The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is harnessing technology that has succeeded in cutting the time veterans need to wait to receive disability benefits from months to minutes, according to Zach Goldfine, deputy chief technology officer at the VA.
Prior to VA’s efforts to decrease benefit wait times, Goldfine explained that if a veteran developed hypertension (high blood pressure) and applied for disability benefits, that veteran had to wait a whopping 82 days for the agency to make a decision on their application…
“It’s simple, but as many of you know, simple can be hard in government,” Goldfine said during a discussion at the DocuSign Public Sector Symposium on Sept. 13. “The turnaround time for decisions went from 82 days to six days. And one of the first veterans whose application went through the new system applied in the morning, and by the end of the night, VA had already made a decision.”
“It’s not a new programming language that’s going to be the most popular programming language in the world,” he continued. “But, it is a new kind of relationship with veterans – it’s one that’s built on respect and trust.” … Read the full article here.
