Improvements in the VA

[Katmandu]

This is from an internal memo I received here at work. Thought I would pass it along.


HEY VA! HAVE YOU HEARD? April 28, 2010

Federal stimulus funds are being used for more than bricks and mortar at VA. The department is putting Americans to work with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, while bolstering staffing at VA benefits offices where Veterans' claims are processed. Some 2,300 employees have been added to VBA regional offices around the country.

The new hires do not directly decide Veterans claims, but they are involved in general office administrative work supporting the professional adjudicators making compensation or pension decisions or processing changes in Veterans benefits.

This frees the more highly trained personnel to spend more time on their core activities. The additional staffing will reduce the time it takes VA to process claims, meaning Veterans will receive benefits more quickly than they would otherwise. The Recovery Act provided $150 million for the program to hire and train the new staffers. VA has hired 500 new staff members as permanent employees.

While Recovery Act funding for the temporary employees
will expire in September 2010, the 2011 President's budget includes funds to retain or replace these employees on a permanent basis and to hire more than 2,000 additional new processors.

[Katmandu]

Here's another update....


HEY VA! HAVE YOU HEARD? April 30, 2010
As he enters his second year as head of VA, Secretary Shinseki is focused on reducing the disability claims backlog. "We are going to break the back of the backlog this year," Secretary Shinseki said during a news interview last week.

He's counting on four pilot programs designed to identify and overcome
obstacles that slow the claims process. One, launched in Pittsburgh in
January, seeks to fundamentally change the relationship between veterans and the VA by giving the veteran a checklist of what's needed to file the claim and allow VA to go ahead and find whatever documentation the veteran can't
provide.

This, Secretary Shinseki said, reduces dead time right at the start
of putting together the claims package. Once the paperwork is gathered, VA then will "work with the veteran to put together the best and strongest argument to win the case," he said. That's a major change, Secretary Shinseki noted, making VA the veteran's advocate rather than adversary as the claim makes its way through the system.

Secretary Shinseki said he's impressed by what he's seen since the pilot program kicked off in January, and credits the self-named "Delta Team" there with showing solid progress in improving the claims process.

A pilot under way at the Providence, RI VARO will introduce
new automated tools to make claims processing faster and more accurate,
efficient and secure. A pilot program at the Little Rock, Ark., VARO is
focused on re-engineering the claims process to make it more efficient,
investigating questions such as "How to simplify the claims process to reduce procedural delays?"

A fourth promising pilot program being tested in Baltimore
is taking best practices from the others to create what Secretary Shinseki called the "virtual VA regional office of the future." Ultimately, he said, he expects it to be a model for 57 VA regional offices nationwide.

He said he's committed to creating a disciplined, high-performing and transparent organization tailored being more responsive to the needs of Veterans.

[BlazinEagle]

This is great news. Our veterans need to be taken care of. My grandfather was in WWII and now has alzheimers and resides in a VA retirement home. He is taken care with the best people. It was hard to decide to put him there, but it is for the best.

[Katmandu]

My grandfather was in WWII and now has alzheimers and resides in a VA retirement home. He is taken care with the best people. That's great to hear.

Tell him he is appreciated and we all thank him for Service for our Country.

[bestracing]

Thats good to hear. My father was in Vietnam and was exposed to Agent Orange and has hearing loss from flying missions in a UH-1 Slick