06/27/2002
Veterans News
VA takes aim at backlog of claims
(Based on an article by Laurie Kellman of the Associated Press)
The Department of Veterans Affairs has doubled the number of claims it
decides each month and reduced a mountainous backlog of benefit requests
dating back years, Secretary Anthony J. Principi said. That backlog
generated widespread concern on Capitol Hill and among veterans groups as it
ballooned during the 1990s. But it has been cut from 600,000 to 394,000
claims in recent months.
“We decided to really declare war on that backlog and took some rather bold
steps to address it,” Principi said in an interview. “We’re really getting
this backlog under control, and we did it through sheer focus and
discipline, performance measurements and production goals.”
VA claims managers now resolve about 70,000 claims a month, more than double
last year’s monthly rate of 29,000, he said. In addition, the department has
established a “tiger team” of managers in Cleveland. It ruled on claims for
about 28,000 veterans over the age of 70 who had waited more than a year for
an answer, he said.
Veterans hailed Principi’s commitment to the issue but said it remains to be
seen whether the agency is properly deciding claims.
“We have seen the figures where VA has been increasing their production. I
believe Secretary Principi is seriously concerned about the state of the VA
backlog and the adjudication process,” said Joe Violante, national
legislative director for Disabled American Veterans. “Our concern, however,
is that while they are increasing their production, if they are not getting
them right the first time they are no better off than if they weren’t
processing those cases,” he said.
Principi said he did not have exact figures, but added that most of the
processed claims approve benefits for the veterans requesting them.
“It’s a case study that things can, in fact, turn around – not only in
private-sector corporations but in government bureaucracy as well,” said
Principi, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and Vietnam War veteran.
The VA, the second-largest government agency with 220,000 people, has been
besieged with caseload problems. Last year, Congress blasted the department
for training problems that resulted in inaccurate decisions on 4 of every 10
claims for veterans’ disability payments.
Newly confirmed by the Senate last year, Principi told Congress and the
General Accounting Office, its investigative branch, that fixing those
problems would be one of his top priorities. He implemented GAO
recommendations to set up a system to track the outcome of video
conferencing and other state-of-the-art training methods.
Looking forward, Principi said he has set up “triage” teams in various
regions – Texas, Florida, Washington, for example – to handle massive
amounts of claims and prevent future backlogs.
He said the department is not favoring speed over accuracy. “It’s not that
we’re just rushing these decisions and forgetting about the quality aspect
of it,” Principi said. “We’ve focused on both time lines and quality.”
Restructuring the VA claims
processing
The Department of Veterans Affairs has created a pilot program with the goal
of reforming its claims processing system. The new program calls for a
reorganization at the front lines. The goal is to create specialized teams,
who will review the benefits claims for veterans and their spouses and who
will refine the day-to-day duties and procedures.
The test pilot calls for an initial, specialized team to perform “triage” on
all of the incoming mail, pulling the claims that can be processed within a
2-3 day period. The team will then distribute the more complex claims to the
offices of the other specialized teams, who work with particular types of
claims, such as appeals, degree of disability/time in service, or customer
service issues.
This pilot program has been started in four regional offices and will be
instituted to the rest of the 57 regions as soon as all potential bugs have
been worked out.
VA launches inventory of cemetery
memorials
– Volunteers Sought –
The VA began the first comprehensive inventory of an estimated 300 memorials
at about 100 national cemeteries to coincide with National Historic
Preservation Week, May 12-18, 2002.
VA is looking for volunteers through September to gather historical
information and detailed descriptions of the memorials. Individual
headstones and post-1960 text tablets are excluded from the inventory
project, which will last through the year.
VA has a great number of cemetery memorials, large and small, beginning with
those installed after the Civil War. Historic cemetery memorials include
inscribed stone blocks, bronze tablets affixed to boulders, sundials,
sarcophagi, obelisks, columns and the ubiquitous soldier standing atop a
granite pedestal.
Contemporary memorials are typically a standardized 18” x 24” bronze plaque.
Some, however, are substantial buildings, such as the Medal of Honor
Memorial (1999) at California’s Riverside National Cemetery and the
Pennsylvania Veterans’ Memorial (2001) at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery
in Annville, PA. The project will also offer essential information to
support VA’s goal of maintaining its cemeteries as the best in the world, an
objective VA calls its “national shrine commitment.”
VA is recruiting volunteers from diverse sources, including Civil War
organizations, scout groups, veterans’ service organizations and VA
employees. Volunteers will be given a cemetery map, survey form,
instructions and film to take photographs of each memorial, and are
encouraged to conduct some local historical research as part of the
project.
The solicitation is based on the model developed by Save Outdoor Sculpture
(SOS!), a Washington, DC-based, non-profit organization that uses volunteers
to survey public outdoor sculpture nationwide. Information gathered through
the SOS! program is publicly accessible through an on-line database managed
by the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), called SIRIS
www.siris.si.edu. As part of its educational program, VA will make its
findings available to SOS! and SAAM.
VA manages 120 national cemeteries as well as 33 government, soldiers’ and
confederate lots in non-federal cemeteries throughout 41 states, the
District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. More information about the project and
how to volunteer is found at www.cem.va.gov under “What’s New.” Interested
individuals or organizations can also email nca.memorials@mail.va.gov or
write to:
Sara Amy Leach,
Historian
Department of Veterans Affairs
National Cemetery Administration
810 Vermont Ave., NW (402B4)
Washington, DC 20420
VA Cemetery Advisory Committee
The Department of Veterans Affairs has created a 12-person committee that
will oversee its 120 national cemeteries. The function of the advisory
committee, formally the Advisory Committee on Cemeteries and memorials, is
to oversee the grants that support the state veterans cemeteries, the
creation of additional cemeteries, the VA burial benefits and the
maintenance of the veterans’ cemeteries.
The new members on the Cemetery Advisory Committee are: Percy Butler, Nancy
T. Norton, Leo P. Burke, Robert L. Cardensas, Roland F. Cinciarelli, George
R. Cramer, Cooper T. Holt, Mylio S. Kraja, Joseph J. Martory, Robert G.
Moorehead, Margaret Murphy Peterson, and Benedict J. Spardo.
VA begins Phase II of CARES Process
The Department of Veterans Affairs is beginning Phase II of its national
initiative to ensure its health care system meets the needs of veterans
today and in the future. This initiative is part of VA’s health care
planning process called CARES (Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced
Services).
The first phase of the CARES process was conducted in the Chicago area,
Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and was completed in February
2002. Phase II will include the rest of the VA health care system and is
scheduled to be completed within two years.
“VA’s goal is to direct our resources where they are most needed, and at the
same time provide the best care possible to more veterans at more
locations,” said Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. Leo S. Mackay. Jr.
“We will work with veterans, VA employees, university affiliates and local
and national elected officials to ensure everyone’s concerns are heard as we
enhance the quality of veterans health care.”
VA launched CARES to bring its aging health care system into the 21st
century. VA’s health care system was designed and built decades ago when
inpatient care was the primary focus, with long admissions for diagnosis and
treatment. With changes in geographic concentrations of veterans and new
methods of medical treatment, VA’s medical system was not providing care as
efficiently as possible and medical services were not always easily
accessible to some veterans.
“VA health care is changing now, and for the better,” said Mackay. “We’ve
gone from mostly an inpatient setting where we treat illness in its latter
stages to a system focused on disease prevention, early detection, health
promotion and easier access. VA’s infrastructure, designed a half century or
more ago, must be evaluated and updated to meet the needs of veterans today
and in the future. That’s what CARES will do.”
To coordinate VA’s 1,300 sites of care, representing the largest health care
system in the country, VA’s medical system is divided into 21 regional
networks called VISNs (Veterans Integrated Service Networks). VISN 12
(Chicago, Wisconsin and Upper Michigan) comprised the pilot study; Phase II
of CARES will include the remaining 20 VISNs.
During the next 18 months, the networks will collect data and facility
information for planning initiatives that will provide the best care for
veterans today and in the future. Throughout the process, veterans, academic
affiliates, unions and employees will be briefed. Stakeholder opinions will
be solicited and will be an important part of the decision process, as will
be the preservation of special services, such as those provided our
paralyzed veterans.
Once completed, an independent commission selected by the Secretary of VA
will evaluate the draft National CARES Plan. Members of the commission, who
will be chosen in the fall of 2002, will include individuals with special
knowledge or interest relating to VA health care, as well as representatives
from stakeholders’ groups.
As part of the commission’s evaluation of each VISN’s plans, hearings will
be held with, and comments accepted from, local stakeholders. Only after
careful evaluation of these comments will the commission then forward its
recommendations to the Secretary. The Secretary will make his final CARES
announcement in September 2003.
Phase II of CARES will be headed up by Frederick L. Malphurs, who was the
VISN 2 Network director for the upstate New York (Albany, Buffalo, Bath,
Canandaigua and Syracuse VA medical centers) since October 1995. Since
joining VA in 1969, Malphurs has been assigned to nine VA medical centers.
Malphurs will work with an independent actuarial contractor and VA staff to
project veteran populations, determine what kind of health care veterans
need and where it is best to provide that care. This data will be available
to networks within two months.
“Health care is no longer about bricks and mortar. Twenty-first-century
health care is about access to local care, early detection and prevention,
efficient use of new technologies and home health care,” said Mackay. “CARES
is about 21st-century health care.”
Health agreements reached with
VA
Pentagon Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness David S. C.
Chu reached agreements with Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Leo MacKay
on a single financial reimbursement methodology between the agencies and on
a commitment to conduct joint strategic planning. The reimbursement
methodology decision will result in the pursuit of a single regionally
adjusted discounted rate structure for DoD-VA medical-sharing agreements.
Currently, multiple methodologies are used to set reimbursement rates by the
many health facilities of VA and DoD leading to complex and difficult to
administer billing and collection processes. Plans call for initial
implementation of this rate structure for ambulatory care services during
the first quarter of FY03. Implementation for inpatient care, both facility
and the professional fee components are targeted to begin in the third
quarter of FY03.
Federal Benefits for Veterans and
Dependents Handbook
Most of the nation’s 25 million veterans qualify for some kind of VA
benefit. These benefits range from health care to burial to home loans. The
Federal Benefits for Veterans and Dependents Handbook not only lists and
describes the various benefits offered by the Department of Veterans
Affairs, but has the rates for certain federal payments and includes the
various contact information, such as phone numbers, internet addresses and
VA facility locations.
The handbook costs $5.00 for U.S. addresses and $6.25 for overseas shipping.
You can call (866) 512-1800 (toll free) or write to: Government Printing
Office at Superintendent of Documents, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA
15250-7954 (stock #051-000-00225-3) or download a free copy from the VA’s
web site at
www.ve.gov/opa/feature/.
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