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Veterans' Benefits: Better Assessments Needed to Guide Claims Processing Improvements

HEHS-95-25 Published: Jan 13, 1995. Publicly Released: Jan 13, 1995.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) efforts to improve its claims processing operations, focusing on the effectiveness of planned changes to veterans affairs regional offices' (VARO) claims processing structures and procedures.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Veterans Affairs To better ensure improvement in VARO claims processing, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs should direct the Under Secretary for Benefits to improve plans to evaluate the effectiveness of claims processing initiatives. The plan should: (1) require VARO to evaluate their major improvement initiatives and provide guidance on how to do so; (2) identify which analytical methods and which data VA headquarters will use to evaluate the various initiatives and make judgments about what changes are most likely to improve claims processing under what circumstances; and (3) describe how VA will disseminate to VARO information on the experiences, good and bad, that VARO have in implementing claims processing initiatives.
Closed – Implemented
VBA expects its business process reengineering (BPR) effort, which will take several years to implement, will improve the way VBA evaluates the effectiveness of claims processing. VA's Office of Inspector General closed out this report and its recommendations on August 8, 1997.

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Topics

Veterans
Accounting proceduresClaims processingClaims settlementFederal records managementStaff utilizationMilitary benefits claimsPlanningVeterans disability compensationVeteransCompensation