White House promises more funding to address VA backlog of disability claims

[alp227]

Source: Washington Post

The White House said Friday it is proposing a 13.6 percent increase in funding for the handling of veterans benefits, an effort to reduce the Veterans Affairs Department’s massive backlog of disability claims.

The proposed $2.5 billion for the Veterans Benefits Administration is part of an overall 4 percent increase the Obama administration is seeking in the VA’s discretionary budget, an amount that is probably higher than most federal departments and agencies will see when the proposed 2014 budget is released next week.

“The president has made clear to us this is a national priority,” White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said at a briefing with VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki held to draw attention to the administration’s efforts to cope with the backlog.

The number of pending claims filed by veterans seeking compensation stood this month at 885,000, , 70 percent of which have been pending for more than 125 days. Veterans can wait a year or more for a decision at particularly overloaded regional offices, among them Baltimore.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-promises-more-funding-to-address-va-backlog/2013/04/05/60a770ec-9e27-11e2-a941-a19bce7af755_story.html

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PBS had a report about the VA benefits backlog last week and an interview with Shinseki: (transcript)

[L0oniX]

1. Why doesn't he play his 3D chess or bluff with this? Pffffft! n/t

[former9thward]

2. This is a big problem but the funding won't help.

The problem is not money it is the forms and maze of regulations to file a typical disability claim. In my state, with help of the state bar association, I organized a group of attorneys to give free legal help to veterans seeking disability claims. We also use law students from two of the state's law schools. I frequently give speeches to veteran's groups about the services. The workers at the VA are not helpful. They don't like interference of private third parties. But they are not doing their job and they can't stop us.

[dkf]

3. I heard they haven't computerized the system yet?

If so that is messed up.

[NYtoBush-Drop Dead]

4. O should go to Bill Gates and say...

Un... we got this interface problem... can you help us...

[Comrade_McKenzie]

6. WTF? Uh... that would really help streamline things...

If the VA was cared for as much as going to war is... the hospitals would look like spaceships.

[midnight]

8. I should say so.... With hospitals having the resources they need to keep pace with their

communities needs.. No more of this just in time management style that has been rolled out with the HMO privatization nonsense...

[freshwest]

5. K&R

[rainbow4321]

7. Pfft. Pouring money into the system is not going to help

And I say that as a person who works at one of their facilities.

I cringe when I have to hand in a hardcopy to someone in another department when they ask us to fill out the kind of paperwork a worker has to do each year as mandatory testing/training.
I have handed something in one day only to be told 3 days later they "couldn't find it" and I needed to resubmit the paperwork. So I started the practice of "here is the paperwork I have to hand in and I have made a copy to KEEP and also a copy for my manager to keep in her office"...oh, and I make sure I glance at the clerical person's badge so I can also later be able to say who I handed the paperwork into in the first place. Not that that would help since there is no accountability at all....
And that is just me as an employee, I am not a vet. I can't imagine what gets lost when THEY hand stuff in.

I saw the interview that Rachel Maddow did with the assistant sec of VA (think that was his title) last week..his reaction was typical of what we hear/see everyday--skirting around issues, non-answers, NO ACCOUNTABILITY.
When she specifically was asking about vets who are on the disability back log list, the guy responded with "active troops who come home get 5 years of health care available to them at the VA for whatever issues they have".

Ok, great, but that was NOT the fucking question she asked you. So she again tried to direct him back to the initial question about the backlog...and he skirted around the question again about funding available for college education/classes for returning troops. ONCE AGAIN, THAT WAS NOT THE QUESTION...so she had to give a very, very, very specific scenario...a vet who returns has a disability that is PREVENTING him/her from being gainfully employed, they return to the US and apply for disability money..WHAT steps do they need to follow, what can they expect from the VA system to help them?
His response was basically to BLAME the vet with "well, you know, they don't always hand in ALL the paperwork we need and the VA workers have to go track down the needed paperwork from other healthcare providers or other sources".
So she offered up the logical scenario: can the VA **not** provide a checklist on a web site that tells vets what is needed..step by step, listing every single piece of paper needed?? In other words, why the fuck is the VA system not all computerized, WHY are they only dealing with hardcopies that the vet is responsible for tracking down. The interview went like that on and on...pretty sure he drew the short straw when the VA brass was deciding who to send on her show.

Again, pouring money into the system won't do shit...expect accountability from the brass in DC **all the way down to the clerical staff AT EACH FACILITY** and then maybe the problems will START to get fixed.

[LoisB]

9. How is he going to get this past Boehner and the baggers? The President should

stop making promises.

[mpcamb]

10. Didn't John Stewart run a piece on this?

Sorry for not looking it up, but I recall that the money got about quadrupled. Still, because the services had incompatible computer systems, everything case required human intervention to get the person an appointment.

[Sunlei]

11. They needed more funds to get all of it onto computers. Some of the paper files!!! are 2 feet thick

Every things more efficient and easier to check for waste when it's computerized. When Obama took office Federal departments like the DOI used paper map books and a lot of our VA records were paper files.

Hope Congress doesn't delay this most critical upgrade too.