There must be an election coming up!
Congress passes bill requiring VA to reduce backlog of disability claims. HR 5854
The Bay Citizen
By Andy Wright
Last night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill requiring the Department of Veterans Affairs to reduce the time it takes to process veterans’ disability claims. A report accompanying the legislation also called on the VA to eliminate backlogs at the Oakland regional office, where veterans can wait years for a decision on their claims.
In April, The Bay Citizen revealed that the backlog of disability claims had ballooned to 870,000 nationwide under the Obama administation. In the Bay Area, returning soldiers wait an average of 320 days for a decision on their disability claims.
A day after the story ran, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced it would overhaul operations at 12 of their offices, paying special attention to updating the ways that claims are processed. The department said it would make sure all offices process claims online by the end of 2013.
But the first offices they planned to upgrade did not include Oakland and Seattle, the offices with the biggest backlogs. This apparent oversight prompted Representative Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo) and 15 other California Congressmen to fire off a letter to Erik K. Shinseki, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, urging him to “send immediate help” to the Oakland office.
In May, the VA’s Office of the Inspector General found the Oakland office lacked effective controls and failed to process many claims accurately. It also found that some Oakland office staff members may not have completed required training to ensure they provide accurate service to veterans.
In a report accompanying the legislation, the House Appropriations Committee called on the Oakland office to address the accuracy and training issues and detail its efforts to eliminate the backlog within 30 days after the law takes effect and improve the accuracy of claims processing within six months.
The report also calls on the VA to prioritize bringing the worst offices online first.
Additionally, the committee directs the VA Office of the Inspector General to complete a report due 90 days after the bill becomes law to assess the effectiveness of the paperless system in eliminating long wait times. The office must also determine whether the VA will be able to meet its goals of eliminating the backlog and increasing accuracy rates by 2015.
The bill now goes to the U.S. Senate.
asknod
Bethanie Spangenberg
kcraveiro
robinhoodesqvetsatty
Wesley McCauley
Veterans Claims Help 
It has been 12 years since I first put my claim in and it went all the way to BVA and they granted that it was service connected and sent it back to the Oakland Regional Office to be rated of course the Oakland VARO did not read the correct medical records and rated it wrong so now I have been waiting another 3 years for a DRO to look at one paragraph and a medical record in order to issue the correct rating, I still haven’t heard a word from them. You are not even allowed to contact the Oakland Office direct they always transfer to 800 827-000 and some one from another state talks to you and tells you there is a big back log and that they will notify you if they need any more information. They are not allowed to tell you any more than this. A Veteran cannot even find out ruffly how long it will take before some one looks at his file or when the last time was that some one opened his claims folder. I think a person would get more information if they just went outside and talked to a rock.
And the beat goes on. Get serious. Does anyone think the Senate has the balls to do anything? This is an election year. They’re afraid to vote on a choice for the National Flower let alone Veterans rights. We’re like whale shit at the bottom of the ocean and not the priority we think we are. if we rebel, they can just reinstitute the draft. Doesn’t anyone see history repeating itself like the end of the Vietnam Boundary Dispute and the Gulf of Tonkin Naval Firepower Exercises? Congress will make sure we get what’s coming to us-of that I have no doubt.
“Congress will make sure we get what’s coming to us”
You know you scare me sometimes when you talk like that! 🙂
Exactly, it is an election year and although I will not profess a love for either contender I would check their voting records regarding VA matters. My feeling is that they know the system is broken and perhaps some day it will corrected. Who knows for sure? Not me. But, with that said I do what I feel is necessary to work my cases as best I can according to the current rules and if I do not like an answer I fight them ever harder. An old sage once told me, “it matters not what others think of you as long as you possess inner peace”. As I said before, it is what it is until it gets changed and if the entire group of Veterans, who feel as we do that this system needs serious repair, are not working together in a conjoined effort how are things to change?
Member Bob emails:”So, you deny all the claims you can find, shred any you missed and report victory to Congress.”
I have been letter writing for years. No traction there. Wake up the sleeping giants and pay close attention who gets stepped on first. WE DO…
Appears as though we all need to get the word out there to contact our Senators to “persuade them” that we are also a force to be reckoned with. I guess my question would be: who takes the butt whipping when it all seems for naught?