Veterans' Benefits

In response to a congressional request, GAO evaluated the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) appeals process for disability compensation and pension decisions, to determine whether VA could improve the timeliness of its appeals process without detriment to quality.

GAO found that VA did not: (1) effectively manage appeals, since it lacked adequate data to identify systemic problems; (2) accurately report on the time the appeals process took, and lacked adequate time standards; (3) ensure timely resolution of processing and reporting problems, which often involved multiple organizational units; (4) provide adequate guidance and oversight for regional offices; or (5) ensure that regional offices were complying with procedures. GAO also found that: (1) despite the appeals process being the same for all regions, the average time varied widely among VA regional offices; (2) delays in regional offices were due to slow case statement processing, and delays in requesting or using appeals medical information and forwarding appeals to the Board of Veterans Appeals (BVA); and (3) VA developed an automated Veterans Appeals Records Management System to provide BVA with appeals data for reporting and control purposes, but the system had never provided accurate data. In addition, GAO found that: (1) the reported average processing time did not accurately reflect the time VA took to provide final decisions on appeals, because it did not account for regional office time spent on remanded decisions, and VA double-counted cases remanded to BVA; and (2) VA management, Congress, and others did not have a complete picture of how long veterans waited for appeal decisions.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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