I finally feel vindicated. The Emperor is acknowledging, or will soon after the dressing down in Congress yesterday, that the reason for the humongous backlog is the high error rate. If the errors promulgated at the VARO were severely reduced or eliminated, the need for the subsequent appeals to remedy the mistake would subside and hence the large number of judicial actions needed to resolve this crisis.
It is axiomatic that Veterans are going to appeal an unwarranted denial of a claim regardless of vA’s rationale. We are far more intelligent and informed in 2012 than we were in the 70s to the 90s. The advent of the internet has given us this knowledge and voice. I’m sure that the vA is less than enchanted at our new-found knowledge and wishes they could live in the splendid isolation they occupied in the past.
This article, again sent in by member Bob who sleuths these things out for a living, is the smoking gun. vA has a plethora of excuses readily assembled and prepared for dissemination every time Congress or Veterans groups assault the gates. They dutifully trot out former Brig. Gen. Allison Hickey, Undersecretary for Veterans Benefits who issues something to appease the media for another week until more bad news crops up. This must be getting embarrassing for her. I do hope they are compensating her for the increased expenditures for makeup for all these “Meet The Press” events. Ah!. Silly me. The bonuses cover that.
It will be interesting to see how vA chooses to counter this assessment. I’m sure it will be richly worded and salted with many references attributing the blame to Veterans.
asknod
Bethanie Spangenberg
kcraveiro
robinhoodesqvetsatty
Wesley McCauley
Veterans Claims Help 
I personally have waited for my claims file for 45 years to be read. They only discovered a new folder in 2010 that contained smr’s and va medical reports. I claimed that my smr’s were falsified documents. write overs wrong service no, wrong age, I was medivaced because of back trauma and the record states I had a cold, fever, personality disorder, and nervous condition. The x-rays showed I had a broken back. Hospitalized in Buffalo. The AMC says it was for PTSD the record clearly shows it was for a back condition. The VA is corrupt……… This frustrated employee needs to learn from veterans whose records have been misplaced, altered, shredded that these claims should have to be paid because of VA fraud and cover=ups.
Those pesky Vets are just claiming too many conditions to handle….The Murph has his panties in a bunch all over that…Is it modern warfare Mr. Murphy or is it that Vets have their poop in a group these days? in other words, we are on to the vA’s bucket of BS and it no longer holds water! 🙂
This was interesting to watch. There were some things that were brought out however what the Under Secretary failed to point out and what Congress fails to know is the claims process. The process has become more and more encumbered with layers of processes added to each step. The quality review teams are in place but has put fear in the workplace. Workers are evaluated on production and quality. If they don’t process so many claims a day they fail for that day. Sometimes the workers are required to perform certain functions for which they receive very little “credit” for the work performed but takes time. Congress and VA leadership need to interview the workers to fully understand the barriers that prevent them from doing what they need to do. Workers can’t be blamed, it’s the leadership at the VA and the congress. Some of the laws that govern how we adjudicate claims is dictated by the laws they write. Then the interpretation and implementation and understanding is so often difficult and interpretated differently. I know because I’ve worked in VBA 12 years and have seen and witnessed first hand the “transformation” from a simple process to a very cumbersome and complicated process.
Once again, no is to blame and no one needs to be blamed. When is ANYONE in VA going to take responsibility for their individual and collective actions?
Frustrated Employee makes some good points in this post. It’s obnoxious for the VA to impose quotas on employees when quality is SO important to veterans! And yes, Congress needs to listen to employees with regard to streamlining the process and act to remove the barriers so that workers can award benefits for veterans with valid conditions and claims.