VETERANS' BENEFITS: Quality Assurance for Disability Claims and Appeals Processing Can Be Further Improved

Abstract

For fiscal year 2002, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) estimates that it will pay about $25 billion in cash disability benefits to about 3.3 million disabled veterans and their families. When veterans submit disability claims, VA's 57 regional offices make decisions to either grant or deny the requested benefits. Veterans who are dissatisfied with regional office decisions may file appeals with VA's Board of Veterans' Appeals, and in about half of such appeals, the Board has either granted the benefits denied by the regional offices or remanded (returned) the cases to the regional offices for rework. Additionally, VA reported an accuracy rate of less than 70 percent for regional office disability decisions when it tested a new quality assurance program in fiscal year 1998. As a result, we issued two prior reports at your request on VA's system for measuring and improving the accuracy of regional office decisions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 2002
Accession Number
ADA405709

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accounting
  • Accuracy
  • Anxiety Disorders
  • Congress
  • Department Of Veterans Affairs
  • Electronic Mail
  • Governments
  • Health Services
  • Law
  • Mental Disorders
  • Public Administration
  • Social Security
  • Task Forces
  • Therapy
  • Training
  • Traumatic Stress Disorder
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Readers

  • Defense Financial Management and Audit.
  • Government and Public Administration Law.
  • Rehabilitation and Prosthetic Care for Military Service Members and Veterans with Limb Loss or Disability.