Half of oldest VA claims cleared with provisional decisions

VA HALVES THE NUMBER OF CLAIMS BACKLOGGED MORE THAN TWO YEARS
Nextgov
By Bob Brewin
May 22, 2013

The Veterans Affairs Department has processed 22,000 out of the 42,000 disability claims that have languished for two years or longer, Allison A. Hickey, VA’s undersecretary for benefits, told a House VA Committee hearing today.

The 51 percent reduction occurred after VA kicked off a project on April 19 to eliminate the oldest claims in the backlog within 60 days. Hickey said the department expects to meet that goal.

VA decided to speed up processing of old claims by making a provisional decision to authorize payment to veterans who would then have a year to file additional evidence to support their case. Hickey said that only 5 percent of the old claims rated over the past month had a provisional rating.

Once VA clears out the oldest claims, Hickey said the department will start to work on claims backlogged between one and two years; officials expect to clear those within six months.
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