February 3, 2010 by admin.

By Rick Maze - Staff writerPosted : Tuesday Feb 2, 2010 11:41:28 EST

The 2011 Veterans Affairs Department budget unveiled Monday by the White House includes what VA officials called an “unprecedented” 27 percent funding increase for the Veterans Benefits Administration, some of which will be used to hire 4,000 permanent employees to process benefits claims.The increase does not mean disability, pension and survivors claims will be processed faster, however.In an admission that comes as no surprise to few who have been watching VA struggle with a backlog of benefits claims, Michael Walcoff, VA’s acting undersecretary for benefits, said veterans should be prepared for the average claims processing time to be longer in fiscal 2011 than it is today.The reason? Even though more workers are being hired, VA officials expect a big jump in the number of Vietnam-era veterans filing Agent Orange-related claims due to newly expanded eligibility.It takes an average of 158 days to process a benefit claim today, Walcoff said. He expects that will rise to 190 days in 2011, at least for the first few months of the year, as new employees are hired and trained and a flood of complicated claims requesting retroactive benefits are received from Vietnam veterans.“Dealing with the claims backlog is complicated,” Walcoff said. “There is more involved than just the number of people we have handling claims.”VA officials expect to receive 1.3 million claims in 2011, part of a two-year, 30 percent jump that is greatly hampering VA’s efforts to achieve its goal of bringing the average claims processing time down to 125 days.In a statement, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said there are long-term plans to harness technology to speed claims, such as establishing a paperless processing system and changing procedures to reduce steps as part of promised transformation. But in the short term, there is no quick solution.In addition to the 27 percent increase in benefits funding, the proposed 2011 VA budget includes an 8.5 percent increase in medical funding.At a Monday press conference, VA Deputy Secretary W. Scott Gould called the 2011 budget a “watershed moment” for veterans, citing the big funding increases and the fact that the budget includes, for the first time, advance funding for health care for the following fiscal year.The budget calls for 5,715 additional permanent employees, a 2 percent increase over the current workforce. This includes the 4,000 claims processors, about 1,300 medical care workers and a smattering of additional workers in other departments.The 4,000 claims processors are not necessarily new employees; about 1,800 are currently temporary employees whose positions would be made permanent, said W. Todd Grams, acting VA assistant secretary for management.VA expects big increases in patient loads in 2011 and 2012 as the number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seeking treatment rises.About 382,500 recent combat veterans use VA today. A 15 percent increase is projected for 2011 and an additional 13 percent increase is expected in 2012, Grams said.

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February 3, 2010 by admin.

By Rick Maze - Staff writerPosted : Tuesday Feb 2, 2010 15:13:47 EST

The Veterans Affairs Department is seeking to recoup $3,000 emergency payments sent last year to about 80,000 people whose Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits were delayed — including some active-duty members who were not supposed to get the checks.If the $3,000 checks were never cashed, they can simply be returned, VA officials said.If they were cashed, the $3,000 must be repaid either through reductions in spring semester GI Bill benefits for those who are attending school or by direct payments to VA for those who are not enrolled.People who got the payments, considered by VA to be advance pay of benefits, will be contacted about repayment options, officials said.Advance payments were issued from October through the end of December as an emergency measure after student veterans complained that delays in approving claims under the complex new program were leaving them unable to afford college. Student veterans advocates reported some students were paying out of their own pockets or considering dropping out of school.When VA officials announced the $3,000 payments, some congressional staffers raised concerns about the possibility of fraud and error. Paying people before certifying their eligibility and before they enrolled in qualified courses — two key steps of the claims process — would open the door to overpayments, House aides warned.Those concerns were overruled, however, when it became clear to VA officials that they would not be able to process claims in less than 30 days, the original goal, which guaranteed that student veterans who were counting on living stipends would not get them on time.Active-duty service members, who are eligible for Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits, were not meant to be eligible for advance payments, but some received them anyway.The payments were aimed at covering monthly living stipends available to student veterans carrying more than a 50 percent course load, something not available to active-duty members who already receive either housing or a housing allowance from the military.But VA officials did not clearly indicate that active-duty members did not qualify for advance payments until December, creating a situation in which some active-duty members — the exact number is unknown — received payments that will have to be fully repaid.The $3,000 advance payments were discontinued at the end of the fall term, and VA officials have no plans to provide them for the spring term because they believe they have the claims process under control.VA has received about 132,000 spring enrollment applications and has processed more than 105,000.

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January 28, 2010 by admin.

Former adviser gives Obama an ‘A-’ on defense policy Grim trend in Army suicides continues Obama to request $14.2 billion to train, equip Afghan forces Senators seek military trial for terrorism suspect Audit faults State for failing to monitor Iraq contract Analysts: Defense budget likely to receive increased scrutiny Report reveals trouble with new Army combat systems Obama is forced to adjust State of the Union goals Congress has light load for State of the Union week Quote of the week

1. Former adviser gives Obama an ‘A-’ on defense policyBy David Gauvey Herbert, National JournalThe president stuck to his word on the Iraq withdrawal, spending cuts and other campaign promises, Lawrence Korb says.Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=44411&dcn=e_ndw
   

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2. Grim trend in Army suicides continues By Katherine McIntire PetersThe service’s latest data shows an uptick in the number of soldiers taking their own lives.Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=44432&dcn=e_ndwReturn to Top
   

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3. Obama to request $14.2 billion to train, equip Afghan forces By Megan Scully, CongressDailyFigure is more than double the $6.6 billion already appropriated for fiscal 2010.Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=44439&dcn=e_ndw
   

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4. Senators seek military trial for terrorism suspectBy Chris Strohm, CongressDailyLeaders of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee want Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab immediately transferred to military custody.Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=44455&dcn=e_ndw

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January 25, 2010 by admin.

By Bob Brewin 01/22/2010

The Veterans Affairs Department is on track to unveil in late March the first version of a system to automate processing of educational benefit claims under the post-9/11 GI Bill, but its software capabilities will be more limited than originally planned, a top technology official told House lawmakers on Thursday.The first release of the rules-based software, which the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic is developing in four stages — will allow officials to manage simple claims, but not more complex ones, Roger Baker, chief information officer at VA, testified before the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity. For example, the initial version will not be able to respond to situations in which veterans add or drop classes.The first release will be deployed to a limited number of claims examiners in March so they can gain real-world experience with the system while SPAWAR continues to develop additional rules to handle more complicated claims, according to Baker.Despite the more limited first release, VA expects to meet its original goal of having the system fully launched by December 2010, Baker told lawmakers. SPAWAR will have developed all the functionality originally intended for the first stage by the time it fields the second release in June, he said. That release will allow VA to move claims examiners off of an interim, semiautomated system launched in 2009.The third version of the software — which remains on target for a September release — will tie the claims processing technology to VA financial systems for payments to veterans, and the final step will provide a Web interface so veterans can manage their claims.Mark Krause, SPAWAR program manager for Veterans Affairs, said without the iterative development approach, VA could have faced a two-year delay in launching the system. “This is a good news story,” he said.VA failed to quickly process post-9/11 GI Bill claims for the fall 2009 semester, requiring the authorization of emergency payments of up to $3,000 per veteran at the end of September 2009.Keith Wilson, director of the Office of Education Service at the Veterans Benefits Administration, told lawmakers he does not expect any such problems in payments for veterans enrolled in college for the spring 2010 semester. As of last week, VA had received 115,000 claims for that semester, and it will have all those processed for payment by Feb. 1, according to Wilson.

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January 20, 2010 by admin.

By Rick Maze - Staff writer

Posted : Tuesday Jan 19, 2010 12:43:10 EST

New data from the Veterans Affairs Department suggest further patience may be required of students and schools awaiting Post-9/11 GI Bill payments for the spring semester.VA has been averaging 47 days to process GI Bill payments from the day an institution certifies a student’s enrollment.While VA officials hope having a more experienced group of people processing claims will speed payments, it will take major improvement to guarantee that students won’t have to wait more than a month before receiving living stipends and book allowances.More than 380,000 students — veterans, current service members and eligible family members — applied for certificates of eligibility for the new benefits program last year, according to a VA report provided to veterans service organizations.Only about 333,000 received certificates, an indication that some people who applied have not been certified as having earned the benefits.Not everyone who was certified ended up enrolling in classes; VA officials report 183,647 students enrolled.It is unclear whether everyone who enrolled for the fall term has been paid. Veterans groups report a handful of cases of tuition payments to schools not being made until January, and cases in which schools threatened to deny enrollment for the spring term unless tuition was paid.“Though VA believes they are caught up with fall payments, we continue to hear from veterans who haven’t received anything,” said Ryan Galluci of AmVets. “Whether this has to do with the schools or VA is difficult to tell. I’m sure there’s plenty of blame to go around. What we must do now is ensure that lines of communication among student-veterans, VA and the schools remain open.”VA officials have said they expect to have a clean slate of GI Bill claims for the spring term, with plans to have any claim filed by Jan. 15 completed by Feb. 1.VA officials also have told veterans groups that about 60,000 claims already have been processed for the spring term.As of Jan. 19, VA officials had not responded to multiple requests from Military Times for updated information on unpaid claims.For the fall term, according to the report given to veterans groups, VA paid students about $672 million in living stipends, book allowances and other cash benefits, and paid $505 million to schools. It also paid $214 million in advance payments to student-veterans at the beginning of the fall semester, when $3,000 emergency payments were provided because of delays in processing living stipends.No announcement has been made about whether the $3,000 emergency payments will be authorized again for the spring semester.

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January 12, 2010 by admin.

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January 7, 2010 by admin.

By Aliya Sternstein 01/06/2010

More than 400 veterans in Southern California have agreed to participate in a project to test how the Veterans Affairs Department can improve patient care by sharing electronic health records with a private health provider, a fundamental goal behind the development of a national network the Obama administration is pursuing.In November 2009, VA and Kaiser Permanente sent a letter to veterans in the San Diego area who had recently received care from both institutions inviting them to participate in the program. They were asked to allow the two organizations to share specific health information electronically. The pilot will determine if the exchange of records results in the delivery of better, faster care and reducing redundant lab tests.About 40 percent of the 1,114 patients asked to participate agreed to take part in the project. As a result, clinicians today at both health care systems can access records for about 450 shared patients’ in the San Diego area around-the-clock. Three out of four veterans receive a portion of their care from providers other than VA, according to the department.Tim Cromwell, director of standards and operability for VA, said the department was very fortunate to receive the 40 percent response rate, but “we think we can get a higher rate.”The success of the collaboration between Veterans Health Administration, the nation’s largest health care system, and Kaiser, the largest not-for-profit health plan in the United States, could encourage other organizations to accelerate their efforts in health information technology. Supporters of health IT argue it will cut costs; reduce medical errors; and improve outcomes by better managing patient data on a secure network that is accessible to authorized physicians, hospitals and insurers. The federal government has backed the nationwide initiative with about $20 billion in stimulus funding.Kaiser officials said the technological barriers to rolling out a nationwide exchange are minimal, because the technology already is open to the public and is not proprietary. VA can replicate this model with smaller, private sector health systems that don’t have the same resources as Kaiser, both VA and Kaiser officials added.Ultimately, smaller plans and practices will be able to easily find and purchase compatible technologies from commercial vendors. “In the long run, this is going to be solved for them,” said Dr. Andrew Wiesenthal, associate executive director of The Permanente Federation. “They’ll benefit from the work that we’ve done.”The more difficult part of the expansion process will be managing consent requests and opt-in responses, he added.The two organizations are using the Nationwide Health Information Network, a Health and Human Services Department program working to connect disparate e-health records systems nationwide. In this case, the network linked Kaiser’s HealthConnect patient records system to VA’s VistA e-records network.”The commitment from all [of us] to do a national rollout is very, very strong,” said John Mattison, chief medical information officer for Kaiser Permanente, Southern California.The Defense Department is expected to join the pilot early this year.

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January 6, 2010 by admin.

By Rick Maze - Staff writer

Posted : Wednesday Jan 6, 2010 7:58:14 EST

With the latest numbers showing a still-rising backlog for Post-9/11 GI Bill claims, a key lawmaker says he doesn’t think the Veterans Affairs Department is ready for a flood of new claims for the spring semester.Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee’s oversight and investigations panel, said he is “disappointed” with VA’s performance in the fall semester, which left 26,000 people still waiting for benefits when classes ended.VA officials said most of those 26,000 veterans have now been paid. But VA’s Jan. 4 report on pending benefits claims shows that more than 48,000 Post-9/11 GI Bill claims are still being processed. Some of those could be for the spring semester.“With a second semester only weeks away, I believe the situation remains unacceptable,” Mitchell said in a letter to VA, in which he noted he continues to get complaints about long waits.“The confusion and uncertainty about when checks will arrive, coupled with the need to meet immediate expenses, is adding stress to veterans at a time when many are already struggling with [post-traumatic stress disorder],” Mitchell said.Mitchell, a former high school teacher, said one of the most worrisome things he has heard is that some veterans are talking about not attending college because of benefit problems.VA officials pledged in December that they would have all claims received by Jan. 15 paid by Feb. 1 so they could start with a clean slate for the new semester.Mitchell was not convinced. “I would be remiss if I did not note that previous assurances from the VA have gone unfulfilled,” he said.Not getting paid isn’t the only problem, Mitchell said, noting he also has heard complaints from other veterans who are not sure they have been paid the correct amount. “The checks that veterans report receiving contain no or inadequate basic accounting information to help recipients to respond to keep track of their own finances,” he said.The House Veterans Affairs Committee is considering proposals from academic and veterans groups to simplify GI Bill calculations, making it easier for claims to be processed and for veterans to know what they are getting. Such changes, if any, would not take effect until next fall at the soonest, according to congressional aides who have studied the proposals.

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January 5, 2010 by admin.

If you were among the first 282 people paid under the Army’s retroactive stop-loss pay program, don’t worry: The Army does not want its money back.As anyone reading this blog knows, the Army’s program to compensate soldiers, vets and their families for being stop-lossed between September 2001 and September 2008 has hit one snag after another.The latest: Recent legislation says you are not eligible for the compensation if you collected a re-enlistment or retention bonus while being stop-lossed.The Army asked Congress to put that provision in the latest Defense Appropriations Bill, said Roy Wallace, director of plans and resources for Army G-1.The reason why may anger servicemembers who put their lives on hold and had to miss job opportunities and time with family in order to deploy with their units.Some soldiers who intended to stay in the Army may have waited until they were stop-lossed and deployed to re-enlist or extend their contract in order to get their bonus tax free, Wallace said. Had they re-upped before they left, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service would have deducted 25 percent for taxes.”Some people saw this as an ability to get them to a better financial position, and that’s good human nature, that’s good business from their part,” Wallace said.While there is nothing wrong with that,  retroactive stop-loss pay is to compensate people who were inconvenienced, hence the provision in the Defense Appropriations Bill, he said.But the provision does not apply to payments that went out prior to Dec. 19, which mainly went to wounded warriors and surviving spouses, Wallace said, adding it would be “un-American” to ask to try to take money back from them.Both the Army and Air Force have temporarily halted stop-loss payments as they try to sort out who got a bonus while being held under stop-loss.The Army now has all the data it needs and hopes to start sending claims to DFAS for payment again within the next two weeks, Wallace said.

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December 17, 2009 by admin.

December 16, 2009

American Forces Press Service|by Samantha L. Quigley

It’s a scene that’s played out in airports across the country numerous times in the past eight years: Families and servicemembers clinging to each other, either sad to leave or happy and vowing to never let go again.

The emotion always is appropriate, but the location of the scene - just beyond the airline ticket counters and before the security checkpoint - robs the actors of precious minutes with loved ones. Those lost minutes are unnecessary, at least as far as the Transportation Security Administration is concerned, a TSA spokesman said.

“TSA permits the airlines to offer a gate pass to family members of arriving or departing U.S. servicemembers,” Greg Soule said. “So, family members who want to accompany a … servicemember being deployed to the boarding gate, or greet them [as they return] from deployment at the arrival gate may receive passes to enter the secure area of the airport.”

Though TSA allows this practice, the final decision rests with the airlines, from which family members must request the passes. Each airline, and possibly even airport, has its own rules and procedures, Soule said.

Families interested in obtaining a gate pass need to check with the airline before arriving at the airport to determine the exact rules and procedures.

“It’s an airline procedure,” Soule said. “It is something that TSA has permitted the airlines to do, though we have security regulations that we provide to the airlines.

“Typically, only passengers who are flying and have a boarding pass are allowed to pass through security,” he added.

TSA makes this allowance out of support for the armed forces, Soule said.

Though military family members with gate passes can pass through security, they must adhere to all security regulations. This includes removing coats, jackets and shoes, and the liquids regulation. Anything of a liquid or gel consistency must be 3.4 ounces or less and be sealed in a quart-sized storage bag to pass through security, Soule said.

Each family member would have to present the gate pass as well as a valid government-issued identification card, Soule added.

TSA doesn’t keep statistics on how frequently military families take advantage of this opportunity. Volunteers at Washington-Dulles International Airport’s USO lounge said they are not frequently asked about the program or for assistance in obtaining the passes.

Separations and reunions are emotional enough in normal situations, but with the holidays in full swing, they’re even more poignant. And thanks to the TSA and cooperating airlines, they can be more positive.

“We’re happy to do this and make this small exemption,” he added, noting that TSA officials recognize that military families, as well as servicemembers, make sacrifices for the country.

The TSA has no jurisdiction overseas, so U.S. military family members wishing to see off or meet their servicemember at a foreign airport are encouraged to check with the airline for local policy.

The policy on gate passes is available on the Transportation Security Administration’s Web site under the heading “Accommodations for U.S. Military Personnel.”

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