MY VISIT TO DAV’S MID-WINTER CONFERENCE

I can’t express the pride I had listening to National Commander Roberto Barrera present the organization’s platform and observations of issues pertaining to disabled veterans.  I know from firsthand knowledge where ever I have been throughout the state, The VA regional offices throughout the country are failing in the processing of VA claims for veterans and their families.  I was pleased to hear the DAV and other organizations have identified issues that greatly attribute the quagmire of processing with issues that can help remedy the situation.           

National Commander Barrera discussed the following problems with the first being the accuracy of decisions on veterans’ disability compensation claims.  He pointed out that in a study conducted by the VA’s Inspector General Report of March 2009 that close to one quarter of all claims were improperly decided over the last twelve months.  During this period 200,000 veterans received inaccurate decisions involving disability claims.  In my opinion, one claim decided incorrectly is one to many, but 200,000 are inexcusable.

What further disturbs our DAV leadership is the mere fact that statistics from the Board of Veterans Appeals (BVA) and the U.S. Court of Veterans Claims (CAVC) demonstrate that close to two-thirds of the cases appealed to their agencies contain egregious errors. The days when emphasis for the agencies existence was predicated on quantity of claims processed and not quality have to be relegated to past history.  No veteran should be expected to wait years for a decision that is well grounded in law to finally receive deserved benefits in the extensive and timely appeals process.            

This brings me to the next point that National Commander Barrera cite.  As of February 13, 2010, there were 480,706 claims for disability compensation and pension awaiting rating decisions; 180,785 (37.6%) of the claims have exceeded VBA’s 125-day goal. It is even more difficult to understand why the essential goal of claims processing for the VBA has exceeded their goal for over a decade with processing in excess of 180 days.              

It was my understanding that a great deal of the difficulty was attributed to a cumbersome paper-based system, beginning with a 23-page application to review and evaluate claims for disability compensation and pension.  As the wars progress and the complexity of claims increases, the VBA system of decision making gets further bogged down because in some cases the reams of paper that are produced, handled, in some cases thrown out or misfiled which necessitate recreating files and replicating work while the veteran waits must be relegated to history.  Our technology is far more capable to handle this monumental task if it would be allowed to do the job.  Those making the decisions must understand that our military men and women who were injured in the performance of their duty should be the subject of the decision and not the by-product of a quantity based existence.  We need to urge our congressional representatives to take whatever action that is necessary to remedy this situation and quickly.