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Veterans' Benefits: Better Assessments Needed to Guide Claims Processing Improvements

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Report Type Reports and Testimonies
Report Date Jan. 13, 1995
Report No. HEHS-95-25
Subject
Summary:

Slow claims processing and poor customer service have long been recognized as serious problems for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). As early as 1990, VA began encouraging its regional offices to improve their claims processing system, but processing times and backlogs have increased rather than decreased. At the end of fiscal year 1994, nearly 500,000 claims awaited a VA decision. About 65,000 of these were initial disability compensation claims. On average during fiscal year 1994, veterans waited more than seven months for their initial disability claims to be decided and, if approved, payments to begin; some waited much longer. This report discusses VA's current plans to change regional office claims processing and assesses VA's plans to determine the effectiveness of those changes.

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