“This report examines (1) how VBA manages workload and performance for the disability compensation claims process, (2) how well VBA’s timeliness and accuracy measures capture its regional offices’ performance in processing these claims, and (3) how well selected regional offices communicate with VSOs and congressional caseworkers about these claims…”
“In 2016, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) centralized distribution of the disability compensation claims workload through the National Work Queue, which prioritizes and distributes claims to regional offices based on their capacity; however, there are gaps in VBA’s guidance for processing claims with errors. Under the National Work Queue, multiple regional offices can work on a single claim instead of the claim remaining at one office for the duration of processing (see figure). GAO found gaps in guidance about whether a claims processor should fix an error made by another regional office, or return the claim to that office to be corrected. The former could result in missed opportunities to train staff who made the error, while the latter could result in processing delays…”
“GAO is making five recommendations to VBA to clarify guidance for correcting errors, develop and implement measures to better assess timeliness and accuracy at regional offices, and evaluate communication with VSOs and caseworkers…” Read the full article here.
Source: Veterans Disability Benefits – Better Measures Needed to Assess Regional Office Performance in Processing Claims – October 3, 2018. GAO.gov.
