VA Backlog of claims is not new

VA Backlog of claims is not new
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
March 25, 2013

Am I happy with the backlog of claims? No because I know what it is like when they have to wait for the VA to get to them and have their claims approved. I know because it took the VA six years to approve my husband's claim. Six years? Yes. Six years of waiting, fighting, suffering and doubting they would ever honor his claim. What made it worse was when he came home he had the same attitude his Dad did. The VA is for guys that can't work and had their legs blown off." So for years, he refused to even consider filing a claim. Every time the mail came from the VA with another letter telling us his claim was denied was like a knife in his back. Hope was slipping away with each bill we couldn't pay and one of them was for his treatment at the VA because he had received care for a "non-service connected" illness. The non-service connected illness was PTSD caused by his service to this country in a war zone.

Even with all of this, while most are slamming the VA for the backlog of claims, I will not.

The headlines for the last couple of years have all been about the backlog but there is so much more to this than the press will talk about and that is a great injustice to all of our veterans.

This quote is at the bottom of my emails.

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, is directly proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated" -- George Washington

Are they living up to it? No but listen to Veterans Affairs Secretary Shinseki then read the rest of the story CNN didn't talk about.

March 24th, 2013
Secy. Shinseki to CNN: "No veteran should have to wait for claims as they are today. We have a fix for this, we're open for business, and we will end the backlog in 2015."

Veterans in the last four years, Candy, have joined us in unprecedented numbers. There are 800 more veterans enrolled today than were enrolled four years ago in health care. 940,000 more veterans enrolled for benefits than there were four years ago. So, the fact is that veterans are coming to us, and they are being enrolled. We produce a million claims decisions each year going out the door and have for the last three years. And so, when we talk about an inventory of claims today, of about 875,000 claims, of which about 600,000 are backlogged. Just the amount of work we put out the door indicates that this is not a static number. There are going to be a few who are complex enough to go longer than we’d like, but there is a lot of work being done.
read more here

When my husband's claim was filed, George H.W. Bush was President and Anthony Principi was Secretary of Veterans Affairs. It was 1993. Bill Clinton took over as Commander-in-Chief and Jesse Brown took over as head of Veterans Affairs. He was replaced by Hershel Gober until 1998 and he was replaced by Togo West when the letter finally came saying my husband's claim had been approved for 50% and we would receive a pro-rated check going back to when he filed the claim in 1993. By the time he finally received 100% disability, George W. Bush had replaced Clinton and Anthony Principi was back as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Three Presidents since he filed his claim but Richard Nixon was President when he was sent to Vietnam. Gerald Ford was in the chair as Vietnam veterans came home vilified and ignored, told to get over it as they tried to do that and it was not until Jimmy Ford had come and gone and Ronald Reagan came into office in 1981 that true research had begun on PTSD.

The National Center for PTSD was created in 1989 within the Department of Veterans Affairs in response to a Congressional mandate (PL 98-528) to address the needs of Veterans and other trauma survivors with PTSD. The Center was developed with the ultimate purpose to improve the well-being, status, and understanding of Veterans in American society. The mandate called for a center of excellence that would set the agenda for research and education on PTSD without direct responsibility for patient care. Convinced that no single VA site could adequately serve this unique mission, VA established the Center as a consortium of five divisions. The Center currently consists of seven VA academic centers of excellence across the U.S., with headquarters in White River Junction, VT. Other divisions are located in Boston, MA; West Haven, CT; Palo Alto, CA; and Honolulu, HI.

That is how long the VA has been working on PTSD. But you have to be aware that far too many Vietnam Veterans had their PTSD claims rejected until 2010

Under the new rules a veteran need show only that he or she served in a war and performed a job during which events could have happened that could cause the disorder.

"... for years, many veterans with PTSD who have tried to seek benefits -- veterans of today's wars and earlier wars -- have often found themselves stymied. They've been required to produce evidence proving that a specific event caused their PTSD. And that practice has kept the vast majority of those with PTSD who served in non-combat roles, but who still waged war, from getting the care they need," Obama said.

"Well, I don't think our troops on the battlefield should have to take notes to keep for a claims application. And I've met enough veterans to know that you don't have to engage in a firefight to endure the trauma of war. So we're changing the way things are done."

The price was estimated to be $5 billion.

So the VA had Vietnam veterans, joining Gulf War veterans, joining Afghanistan veterans, joining Iraq veterans standing in line for what their service to this country caused. That is how we ended up in this massive backlog but again, it wasn't the first time claims waiting had reached the close to a million mark.

Veterans Benefits Administration and the Board of Veterans Appeals at VA, was 803,000 on Jan. 5, 2009. The backlog hit 915,000 on May 4, 2009, a staggering 14-percent increase in four months."

Are we living up to what George Washington said? No but as you can see, we haven't done that in a very, very long time. It would serve veterans better if reporters actually addressed what has been going on all these years so that we don't keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

Media coverage of VA backlog ignores history of it

There are two quotes that need to be read about the VA Claims backlog

"The number of unprocessed veterans claims exceeds 915,000 — a 100,000 jump since the beginning of the year. In testimony two weeks ago before a House committee, VA officials said the current 162 days is 17 days less than one year ago, a sign that they are beginning to make process."

“Backlogs are at the point where veterans must wait an average of six months for a decision on benefits claims and some veterans are waiting as long as four years,”

Sounds really troubling considering the troops had been in Afghanistan since 2001 and in Iraq since 2003. The worst part is those quotes are not new. They came in testimony in June of 2009.

Do reporters remind anyone of what was going on before? Do they bother to correct anything so that the harm done to our veterans is not repeated? No, this is more of the political games being played across the country within the big media outlets.

If you think they really care, you'd be wrong. If they really cared, they would not drop the stories according to the political wind.

In 2001 there was a backlog of claims but no one thought to gear up the VA to take care of the veterans waiting for care even though experts warned the newer veterans could in fact crash the VA. No one in our government really cared and yes, that includes some members of congress.

If reporters stayed on the story back then the American public would have demanded action to take care of all our veterans, but they didn't and now they want to pretend all of this just happened overnight.

Veterans Administration backed up, falls under criticism from returning soldiers 
Across the country, members of the military returning to civilian life after fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are enduring enormous delays to have their initial disability claims adjudicated by the Veterans Administration.
BY JAMES WARREN AND CHRISTINA BOYLE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2013

After two tours of duty with the Marines in Iraq, Anthony Pike returned home to Brooklyn with hearing loss, a ringing in his ears and profound stress.

Now there’s the galling, added stress he’s enduring in trying to get help from the New York office of the Veterans Administration.

“We executed our missions every day and met our objections. Then I come home and the VA, the one place I think I can go for help, doesn’t,” he said. “It’s devastating.”

Across the country, members of the military returning to civilian life after fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are enduring enormous delays to have their initial disability claims adjudicated by the Veterans Administration.

And the wait in New York City is longer than just about everywhere else — an average of 642 days, twice the national average of 320 days. It is exceeded only by the wait in Reno, Nev., where it is 680 days.

In a rare act of bipartisanship, 67 senators recently wrote President Obama and implored him to “take direct action and involvement in ending” the sky-high backlog that has grown to 600,000 cases nationwide.
read more here

Most of the claims in the backlog are Vietnam veterans and they have waited for far too long to receive the care they were promised. Part of the backlog comes from the change in rules to file claims for PTSD and Agent Orange. If they do not tell the truth on a subject this serious, what else aren't they telling the truth about?

Read THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR and know how it got this bad since all the reports came from the news stories they don't want you to remember.

Veterans' petition signers need history lesson

In petition, veterans call for Obama to fire VA secretary
Washington Post
By Steve Vogel
Published: August 20

A petition signed by a reported 26,000 veterans and sent to the White House on Tuesday calls for President Obama to fire Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, saying a change of leadership is needed to eliminate the lengthy backlog of veterans awaiting action on their disability claims.

In advance of the petition, the Department of Veterans Affairs on Monday released figures reporting that the backlog of claims pending more than 125 days is down by almost 20 percent from its highest point more than four months ago.

The claims backlog — those cases pending 125 days or longer — stands at 490,000, which is down from the 530,000 reported June 15, figures show. VA says its total claims inventory of 773,000 is the lowest since April 2011, and down from 808,000 on June 15.
read more here

Where were they when Fort Drum ordered the VA to not help with claims?

Army officials in upstate New York instructed representatives from the Department of Veterans Affairs not to help disabled soldiers at Fort Drum Army base with their military disability paperwork last year. That paperwork can be crucial because it helps determine whether soldiers will get annual disability payments and health care after they're discharged. (Morning Edition, January 29, 2008)

Where were they when this came out?

VBA's pending compensation and claims backlog stood at 816,211 as of January 2008, up 188,781 since 2004, said Kerry Baker, associate legislative director of the Disabled Veterans of America, during a Wednesday hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. (Nextgov.com February 13, 2008)

In 2000 the VA had 578,000 claims come in. By 2007 it was 838,000. But what was not so easy to find was the report obtained by Veterans For Common Sense about this.

“Since 2006, the number of claims has grown 15 percent. The amount of time it takes to make decisions on disability claims is two to three year. On an average, it takes four years to get an appeals decision.”

The same year the GAO said there was no accountability for claims processors. Since I have thousands of these reports to review, while it is appalling how long veterans have to wait for their claims to be honored, the truth is, it was never fixed right for their sake and unless people stop playing politics and paying attention when they want, what happens to veterans will always be a political football. It wasn't right in the 90's and hasn't been right for generations but unless people actually do some basic homework to discover what the truth is, nothing will be fixed right for their sake.

By the way, don't wait for reporters to put all of this together for you. They won't. They just repeat what they are told.

Veteran trapped in 800,000 paperwork backlog

Screaming doesn't help anymore. I wish I could say this horrible situation is new, but it isn't.

VA claims backlog ready to hit 1 million
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Jun 18, 2009 10:56:07 EDT
WASHINGTON — This isn’t the same as getting a free duffel bag for being the millionth person to go through the turnstiles: The Department of Veterans Affairs appears poised to have hit the 1 million milestone on claims it still hasn’t processed.

This unwelcome marker approaches as the agency scrambles to hire and train new claims processors, which can take two years. VA officials are working with the Pentagon under orders from President Barack Obama to create by 2012 a system that will allow the two agencies to electronically exchange records, a process now done manually on paper.

Meanwhile, veterans, some of whom were severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, continue to endure financial hardship while their claims are processed. They wait more than four months on average for a claim to be processed, and appealing a claim takes a year and a half on average.

Adding to the backlog are factors ranging from the complexity of processing mental health-related claims of Iraq veterans, to a change that made it easier for Vietnam veterans exposed to the Agent Orange herbicide to qualify for disability payments. The VA says it’s receiving about 13 percent more claims today than it did a year ago.

Obama: New PTSD rules long overdue step
July 09, 2010
By the CNN Wire Staff

The Department of Veterans Affairs is making it easier for veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder to get benefits, a development President Barack Obama calls a "long overdue step."

In his weekly address Saturday, Obama said Veterans Affairs will launch new rules for easing PTSD documentation requirements starting next week.

Current department rules require veterans to document events like firefights or bomb explosions that could have caused the disorder. Such documentation was often time-consuming and difficult, and sometimes was impossible.

When Agent Orange and PTSD claims were made easier to file, the staff already processing claims was overloaded. New hires were made but it takes two years of training for them to be ready to know what they are doing, so processing was slowed down.

On Friday at a DAV conference in Lake Mary Florida, I sat listening to VA employees talking about the flood of claims they have been facing. I wanted to scream when I heard that as older VA workers retire, they cannot hire new ones to replace them.

Why at a time when the government is trying to honor and return dignity to our disabled veterans?

GOP wants to impose hiring freeze on non-security federal workforce

By Ed O'Keefe
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 24, 2010
House Republicans want to stop hiring federal employees not working on defense, homeland security or veterans concerns, a proposal long anticipated by federal worker unions and supportive Democrats.

GOP lawmakers pledged Thursday to "impose a net hiring freeze on non-security federal employees and ensure the public sector no longer grows at the expense of the private sector." The proposal is part of the 21-page "Pledge to America," a set of proposals to cut government spending, reform Congress and repeal President Obama's health-care reform legislation.

Although Republican lawmakers have targeted the federal workforce this year in separate proposals, the "Pledge" nationalizes the idea of curtailing the federal workforce and makes it likely that some Republican congressional candidates will talk up the idea as Election Day nears.

While cutting payrolls may have sounded good at the time coupled with talking about taking care of our veterans, this doomed every effort made to get there. No one can honestly say that denying a suffering Vietnam Veteran compensation from Agent Orange exposure is a good way to save money any more than they can say denying claims for PTSD is the right thing to do. Honoring the veterans in this country should never be a budget matter open to debate blowing with the party in control. When Tea Party Republicans shout about government spending, do they think about the troops or veterans?

Most of the bills meant to do the right thing for veterans were done between 2008 and 2010 with Republicans voting along with Democrats to pass them but then they turned around and decided that while they voted for them, they would not fund them or increase staff to take care of claims flooding in to an already overloaded system.

When my husband came home from Vietnam in 1971, PTSD was hitching a ride. He finally went to the VA in 1993 and filed a claim. It took six years of hell waiting for the government to do the right thing over a paperwork error. I can tell you that those years were nearly impossible to get through with bills to pay and trying to keep a roof over our heads. My Mom helped as much as she could but there are many families out there unable or unwilling to help. Does anyone care what happens to the veteran and his/her family while they are waiting for their claim to be approved?

The fact remains they were there when they were called on. They didn't say to the nation we had to wait for them so why does the nation say to them they have to wait for us to do the right thing after they were injured for our sake?

Veteran trapped, like many, in paperwork backlog
By Tony Leys, The Des Moines Register


GREENFIELD, Iowa — Joel Klobnak still looks like a proud Marine — from his buzz-cut hair down to the red-white-and-blue prosthetic that replaced the leg he lost in Iraq in 2006.

But he feels forgotten.

The Department of Veterans Affairs slashed his disability pay two years ago over what he says was a misunderstanding. The former Marine is trying to support a family of four on $1,557 a month while he waits to hear whether the government will reinstate full disability pay for his gruesome injury and the mental anguish that accompanied it.

His appeal is trapped in a paperwork backlog that is delaying payments to injured veterans across the country.

Government doctors determined that he couldn't work because of the pain in his leg and the post-traumatic stress disorder that troubled his mind. The determination entitled him to full disability payments, which amounted to $3,103 a month. But in April 2009, he received a letter telling him his payments were being halved because he missed an appointment with a VA doctor.

A national expert said Klobnak's frustrations are the norm. Richard Cohen, executive director of the National Organization of Veterans' Advocates, said the VA has a backlog of 800,000 initial disability claims and 200,000 appeals.
read more here
Veteran trapped in paperwork backlog

Unless congress manages to actually take care of our veterans today, this is about to get a whole lot worse with more and more coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan wounded for our sake and suffering for the sake of politicians flexing their misdirected values.

Despite backlogs, VA disability claims processors get bonuses

Despite backlogs, VA disability claims processors get bonuses
Washington Post
National Security
By Mary Shinn, Daniel Moore and Steven Rich
Published: August 25 2013

Documents show that a board of appeals found in 2012 that almost three out of four appealed claims were wrong or based on incomplete information.

While veterans waited longer than ever in recent years for their wartime disability compensation, the Department of Veterans Affairs gave its workers millions of dollars in bonuses for “excellent” performances that effectively encouraged them to avoid claims that needed extra work to document veterans’ injuries, a News21 investigation has found.

In 2011, a year in which the claims backlog ballooned by 155 percent, more than two-thirds of claims processors shared $5.5 million in bonuses, according to salary data from the Office of Personnel Management.

The more complex claims were often set aside by workers so they could keep their jobs, meet performance standards or, in some cases, collect extra pay, said VA claims processors and union representatives. Those claims now make up much of the VA’s widely scrutinized disability claims backlog, defined by the agency as claims pending more than 125 days.

“At the beginning of the month . . . I’d try to work my really easy stuff so I could get my numbers up,” said Renee Cotter, a union steward for the Reno, Nev., local of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).

Now, claims workers said, they fear the VA’s aggressive new push to finish all one-year-old claims by Oct. 1 — and eliminate the entire backlog by 2015 — could continue the emphasis on quantity over quality in claims processing that has often led to mistakes. VA workers have processed 1 million claims a year for three years in a row.
read more here

Members of Congress Shocked About VA When They Were There All Along?

VA audit: Overworked Seattle office didn’t read mail, told veterans they’d lose benefits
The News Tribune
BY ADAM ASHTON
Staff writer
October 2, 2015

Dozens of West Coast military veterans incorrectly received letters indicating they’d lose unemployment benefits after an overworked Department of Veterans Affairs office in Seattle lost track of records the veterans had submitted, according to a VA Inspector General report released this week.

The mail audit stemmed from a complaint that suggested about 1,000 pieces of unread mail from veterans were being stored indefinitely in a yellow bucket without a response from employees assigned to evaluate benefits claims.

In some cases, the complaint alleged, veterans were told they’d lose unemployment benefits because they had not returned information to the office in a timely manner even though they had met their deadlines.

The unemployment benefits are given to veterans who can’t hold a job because of a service-connected disability.

Auditors who visited the Seattle office in April did not find a bucket loaded with unread letters, as had been alleged in the complaint. However, they did talk to employees who were familiar with it and called it the “yellow bucket project.”

They also took a sampling of 132 employment questionnaires and determined that a fifth of the veterans had been sent letters indicating a reduction or cancellation of benefits, even though they’d mailed forms that should have allowed them to continue receiving money.
read more here

WOW seems really shocking! That is until you are reminded of how long all of this has been going on.

These came out in 2012

VA office stacked 37,000 files on cabinets after running out of storage
NBC News
Tuesday Aug 14, 2012

Staff at the office began having trouble storing files in 2005 when that location, as part of a national initiative, started collecting and processing disability claims prior to a service member's discharge. The office was one of two regional centers in the country to handle such cases, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Staff tried to transfer or retire 50,000 files in recent years, as well request more storage space. The office was denied extra room because of a lack of money and few external storage options.

Veterans Wait for Benefits as Claims Pile Up
New York Times
By JAMES DAO
SEPT. 27, 2012

Numbers tell the story. Last year, veterans filed more than 1.3 million claims, double the number in 2001. Despite having added nearly 4,000 new workers since 2008, the agency did not keep pace, completing less than 80 percent of its inventory.

This year, the agency has already completed more than one million claims for the third consecutive year. Yet it is still taking about eight months to process the average claim, two months longer than a decade ago. As of Monday, 890,000 pension and compensation claims were pending.

But as you can see, that didn't end the wait for veterans.

Answers demanded after vets’ disability claims found in cabinet
San Francisco Chronicle
By Vivian Ho
April 21, 2015

One number will hang over a congressional hearing Wednesday looking into mismanagement at a U.S. Veterans Affairs regional office in Oakland: 13,184.

That’s the number of compensation and disability claims that were found in 2012, wrongfully stashed in a filing cabinet — some dating to the mid-1990s and many unprocessed. But what the number represents remains the source of fierce debate.

Back in 2008 members of Congress were "shocked" and said they were doing something about it. Oh but that was when there were 879,291 VA claims in the backlog.

The Senate version also includes an amendment that offers $50 million to speed up the processing of disability claims. It would pay for pilot programs to reduce the average waiting time -- which currently is six months -- for rulings on claims.

As of March, the VA reported 879,291 claims were in backlog from the same time last year.

Cullinan says, “This is just the first step in the VA funding process. It gives broad outlines of spending for the Department which the Appropriations Subcommittees will use to find specific amounts and tasks within the VA. The process is not complete until the president signs the Appropriations Bill.” The Federal government’s 2009 fiscal year begins Oct. 1, 2008.

Around the same time contractors were taking over processing claims, like Lockheed Martin as in this report from Army Times

And of the original 133,057 potentially eligible veterans, 8,763 died before their cases could be reviewed for retroactive payments, according to the report.

In February, the backlog was said to be “more than 39,000” cases. Jonas said she had been assured that the backlog would be cleared by April. That did not happen, according to the subcommittee report, because Lockheed Martin, the contractor hired in July 2006 to compute the complex retroactive pay awards, had difficulty making the computations fast enough to eliminate the backlog quickly. The complexity of the computations also hindered Lockheed Martin’s ability to develop software to automate the process.

Murray was asking about VA's response to suicides back in 2008

In asking Peake about what the VA is doing to reach out to struggling veterans who may not know about VA resources available to them, Murray referenced a VA study that found that Guard or Reserve members accounted for 53 percent of the veteran suicides from 2001, when the war in Afghanistan began, through the end of 2005. The study was made public yesterday in an Associated Press story.

As you can find more on your own with a simple Google search result, nothing should shock members of congress anymore since most of them have been there all along.

VA still battling errors, claims backlog

VA still battling errors, claims backlog

By Tristan Hallman - Gannett Washington Bureau
Posted : Saturday Jun 19, 2010 10:03:41 EDT

“When [the VA is] processing 1 million claims, 1 percent error is 10,000 veterans,” De Planque said at a recent House subcommittee hearing. “That is completely unacceptable.”

Retired Marine Sgt. Michael Madden of Prescott, Ariz., knows what it means to battle. In Vietnam, he was shot in the head, forcing him to undergo spinal cord surgery that has left him in a wheelchair.

But the fight was not over for Madden. After being told by a Veterans Affairs doctor to file for funding to make his home and car wheelchair-adaptable, Madden has spent the last decade in a jungle of bureaucracy, legalese and claim denials.

More than $6,000 of out-of-pocket expenses and a suspended Arizona driver’s license later, Madden is still searching for answers.

“I find it kind of ironic that the VA tells me that I can’t drive without the equipment, and then tells me that I can’t have the equipment for a service-connected disability,” Madden said.

Madden is not alone in struggling with the bureaucracy of the Veterans Benefits Administration, the VA sub-agency that handles veterans’ disability claims. Seeing the challenges VBA faces, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki has made fighting inefficiency a top priority.

Shinseki’s main target is a backlog of claims. As of June 8, a total of 186,777 claims — 35.8 percent of total pending claims — were still unprocessed after VBA’s new 125-day processing goal, according to Veterans Affairs.
read more here
VA still battling errors, claims backlog

Another bill to improve Veterans Affairs benefit claim process

In June of 2008 we heard promises of fixing the claims backlog when there were 879,291 claims waiting to be honored. Way back then, thousands of veterans had died waiting.

Report: 8,763 vets died waiting for benefits
Army Times
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jul 15, 2008 14:56:15 EDT

The title of the House committee report sums up what happened: “Die or Give Up Trying: How Poor Contractor Performance, Government Mismanagement and the Erosion of Quality Controls Denied Thousands of Disabled Veterans Timely and Accurate Retroactive Retired Pay Awards.”

The report by the majority staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform domestic policy panel, released Tuesday, concluded that at least 28,283 disabled retirees were denied retroactive pay awards because rushed efforts to clear a huge backlog of claims led program administrators to stop doing quality assurance checks on the claims decisions.

And of the original 133,057 potentially eligible veterans, 8,763 died before their cases could be reviewed for retroactive payments, according to the report.

At issue are the Concurrent Retirement and Disability Payments and Combat-Related Special Compensation programs, approved by Congress in 2003 and 2004 to allow large numbers of disabled retirees to receive full concurrent military retirement pay and veteran’s disability compensation.

In February, the backlog was said to be “more than 39,000” cases. Jonas said she had been assured that the backlog would be cleared by April.

That did not happen, according to the subcommittee report, because Lockheed Martin, the contractor hired in July 2006 to compute the complex retroactive pay awards, had difficulty making the computations fast enough to eliminate the backlog quickly. The complexity of the computations also hindered Lockheed Martin’s ability to develop software to automate the process. read more here

So why is there yet one more politician introducing yet one more bill to fix what has been broken all this time but forgetting it wasn't fixed before? The likelihood of a bill being written the right way once and for all is slim until they figure out what they already got wrong.

Rep. Dan Maffei introduces bill to improve Veterans Affairs benefit claim process
Robert Harding
March 27, 2014

U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei is seeking to improve the Veterans Affairs benefit claims process for families of deceased veterans.

Maffei, D-Syracuse, introduced a bill Thursday, the Veteran Families Fairness Act, to assist veterans' families and ensure the veteran's benefits aren't lost.

Right now, a veteran's parents, spouse and children under 18 years old are considered eligible survivors who would receive benefits from the VA if the veteran passes away during the claims process. But there have been cases of veterans who die without a spouse, living parents or children under 18. In those cases, the veteran's benefits are lost, Maffei said.

For eligible survivors, there are challenges. In order to receive the deceased veteran's benefits, they must start from the beginning of the claims process, even if the veteran had already gone through the process and was waiting to receive benefits.

According to figures from the VA cited by Maffei, approximately 22,000 veterans died with a pending claim in the 2013 fiscal year. Some veterans died while waiting up to three years in the VA claims process and yet, their family members were unable to receive benefits because they weren't considered eligible survivors.

Maffei said his legislation will help address these flaws in the VA claims process.
read more here

Thousands of Arizona veterans face backlog on disability claims

Thousands of Arizona veterans face backlog on disability claims with VA
Monday, Oct. 29, 2012
By FARA ILLICH
Cronkite News

VA backlog: Number of veterans in Arizona: 600,000
Number of pending veterans disability claims: 23,000
Number of claims with a wait time over 125 days: 17,000
Average number of days a claim is pending: 320
Average number of days a claim takes to complete: 365
Sources: Phoenix Veterans Affairs Regional Office and Arizona Department of Veterans Services

PHOENIX – Peering through the new prescription glasses he just got from the veterans hospital, Korean War veteran Gilbert Torres sifted through a stack of papers detailing claims he’d had pending with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs since July 2011.

Torres is asking the VA re-evaluate the 30 percent disability he was awarded in the 1960s for injuries to both feet during a training exercise and to grant him disability for lingering gastrointestinal problems from food poisoning.

Torres said he’s happy with the services the VA has provided him over the years like free medical and vision care, but said he doesn’t understand why he’s been waiting more than a year for answers.

“I can wait, but I’d like to have some sort of notice,” he said. “I deserve what I’m asking for.”

Torres is part of a backlog of 17,000 disability compensation claims in Arizona as of October, according to the VA’s Phoenix Regional Office, which processes disability compensation for the state. These are claims that have been pending longer than 125 days.

There were 587,800 claims pending in the backlog nationwide as of September, according to the VA.

Despite efforts by the VA to ramp up processing times, officials say the department can’t keep up with the volume of claims, which have risen nearly 50 percent since 2008.

Part of the increase has to do with the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan winding down and many new veterans filing, but is also due to a class-action lawsuit that added ischemic heart disease, hairy cell and other forms of B-cell leukemia and Parkinson’s to a list of diseases associated with exposure to Agent Orange, according to John Rowan, national president of Vietnam Veterans of America.

“We’ve got a backlog because of a perfect storm,” Rowan said.
read more here

VA currently has a backlog of about 850,000 claims

VA Tackling Mountainous Claims Backlog

March 15, 2012
Military.com
by Michael Hoffman
Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki told Congress Thursday his agency is at a “tipping point” toward tackling the mountainous claims backlog that has prevent veterans from receiving benefits.

Technological advances such as transferring health records from filing cabinets to a single electronic database shared within the Defense Department will make it easier to process veterans’ claims, Shinseki said.

The VA will need the help. With troops out of Iraq and the war winding down in Afghanistan, Shinseki expects the number of claims to rise.

The number of claims has increased by 48 percent since 2008. VA officials expect the number of claims to continue to increase from 1.2 million in 2012 to 1.25 million in 2013. The VA currently has a backlog of about 850,000 claims.
read more here

What will it be like for veterans twenty years from now?

What will it be like for veterans twenty years from now?
Wounded Times Blog
Kathie Costos
June 23, 2013

While all the news about veterans waiting so long now makes it seem as if it is a new issue, it is far from it.

In the 90's Vietnam veterans had to wait and fight for years to have their claims approved. We were one family waiting for six years as denials came, appeals had to be filed while were tried to figure out how to keep a roof over our heads.

Pretending this is all new may be more acceptable but ignoring history will have us repeating it all over again.

What we didn't fix in the 90's haunting us now!

In the 70's, Vietnam veterans were coming home to a detached population of Americans. Some simply ignored them. Others blamed them. They were not even welcomed by veterans of other wars, shunned by the very people these veterans would turn around and help. They made a promise to each other that no generation would turn their back on others. "Never again shall one generation of Americans abandon another." Vietnam Veterans of America took the lead. It is because of their efforts PTSD is a service connected disability for all generations of war fighters.

Their efforts helped secure all the research begun in earnest in the late 70's and early 80's. That is how long the connection between combat and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has been accepted, yet few citizens understand it. What came with the research was the establishment of mental health efforts to treat trauma survivors. Battlefield medicine helped physically wounded traumatic event survivors with physical injuries as much as psychological efforts aided the wound to the mind. Crisis Intervention teams began to form to respond to victims as well as the first responders.

INTRODUCTION TO THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF CRISIS INTERVENTION 1990

The term crisis derives form the greek word «krisis» which means decision or turning point. This definition of the word as a decisive stage that has important consequences in the future of an individual or a system, has been preserved up to our days and has provided the framework for the development of the theory and practice of crisis intervention.

Crisis intervention is a relatively new field in community psychology. Its origins are usually dated in the 1940's and 1950's with Lindemann's pioneering work on grief and bereavement after the Coconut Grove Club fire in Boston and with the work of Caplan at Harvard University. The 1960's and 1970's were periods of further elaboration of crisis theory and intervention with the development of suicide prevention centers, «hot lines)), crisis centers and other agencies. New conceptualizations of services and important innovations in the intervention area were developed during this period (McGEE, 1974). In the last few years, efforts have concentrated on the evaluation crisis intervention programs and on further developing crisis intervention practice.

While the press points toward the crisis veterans face returning from combat, they fail to understand the magnitude of the issues. It is not just the veterans suffering anymore than their suffering is new, but it is the far reaching devastation of entire families.

Wife says VA claims backlog led to suicide
Homeless veteran overdosed in Killeen
KDHN News
Brandon Janes
Herald staff writer
Jun 22, 2013

The body of a 60-year-old homeless man was found by the train tracks in downtown Killeen last week, a victim of a drug overdose, police said.

His wife, who was found next to him with a near-lethal amount of blood pressure medication in her body, said her husband, Larry Pittman of Blakely, Ga., was the victim of an overtaxed system.

Soldier’s story
Larry Pittman, a decorated Vietnam veteran, served in both the Army and the Navy for a total of 14 years, according to his Department of Defense form 214.

After joining the Army when he was 18, Pittman worked in transportation for the Army during the Vietnam War, earning the Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Cross of Gallantry and other honors.

He was honorably discharged from the Navy as a second class petty officer in 1985. His last assignment was aboard the USS Belknap, a guided missile cruiser.

What wasn’t mentioned on his DOD form were the health problems he suffered following his time in the military: hearing loss, post-traumatic stress disorder, heart disease and skin cancer from exposure to Agent Orange. A VA document, provided to the Herald by Penny Pittman, said the VA was in the process of determining if any of those ailments began when Pittman was in the military.

In early 2012, Pittman applied through the VA for disability compensation for his injuries. More than a year later, he was homeless and still waiting for the claim to be processed, his wife said.
read more here

Remember, Pittman was suffering from his service in Vietnam. All these years later he had still not found a grateful nation standing up to tend to his wounds. Some may read this and say, "well he didn't go for help when he came home" as if all of this was his fault but they fail to grasp the fact most veterans do not want anything back from the government. They just want to move on with their lives. Once they understand they were in fact injured, they should not have to wait years more to be treated. Today the OEF and OIF veterans are able to get free care for five years. That is great but their families are not covered. If they cannot work, they do not receive compensation until they have a service connected disability rating from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In the 90's Vietnam veterans were finally coming to terms with what came home with them and sought treatment for PTSD but they were billed for services while they had to fight the system to have their claims approved. Most claims took years to be approved after many denials.

While the claim backlog grew for OEF and OIF veterans due to congressional malpractice in adequately staffing the VA to care for the newly injured up until 2010. Vietnam veterans with claims for Agent Orange that had been denied were able to refile the claims and have them approved along with claims for PTSD. The estimated 200,000 more claims entering into the overwhelmed system caused a bigger backlog with the highest percentage of clams coming from Vietnam veterans. As of June 15, Vietnam veterans were 36% of the 808,074 claims and 36% of the backlog claims of 530,075.

Source: Dept. Veterans Affairs, 6/15/13
Backlog: Claims pending longer than 125 days

As a reminder of how bad it had been for all veterans, Veterans for Common Sense filed a lawsuit because of this,

More than 1.1 million Veterans still await VA disability claim decisions. VA’s goal is to process all claims within 125 days with an error rate of two percent. However, VA’s Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) continues failing:
– 900,000 cases wait an average of nine months for a new or re-opened claim decision, up from 634,000 claims waiting five months for a decision in July 2007.
– 250,000 cases wait four more years for an appealed claim decision, up from 160,000 appeals in July 2007.

We didn't fix what was not working at the same time more veterans were seeking care for the wounds and injuries incurred during the Vietnam War.

At the same time advocates were reaching Vietnam veterans to seek help, the VA was not prepared for the OEF and OIF veterans, so Vietnam veterans had to wait even longer. In 2007 this report came out. In the past 18 months, 148,000 Vietnam veterans have gone to VA centers reporting symptoms of PTSD "30 years after the war," said Brig. Gen. Michael S. Tucker, deputy commanding general of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command and Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

As the numbers come in on war fighters suffering for their service, we need to acknowledge the simple fact that we have not taken care of the past generations as new ones enter into the system. This fact is shocking simply because we are still seeing Vietnam veterans entering into the system. What will it be like ten or twenty years from now as the OEF and OIF veterans come to terms with the price they paid for their service to this nation?

Jon Stewart attacks the VA again, without a clue

Jon Stewart attacks the VA again, without a clue
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times
May 21, 2013

If you read Wounded Times with any regularity, you know how bad it has been for the men and women willing to risk their lives for this country and each other but if you don't you'd think the rantings of members of Congress on the subjects they want to talk about were all that was happening.

If you watch The Daily Show you'd hear Jon Stewart ranting about the claims backlog. He seems to think the problem just started. He has been going off on the VA for about a month now but as vocal as he was on the 900,000 claims, he didn't seem to know that the majority of those claims were from Vietnam Veterans. Stewart had no clue these numbers have been going up and down for as long as I've been involved and aware, which goes back to 1982.

Where the hell was Stewart when President Bush was advised to cut the VA budget because he was told that the number of veterans being treated by the VA would drop? Yes, that happened and Nicholson said that most of the claims backlogged were for dental appointments. Guess the forgot there were two wars producing more wounded war fighters and veterans.

It isn't as if President Bush was the first to betray the troops and veterans. Every week the VA releases a report on the claims they are handling. Monday Morning Workload Report 60% of the claims are for veterans with approved claims filing supplemental claims. Vietnam Veterans are 38% of the backlog and 37% of Pending Claims. These veterans have waited through all the presidents going back to President Kennedy. Agent Orange claims and Post Traumatic Stress Disorders tied to their service in Vietnam along with the contaminated military bases like Camp Lejeune and Fort McClellan more toxic than Camp Lejeune. If Stewart mentioned any of this it wouldn't be so funny to him. After all, no one cares about Vietnam veterans being the majority of the claims since the only reports Stewart's staff reads are OEF and OIF so they can hit the majority of their viewers.

Pending claims

Backlog claims


The problems didn't just start just because Stewart became aware of them now. It would have been great if he paid attention to the "other than honorable discharges" that were happening years ago and then maybe things wouldn't be as bad as they are now. Total discharges at the eight Army posts that house most of the service's combat units have increased 67 percent since 2009. Then again the military sexual assaults caused over 85,000 treated last year alone. Maybe he could care that 13,000 males were among the victims of sexual assaults?

I have no patience for any administration giving excuses on any of this. I have even less patiences when someone like Stewart blows the opportunity to actually do something about it.

I fully understand that Stewart is a comedian and not a reporter but if he makes the choice to cover a topic this serious, he has an obligation to know what the hell he's talking about.

I used to watch the Daily Show because he made me laugh. Now I think it is too sad to watch because he just doesn't care enough to know what is going on.

Last night he was talking about what a great machine Obama had running for office. What he didn't mention was Congress is responsible for oversight, hearings as well as funding. Obama appoints the heads of the departments and sets the agenda but all of it has to happen with Congress taking action or not. So far no one has been held accountable for any of this throughout any administration other than Nicholson losing his job.

It would be nice if Stewart thought about any of this and then maybe Congress would be forced to not just hold hearings but hold people accountable for a change and fix what is happening to the people we send to fight our battles.

If you want to get caught up on what you haven't been hearing about what has really been going on, read THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR and know how bad it is and how it got this way. I track all these reports and even I didn't know all of this was happening.

Republicans sink to new low and in the polls too

3.8 million veterans are disabled and face the prospect of not getting our checks next month because of a few in the House not willing to do the right thing. They wanted to just take care of veterans as if nothing else matters to us. I keep wondering what else will they screw up the next time if they are allowed to pull off a stunt like this.

Republican Party's Rating Plummets To 'Record Low' in approval because they have sunk to a new low ready to destroy the whole country without being able to explain why.  First they said it was over the Affordable Care Act that was settled and resettled and has already started.  Now they don't seem to know what they hell they are tying everything up for again.  Isn't it their job to figure out the budget, like it was for the last three years?

So here I am sitting here wondering what we'll do next month when I thought we would never have to worry again after a six year battle to have my husband's claim approved when no one was talking about PTSD or the backlog of claims. That justice came for us in 1999 and I remember what it was like to hang onto the belief this country would do the right thing. When you consider that disabled veterans are just a bit above 1% of the population, it seems even worse that we have to keep worrying over and over again but we don't just worry about ourselves. We worry about the whole nation. This same nation my husband was willing to risk his life for in Vietnam and ready to die for the others he was sent with.

He has paid the price and so has every other veteran but members of Congress want to use us like pawns in their games. This isn't new but it is about as nasty as it has ever been.

Consider one more thing. There is a part of their party slamming public servants as if they mean nothing but we don't want to talk about the thousands of veterans working for the government. We don't want to talk about the rest of what VA Secretary Shinseki had to say to Congress today and reported on NPR.

About 3.8 million veterans will not receive disability compensation next month if the partial government shutdown continues into late October, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki told lawmakers Wednesday. Some 315,000 veterans and 202,000 surviving spouses and dependents will see pension payments stopped.

Shinseki spelled out some of the dire consequences of a longer-term shutdown in testimony before the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Short term, there's been a delay in processing claims by an average of about 1,400 per day since the shutdown began Oct. 1. That has stalled the department's efforts to reduce the backlog of disability claims pending for longer than 125 days.

In all, more than $6 billion in benefits to about 5 million veterans and their families would be halted with an extended shutdown.

In some areas, like health care, there have been few adverse effects. Health care services are funded a year in advance. In others, such as reducing the claims backlog, Shinseki noted that the backlog has increased by 2,000 since the shutdown began Oct. 1.

By comparison, the disability claims backlog had dropped about 31 percent during the six months preceding the shutdown, falling to 418,500.

He said the Labor Department has largely shut down its VETS program, which provides employment and counseling services to veterans. The Small Business Administration has closed 10 centers focused on helping veterans create and operate businesses. And the Housing and Urban Development Department is not issuing vouchers to newly homeless vets, though those already receiving the housing aid will still get it.

What did Congressman Miller want to talk about? Everything else. Kind of the way he's been behaving all along with sticking his fingers in his ears when the cries of thousands of families have begged for the Congress to hold someone accountable and actually do something about military and veterans committing suicides instead of just spending more money on what has already failed all of them.

I have faith in the American people but not much left for the politicians in charge of quicksand.

UPDATE add this to the above

Some 555 vet benefits administration employees go without pay
Shutdown » Services curtailed but not halted in most benefits cases.
By Dan Harrie
The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Oct 08 2013

Salt Lake City’s Veterans Benefits Administration office was one of the regional vet centers affected by the federal shutdown, with 7,000 employees furloughed nationwide.

About 165 employees were sent home without pay in Salt Lake City, while 390 remained on duty without pay, said Shaun Shenk, spokesman with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Denver.

DOD AND VA AWOL ON CLAIMS FOR WOUNDED WARRIORS

Decorated veteran stuck in red
Paperwork delays leave family broke as soldier fights for his benefits
By CE SKIDMORE
skidmore@poststar.com
Published: Monday, February 18, 2008
Matthew Welch's left calf looks like a turkey leg after the Thanksgiving meal. His right thigh is peppered with shrapnel scars and parts of him will probably cause an alarm to sound at the airport.

To be fair, he has looked worse.

Welch, 26, served in the Army National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry, Glens Falls. It is the same unit that lost Pfc. Nathan Brown, of South Glens Falls, who was killed in action on April 11, 2004, in Samarra, Iraq.

Seven months later in the same city, a Humvee that Welch was driving was hit by a roadside bomb. Dates and milestones that passed during his years in the service are hazy, Welch said. But he will never forget Nov. 24, 2004.

Welch's discharge didn't become official until Nov. 10, 2007. The process was in limbo for two years because of lost paperwork, according to Welch. He was supposed to receive $1,100 monthly retirement benefits starting Dec. 1, 2007, he said, but to date has not seen a check.

"I keep getting juggled around," he said. "There's no communication. ... One department tells me I need to call a different department, and they tell me I need to call someone else."

go here for the rest
http://www.poststar.com/articles/2008/02/18/news/local/13350515.txt

This is one of the reasons our veterans end up homeless. Welch is trapped in a backlog of claims over 800,000 deep now. Amazing how that went from 600,000 to 816,211 in a few months but it did.

VA claim backlog at 816,211 but IT cut back? WTF (+)
by: NamGuardianAngel
Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 22:24:14 PM EST
VA claim backlog at 816,211 but IT cut back? WTF Vets' groups urge IT budget boost for benefits processing By Bob Brewin bbrewin@govexec.com February 13, 2008 Veterans' services organizations have urged Congress to provide a sharp increase in the information technology budget of the agency that handles their compensation and pension claims.
The fiscal 2009 IT budget request for the Veterans Benefits Administration is about 18 percent less than the fiscal 2008 proposal. The overall IT budget for the Veterans Affairs Department, VBA's parent agency, jumped 18 percent in President Bush's latest request.
VBA's pending compensation and claims backlog stood at 816,211 as of January 2008, up 188,781 since 2004, said Kerry Baker, associate legislative director of the Disabled Veterans of America, during a Wednesday hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.
Baker said VBA must have the funds necessary to upgrade its IT infrastructure to handle the backlog and a growing caseload. Anything short of an increase is "a recipe for failure," he added.
Carl Blake, national legislative director for the Paralyzed Veterans of America, said VBA needed $121 million in its fiscal 2009 budget for its information technology. According to VA budget documents, VBA requested an IT budget of $109.6 million for its compensation and benefits programs, down $23.8 million from $133.4 million in 2008. VA requested an overall 2009 IT budget of $2.53 billion in 2009, up from $2.15 billion in fiscal 2008, with the largest portion earmarked for the Veterans Health Administration. go here for the rest
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfe...

And now the above report will only go to show this is all going to get worse. Veterans like Matthew Welch are trapped in the system, suffering along with their families for someone to find their file and do the right thing. To the VA they are just missing in a pile but if they were missing when the government wanted them to go, or the Army National Guard's 2nd Battalion had orders in hand to send them, they would be tracked down and tossed into jail for being AWOL. So who is charging the DOD and the VA with they are AWOL on these claims?

Don't get me wrong here. The DOD and the VA people who are trying to process claims are still busier than they should be. There are still not enough of them to process all the claims. The people who rate these claims are a mix between those who want to do a wonderful job and others who just do what they have to do in order to move onto the next claim. They have their orders to follow, so it depends on who is giving those orders and setting policy. It also depends on where they are and who is fighting for them.

The biggest problems seem to come when the veterans try to work their way through they system on their own. With no advocate knowing the system, they end up trapped. There are now lawyers around the country taking on these cases for free. They see it as their patriotic duty to help these veterans without charging them money. They just don't want to see these veterans suffering for their service and the inconvenience to the government of having to treat them and pay out their claims. There are DAV and VFW and American Legion Service Officers around the country helping with claims along with a lot of other smaller organizations. The problem is, for veterans in rural areas, help is just too far away and coping with too long of a line to get there.

With all the hearings by the House and the Senate, why is there so little being done to correct these problems while the veterans are suffering? Good motives and plans do not put food on their table or a roof over their heads. Building new hospitals does not take care of the veterans facing wanting to end their lives today or having to deal with having their wound go untreated. Can't they understand that these veterans need help yesterday? They still need to work on the future but they have to take care of today first!

When it comes to veterans, politics need to stop

When it comes to veterans, politics need to stop
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 12, 2014

The press has been playing politics with veterans and it needs to end. It is one thing when politicians do it and want people to only be aware of what they want the public to know. That is something we are all used to. It is another when reporters do it. Veterans need to know the truth and they deserve nothing less.

If your really want to know the history of backlog claims without political nonsense tied in then read Wounded Times article about Senator Richard Burr on the Veterans Affairs Committee playing politics while pretending he just discovered the problem. Or you could just read The Washington Times article by By Douglas Ernst, which is a rehash of what was reported by Military Times. "Officials put the total number of cases at roughly 398,000"

This is the truth.

Clinton left a backlog of 400,000 in 2001.

Bush left a backlog of 816,211 in 2008. This was left after some veterans were just cut off in 2003.

VA officials say they must focus on veterans with the greatest needs - those with the most serious service-related illnesses and injuries and those too poor to afford other health care.

But many veterans - and the organizations that represent them - say it is a broken promise.

"Young men and women go off and fight for their country and are told that their needs will be taken care of," said Ronald Conley, national commander of the 2.8-million member, Indianapolis-based American Legion. "To change the rules on them when they get back is wrong."

The Bush administration's proposed changes cut off enrollment for veterans who make more than about $24,000. Those who are above that threshold and are already enrolled in the system would have to pay an annual $250 fee to keep their health-care benefits. In addition, the Bush administration is proposing increasing co-payments for higher income patients from $15 to $20 per outpatient visit and from $7 to $15 for prescription drugs.

The Republican-controlled Congress recently passed a budget for veterans' health care of about $30 billion for 2004, an increase of about $3.4 billion over this year's budget. But the Democrats say some of this money will have to come from co-payments and the veterans using the system.

The VA has been hit by aging Vietnam Veterans. While they are the majority of the new claims filed and majority of the backlog, few reporters have taken notice that while they waited longer than others to have Agent Orange and PTSD treated, they have also waited longer for compensation. Both rules were changed by the Obama Administration. This was during a time when two wars were producing more veterans.

One more factor is while the door was opened for more veterans the Affordable Care Act has added more veterans seeking care/claims from the VA. The Affordable Care Act, VA, and You from the VA is just another part of the story. The Washington Post reported in November "One in 10 veterans lacks health insurance. Obamacare could change that."

While some service groups only want the media to focus on the OEF and OIF veterans, the major veterans groups fight for all veterans. They have not forgotten what the reality has been for older veterans even though the press has. They have not forgotten what they fought for during all administrations because no administration and no congress has done the job to fix the VA once and, I do mean, all.

There are millions of veterans with service related conditions and disabilities but never sought a VA claim. The VA expects this to change due to the Affordable Care Act as well as an aging population of veterans. It isn't that they were not entitled to care from the VA, but more they didn't want it.

Then there are the Priority 7 and 8 veterans. The CBO released this report on those veterans.

Veterans who seek medical care from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are enrolled in one of eight priority groups that are defined on the basis of income, disability status, and other factors. The highest priority for access to health care is given to veterans who have service-connected disabilities (priority groups 1 through 3); the lowest priority is given to higher-income veterans who have no conditions that are disabling to the degree that VA provides compensation. Veterans in priority group 8 do not have compensable service-connected disabilities, and their annual income exceeds both VA’s national income threshold and the (generally higher) geographic income threshold that pertains to the veteran’s place of residence. Veterans enrolled in priority group 7 also have no compensable service-connected disabilities; either their income lies between the national and geographic thresholds, or their net worth exceeds VA’s national threshold. As of 2012, about 2.3 million veterans who were enrolled in VA’s health care system had been assigned to priority groups 7 and 8. In any given year, not all of the veterans in those groups seek medical care from VA.

Canceling enrollment for all veterans in priority groups 7 and 8 would reduce discretionary outlays, on net, by $48 billion from 2015 through 2023, the Congressional Budget Office estimates. That estimate reflects the assumption that appropriations would be reduced accordingly. However, because this option would result in greater use of other government health care programs, implementing it would increase mandatory spending for Medicare and Medicaid and for federal subsidies provided through the health insurance exchanges by $24 billion between 2015 and 2023.

In another report from Veterans of Modern Warfare this was released.

It noted 90 percent of group 7 and 8 enrollees had other health care coverage, either Medicare or private insurance. So the "vast majority" cut loose would have ready access to other coverage. Those who don't could be eligible for health insurance exchanges to be set up in the future said CBO.

One disadvantage is that many veterans who have come to rely on VA for at least part of their medical care would see that care interrupted.

The Obama administration and Congress actually had been moving in the opposite direction, to expand VA enrollment, until Republicans won the House. As Obama took office in 2009, VA announced that up to 266,000 veterans with no service-connected health conditions would be allowed to enroll in VA health care. Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas) had fought successfully to add $350 million to the 2009 VA budget so income thresholds controlling priority 8 enrollments could be raised 10 percent.

There you have the ugly truth on what has been going on. Any questions? Ask the press why they have forgotten how we got into this mess.

UPDATE

February 19, 2014
Texas shameful VA disability claims backlog said the backlog of claims was bad but when you consider what you just read, you know that this didn't happen overnight. I left this comment.

Forgetting the history of claims dooms veterans to be subjected to the same problem over and over again. President Clinton left with 400,000 backlog claims when President Bush took the chair. President Bush had a backlog of 816,211 in 2008 even though thousands of priority 7 and 8 veterans were cut off in 2003. Politicians may be able to forget how veterans have been treated but veterans do not.

The Rise (and Fall) of the VA Backlog

The Rise (and Fall) of the VA Backlog
TIME
By Brandon Friedman
June 03, 2013

Officials with the Department of Veterans Affairs likely won’t acknowledge it publicly until later this year, but those responsible for processing disability claims believe the infamous “backlog” peaked more than two months ago.

Last week, the total number of claims in the inventory fell to slightly more than 830,000—the lowest number since October 2011. Since late March, the backlog of claims has been on an eight-week slide as well. Last week, it too reached its lowest point since January 2012—nearly 17 months ago. The downward slope is now steeper than at any time during the Obama administration.

To be sure, no one is yet measuring the drapes in a backlog-free department—as it still stands at more than 500,000 claims. Nevertheless, the trend line is striking—and it mirrors what many VA employees are saying behind closed doors. Barring any surprises, the decline in backlogged claims will only accelerate as an automated system finally replaces paper processing over the next two years.

Therefore, it’s important to understand where the backlog actually stands in relation to where it was—and to fully recognize its context.

By using a simple chart to show the backlog since the beginning of the Obama Administration, we can get past the agenda-specific rhetoric and the media misconceptions to see how—and why—the backlog grew and how it began to shrink.
read more here

Disabled veterans say Houston, we have a problem!

Reading this report it is like being haunted by an old ghost. We faced these problems in the 90's. Claims tied up, denied forcing my husband to file an appeal, followed by months after months waiting, left a scar behind. It always astonished me that there were always deadlines for the veteran to make but the VA didn't have any to live by, at least none they clued the veteran into.

During the time a veteran files a claim, they are already living with whatever their condition has produced. If it is physical, then they have lived with pain usually topped off with a boatload of fear. If it is in the mind, like Post Traumatic Stress or Traumatic Brain Injury, they have also gone through the denial roller coaster ride of fighting it on their own as their lives fall apart. For Vietnam veterans, they may have been supported to file a claim but this came after years of suffering. Should their claim be approved, it is pro-rated back to when they filed and not back to Vietnam even though that is where it all began and when the damage to their lives started.

The Vietnam veterans are still waiting but now there are more veterans needing help and wondering what they did wrong. They are suffering as they wait because the rest of the world moves on. Bills have to be paid but when they cannot work because of their condition, they have nothing to pay them with. Homes are lost. Landlords give up and kick them out. Families begin to wonder if anything will get better and veterans, well, they end up wondering if it was worth surviving combat in the first place.

We faced financial hardship as his claim was denied over and over again. We faced emotional struggles that would have destroyed most marriages. Reading this article, it is important to remember that this is a debt we owe them but also ask yourself what your own life would be like while you fight and wait for what you thought was part of the deal of your service.

Money, staff fail to stop VA backlog growth
Houston has highest appeals rate in the U.S. as benefits claims set records
By LINDSAY WISE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Sept. 10, 2010, 8:54PM

Michael Paulsen Chronicle
Vietnam veteran James Davis, 59, of Willis has been trying since 2003 to get an increase in his VA disability benefits, but all he gets is a letter every six months saying he is being evaluated.

Despite an influx of funds and staff at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the backlog of claims for benefits continues to grow at a record pace in Houston and nationwide.

VA received 1 million claims in 2009 for the first time in the department's 80-year history. In Houston, the situation has worsened since the Houston Chronicle first reported on the local impact of the backlog more than a year ago.

The number of veterans waiting for the Houston VA Regional Office to process their disability compensation claims jumped from about 19,000 this time last year to nearly 24,000, an increase of 25 percent.

Almost half of those claims have been pending for more than four months, compared to 37 percent nationwide.

"Clearly Houston is suffering under significant strain, and their office needs attention from Washington so our veterans can get accurate and fast claims decisions," said Paul Sullivan, executive director of the nonprofit Veterans for Common Sense.

"So many veterans in Houston have been waiting too long," Sullivan said.

He's particularly troubled that Houston has 12,060 claims in appeal, the highest number in the country for the second year in a row.

"The high number of veterans' claims awaiting an appeal decision — which often takes four to five years - indicates the Houston office may still have serious and significant quality and accuracy problems," he said.

The Houston Regional Office, which serves almost 760,000 veterans and their dependents in 90 Texas counties, is dedicated to the timely and accurate processing of disability claims, VA spokeswoman Jennifer Heim said in a written statement.
read more here
Money staff fail to stop VA backlog growth

Longer Wait For Disability Benefits In VA Secretary's Home State

While veterans know the care they get depends on what state they live in, the average American has no clue. Simply assuming this one nation treats all veterans the same is part of the reason they have suffered this long. The other factor is too many reporters take the narrow view. They report in lumps based on what they are told today completely forgetting about what they reported last year. When we're talking about this many years of war fighters coming home, especially National Guardsmen and Reservist, we've had plenty of time to get it right but expected the to wait plenty of time to get the care they were promised.

While the following report is out of Honolulu, you can read what states do a better job on this interactive map from Center for Investigative Reporting. Map: Where is the veterans' backlog the worst?

Longer Wait For Disability Benefits In VA Secretary's Home State
Honolulu Civil Beat
By Kery Murakami
04/01/2013

Although the federal Veterans Administration has been taking heat nationally for a growing backlog and increased times to process disabled veterans benefits, the office in VA Secretary Eric Shinseki’s home state of Hawaii has been doing particularly poorly in processing claims in a timely manner.

And despite promises to improve its performance, agency data examined by Civil Beat, shows that in the Veterans Benefits Administration’s Honolulu office, veterans are waiting months longer and the backlog of disability claims has gotten significantly worse than a year ago.

In January, the latest period for which figures were available, 70 percent of compensation disability claims nationally had been pending longer than the goal of 125 days. That’s brought protests from veterans groups and criticism from Congress. However, the backlog was worse in the Honolulu office, where 77 percent of those claims had been pending longer than the 125 days.

The backlog of cases in Honolulu has grown since January 2012, when 69.4 percent of similar claims had been pending for that long.

It was also taking longer in the Honolulu office than the average nationally to process disability claims that require an assessment of the severity of a disability. Nationally, it took the VA an average of 279 days to complete such claims. It the Honolulu office, it took almost four months longer — an average of 390.2 days.
read more here

UPDATE out of Nashville

Nashville VA office failures cited in report
Nashville staffers did not properly serve veterans in 4 of 5 areas, inspection finds
The Tennessean
Apr 1, 2013
One veteran lost $10,000 in disability benefits.

Others underwent incomplete evaluations for traumatic brain injury.

Homeless veterans went without help because no one tried to find them.

These are the service failures highlighted in a report issued last week by the Office of Inspector General that determined the Veterans Affairs Regional Office in Nashville came up short on four of five measures. The report was based on an inspection conducted in September. Edna MacDonald, the director of the Nashville office, did not dispute the findings and submitted a checklist for correcting the problems.

However, a spokeswoman noted that the report is not a comprehensive evaluation. The Nashville regional office, which has jurisdiction over VA services in the entire state, has an overall 91.2 percent accuracy record for rating claims, said public affairs officer Jan Dew.
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Veterans' claims backlog spurs national bus tour

This is what happens when things are not fixed right int the first place. Not the first time veterans had to fight the government and won't be the last unless it is fixed right for good.

Just a reminder in case some of your friends forgot:

The fiscal 2009 IT budget request for the Veterans Benefits Administration is about 18 percent less than the fiscal 2008 proposal. The overall IT budget for the Veterans Affairs Department, VBA's parent agency, jumped 18 percent in President Bush's latest request. VBA's pending compensation and claims backlog stood at 816,211 as of January 2008, up 188,781 since 2004, said Kerry Baker, associate legislative director of the Disabled Veterans of America, during a Wednesday hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

Veterans' claims backlog spurs national bus tour
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
By KEITH ROGERS
October 4, 2013

Vietnam War veteran Dave Freeman led a pack of 40 motorcyclists and a tour bus to the Cashman Center Bikefest on Friday, launching the Concerned Veterans for America cross-country campaign to heighten awareness about a staggering backlog of veterans’ benefits claims.

The motorcade left the Red Rock Harley-Davidson parking lot on Rainbow Boulevard about 2 p.m., heading for the Bikefest event after a patriotic pep rally that featured a barbecue, music and speakers.

The cast included Jane Horton, widow of Oklahoma National Guard sniper Spc. Christopher Horton who was killed in Afghanistan in 2011, and Steve Russell, an Army lieutenant colonel who was a leader in the raid that captured deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on Dec. 13, 2003.

In an emotional speech, Horton told the crowd of about 300 veterans and supporters gathered in the sun-drenched parking lot that they are all her heroes.

“I do not need to be told ‘freedom is not free,’” she said, her voice cracking as tears rolled down her cheeks. “Every day when I realize Chris isn’t with us, I know God has chosen me to carry his legacy. …I want you to know I will give my every last breath to defend the country that he defended for me.”
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In VA backlog, a one in a million, you!

by
Chaplain Kathie

You've read about the backlog of claims increasing and a lot of their stories about being trapped in the waiting line. While this piece on AP may not be news to you, you should read it because it has several stories about veterans, not just numbers. These are real people, with real lives, real families and real wounds.

Aside from the economy getting in the way of them finding work after they served in the military, the National Guards have a harder time because if they are still active, employers don't want to risk hiring them and see them redeploy again. There is also the issue of the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan being viewed as "damaged" because too many do not understand what PTSD is or the fact there are different levels of it. Mild PTSD, if they have it, does not make them unemployable nor does it make them hard to work with. As a matter of fact, if they are treated for mild PTSD the result is a better employee. Considering they survived combat, if nothing else, it shows they care about others and are able to think fast on their feet. They are able to follow instructions and usually dutifully follow orders of superiors. One other factor to consider is that if they are able to work and they are hired, there is also the sense of appreciation for giving them a job and you have a grateful employee.

For chronic or high level of PTSD when they cannot work, there is nothing for them while their claim is trapped in the backlog. They are just one in a million waiting for what they already earned. That's right, they earned it. They earned it by saying they would go and risk their lives, ending up wounded for having done it. The VA compensation is not a hand out, or as some Republican elected have stated in the past, welfare.

(If you are stunned by this, then you do not watch CSPAN and hear their own words coming out of their mouths. Hearings have been going on for many years and when the Republicans had control over the funding, their excuse for not increasing the VA budget to meet the challenge of taking care of the wounded warriors was there was not enough discretionary money to do it. It was really easy for them to be in front of a group of veterans when they wanted their votes to say they appreciated their service and then make statements against veterans on the floor of Congress. Senator John McCain was one of them. Check his voting record when it comes to veterans then maybe I can stop hearing how much better he would have been as President. As bad as it is, at least President Obama has increased funding and is trying to fix the mess the VA is in. While he has a long way to go, McCain wanted to hand out cards so that veterans could just go to private doctors and disappear. )

What is being done has not stopped the backlog of claims from increasing. It's time to take a good look at the lives these claims represent. These are our veterans!

One part of the citizens of this nation can get the veterans to seek help for PTSD, get them to understand what it is so that they realize there is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of at all because they carry this wound. This translates into also getting older veterans to seek help at the same time newer veterans are seeking help and this cluster of veterans should have been foreseen. Plans should have been in place many years ago to prepare for this, but no one was paying attention. At the same time there were two military campaigns going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, no one was preparing for the increase in veterans needing care. Now they are trying to play catchup at the same time the numbers are increasing.

It's time to take a leap of faith in our veterans and just approve the claims already in the backlog. Stop looking for proof and just rate the ones already there, then take a look at them later when the emergency situation for them is over. Fraudulent claims are not the problem right now. In addressing fraudulent claims the VA should issue a warning that if a claim turns out to be fraudulent, then the claimant will not only have to repay the VA but will also have to pay with interest and other legal options are on the table. They should have the opportunity to remove their claim first, something along the line of a month before the other claims are to be approved. The new claims processors are not enough to meet the challenge right now, but when most of the backlog is cleared, they will have plenty of time to review the claims to make sure they are legitimate.

Congress has already taken a baby step in helping veterans with PTSD by making it easier to prove their claim. They will no longer have to find the stressor that caused PTSD and there is already an assumption of honesty in these veterans. So why not go all the way?

I know what suffering is when trying to have a claim approved and I know what it does to a PTSD veteran still struggling with the diagnosis along with what it all comes with. I know what it's like to see another denial in the mail being read by a veteran wounded by his service and then assaulted by the denial accusing him of lying. My husband saw his claim tied up for six years. He sought help but was forced to pay for his treatment because his claim was not approved. Our insurance company wouldn't pay for his mental health care, even though we were paying for it, because the VA doctors linked it to Vietnam. We nearly lost everything and I nearly lost him. Why was his claim tied up? A social security number typed wrong on his Bronze Star award. When he received it, he told his commander it had the wrong number on it and he was told they would correct it. It ended up on his DD214 but was not fixed all the way through the paperwork chain. Once this was corrected, his claim was approved but it took a general to do it.

How many others are suffering the same right now? How many in the backlog fast approaching a million? How many other families are seeing all hope slip away? How many are wondering what the words "grateful nation" really mean when they are living with the wound caused by serving this nation?

Number of VA claims poised to hit 1 millionBy KIMBERLY HEFLING – 5 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Veterans Affairs Department appears poised to hit a milestone it would rather avoid: 1 million claims to process.

The milestone approaches as the agency scrambles to hire and train new claims processors, which can take two years. VA officials are working with the Pentagon under orders from President Barack Obama to create by 2012 a system that will allow the two agencies to electronically exchange records, a process now done manually on paper.

"They keep talking about a seamless transition, but I can tell you I haven't seen it being very seamless," said John Roberts of Houston, who is national service director for the nonprofit Wounded Warrior Project, which helps veterans such as David Odom, 29, of Haleyville, Ala.
Odom, a former Army staff sergeant who did three tours in Iraq, said he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. With symptoms such as anxiety and anger, he finds it difficult to work. He said he's waited months to learn the outcome of an appeal that would give him higher compensation.
"It's added quite a bit of stress because I don't know what's going to happen. I want to know either way so I can figure out what my next step is," Odom said.

Former Marine Cpl. Patrick Murray, 25, of Arlington, Va., who was severely burned and had his right leg amputated after a roadside bomb explosion in 2006, considers himself fortunate. He got a job once he was discharged from the military, making for an easier wait as his case is processed.
"For someone that gets out of the military and doesn't have a job lined up, they have no income," said Murray, who works for a construction company. "They are sitting there making zero money, either racking up credit card bills or taking out loans, whatever it may be, all the while waiting."
Murray said the first claim he filed was lost. The second ended up at a VA office in Colorado, and the third was finally processed after a couple of months. It was mind-boggling, he said, to have spent 11 months in Walter Reed Army Medical Center and in outpatient care with stacks of medical files, only to find out he had to mail his records to the VA to prove he was injured.
On the Net:
: Veterans Affairs Department
: House Committee on Veterans Affairs
: Wounded Warrior Project
: AMVETS