VA withholds disability claims executives' bonuses

[pinboy3niner]

By KEVIN FREKING | Associated Press – 3 hrs ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Veterans Affairs is withholding bonuses for senior officials who oversee disability claims, citing a failure to meet performance goals for reducing a sizable backlog in claims processing.

The backlog has increased dramatically over the past three years, and the department has come under intense criticism from veterans groups and members of Congress who have asked President Barack Obama to try to speed the process.

VA spokesman Josh Taylor said Monday the savings would be used to help reduce the backlog. He didn't provide specifics, nor could he say how many people would be affected or how much the savings would be. The withholdings apply only to executives of the Veterans Benefits Administration, which is part of the VA.

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In all, records show the VA paid its senior executives a total of $2.8 million in bonuses in fiscal year 2011. Among the VBA bonuses, three staff members received the top payment of $23,091 each.

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http://news.yahoo.com/va-withholds-disability-claims-executives-bonuses-212752036.html

[quakerboy]

1. Interesting

It would be interesting to see a comparison of performance with years gone by.

Specifically, claims dealt with vs either employees allocated to the task, or funding allocated to the task.

The size of the backlog could be inefficiency or something. But my suspicion is that its just a matter of a great many more people applying, without a corresponding increase in the deparment assigned to deal with those applications.

IE if you have 10 people to deal with 10,000 claims, and then the next year, you hire a new person, so you have 11 folks, but 50,000 claims come in, your going to have a backlog.

[pinboy3niner]

2. I think it's obviously a symbolic action

VA resources for claims processing have been increased under the Obama Administration, but it may not be the fault of managers if even the increased resource level is inadequate to meet increased demand.

And part of the problem may be of the VA's own making if their performance standards for claims adjudicators reward employees who clear claims by ignoring supporting evidence submitted by veterans, arbitrarily deny claims, or nickel-and-dime claimants by awarding unjustifiably low ratings. Those kinds of actions force veterans to appeal or re-submit their claims, leading to even more workload for VBA claims adjudicators.

[quakerboy]

3. Truth

What you describe sounds entirely likely as well.

Anyone who has worked with the VA in in way is aware of its shortcomings.

That said, I'd chose it over any other health care system in the US, given the opportunity.

[pinboy3niner]

5. VA health care ranks as good as or better than any civilian health care in the U.S.

The problem is not with VA health care, but with the administrative side--especially the claims process. Unfortunately, I have to deal with what is probably the most incompetent part of the system--the L.A. Regional VA Office.

[unhappycamper]

4. I have no problem with incentive pay provided

it's paid to meet or exceed your objectives as defined at the beginning of each year. And one of the executive's objectives should have been reducing the wait time for veterans asking for help. They got a big fat F- on this one.

The VA still has a shitload of paper files to convert to electronic media AND their computer systems suck. As in 1980's suck.

[pinboy3niner]

6. A friend in the VA was working on computerizing records in the mid-'80s

Eventually that project was scrapped and and started over. That was a quarter century ago, my friend has died, and the goal still has not been accomplished.

[unhappycamper]

7. The DoD has been trying to make their computer systems auditable for a number of years

with an astounding lack of success.

I worked on a Verizon (I think we were Bell Atlantic at the time) project 20 some years ago that was going to solve billing problems which was the Holy Grail at the time. After a six month study, the executives were dismayed that the fix to the billing problems would not happen for 2 1/2 year period after the project started.

Being as executives are smarter than IT professionals we were ordered to started working on the billing system immediately. In other words, we don't have the time to fix all the backend systems that need to be fixed for the billing rewrite to succeed. Like trying to solve world hunger, that effort failed and degenerated into a highly-paid contractor-led effort to produce anything. Which meant we produced nothing.

Something similar to this must have occurred on the many attempts to fix the DoD/VA computer systems.

[pinboy3niner]

8. Same thing on addressing compatibility between DoD/VA systems

I think the latest effort also was scrapped.

[unhappycamper]

9. One of the major problems at the VA is their home-grown systems are

archaic and non-intuitive at best. IMO, the VA's scheduling system is one of the worst I've seen - you need to know keystroke sequences (plural) to get to the correct screen. Example: To schedule an appointment,

1. Go to main VISTA screen
2. Hit Enter
3. Enter last initial, last four of vet's SSNO
4. Hit Enter
5. Select Schedule. hit Enter
6. Search for Primary Care Provider's (the vet's doctor/PA/etc. appointment schedule
7. Select and hit Enter
8. Hit Enter
9. Enter date/time group
10. Hit Enter
11. To print schedule, hit Enter thrice, highlight number 11 to print to local printer, hit Enter again to print the appointment for the veteran.

Like I said, non-intuitive.

They do not talk to DoD systems (you can look up the veteran's DD-214 and DoD record but cannot import any of this info into the VA system). Throw in the paper records issue and you've guaranteed failure.

And that's where we currently stand.

[pinboy3niner]

10. One thing about the VA I am impressed with (besides VA health care)...

In my community we have a quarterly Outreach to Veterans (formerly called Stand Down for Homeless Veterans).

At these events we usually have a dozen or two VA employees there with their laptops on a Saturday to establish VA eligibility for the veterans attending.

Our regional VA office in L.A. sucks, but the VA workers who come out to these Outreach events are great! I've had the privilege of working with them at our events and I cannot speak highly enough about them. They are the best!