich said, board officials changed records to cover up the wait times.

She also said lawyers were forced to rush through other appeals to help meet annual workload goals, possibly compromising veterans’ cases. And she claimed that when she brought the problems forward, she received retaliation in the form of reassignment to a windowless office with limited responsibilities.

Board of Appeals Executive in Charge Laura Eskenazi denied those charges, saying the problems stem from an increase in appeals and not mismanagement by senior officials. The board has processed more than 50,000 appeals so far this fiscal year, but Eskenazi said another 60,000 are still in the pipeline.

Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., called the delays and allegations “alarming” and said he now questions if any data coming from the board can be trusted.

In recent months, VA employees have come before the committee to testify about manipulation of patient wait time data, claims backlog figures and performance bonus metrics.

New VA Secretary Bob McDonald has promised to have outside auditors review department record keeping practices and instill a veterans-centered culture at the department

VA Expands Program Aiding Homeless Veterans

VA allots $600 million more to veterans program

Sailors with the USS Constitution serve Thanksgiving dinner to at the New England Center for Homeless Veterans, Nov. 28, 2013.
PETER D. MELKUS/U.S. NAVY

By Leo Shane III

Stars and Stripes

Published: January 14, 2014

Great idea, VA!

Various booths offer aid to veterans and less fortunate during the Department of Veterans Affairs' Annual Stand Down Against Homelessness Oct. 19, 2012, at the North Charleston Armory.

GEORGE GOSLIN/U.S. AIR FORCE

WASHINGTON — Veterans Affairs officials will spend $600 million to continue the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program, community grants they say are key in ending homelessness among veterans.

The new pledge commits $300 million each in fiscal 2014 and fiscal 2015 for the grants, which are designed to provide a safety net for low-income veterans struggling with permanent housing.

VA awarded $300 million in grants last summer as part of the program. Officials said the money helped more than 39,000 veterans and 23,000 of their family members.

Advocates have said the direct support to outside nonprofits and the program’s “housing first” model have been key in helping homeless veterans. Many of the aid recipients are veterans who are not yet homeless, but could end up on the streets without intervention.

The department has set a public goal of ending veterans homelessness by the end of 2015.

According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development annual point-in-time count released in November, the number of homeless veterans across the country dropped to 57,849 in January 2013, down about 20,000 from four years earlier.

Department officials said the success of the SSVF program made continuing it an obvious choice, but officials wanted to publicly commit the fiscal 2015 money as well to provide continuity and planning for the larger homeless effort.

In a statement, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said partnerships with community groups are key in helping all veterans.

“We are making good progress towards our goal to end veterans’ homelessness,” he said, “but we still have work to do.”

More information about the program can be found at www.va.gov/homeless/ssvf.asp.

MOAA Receives VA's "Veterans Service Organization" Status – can now assist with VA claims

Military officers group helps veterans in filing for benefits

Buttons on display at the Military Officers Association of America headquarters announce the organization's new claims assistance efforts. MOAA was formally recognized by VA officials as a veterans service organization on Jan. 9.
LEO SHANE III/STARS AND STRIPES

By Leo Shane III

Stars and Stripes

Published: January 11, 2014

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VA Undersecretary for Benefits Allison Hickey speaks about veterans service organizations at Military Officers Association of America event on Jan. 9 while group president Norb Ryan looks on. MOAA was formally recognized by VA officials as a veterans service organization on Jan. 9.

LEO SHANE III/STARS AND STRIPES

Buttons on display at the Military Officers Association of America headquarters announce the organization's new claims assistance efforts. MOAA was formally recognized by VA officials as a veterans service organization on Jan. 9.

LEO SHANE III/STARS AND STRIPES

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – For the first time in four years, a new national advocacy group has stepped up to help veterans prepare their benefits paperwork and reduce the VA’s still problematic claims backlog.

The Military Officers Association of America was formally recognized as a veterans service organization this week, the first time a national group has earned that distinction since 2009. The move authorizes the group to handle benefits claim paperwork on behalf of veterans, assisting them with document collection and case management.

MOAA officials said they plan to start out small, handling at most a few thousand cases this year.

But the addition of a new national VSO is much larger symbolic news, a recognition by the department and veterans advocates that significant work still lies ahead in fixing the claims backlog.

“We just felt like we couldn’t stay on the sidelines on this anymore,” said Norb Ryan, MOAA president. “Even with all the great help out there already, there is still a lot of work to get done.”

The claims backlog -- the number of disability cases pending longer than 125 days -- peaked last spring at more than 611,000 cases, but dropped by more than a third by the end of 2013. VA officials have promised to zero out those overdue claims by the end of 2015.

About 1 million new claims came to the department in 2013, and officials expect that number to rise again. VA Undersecretary for Benefits Allison Hickey said about 60 percent of those are reviewed by VSOs before department staffers handle them.

That leaves tens of thousands of cases that arrive without any outside help. Typically, those cases take months longer to process because of missing medical documents, incomplete forms and other paperwork slowdowns.

“It’s not designed to be complicated,” Hickey said. “It’s just a complex system by its nature.”

So the department relies on outside groups to help simplify the process.

VSO officials can walk claimants through the process before they submit their cases, pointing out mistakes or time-consuming omissions. In some cases, an extra week of preparation can save months of processing time.

Larger VSOs like the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion churn through tens of thousands of cases a year, and can help guarantee a fast track for many of the claims they prepare.

But even those volunteers couldn’t keep the backlog from steadily growing over the last four years. Department officials have been criticized for taking too long to implement new technology and increase staff to stay in front of the problem.

Ryan said his organization broached the idea of becoming a VSO last year, during the intense media and lawmaker focus on the backlog. The 85-year-old organization -- it changed its name from the Retired Officers Association in 2003 -- hadn’t handled claims work, but quickly hired two full-time staff members and began the VA accreditation process.

VA in recent years has recognized several state veterans programs with VSO status, but has added no national ones since the White House made its 2009 pledge to end the backlog.

Even with the backlog heading downward, Ryan said MOAA officials believe they need to be involved in the claims assistance.

“We’ve never going to handle as many claims as the larger VSOs,” he said. “But, as an officers group, we feel like it’s important to set an example, and remind people there is still a need.”

The group has trained seven members as volunteers to help with the caseload. More than a dozen veterans with cases approached MOAA within days of the VSO-status announcement Jan. 9. Ryan said dozens more have offered to lend their legal and administrative skills.

Mike Mahler, a 26-year Air Force veteran, said he signed up as a volunteer in part because of his own disability claims experience.

When he retired 20 years ago, he handled his own paperwork and got a 10 percent disability rating from the VA. Three years ago, after a conversation with friends, he consulted with Disabled American Veterans volunteers who helped him increase that to 50 percent.

“That’s what I hope we can do for people,” Mahler said. “If we can steer them in the right direction, maybe they won’t have to go back three or four times to fix the mistakes. We can help them get it right the first time.”

shane.leo@stripes.com