Summary: In the past, we have reported concerns about possible inconsistencies in the disability decisions made by the 57 regional offices of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). In 2002, we reported that VA did not systematically assess the consistency of decision making for any specific impairments included in veterans' disability claims. We recommended that VA conduct such assessments to help reduce any unacceptable variations that VA might find among regional offices. VA agreed that decision-making consistency is an important goal and concurred in principle with our recommendation. However, VA did not discuss how it would measure consistency. In January 2003, in part because of concerns about consistency, we designated VA's disability program, along with other federal disability programs, as high-risk. In fiscal year 2005, VA estimates it will pay about $25 billion in disability compensation benefits to about 2.7 million disabled veterans. In this context, we determined (1) the actions that VA has taken to assess the consistency of regional office decisions on disability compensation claims and (2) the extent to which VA program data can be used to measure the consistency of decision making among regional offices.
In summary, we found that VA still does not systematically assess decision-making consistency among the 57 regional offices. We also found that data contained in VA's Benefits Delivery Network system, which was designed for the purpose of paying benefits, do not provide a reliable basis for identifying indications of possible decision-making inconsistencies among regional offices. However, according to VA officials, as of October 2004, a newly-implemented nationwide information system (known as RBA 2000) could provide VA such an opportunity if the system proves over time to reliably collect data needed to determine each regional office's denial rates and average disability ratings for specific impairments. VA will need to collect several years of data with RBA 2000 in order to have sufficient data to reliably identify indications of impairment-specific inconsistencies among regional offices. Still, even if the RBA 2000 system permits VA to identify indications of such inconsistencies, VA will need to systematically study and determine the extent and causes of such inconsistencies and identify ways to reduce any variations among regional offices that VA may consider unacceptable.
