VA Updates Senate on Disability Claims – promotes Fully Developed Claims (FDC)

VA official outlines progress in reducing claims backlog

By Department of Veterans Affairs News Release | Headquarters Marine Corps | December 13, 2013

WASHINGTON --

A senior Veterans Affairs Department official outlined progress made by the Veterans Benefits Administration in reducing the backlog of veterans' disability compensation and pension claims by 36 percent since March, attributing the success to the combined impact of transformation initiatives and increased employee productivity Dec, 11.

Allison A. Hickey, Undersecretary of Veterans Affairs for Benefits, testified at a hearing of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

"We know there is much more work to be done to reach our goal of eliminating the disability claims backlog in 2015," Hickey said. "But I'm encouraged that the improved tools and processes we've put in place so far are having a real impact so that we may better serve our nation's veterans, their survivors and their families." Although she personally opposes C-123 veterans' claims, General Hickey has done much to improve the overall VA claims processing nightmare.

Hickey detailed the elements of the Veterans Benefits Administration's transformation plan, which includes retraining and reorganizing its workforce, streamlining business processes, and building and implementing new technology solutions. With each transformation milestone, she said, VBA is successfully moving away from a paper-bound, manual process to improve benefits delivery through paperless claims processing. She also noted that if full funding is received, mandatory overtime for VBA claims processors, which helped to bring down the backlog this year, will continue for much of 2014.

Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Approves New Benefits Bills

Veterans’ Committee Advances Health Care, Benefits Bills

WASHINGTON, July 24  (from VeteransToday)  The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs today approved a package of bills to improve benefits and health care services for veterans and their families.

Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the package includes a measure to bring the Department of Veterans Affairs in line with a Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage. Other legislation approved by the Committee would improve the delivery of care and benefits for veterans who experienced sexual assault in the military. Another bill would make the VA provide detailed reports to Congress on its effort to eliminate a staggering claims backlog.

The legislation cleared by the committee would:

• Expand eligibility for benefits for spouses married in states that allow gays to wed. The measure would bring the VA into conformance with a June 26 ruling by the Supreme Court that struck down a federal law that unconstitutionally denied federal benefits for all legally married couples.
• Improve the delivery of care and benefits for veterans who experienced sexual trauma while serving in the military. The Pentagon in May released a survey estimating that 26,000 people in the armed forces were sexually assaulted last year, up from 19,000 in 2010. This legislation was inspired by Ruth Moore. Raped in 1987 by her Navy supervisor, Moore struggled for 23-years to receive VA disability compensation. Her battle for benefits finally succeeded when she lived in West Danville, Vt., and contacted her congressman, Bernie Sanders, for help.
• Extend to caregivers for veterans of all eras eligibility for the family caregiver program. This program currently provides services and benefits – including a monthly stipend, reimbursement for travel expenses, counseling, training and respite care – to caregivers of seriously injured post-9/11 veterans.
• Require quarterly reports to Congress on efforts to eliminate a backlog of benefits claims by 2015. VA would have to detail both the projected and actual number of claims received, pending, completed and on appeal.
• • Improve veterans’ health care through increased access to complementary and alternative medicine, chiropractic care and transportation services.
• Expand access to education benefits for veterans and their survivors, including making recently-separated veterans eligible for tuition at the in-state rate and improving the level of benefits offered to survivors of service members killed on active duty.
• Expand employment opportunities for veterans through new programs that will encourage employers to hire veterans and by renewing the popular Veterans Retraining Assistance Program from VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011.