The regional office then notifies the veteran of its decision. VBA’s Key Timeliness Measure Does Not Clearly Reflect Its Performance

VBA’s key timeliness measure does not clearly reflect its timeliness in completing claims because it fails to distinguish among its three disability programs—disability compensation, pension, and dependence and indemnity compensation. This one measure does not reflect the differences in the timeliness for the three programs. While VBA’s average fiscal year 2002 timeliness was 223 days, disability compensation decisions (which represented about 83 percent of total decisions) took almost twice as long to complete as pension decisions. Each program has a different claims processing time frame because each has different evidence requirements resulting from their different purposes and eligibility requirements. For example, a major reason why disability compensation claims take longer is that VBA must not only establish that each claimed disability exists, but that each was caused or aggravated by the veteran’s military service. VBA Does Not Have Adequate Data to Measure Timeliness of Claims Processing Teams, but Is Making Progress

VBA does not yet have adequate data to measure timeliness or set goals for its specialized regional office teams but is making progress in obtaining complete and accurate data. VBA expects to be able to obtain more complete and accurate data to measure team performance once it deploys new software applications that should enable it to consistently capture data for all cases and will rely less on manual data entry. VBA expects these applications to be fully deployed by October 2003. VBA has implemented an inventory management system (IMS) that allows it to measure and report team timeliness, nationally and at the regional office level. VBA’s reorganization of its regional office compensation and pension claims processing operations into specialized teams underscores the need for complete and accurate data on the timeliness of the phases of the claims process.
Why GAO Did This Study

The Chairman and Ranking Minority Member, Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, asked GAO to assist the Committee in its oversight of the Veterans Benefits Administration's (VBA) efforts to improve compensation and pension claims processing. As part of this effort, GAO assessed (1) whether VBA's key timeliness measure clearly reflects its performance and (2) whether it has adequate data to measure the timeliness of its newly created specialized claims processing teams.

What GAO Found

VBA's key claims processing timeliness measure does not clearly reflect how quickly it decides claims by veterans and their families for disability compensation, pension, and dependency and indemnity compensation benefits. Although each program has its own purpose and eligibility requirements, VBA does not set a separate timeliness goal for each in its annual performance plan. This obscures the significant differences in the time required to complete decisions under each program. Fiscal year 2002 timeliness, using VBA's measure, was 223 days; however, disability compensation decisions took significantly longer than decisions under the other two programs. A disability compensation decision requires more evidence, in part because VBA must determine that each claimed disability is related to the veteran's military service. VBA does not yet have adequate data to measure the timeliness of its new specialized regional office claims processing teams but is working to improve its data. VBA's inventory management system, which allows it to report and analyze teams' timeliness, relies on an existing information system that does not provide timeliness data on all cases. VBA is acting to improve the completeness of the data in the existing system. Meanwhile, VBA is deploying new software that it expects should enable it to capture more complete and accurate data. VBA expects to deploy this new software at all regional offices by October 2003.