Veterans Affairs continues to face challenges improving service delivery to veterans, especially speeding up the claims adjudication and appeals process and reducing a large claims backlog, GAO told the House Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs recently.
It said that as of the end of fiscal 2006, rating-related compensation claims were pending an average of 127 days, 16 days longer than at the end of fiscal 2003.
During that period the inventory of rating-related claims nearly doubled, partly due to claims filed by veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to GAO-07-562T.
It said that in fiscal 2006 the appeals resolution process had an average of 657 days.
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 manner, such as military service records, the report said.
It said the department is taking steps to address these problems, and noted that the White House budget request includes an increase of over 450 employees to process compensation claims.
VA is also working to improve appeals timeliness by reducing appeals remanded for further work, GAO said, but it added that opportunities for significant performance improvement may lie in more fundamental reforms.
Those could include a reexamination of program design such as updating disability criteria to reflect the current state of science, medicine, technology, and labor market conditions, as well as examining the structure and division of labor among field offices.
