Veterans' Disability Benefits
Long-Standing Claims Processing Challenges Persist Gao ID: GAO-07-512T March 7, 2007The Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee asked GAO to discuss its recent work related to the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) disability claims and appeals processing. GAO has reported and testified on this subject on numerous occasions. GAO's work has addressed VA's efforts to improve the timeliness and accuracy of decisions on claims and appeals, VA's efforts to reduce backlogs, and concerns about decisional consistency.
VA continues to face challenges in improving service delivery to veterans, specifically in speeding up the process of adjudication and appeal, reducing the existing backlog of claims, and improving the accuracy and consistency of decisions. For example, as of the end of fiscal year 2006, rating-related compensation claims were pending an average of 127 days, 16 days more than at the end of fiscal year 2003. During the same period, the inventory of rating-related claims grew by almost half, due in part to increased filing of claims, including those filed by veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Meanwhile, appeals resolution remains a lengthy process, taking an average of 657 days in fiscal year 2006. Further, we and VA's Inspector General have identified concerns about the consistency of decisions by VA's regional offices and the Board of Veterans' Appeals (BVA). VA is taking steps to address these problems. For example, the President's fiscal year 2008 budget requests an increase of over 450 full-time equivalent employees to process compensation claims. VA is working to improve appeals timeliness by reducing appeals remanded for further work. VA is also developing a plan to monitor consistency across regional offices. However, several factors may limit VA's ability to make and sustain significant improvements in its claims processing performance, including the potential impacts of laws and court decisions, continued increases in the number and complexity of claims being filed, and difficulties in obtaining the evidence needed to decide claims in a timely and accurate manner, such as military service records. Opportunities for significant performance improvement may lie in more fundamental reform of VA's disability compensation program. This could include reexamining program design such as updating the disability criteria to reflect the current state of science, medicine, technology, and labor market conditions. It could also include examining the structure and division of labor among field offices.
GAO-07-512T, Veterans' Disability Benefits: Long-Standing Claims Processing Challenges Persist
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Testimony:
Before the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, United States Senate:
United States Government Accountability Office:
GAO:
For Release on Delivery Expected at 9:30 a.m. EST:
Wednesday, March 7, 2007:
Veterans' Disability Benefits:
Long-Standing Claims Processing Challenges Persist:
Statement of Daniel Bertoni, Acting Director:
Education, Workforce and Income Security:
GAO-07-512T:
GAO Highlights:
Highlights of GAO-07-512T, a testimony before the Committee on
Veterans' Affairs, United States Senate
Why GAO Did This Study:
The Senate Veterans‘ Affairs Committee asked GAO to discuss its recent
work related to the Department of Veterans Affairs‘ (VA) disability
claims and appeals processing.
GAO has reported and testified on this subject on numerous occasions.
GAO‘s work has addressed VA‘s efforts to improve the timeliness and
accuracy of decisions on claims and appeals, VA‘s efforts to reduce
backlogs, and concerns about decisional consistency.
What GAO Found:
VA continues to face challenges in improving service delivery to
veterans, specifically in speeding up the process of adjudication and
appeal, reducing the existing backlog of claims, and improving the
accuracy and consistency of decisions. For example, as of the end of
fiscal year 2006, rating-related compensation claims were pending an
average of 127 days, 16 days more than at the end of fiscal year 2003.
During the same period, the inventory of rating-related claims grew by
almost half, due in part to increased filing of claims, including those
filed by veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Meanwhile,
appeals resolution remains a lengthy process, taking an average of 657
days in fiscal year 2006. Further, we and VA‘s Inspector General have
identified concerns about the consistency of decisions by VA‘s regional
offices and the Board of Veterans‘ Appeals (BVA).
Figure: Rating-Related Claims Pending at End of Period, Fiscal Years
2000-2006:
[See PDF for Image]
Source: VA data.
[End of figure]
VA is taking steps to address these problems. For example, the
President‘s fiscal year 2008 budget requests an increase of over 450
full-time equivalent employees to process compensation claims. VA is
working to improve appeals timeliness by reducing appeals remanded for
further work. VA is also developing a plan to monitor consistency
across regional offices. However, several factors may limit VA‘s
ability to make and sustain significant improvements in its claims
processing performance, including the potential impacts of laws and
court decisions, continued increases in the number and complexity of
claims being filed, and difficulties in obtaining the evidence needed
to decide claims in a timely and accurate manner, such as military
service records.
Opportunities for significant performance improvement may lie in more
fundamental reform of VA's disability compensation program. This could
include reexamining program design such as updating the disability
criteria to reflect the current state of science, medicine, technology,
and labor market conditions. It could also include examining the
structure and division of labor among field offices.
[Hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-512T].
To view the full product, including the scope and methodology, click on
the link above. For more information, contact Daniel Bertoni at (202)
512-7215 or bertonid@gao.gov.
[End of section]
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:
I am pleased to have the opportunity to comment on the claims
processing challenges and opportunities facing the Department of
Veterans Affairs' (VA) disability compensation and pension programs.
Through these programs, VA provided about $34.5 billion in cash
disability benefits to more than 3.5 million veterans and their
survivors in fiscal year 2006. For years, the claims process has been
the subject of concern and attention by VA, the Congress, and veterans
service organizations. Many of their concerns have focused on long
waits for decisions, large claims backlogs, and inaccurate decisions.
Our work, and media reports of significant discrepancies in average
disability payments from state to state have also highlighted concerns
about the consistency of decision-making within VA. In January 2003, we
designated modernizing VA and other federal disability programs as a
high-risk area, because of these service delivery challenges and
because our work over the past decade found that these programs are
based on outmoded concepts from the past.
You asked us to discuss our recent work on VA's disability claims
process. My statement draws on a number of prior GAO reports and
testimonies. (See related GAO products.) We updated information as
appropriate to reflect the current status of VA claims processing and
initiatives.
In summary, VA continues to face challenges in improving service
delivery to veterans, specifically in speeding up the process of
adjudication and appeal, reducing the existing backlog of claims, and
improving the accuracy and consistency of decisions. For example,
between fiscal years 2003 and 2006, the inventory of rating-related
claims grew by almost half to a total of about 378,000, due in part to
increased filing of claims, including those filed by veterans of the
Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.[Footnote 1] During the same period, the
average number of days these claims were pending increased by 16 days,
to an average of 127 days. While VA has improved the accuracy of its
compensation decisions to 88 percent in fiscal year 2006, it is still
well short of its established goal of 98 percent. Meanwhile, appeals
resolution remains a lengthy process. In fiscal year 2006, it took an
average of 657 days to resolve appeals. Further, we and VA's Inspector
General have identified concerns about the consistency of decisions
across regional offices and at the Board of Veterans' Appeals.
VA is taking steps to address service delivery problems, but
improvements may be limited by several factors. The President's fiscal
year 2008 budget requests an increase of over 450 full-time equivalent
employees to process compensation claims. Through training and
information sharing, VA is also working to reduce appeals processing
times by decreasing the number of cases sent back from the appeals
level for further development. Further, VA has taken actions to improve
consistency, including developing a plan to monitor decisions and
identify unacceptable variations, and commissioning a study of the
major influences on compensation decisions. However, several factors
may limit VA's ability to make and sustain significant improvements in
its claims processing performance. These include the potential impacts
of laws and court decisions, continued increases in the number and
complexity of claims being filed, and difficulties in obtaining the
evidence needed to adjudicate claims in a timely and accurate manner,
such as military service records.
Opportunities for significant performance improvement may lie in more
fundamental reform of VA's disability compensation program. This would
include reexamining program design as well as the structure and
division of labor among field offices. For example, we found that VA
and other federal disability programs have not been updated to reflect
the current state of science, medicine, technology, and labor market
conditions. Specifically, the criteria for disability decisions are
based primarily on estimates made in 1945 about the effect of service-
connected impairments on the average individual's ability to perform
jobs requiring manual labor. In addition, our work has shown that about
one-third of newly compensated veterans could be interested in
receiving lump sum payments, which could potentially save VA time and
money associated with reopening cases over time and could be beneficial
to veterans. In addition, VA and other organizations have identified
potential changes to field operations that could enhance productivity
and accuracy in processing disability claims. While major reexamination
may be daunting, there are mechanisms for undertaking such an effort.
For example, the congressionally chartered commission on veterans'
disability benefits has been studying a number of program design
issues, and will report to the Congress later this year.
Background:
VA pays monthly disability compensation benefits to veterans with
service-connected disabilities (injuries or diseases incurred or
aggravated while on active military duty) according to the severity of
the disability. VA also pays compensation to some spouses, children,
and parents of deceased veterans and service members. VA's pension
program pays monthly benefits based on financial need to certain
wartime veterans or their survivors.[Footnote 2]
When a veteran submits a claim to any of the Veterans Benefits
Administration's 57 regional offices, a veterans service representative
is responsible for obtaining the relevant evidence to evaluate the
claim. Such evidence includes veterans' military service records,
medical examinations, and treatment records from VA medical facilities
and private medical service providers. Once a claim has all the
necessary evidence, a rating specialist evaluates the claim and
determines whether the claimant is eligible for benefits. If the
veteran is eligible for disability compensation, the rating specialist
assigns a percentage rating based on degree of disability. A veteran
who disagrees with the regional office's decision can appeal to VA's
Board of Veterans' Appeals and then to U.S. federal courts. If the
Board finds that a case needs additional work such as obtaining
additional evidence or contains procedural errors, it is sent back to
the Veterans Benefits Administration, which is responsible for initial
decisions on disability claims.
In November 2003, the Congress established the Veterans' Disability
Benefits Commission to study the appropriateness of VA disability
benefits, including disability criteria and benefit levels. The
commission is scheduled to report to the Congress by October 1, 2007.
VA Continues to Face Service Delivery Challenges:
VA continues to experience significant service delivery challenges
including lengthy processing times and inaccurate and inconsistent
decisions. While VA made progress in fiscal years 2002 and 2003
reducing the size and age of its pending claims inventory, it has lost
ground since then. This is due in part to increased filing of claims,
including those filed by veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan
conflicts. Moreover, questions remain about consistency of VA's
decisions across regional offices and at the Board of Veterans'
Appeals.
VA's inventory of pending claims and their average time pending have
increased significantly in the last 3 years. The number of pending
claims increased by almost one-half from the end of fiscal year 2003 to
the end of fiscal year 2006, from about 254,000 to about 378,000.
During the same period, the number of claims pending longer than 6
months increased by more than three-fourths, from about 47,000 to about
83,000 (see fig.1).
Figure 1: Rating-Related Claims Pending at End of Period, Fiscal Years
2000-2006:
[See PDF for image]
Source: VA data.
[End of figure]
Similarly, as shown in figure 2, VA reduced the average age of its
pending claims from 182 days at the end of fiscal year 2001 to 111 days
at the end of fiscal year 2003. However, by the end of fiscal year 2006
average days pending had increased to 127 days. Meanwhile, the time
required to resolve appeals remains too long. The average time to
resolve an appeal rose from 529 days in fiscal year 2004 to 657 days in
fiscal year 2006.
Figure 2: Average Days Pending for VA Compensation and Pension Rating-
Related Claims, Fiscal Years 2000-2006:
[See PDF for image]
Source: VA data.
[End of figure]
The increase in VA's inventory of pending claims, and their average
time pending is due in part to an increase in claims receipts. Rating-
related claims, including those filed by veterans of the Iraq and
Afghanistan conflicts, increased steadily from about 579,000 in fiscal
year 2000 to about 806,000 in fiscal year 2006, an increase of about 39
percent.
In addition to problems with deciding claims in a timely manner, VA
acknowledges that regional office decision accuracy needs further
improvement. VA reports that it has improved the accuracy of decisions
on rating related compensation claims from 80 percent in fiscal year
2002 to 88 percent in fiscal year 2006.[Footnote 3] However, this
figure remains well short of its strategic goal of 98 percent.
VA also continues to face questions about its ability to ensure that
veterans receive consistent decisions across regional offices. We have
identified the need for VA to systematically address this issue to
achieve acceptable levels of variation.[Footnote 4] VA's Inspector
General has studied one indicator of possible inconsistency, the wide
variations in average payments per veteran from state to state. In May
2005, the Inspector General[Footnote 5] reported that compensation
payments are affected by many factors and that some disabilities are
inherently more susceptible to variations in rating determinations.
Further, we reported in May 2005 that the Board of Veterans' Appeals
had taken actions to strengthen its system for reviewing the quality of
its decisions, but VA still lacked a systematic method for ensuring the
consistency of decision making within VA as a whole.
Despite VA's Continuing Steps, a Number of Factors May Limit Its
Ability to Improve Claims Processing:
VA has recently taken several steps to improve service delivery, but
their potential to lead to significant improvements may be limited by
several factors. These steps include requesting funding for additional
staff, initiatives to reduce appeal remands, and initiatives to assess
and monitor decision consistency. However, limitations on potential
improvements include increases in claims volume and complexity, and
challenges in acquiring needed evidence in a timely manner.
In its fiscal year 2008 budget justification, VA identified an increase
in claims processing staff as essential to reducing the pending claims
inventory and improving timeliness. According to VA, with a workforce
that is sufficiently large and correctly balanced, it can successfully
meet the veterans' needs while ensuring good stewardship of taxpayer
funds. The fiscal year 2008 request would fund 8,320 full-time
equivalent employees working on compensation and pension, which would
represent an increase of about 6 percent over fiscal year 2006. In
addition, the budget justification cites near-term initiatives to
increase the number of claims completed, such as using retired VA
employees to provide training, and the increased use of overtime.
Even as staffing levels increase, however, VA acknowledges that it
still must take other actions to improve productivity.[Footnote 6] VA's
budget justification provides information on actual and planned
productivity, in terms of claims decided per full-time equivalent
employee. While VA expects a temporary decline in productivity as new
staff are trained and become more experienced, it expects productivity
to increase in the longer term. Also, VA has identified additional
initiatives to help improve productivity. For example, VA plans to
pilot paperless Benefits Delivery at Discharge, where service members'
disability claim applications, service medical records, and other
evidence would be captured electronically prior to discharge. VA
expects that this new process will reduce the time needed to obtain the
evidence needed to decide claims.
To resolve appeals faster, VA has been working to reduce the number of
appeals sent back by the Board of Veterans' Appeals for further work
such as obtaining additional evidence and correcting procedural errors.
To do so, VA has established joint training and information sharing
between field staff and the Board. VA reports that it has reduced the
percentage of decisions remanded from about 57 percent in fiscal year
2004 to about 32 percent in fiscal year 2006, and expects its efforts
to lead to further reductions. Also, VA reports that it has improved
the productivity of the Board's judges from an average of 604 appeals
decided in fiscal year 2003 to 698 in fiscal year 2006. The Board
attributes this improvement to training and mentoring programs and
expects productivity to improve to 752 decisions in fiscal year 2008.
To improve decision consistency, VA has contracted for a study of the
major influences on compensation payments, to develop baseline data for
monitoring and managing decision variances. Also, VA is in the process
of testing templates for compensation and pension medical examinations
for specific types of disabilities to ensure that medical evidence from
these examinations will enable consistent evaluations of disabilities.
Further, VA formed a workgroup to study variances in the rates of
benefit grants and denials, and in assigned disability evaluations,
leading to development of plans to monitor consistency on an ongoing
basis.
Despite these efforts, VA may be limited in its ability to make and
sustain significant claims processing performance improvements. Recent
history has shown that VA's claims processing workload and performance
are affected by several factors, including the impacts of laws and
court decisions, increasing numbers and complexity of claims, and
difficulties in obtaining accurate and timely information to adjudicate
claims. Since 1999, several court decisions and laws related to VA's
responsibilities to assist veterans in developing their benefit claims
have significantly affected VA's ability to process claims in a timely
manner. VA attributes some of the increase in the number of claims
pending and the average days pending to a September 2003 court decision
that required over 62,000 claims to be deferred, many for 90 days or
longer. Also, VA notes that legislation and VA regulations have
expanded benefit entitlement and added to the volume of claims. For
example, in recent years, laws and regulations have created new
presumptions of service-connected disabilities for many Vietnam
veterans and former prisoners of war. Also, VA expects additional
claims receipts based on the enactment of legislation allowing certain
military retirees to receive both military retirement pay and VA
disability compensation.
In addition, rating-related claims continue to increase, from about
579,000 in fiscal year 2000 to about 806,000 in fiscal year 2006, an
increase of about 39 percent. While VA projects relatively flat claim
receipts in fiscal years 2007 and 2008, it cautions that ongoing
hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Global War on Terrorism in
general, may increase the workload beyond current levels. VA has also
noted that claims have increased in part because older veterans are
filing disability claims for the first time. Moreover, according to VA,
the complexity of claims is also increasing. For example, some veterans
are citing more disabilities in their claims than in the past. Because
each disability needs to be evaluated separately, these claims can take
longer to complete. Additionally, VA notes that they are receiving more
disability claims, such as those related to mental health issues
including post-traumatic stress disorder, which are generally harder to
evaluate.
Additionally, claims processing timeliness and decisional accuracy can
be hampered if VA cannot obtain the evidence it needs in a timely
manner. For example, to obtain information needed to fully develop some
post-traumatic stress disorder claims, VBA must obtain records from the
U.S. Army and Joint Services Records Research Center (JSRRC), whose
average response time to VBA regional office requests is about 1 year.
This can significantly increase the time it takes to decide a claim. In
December 2006, we recommended that VBA assess whether it could
systematically utilize an electronic library of historical military
records rather than submitting all research requests to the JSRRC. VBA
agreed to determine the feasibility of regional offices using an
alternative resource prior to sending some requests to the JSRRC. We
also reported that while VBA quality reviewers found few decision
errors due to failure to obtain military service records, VBA does not
know the extent to which the information that is provided to regional
offices is reliable and accurate. Regional offices rely on a VBA unit
at the National Personnel Records Center, where service records of many
veterans are stored, to do thorough and reliable searches and analyses
of records and provide accurate reports on the results. However, we
noted that VBA does not systematically evaluate the quality of these
searches and analyses. Incomplete and inaccurate reports could affect
decisional accuracy.
Opportunities for Improvement May Lie in More Fundamental Reform:
While VA is taking actions to address its claims processing challenges,
there are opportunities for more fundamental reform that could
dramatically improve decision making and processing. These include
reexamining program design, as well as the structure and division of
labor among field offices.
After more than a decade of research, we have determined that federal
disability programs are in urgent need of attention and transformation
and placed modernizing federal disability programs on our high-risk
list in January 2003. Specifically, our research showed that the
disability programs administered by VA and the Social Security
Administration lagged behind the scientific advances and economic and
social changes that have redefined the relationship between impairments
and work. For example, advances in medicine and technology have reduced
the severity of some medical conditions and have allowed individuals to
live with greater independence and function in work settings. Moreover,
the nature of work has changed in recent decades as the national
economy has moved away from manufacturing-based jobs to service-and
knowledge-based employment. Yet VA's and SSA's disability programs
remain mired in concepts from the past--particularly the concept that
impairment equates to an inability to work--and as such, we found that
these programs are poorly positioned to provide meaningful and timely
support for Americans with disabilities.
In August 2002, we recommended that VA use its annual performance plan
to delineate strategies for and progress in periodically updating labor
market data used in its disability determination process. We also
recommended that VA study and report to the Congress on the effects
that a comprehensive consideration of medical treatment and assistive
technologies would have on its disability programs' eligibility
criteria and benefits package. This study would include estimates of
the effects on the size, cost, and management of VA's disability
programs and other relevant VA programs and would identify any
legislative actions needed to initiate and fund such changes.
Another area of program design that could be examined is the option of
providing a lump sum payment in lieu of monthly disability
compensation. In 1996, the Veterans' Claims Adjudication Commission
noted that most disability compensation claims are repeat claims--such
as claims for increased disability percentage--and most repeat claims
were from veterans with less severe disabilities.[Footnote 7] According
to VA, about 65 percent of veterans who began receiving disability
compensation in fiscal year 2003 had disabilities rated 30 percent or
less. The commission questioned whether concentrating claims processing
resources on these claims, rather than on claims by more severely
disabled veterans, was consistent with program intent. The commission
asked Congress to consider paying less severely disabled veterans
compensation in a lump sum. According to the commission, the lump sum
option could have a number of benefits for VA as well as veterans.
Specifically, the lump sum option could reduce the number of claims
submitted and allow VA to process claims more quickly--especially those
of more seriously disabled veterans. Moreover, a lump sum option could
be more useful to some veterans as they make the transition from
military to civilian life. In December 2000, we reported that about one-
third of newly compensated veterans could be interested in a lump sum
option.
In addition to program design, VA's regional office claims processing
structure may be disadvantageous to efficient operations. VBA and
others who have studied claims processing have suggested that
consolidating claims processing into fewer regional offices could help
improve claims processing efficiency, save overhead costs, and improve
decisional accuracy and consistency. We noted in December 2005 that VA
had made piecemeal changes to its claims processing field structure. VA
consolidated some of its pension income and eligibility verifications
at three regional offices. Further, VA consolidated decision making on
Benefits Delivery at Discharge claims, which are generally original
claims for disability compensation, at the Salt Lake City and Winston-
Salem regional offices. However, VA has not changed its basic field
structure for processing compensation and pension claims at 57 regional
offices, which experience large performance variations and questions
about decision consistency. Unless more comprehensive and strategic
changes are made to its field structure, VBA is likely to miss
opportunities to substantially improve productivity, accuracy, and
consistency, especially in the face of future workload increases. We
have recommended that the VA undertake a comprehensive review of its
field structure for processing disability compensation and pension
claims.
While reexamining claims processing challenges may be daunting, there
are mechanisms for undertaking such an effort, including the
congressionally chartered commission currently studying veterans'
disability benefits. In November 2003, the Congress established the
Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission to study the appropriateness
of VA disability benefits, including disability criteria and benefit
levels. The commission is to examine and provide recommendations on (1)
the appropriateness of the benefits, (2) the appropriateness of the
benefit amounts, and (3) the appropriate standard or standards for
determining whether a disability or death of a veteran should be
compensated. The commission held its first public hearing in May 2005
and in October 2005, established 31 research questions for study. These
questions address such issues as how well disability benefits meet the
congressional intent of replacing average impairment in earnings
capacity, whether lump sum payments should be made for certain
disabilities or level of severity of disability, and how VA's claims
processing operation compares to other disability programs, including
the location and number of processing centers. These issues and others
have been raised by previous studies of VBA's disability claims
process. The commission is scheduled to report to the Congress by
October 1, 2007.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my remarks. I would be happy to answer any
questions that you or other members of the committee may have.
GAO Contact and Acknowledgments:
For further information, please contact Daniel Bertoni at (202) 512-
7215 or Bertonid@gao.gov. Also contributing to this statement were
Shelia Drake, Martin Scire, Greg Whitney, and Charles Willson.
[End of section]
Related GAO Products:
High Risk Series: An Update. GAO-07-310. Washington, D.C.: January 31,
2007.
Veterans' Disability Benefits: VA Can Improve Its Procedures for
Obtaining Military Service Records. GAO-07-98. Washington, D.C.:
December 12, 2006.
Veterans' Benefits: Further Changes in VBA's Field Office Structure
Could Help Improve Disability Claims Processing. GAO-06-149.
Washington, D.C.: December 9, 2005.
Veterans' Disability Benefits: Claims Processing Challenges and
Opportunities for Improvements. GAO-06-283T. Washington, D.C.: December
7, 2005.
Veterans' Disability Benefits: Improved Transparency Needed to
Facilitate Oversight of VBA's Compensation and Pension Staffing Levels.
GAO-06-225T. Washington, D.C.: November 3, 2005.
VA Benefits: Other Programs May Provide Lessons for Improving
Individual Unemployability Assessments. GAO-06-207T. Washington, D.C.:
October 27, 2005.
Veterans' Disability Benefits: Claims Processing Problems Persist and
Major Performance Improvements May Be Difficult. GAO-05-749T.
Washington, DC.: May 26, 2005.
VA Disability Benefits: Board of Veterans' Appeals Has Made
Improvements in Quality Assurance, but Challenges Remain for VA in
Assuring Consistency. GAO-05-655T. Washington, D.C.: May 5, 2005.
Veterans Benefits: VA Needs Plan for Assessing Consistency of
Decisions. GAO-05-99. Washington, D.C.: November 19, 2004.
Veterans' Benefits: More Transparency Needed to Improve Oversight of
VBA's Compensation and Pension Staffing Levels. GAO-05-47. Washington,
D.C.: November 15, 2004.
Veterans' Benefits: Improvements Needed in the Reporting and Use of
Data on the Accuracy of Disability Claims Decisions. GAO-03-1045.
Washington, D.C.: September 30, 2003.
Department of Veterans Affairs: Key Management Challenges in Health and
Disability Programs. GAO-03-756T. Washington, D.C.: May 8, 2003.
Veterans Benefits Administration: Better Collection and Analysis of
Attrition Data Needed to Enhance Workforce Planning. GAO-03-491.
Washington, D.C.: April 28, 2003.
Veterans' Benefits: Claims Processing Timeliness Performance Measures
Could Be Improved. GAO-03-282. Washington, D.C.: December 19, 2002.
Veterans' Benefits: Quality Assurance for Disability Claims and Appeals
Processing Can Be Further Improved. GAO-02-806. Washington, D.C.:
August 16, 2002.
Veterans' Benefits: VBA's Efforts to Implement the Veterans Claims
Assistance Act Need Further Monitoring. GAO-02-412. Washington, D.C.:
July 1, 2002.
Veterans' Benefits: Despite Recent Improvements, Meeting Claims
Processing Goals Will Be Challenging. GAO-02-645T. Washington, D.C.:
April 26, 2002.
Veterans Benefits Administration: Problems and Challenges Facing
Disability Claims Processing. GAO/T-HEHS/AIMD-00-146. Washington, D.C.:
May 18, 2000.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Rating-related claims are primarily original claims for disability
compensation and pension benefits, and reopened claims. For example,
veterans may file reopened claims if they believe their service-
connected conditions have worsened.
[2] Veterans qualify for pensions if they have low income, served in a
period of war, and are permanently and totally disabled for reasons not
service-connected (or are age 65 or older).
[3] Actual data through July 2006.
[4] GAO, Veterans' Benefits: Quality Assurance for Disability Claims
and Appeals Processing Can Be Further Improved, GAO-02-806 (Washington,
D.C.: Aug. 16, 2002); and Veterans Benefits: VA Needs Plan for
Assessing Consistency of Decisions, GAO-05-99 (Washington, D.C.: Nov.
19, 2004).
[5] Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, Review
of State Variances in VA Disability Compensation Payments, Report No.
05-00765-137 (Washington, D.C.: May 19, 2005).
[6] See GAO, Veterans' Benefits: More Transparency Needed to Improve
Oversight of VBA's Compensation and Pension Staffing Levels, GAO-05-47
(Washington, D.C.: Nov. 15, 2004).
[7] Veterans' Claims Adjudication Commission, Report to Congress
(Washington D.C.: December 1996).
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