FOR RELEASE: September 6, 2001

Evans: VA Making Progress Improving Accuracy of Compensation Claims Decisions 
More Progress Expected When Evans Legislation Fully Implemented

Washington, DC – Lane Evans (D-IL), the Ranking Democratic Member of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs said today the quality of decisions being made by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on claims for service-connected disability compensation and pension benefits is beginning to show improvement.  Information from VA’s Systemic Technical Accuracy Review (STAR) program has shown an increase in claims decision-making accuracy rates over the past year.  The results of VA’s internal review are consistent with a review of claims decision-making accuracy conducted by Committee staff.  In addition, a recent report from the General Accounting Office requested by Evans to evaluate progress on legislation he introduced in 1999 to improve the quality of claims adjudication is encouraging.  

"In order to improve the quality of claims adjudication, I introduced legislation in 1999 which required the Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) to have a quality assurance program which met governmental standards for accountability.  I am pleased that according to GAO’s report, the law which was enacted almost two years ago will be fully implemented on October 1, 2001.”   

Evans had asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to review VBA’s compliance with the quality assurance provisions of the Veterans Millennium Health Care and Benefits Act.  In particular, Evans asked GAO to determine if VA review of compensation and pension claims complied with the statute.  GAO reported that effective October 1, 2001, “VBA’s regional offices would no longer be responsible for conducting the STAR [Systemic Technical Accuracy Review] reviews that determine regional office accuracy rates.”  While current VBA practices do not comply with the statute at the regional office level, VBA has developed a plan scheduled for implementation on October 1, 2001, which will meet its statutory mandate. 

Evans noted that improvement is being made in the quality of claims adjudication and expects that the accountability provided by the new system will encourage VA regional offices to “get it right the first time.”  Evans has long contended that an independent determination of the quality of claims decisions made by a VBA regional office is needed.  The quality of claims decisions should not be determined by VBA regional office personnel who are also decision makers.  Under current practice, the quality of decisions for groups of regional offices are evaluated by independent decision-makers, but accountability has not reached to the regional office level. 

By establishing independent evaluation of these decisions, better accountability can be obtained and training can be focused on offices which have patterns of error.  The accuracy of initial claims decisions will improve and fewer claims will have to be re-adjudicated.   

Evans attributes some of the improvement in quality to a new rating format called RBA 2000 which provides clearer explanations of VBA’s decisions.  While the timeliness of claims has slowed dramatically with 536,453 claims awaiting decisions at VA regional offices, Evans hopes that the turnaround in quality will result in improved timeliness as well.  “It doesn’t do much good to provide a veteran with a fast wrong decision,” said Evans.  “Now that VA is making progress in getting its decisions right, I am hopeful that we will see a gradual improvement in timeliness over the next year.”   

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