The VA needs a top to bottom enema.
The effort to clear a massive backlog of veteran disability claims is hurting efforts to address a similar backlog in appeals of denied claims, say advocates demanding reforms to an onerous “hampster wheel” system that leaves veterans languishing for years.
A congressional subcommittee hearing Thursday focused on the appeals process, noting that the Department of Veterans Affairs has about 350,000 pending appeals of denied service-connected disability claims.
“I am aware that the [VA] chose to prioritize certain initial claims in recent years, but I must say that when veterans in my district share that they waited six, eight, 10 years to resolve a meritorious appeal of a service-connected disability claim, I just find that alarming and unacceptable,” Rep. Ralph Abraham, R-La., said.
Veterans wait an average 3½ years to get an initial decision and often years longer for the VA to finalize that decision. There are almost 510,000 original disability claims pending, with more than 240,000 deemed “backlogged” — meaning the veteran has been awaiting a decision for at least 125 days.
When veterans’ disability claims are denied, they face another lengthy process involving multi-step appeals in which their cases often ping-pong between national and regional offices for years.[…]
In submitted testimony, Bart Stichman, a prominent veterans attorney and joint executive director of the nonprofit National Veterans Legal Services Program, decried the “hamster wheel” that veterans get caught in, even after their appeals appear to have been resolved.
“There’s a duty to assist the veteran but not a duty to sabotage the claim,” he said.
He laid out a five-point plan to reform the process, including prohibiting the Board of Veterans’ Appeals and VA regional offices from pursuing negative evidence against a claim after veterans have shown sufficient evidence to support their claims.
Lawmakers at Thursday’s hearing said the VA and Congress must act now.
“We need to take action so we don’t get too far behind so we’re not having this exact same hearing two years from now,” Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., said.