I would ask everyone to rise for the Pledge of Allegiance – flags are located in the front and in the rear of the room.

I would first like to thank the witnesses for coming today to appear before the Subcommittee.  I know I speak for my colleagues when I say that we are all extremely frustrated and disappointed when we hear about a 650,000 claims pending and another 147,000 appeals with a delay of 183 days to process those claims.  But looking at this photograph of an 8 inch paper record held together with rubber bands and marked with post-it notes, it’s hard to imagine that things don’t get lost or missed.  This has got to be cumbersome to process.

There is no doubt that we need a better system than rubber bands and post-it notes and must look beyond the current way VA is doing business. There are best practices within the scientific community and in use in the private sector. I thank you for joining me today to explore those solutions and to broaden our understanding of what is possible, realistic, and achievable in this technological age.

The current VA claims process is paper intensive, complex to understand, difficult to manage, and takes years to learn. Training a rater can take 2-3 years and many leave within 5 years.  Experienced raters can adjudicate about three claims a day taking about 2 to 3 hours apiece.  This means that if there are 10 people who can rate a claim and 800 claims are ready to rate, then it will take another 80 days to process those pending claims, which have already been in the system for several months.  This is very labor intensive and in the meantime veterans are waiting months without compensation while their completed case sits on a shelf.  I find that unacceptable.  

Additionally, there have been reports by the GAO, the VA Inspector General, and the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) that explored the variances in ratings between the Regional Offices and the lack of inter-rater reliability.  The Veterans’ Disability Benefits Commission also found a great deal of subjectivity and inconsistency in the VA disability claims process. 

So how do we solve this?

I’ve had a life-long interest in science and was a three-time National Science Foundation scholar in High School and studied physics at Notre Dame.  So, I find the topic of Artificial Intelligence – or AI – compelling since it requires the confluence of science, mathematics, engineering, and physics. In general, the purpose of AI is to make computer programs – or machines- that can solve problems and achieve goals.  AI software increases speed, improves accuracy, and reduces costs for many industries and agencies.  AI does not replace the human element, but rather facilitates its availability.  There are great examples of AI in other areas, such as banking and medicine. For instance, the Veterans Health Administration relies on VistA to help doctors with diagnosis and treatment.  It sends alerts when a patient needs a flu shot, cholesterol screening, or warns of potential drug interactions.

AI can be a decision support tool for adjudicating claims too.  It could be used to organize and store data. It could match key words from a veteran’s record to the criteria in the Rating Schedule. It could prioritize multiple disability issues.

I envision a VA in which a veteran can apply online for benefits, upload records, exams, and other certificates, which are prioritized and classified by an expert system that can match the data to the Rating Schedule criteria and shorten the time it takes to generate a claim.  The electronic template used by the examiner could be associated with the Rating Schedule, which could also calculate ratings. Classifiers or key words could easily be matched by the computer to the Rating Schedule, such as if “Arm,” “Amputation,” then “90 percent.” 

 This would free up the time for Regional Office employees to deal with the more complicated issues and assist veterans and their families with their problems. This Subcommittee has often heard that veterans don’t know about or understand their benefits, and that transitioning service members are not getting all of the support that they need from the VBA. In this way, VBA staff could be providing more outreach and ensuring that veterans understand their entitlements and eligibility requirements for other such  programs as Vocational Rehabilitation, insurance, and special monthly compensation.     

I am eager to hear testimony today that will open up the discussion on information technology and share ideas that can improve rating efficiency, quality, and accuracy while reducing inconsistencies and variances in decisions for our disabled veterans who are waiting on a claim determination. 

I look forward to working with Ranking Member Lamborn and the members of this Subcommittee in finding real solutions that will vastly improve the VA claims process.  It is unconscionable that veterans are waiting as long as they are for their earned benefits and that must end.