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Agent Orange Claims Go Automated
It appears that VA Secretary Eric Shinseki will not let Agent Orange victims fade away.
VA to automate Agent Orange claims process
By Gregg Zoroya – USA Today
WASHINGTON — The Veterans Affairs Department plans to announce Tuesday that it will fully automate how it pays claims for illnesses related to exposure to the chemical Agent Orange to keep an overburdened system from collapse.
It is the VA’s first effort at automating claims processing in its 80-year history, VA chief technology officer Peter Levin said. It comes as the agency struggles to cut a backlog of more than 1 million disability claims, appeals and other cases.
The system “is likely to break” if nothing is done, Levin said.
“Look, the bottom line is why the hell they didn’t do [automation] 30 years ago,” said John Rowan, national president of Vietnam Veterans of America. “The question is whether they will do it right.”
VA Secretary Eric Shinseki took office last year and said no disability claim should take longer than four months to process. However, department records show that almost 40 percent take an average of 161 days to process, VA records show, and that will increase to 190 days without automation.
The increase is largely the result of Shinseki’s efforts to allow more Agent Orange disability claims.
The military used Agent Orange to defoliate plants and trees in which Vietnamese insurgents hid during the Vietnam War. It was later shown to cause cancer, birth defects and other ailments.
After years of debate and medical research, Veterans Affairs began compensating veterans for illnesses linked to Agent Orange with non-taxable, monthly payments to veterans. For those without dependents, the payments range from $123 to $2,673.
In October, Shinseki added three more illnesses to those linked to the herbicide: Parkinson’s disease, B-cell leukemia and heart disease. He told Congress this would generate 228,000 more claims in the next two years.
The automated claims system will apply only to veterans filing these new Agent Orange claims. If it works, the VA hopes to expand automated claims processing through the department, said Roger Baker, an assistant secretary for information and technology.
Shinseki said in a statement that veterans harmed during military service deserve the “best this nation has to offer.”
Old, incomplete or complicated records have hampered the VA’s move to automation, said former VA Secretary James Peake, who applauded Shinseki’s move. Many records require hands-on investigation, said Peake, who led the department from 2007 to 2009.
Agent Orange cases, however, may be a good place to start, Peake said. Once the information from a veteran’s discharge papers is entered into a computer, the VA can quickly verify service in Vietnam in many cases — a key factor in determining eligibility for Agent Orange benefits.
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=20646
Posted by Yanira Farray on Mar 10 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Benefits, Vet News, Veterans Affairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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Agent Orange,
The best place to start with automation, is to automatically adjudicate all back log cases in regional offices that are identical and create a cross reference a data base. Approve those cases already identified as presumptive in service connected ASAP. Eliminate the 180 plus day waiting period, give the Vietnam Veteran the needed medical care.
Don’t forget to include the history all Vietnam Veterans, and widows in the date base that were denied by the DVA because of the systems failure to identify and qualify related illness, in county, in the U.S or any place exposed to Dioxin, Agent Orange herbicides.
Carlo Albanese
New York
I was a claims examiner and “whistle blower” in the Fen-Phen diet settlement case. The most important factor in just and equitable claims processing is integrity. With the means, motive, and opportunity for corruption, graft, and conspiracy at all levels of the claims process by doctors,claims processors, lawyers, the judiciary, and others, it is imperative that the utmost effort be made to insure that those responsible for claims processing due so with utmost integrity, honesty, and fidelity.
I have the utmost respect for and confidence in General Shinseki, a Vietnam combat veteran, in this regard. I know that he is committed to the integrity and efficiency of the claims processing process with regard to all claims presented to the VA.
Today I got my Agent Orange decision back from VA. You see, I have Peripheral neuropahty. VA decision, no increase in benefits. What a waste of time. I’ll see the VA in court!
well personally and from years of dealing with the veterans affairs. i can’t see anything working till they stop hunting for reasons to deny claims.i lost 6 years of disibility due to their so called quick processing.if they do automate, lets see how it goes. but once again someone should tell the secretary that what he says and what they do? need i say more.i don’t think i or many veterans will ever trust the va and their process of claims.they want us to trust them so they say.alls i can say is we all need to keep one eye open.totally disabled vietnam veteran