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FEDERAL MANAGER'S DAILY REPORT |
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| GAO: New System Could Lead to More Consistent VA Benefit Decisions A newly implemented national information system -- RBA 2000 -- could enable the Department of Veterans Affairs to make more consistent disability compensation decisions, the Government Accountability Office has said. It designated VA's disability program in 2003, along with other federal disability programs, as "high-risk," and said that VA, "still does not systematically assess decision-making consistency among the 57 regional offices." The department will dole out about $25 billion to 2.7 million veterans in fiscal 2005, but GAO said the data in VA's benefits delivery network fail to provide a useful picture of decision-making consistency among regional offices. VA officials are hopeful that RBA 2000 will reliably collect and aggregate denial rates and average disability ratings for specific impairments, but said they would still need several years of data to pinpoint "impairment-specific inconsistencies," according to GAO-05-99. It said if the system works, VA could begin using it to assess the extent and causes of inconsistencies and could take steps to reduce problematic variations among regional offices to make sure the tremendous sums of money channeled through them are correct. |
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