WASHINGTON – Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi today announced an unprecedented effort to move some long-pending applications for benefits, especially from older veterans, to a special unit designed to speed action on their claims.
The focus of the administration's initiative is veterans 70 years of age or older. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) estimates these veterans are dying at a rate of 1,369 each day and have a typical life expectancy of less than 10 years.
"America didn't have to wait when this brave generation was called to duty. Our older veterans shouldn't wait in their hour of need while we make necessary improvements to speed up decisions on all veterans' applications," Principi said.
VA compensates veterans for disabilities that arose or worsened while they were in the military. When a service-connected condition deteriorates later in life, veterans may be entitled to higher payments, and most of the pending VA workload of older veterans relates to these kinds of "reopened claims."
VA's 57 regional claims offices first are being instructed to pull the benefit applications of veterans age 70 or older that have been pending for more than a year, an estimated 6,000 applications. A special team in Cleveland will tackle that workload as a top national priority, then will move to another 17,000 of the longest-pending claims of other veterans where the claims have been pending more than a year.
At the same time, VA is focusing existing resources at nine centers on 58,000 more long-pending claims from other veterans who have waited more than a year for a decision. These applications often raise complex legal and medical issues.
Overall, VA has about 668,000 claims of all types awaiting an initial decision or on appeal. That includes an inventory of 355,000 VA regional office determinations ondisability claims for service-connected compensation, a level VA considers double an acceptable amount in progress at any given time.
The director of Cleveland's VA Regional Office, Phillip J. "Jack" Ross, will spearhead the initiative there through a combination of existing staff and newly hired personnel.
Ross, a 29-year VA employee who has served both at field stations and in VA's Washington headquarters, is being given special authority to command rapid turnaround of activities where needed in other VA offices, including VA medical centers. He will report to Principi through VA Deputy Secretary Dr. Leo S. Mackay Jr.
The workload in Cleveland will be monitored to ensure that applications from Ohio veterans are not delayed. As other offices shift some claims of older veterans to Cleveland, VA expects these other offices will devote attention more quickly to the claims of other veterans.
VA can earmark the special resources to aid older veterans as a result of the greatest expansion of its benefits processing work force in more than 25 years. Earlier this year, Principi authorized the hiring of 1,200 new employees to help reduce the growing number of claims associated with new legislation and regulations.
Today's announcement will allow VA regional offices to focus their resources on all of the other pending claims and reduce the overall inventory.
Even after the backlog of the long-pending claims of older veterans is reduced, VA will keep in place new rules to raise the priority of all applications of veterans who are age 70 or older.
Further improvements to speed the decision processes affecting all veterans are expected to be considered after VA receives the report of a Claims Processing Task Force formally chartered by Principi in May to perform a top-to-bottom review of VA's benefit procedures.
