VA’s wait time for claims processing increases

| March 1, 2014

McClatchy reports that veterans’ wait times for claims processing had increased to 900 days last year.

After hovering between 500 and 750 days for the past decade, what the VA refers to as its “appeals resolution time” hit 923 days in fiscal 2013. That was a 37 percent jump in one year, from 675 in fiscal 2012, according to a review of the department’s annual performance report.

The department’s long-term goal is to get that figure to 400 days, although the trend over the past decade has been in the other direction.

Asked about the slowdown during a conference call to discuss the VA’s appeals system, the department said it has been reviewing the measure to see if it’s the most meaningful one to convey to veterans how long the appeals process might take. The department also said it was continuing to look for ways to make the process more efficient.

It’s good that it has become a priority for this administration, imagine how bad it would be if it wasn’t a priority. If they’re looking for ways to make it more efficient, I’d say they need a leadership change and they need to put veterans in charge of the thing, veterans beside Shinseki, of course.

Category: Veterans' Affairs Department

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Sparks

I agree there needs to be more “veterans” in the VA. Instead of civilian GS, time markers, just trying to get to 5 o’clock everyday with as little effort as possible and looking forward to the weekend is their Priority Number 1. Don’t get me wrong, do I like quitting time, sure. Do I wait for my weekends, you bet. But my duties do not involve the health and lives of veterans and retirees. If it did, then my priorities would change accordingly. VA employees strike me, by and large, like postal workers. I do know there are exceptions and for them I am grateful.

Flagwaver

How the heck can you claim that something extended to 900 days in a year? So, absolutely nothing happened in that year, let’s extend it another 300 days?

It took me two years to get my PTSD approved, and they rubber-stamped it at 10% to make it look like they were processing faster. The twit at the VA told me that I should file an appeal to get it raised. A buddy of mine who lost a leg in an IED attack was given the exact same rate.

Hell, even in my assessment, the shrink only asked about my childhood. No mention of my military service. No mention of my life after I got out of the service. All of her questions were only concerning age 18 and under. It was ridiculous. I took four frakking years of Psych and I can do a better assessment that they grad student (and I was only minoring in Psych).

It is bull that some people have to wait to get the benefits they need almost as long as they were in the frakking service! I understand that the people at the VA have some other duties, but come on.

Green Thumb

No surprise here.

Just watch out, folks, for the unqualified “physicians” covering down in specialties that are not qualified to practice to backstop the time.

rb325th

Someone I know (who is a Veteran), left VA Health care to go work at the VBA… when he left VA health Care he had 7 months worth of untouched work crammed into his desk. Which by the way was as long as he had been there.
Hiring more veterans is not the answer, unless you can change the culture of the Government Workplace (especially on the claims side of the VA). I know plenty of dedicated hard working VA employees who never wore a uniform, and many who did also. I have seen just as many slugs here who were in the military, and they were likely the privates like the one in that recent viral photo hiding in their car. (or in plain sight at their desk.)
Hell, they treat adjusting a dependents status the same as filing for an actual injury. Utterly rediculous.
Current expected time for a claim to procede through the VA Regional Office in Boston, Ma. is 16 months. A friend had his claim go through in 6 months in Maine. WTF Over? The system is seriously screwed up.
No uniformity at all. Regardless of some areas like Boston handling a higher number of claims, they also have a higher number of employees. It is a failure of leadership, that starts right down in D.C.
Maybe Shinseki should issue the VA Berets to make them feel more special, it would surely help improve morale…