Transcripts For CSPAN3 Veterans Affairs Officials Testify On VA Claims Processing 20170216

Good morning. Welcome, everyone. This is the oversight hearing of the subcommittee of disability assistance and memorial affairs. Well now come to order. I first want to take a moment to welcome the subcommittee members. Especially those who are new to congress and new to the committee. And also those who are returning. Its my privilege to have been asked to be chairman of the subcommittee and im grateful to chairman rowe for the opportunity. I want to explain that although i look toward to working with Miss Elizabeth este from connecticut as our new member, under committee rules, miss Julia Brownly is still the committees acting Ranking Member. And my understanding is that the full committee will schedule a business meeting to familiarize the subcommittee or im sorry, formalize the subcommittee assignment and our new subcommittee Ranking Members soon. But since we have not got that, i need to see if we have also we also want to make sure that we know that weve been joined by the Ranking Member, mr. Tim walsh. We thank him for being here. I want to ask unanimous consent for the Ranking Member, walk sh for representative este, be allowed at the dais and ask questions. I also want to ask unanimous consent that miss este be permitted to serve as Ranking Member for this hearing, pending her ratification for the full committee. Hearing no objections, so ordered. By way of a short introduction, this is my second term in congress and on this subcommittee. I am a father of three. And a grandfather of 11. Worked that small business, in a trucking business, and my wife and i own a beauty salon. I was a firefighter and a state representative for over 20 years in the state of illinois. Im also honored to say that my family has a tradition of service. Im not only a marine. Im a marine and a father of a marine. Im enlisted, and hes an officer. So it kind of makes for unique conversation around our home. The House Veterans Affairs committee is known for working in a bipartisan manner to ensure that the department of Veterans Affairs provides our former military members with the best service possible. Our nations heroes deserve no less. The subcommittee specifically addresses how to best provide for the needs of veterans who have medical conditions relating to their service. We also Work Together to ensure that veterans who have passed away are treated with dignity and respect. I look forward to continuing this tradition and with working with ms. Este and the members of the subcommittee on the issues that are critically important to the veterans and our nation as a whole. That said, the first day of the meeting subcommittee oversight hearing of the 115th congress will focus on how National Work q or the nwq has impacted the departments ability to process disability claims. Before the nwq, the v. A. s practice was to process a veterans claim at the Region Office and the state where the veteran lived. The challenge was that some Regional Offices had large backlogs and other veterans and veterans in those states were often left in limbo. Even if the Regional Offices in other states would have been able to process the claims faster because of not being so busy. The nwq is supposed to increase effectiveness, efficiency by automatically assigning the claim to the Regional Office with the most capacity. On its face this is a common sense idea. The nwq allows the va to distribute its workload even lei cross the nation to reduce waiting times for veterans who file claims for benefits. However, there are some concerns about whether the nwq is actually performing as it should. Unfortunately, the v. A. Claims backlogs have been increased from about 76,000 backlogs claims on may 2nd in 2016 before the nwq was fully implemented to now almost well as of february 4th, 101,000. One has to question whether the disbursement distribution worked throughout the nwq is in fact more effective. Rather than assigning a claim to a specific employee to work the entire claim, the nwq breaks up the claim into individual tasks such as scheduling a disability exam. After one claim processor reviews a file and completes an action, the nwq will likely assign another claim processor for the next step. The second claim processor then also has to become familiar with the file to determine whether additional action is needed for the v. A. To make a decision. It does not make sense to me on how having multiple claim processors completely review the same file can possibly save time. We will hear from our second panel as well. And its comprised of the veteran Service Organization, the vsos used to receive used to receive an advanced copy of the rating decisions before it was sent to the veteran. This practice gave the vsos 48 hours to review a proposed before the decision was finalized. But now the nwq has been deployed. Vsos complain they no longer have a chance to review a decision and try to resolve errors before any incorrect decision is sent to the veteran. I hope the v. A. Will explain what steps its taking to work with the vsos to ensure the v. A. Decisions are accurate. Im also looking forward to learning more about how the v. A. Intends to employ quality standards now that the nwq has been implemented. I also hope the v. A. Will tell us more about what the department intends to do to tackle the current backlog of appeals and nonrating claims and how it plans to leverage nwq to do so. Again, i want to thank the witnesses for being here today. With that, i want to call on the distinguished Ranking Member miss estes for her opening statement. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. I appreciate your warm welcome. Im delighted to be joining the committee. Im happy to be here today as the Ranking Member designate of the subcommittee on disability assistance and memorial affairs. Im looking forward to working with all of you to ensure that the veterans that we are honored to represent are receiving all the quality of care and the Rapid Service that they and their families deserve. A bit about my background. Im in my third term in congress. I am the daughter of a navy man, granddaughter of an air force daughterinlaw of air force and have niece and nephew who are army. So weve got to get somebody we need marine. You know, were working on getting a marine in the next generation. My district in the 5th district of connecticut is proud home to over 40,000 veterans, a long service tradition. In my office it is always issue number one, two, or three for constituent services. Weve made it a core part of our mission. I hire veterans proudly in my office. And im committed to ensuring that everyone who has served this country is served in turn by all those of us who enjoy the freedoms that they secured. I want to thank mr. Murphy and the deputies from the v. A. For appearing today to help us understand how the National Work queue program is functioning now that its been rolled out in all the 56 Regional Offices. In speaking with connecticut veterans its my impression that the claims backlog in our region has been reduced significantly. And i want to congratulate you on that progress. However, i also want to understand some of the issues and delays that do remain, and i look forward to working with you to improve the claims process Going Forward. To the vso witnesses here today and to the thousands of vso sponsored veteran Service Representatives in every part of the country, you are providing reassuring and dedicated assistance to veterans as they navigate the disability process and pensions process and i thank you for your commitment to veterans and to making sure that it gets done right. I know were all here for the same purpose. We want to enjoy the benefits and speed and accuracy of automation. But we need to ensure that that personal touch is ensured and that our veterans are treated with that care. And the vsos have provided that. So im looking forward to hearing from you today how we get the best of both rorlworlds. The hightech and the high touch. I know thats our objective and we are not there yet, i think were in agreement, but i do know that everyone is committed to getting us where we need to be. And so i will be lookingimony a together collaboratively to get us here. And i see weve been joined by the current ranking my good friend, colleague, and classmate julia brownlee. And my work buddy from the gym, i see mr. Kaufman has also arrived. Thank you, ms. Esty. I ask that all members waive the opening remarks as per this committees custom. Now i would like to welcome our first two first of two panels. Thank you for taking the time to be here today. Our first witness is mr. Thomas murphy, who is the acting undersecretary of for benefits. He is accompanied this morning by mr. Willie clark, the duty deputy undersecretary for field operations, and mr. Ronald burke, the assistant deputy undersecretary for field operations. I want to remind the witnesses that your completed written statement will be entered into the hearing record. Mr. Murphy, you are now recognized for five minutes. Good morning, chairman. Ranking member esty and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the implementation and progress related to v. A. s National Work queue. The nwq is a workload prioritization and distribution tool designed to match claims assignment capabilities with v. A. Capacity regardless of geographical boundaries. This tool provides the means necessary to ensure veterans receive a more timely decision on their disability claim. The nwq uses sophisticated system capabilities to uniformly prioritize v. A. s electronic claim inventory and allow for the collection of enhanced date to on processing efficiencies, areas for Quality Improvement and issues impacting processing capabilities. This new environment allows v. A. The flexibility to move claims to locations around the country that have the capacity to take the next action on the claim while maintaining the flexibility at each facility to assign work to the right person. One of the principle fundaments of nwq to ensure veterans are served equally regardless of where they live. Our review of claims from 2015 shows that in many instances, the timeliness of a decision was significantly impacted based solely on the state in which a veteran lived. Some were receiving decisions in 106 days while others took more than 213 days. Nearly double the time. Each Regional Office receives claims based on geography rather than what their capacity is to complete work. When nwq was rolled out, it was 94 days. This was reduced to 85 days by the end of fiscal year 17, a 10 reduction. V. A. Breaks the claim process down into cycles. Upon receipt of a claim, v. A. Develops for evidence. The inventory of claims awaiting initial review was reduced from 56,000 to 18,000 as of the end of january 2017. The average number of days First Development action is dropped from almost 25 days to less than 10 in 2017. Following the initial development actions, v. A. Prepares a rating decision to identify each disability, its severity and its relationship to military service. The amount of time claims are awaiting a waiting decision has dropped from about 2 29 days to6 days. Once a rating decision is complete, v. A. Prepares a notification for the veteran as appropriate. The time has dropped from eight days to four and the authorization time from four days to less than two. V. A. Continues to work toward reducing the number of claims pending over 125 days. While we acknowledge that some claims will take more than that, weve made significant improvements over the past two fiscal years. In 2015, v. A. Completed 45 of its claims within 125 days. As of january 2017, 66 were completed within 125 day standa standard. Nwq is a component and one feature thats built into the nwq allows v. A. To measure the amount of rework in our system which has never been possible before. It allows any v. A. Employee in the process to stop the line to correct the deficiency. A process similar to that used in industry to ensure high quality. Pause of this feature, were now able to measure process defects based on feedback from our employees. As a result, approximately lly0 claims reviewed in 2017 have been returned to an earlier stage for correction. Systemically tracking these errors enabled us to tailor training, increased accountability in the claims process. With an endeavor this large, v. A. Spent a lot of time and resources on a measured change management approach to nwq implementati implementation. Efforts included training employees, publication of an nwq playbook and myriad of calls and briefings with each Regional Office. V. A. Utilized new data to revise director and employeelevel performance metrics and reports used for workload management and effectively manage resources. Additionally, v. A. Is bringing together more than 1,100 supervised managers for continued training on tools and best practices. While v. A. Is acclimating to this new work environment, we took the feedback we received to heart in our implemented efforts to increase the amount of local work assigned to Regional Offices. While we acknowledge theres more work to be done, its important to recognize that these efforts have and continue to generate positive and significant results for veterans. Mr. Chairman, this concludes my statement. I would be pleased to answer any questions you or members of the committee may have. Thank you, mr. Murphy, and i would like to yield myself five minutes for questions, if i may. On may 2nd, 2016, before the nwq was fully implemented, there were am 76,000 backlog claims. Yet last week, there were more than 100,000 backlog claims. The increase is about 33 over 9 months. Is it the v. A. s assertion that the nwq is improving effectiveness and efficiency in processing claims . Yes, sir, it is. The reason is we now for the first time have the ability to work look at the right next claim that needs to be worked so today with the work that were sending out, were sending out every claim thats available to be worked in the backlog every single day and then were working back as early as claims that are less than 90 days old being pushed out to rogene regi offices. Were leveraging the ability to see the exact work case that needs to be done and sending it out for a Regional Office for action at just the right time. Contributing to the ninemonth period . All of us are wanting to see the process as quick as possible. To see that increase, what would the agency say the reasons for that are . Im going to ask mr. Clark to jump in, he runs our field operations. Okay. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you, mr. Chairman. It certainly is my pleasure to respond this morning. The first thing id like to say is our receipts have gone up since last year. One of the things that we know that as we get more efficient, more veterans are aware of benefits that are available to them. They come in and they submit more claims. Additionally, we are taking a more balanced approach to the work that were doing. One of the things that weve done in the past and we did great work in getting the backlog down in past years, but we focused probably too much on the backlog and we have this old saying in the v. A. That if you work only the backlog, then all you work is the backlog. So weve improved in our appeals, improved in answering phones. We had a blocked call rate at 60 a couple years ago. Now were at zero percent blocked calls. N those types of claims, dependency claims, we have claims. We are working those claims. So what were doing is is taking a more balanced approach, but we do understand, we do keep eye on our backlog to make sure that we dont have our veterans waiting too long. Yeah, that would be the concern and another part of my question is is that what plans do you have to though we shouldnt work off a backlog, i agree with you on that, that, alone, but thats still a major factor that we can use to say, okay, how quick are we getting these process through and when you see the buildup, its concerning to us and im sure its concerning to everyone involved when you see that continue to pile up. So what intention, what do we see out there that we can do to speed the process up . Okay. Yes, sir. Ill take that one, sir. About six months ago, i took a look at where we were spending our money in terms of overtime dollars and the number of people that we had and the number of vacancies that we carried. And as a result, i went out to our top 25 performing offices and increased their authorized end strength. If you look at my authorized end strength today, today the hiring freeze put on, we had 250 people above authorized head count. The reason for that is, i took very highcost overtime dollars and converted it into fulltime labor. Those people start into the process, it takes about a year to get a vsr up to standard and ready to work, 18 months to 2 years for our vsrs. My point is this, six months ago i started that action. In a few more months youre going to see vsrs in place doing better processing and more in place within the next six months. All right. The other concern that ive had, very quick, im going to finish this up fairly quickly because my time is running out, but the concern we have of rather than one person dealing with a particular claim and having it handed off over and over and over again, quite often can cause a lot of confusion and my concern, do you have that same concern that maybe one person isnt focusing on one claim and by pass through multiple hands, do you see a problem with that . Let me ask whereron to talk that. Its much smaller than it was. Mr. Chairman, thank you for that question, and semper fi. To talk about that topic specifically, weve learned, this is still a relatively new initiative that we are still learning from. We absolutely wanted to make sure that our claims assignment, our claims distribution, was matched to where capacity was. As we get more data from the nwq system, were learning better ways to optimize this. As such, one thing were going do in our next vbms release is actually maximizing the amount of work that goes to the home station. We believe that will do several things. Number one, it will most likely assign a claim back to an employee that has seen it before. And as one of two former vsos on this panel, and one of three veterans, we also receive that Stakeholder Feedback from our vsos that the inability to have to the work assigned to the home station more frequently was impacting them as well. Weve heard that feedback. We have created enhancement requests that will actually in our march release allow us to almost reverse the percentage of claims being assigned to the same station. We believe that will help with the issue of multiple looks that you raise, sir. Okay. Just real quickly if you can, i know my times expired, how many on average would you think employees handle one claim as it processes through under the existing system . Well, what i can tell you, sir, is right now the amount of work per each step in the process thats being assigned to the home station is about 30 to 35 of each daily distribution. We believe with the march release that will allow us to increase it above 50 . Maybe as high as mid50s. That will significantly reduce the amount of instances where multiple employees are seeing the same do you have an average of how many people touch the claims as they go through . Sir, it really depends on the claim, itself, so i dont have a number three, six, eight . Normally in any environment, it takes five to six touches for a claim from initial development to completion. Okay. To begin with ill turn okay. Wed like to add that number to the record then. And id like to turn over to the Ranking Member, miss esty. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, all, for your service and your commitment to Work Together with us to serve veterans better. I actually want to pick up where the chairman left off on this issue of ownership. I have a lot of Manufacturing Companies in my district. Im a thirdgeneration manufacturing daughter and granddaughter. And this issue about Continuous Improvement does depend on ownership and the vsos have been that ownership. And so i think we need to figure out how we ensure that we are reducing the number of touches where appropriate. Now obviously you may have very complex claims. Those are going to require and should go to the people best able to do that and there are specialized claims we know are much more fairly and rapidly processed in specialized settings but i think we do need to work for the typical claim to keep it closer to home, keep the vsos engaged and reduce the number of touches that we need to have. So if you can talk a little bit about in addition, you just spoke with mr. Burke about in march issuing a directive to reduce that number so more of it stays in the r. O. S. What also are you hearing in terms of feedback that will not just reduce the time, but improve the accuracy and the engagements whi which is going necessary to keep our veterans feeling served as well as being served . Yes, maam. Thank you for that question. Let me first start with the latest part of your question about quality. One of the things were also building into our process is an automated, were calling it the diagnostic tool. This is purely based to improve and focus on the quality of our claims processing at all steps. This is an automated feature that will run in the background as an employee is processing a claim. And before that claim moves to the next step, that employee will have the opportunity to hit a diagnostic check and its designed to catch some of the major trends that we see now with missed steps or confusion in the claims process. So we believe that will help. I am actually leading an endeavor to we bring 1,100, were still in this process, bringing 1,100 of first line supervisors and Division Chiefs physically into a location for training. The purpose of this training is to talk about our trends, the new reports and weve created a standard suite of reports so that our supervisors can lead better, they can see issues with the claims process. But on the issue of ownership, what we are stressing the importance of is that weve got to treat this National Work queue environment like an ecosystem meaning every action we take on a veterans claim has a subsequent reaction. What were stressing is we want pride and ownership from our employees in every action they take on a veterans claim, whether its the entire claim or pieces of the claim. But to that point, what we see is a valued need to route more work to the local station than what we have been doing since implementation and, again, that feedback not only comes from our employees, but from our vso partners and other stakeholders. Thank you. I want to follow up also on the question of how were having, you know, the backlog going up. And were in a freeze right now. So lets be clear, if, you know, the committees been told that vba has 760 vacancies, mr. Murphy, you talked about how youre redirecting money to more appropriately try to cover but you still have those vacancies. And its our understanding those will not be exempted from the hiring ban. At this point. When youre looking at the final rule establishing eight new presumptive diseases associated with exposure to contaminated water at camp lejeune, thats going into effect march 14th. How are we going to keep up youre going to see intake go up, obviously, were going to, and we have vacancies. Can you talk a little bit about what do you expect to happen to backlog when those cases come online . We are overstaffed at this time. So, the intent right up front, six months ago, was were going to hire a head because we always had 1,000 positions vacant. We authorized out to 100 for each office. Our row would wait for a vacancy, then a person would show up and begin training. I bumped up 5 across the nation. Told everybody you can hire up to 105 and they followed the normal process, which took them to the 100 mark. Part one. At the same time, i spent 130 million last year, round numbers, on overtime. Thats expensive. Why not convert this to permanent employees and keep the rest for overtime and use the money for kris and surgeries that we have. So, in addition to the extra 5 , we converted 50 of the overtime dollars to fte and put the authorization out to the field to hire those individuals. Those folks now are working through our challenge process today. So, again, 250 bodies over my authorized end strength from the president ial budget for 2017 and we lose approximately 40 people a pay period right now, so i can ride it out and still be above end strength the next three months plus depending on how to attrition rate goes before or not having people on board. The measure would be we start moving people out of direct labor positions. Thats a most important part. Not to have an extra person at headquarters, so we have a hiring freeze in place. Also a movement freeze in place, where were not allowing people to move out of our direct labor positions and be promoted into other positions, which leaves me trying to figure out how to deliver services. My time has expireded. I appreciate the explanation. Youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And honor to be with all of you this morning and thank you for your service both in uniform and now in a suit. State of michigan has a very High Percentage of veterans comparatively speaking an the First District that i represent has double the percentage of veterans as the other dristrict this michigan and largely world, so we have some unique challenges. And as far as the questions im going to ask, im not going to ask person specifics, so whoever would choose to respond, please, feel free. One of the problems with nwq delayed its implication. Thank you, sir, for this question. As with any release and vbms, we go through a rigorous testing process. When wely sbebd intended to deploy before may, we completed that, but testing in a testing performance is actually different than in a production environment. Testing passed. Everything was successful. As we went to go into the production environment, we intended to do so over the course of a weekend. We noticed that the actual production job that the job of pulling in claims electronically, and staging the distribution to 56 Regional Offices, took too long. Our goal is to always have claims deposited at a Regional Office and in an employeeskey before they start their day. They dont want an employee wanted for work to do. As such, its important for us that our entire distribution job starts around midnight and needs to finish by around 4 00 in the morng. We notice that had the job was taking too long and we decided to pause, go back and retool and recon fkocon figure. That caused the initial delay because we didnt want to put ourselves in a position where our employees didnt have work available to them at the start of the workday. So, in other words, you feel that the tesing that failed, what you implemented as you saw the real time work so the problems with with that then resolved to your satisfaction . Yes, sir. That was resolved and was the key feature if you will, that allowed us to actually successfully deploy to all stations in may of 16. So, logt there. Yes, sir. Z all right and ogl. Nwq is fused with the vbms system. We were told that this system needs to be either replaced or updated. Does nwq have the ability to be compatible with new or updated benefits Management Systems Going Forward . So, what i would say, sir, is when we designed and developed and built the National Work cue, it was awe spis of vbms. I have a whole team of operators, but we go through the for any enhancements, new future, et cetera, so, right now, we are connected. Solely to vbms and we are dependent on vbms right now to operate. So, is that a yes or no . Its replaced by something we start from square one with nwq again. If we were to do that, we would be dependent on proper int gags system and that would be incorporated. Wed have to integrate nwq with anything if we replaced vbms. Why did it take one year after the implementation for the va to impose new employee productivity and accuracy standards . What was, why did it take a year . Ill start with that one, then probably have willie jump in we went with a partial rollout. Started in may time frame. Didnt complete until the summertime, then ran it from summer until two months ago and looked at live production data using 100 of the population to develop standards, which we presented to the union in february, which go live on march 1st. So, we in the past, weve always used sampling of a couple of people. This time, we used 100 of the population across the nation over a period of six months, so, arguing or discussing or negotiating what individuals can produce is no longer an issue in the setting of standards because were using what you produced. So, all of the discussions weve had in years past about what should the number be are gone. The its simply we used a statistical process, laid itd out, use d standard deviation, this is the performance standard, next. It took a little longer, took us six months of live process, but now, we have numbers that are right baseded on what our individuals are producing on a daily basis. Thank you. My time is up. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Wall. Mrs. Browning. Recognized for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I, too, want to add my voice and thank all of you for your service to our country and our veterans as well. So, i think mr. Murphy, you and your opening comments, talked about theres still more work to be done and theres already been discussions on where improvements can be made. Are there other areas that we havent discussed so far . That youre looking at to improve the system . Hit this at a high level and give it to ron in about to 20 seconds. Were getting so much data out of every little transaction now. Still trying to figure out how to use it. How we used statistics to say wow, look at whats here. Ron runs this every ta. Sees these numbers. I spent a lot of time in his office digging. He may be able to put more clarity on that. Thank you, yes, maam, a couple of things that we are doing right now. We have while very short lived in this environment, we have started to gather a ton of data that wasnt b available before. One of the things that were really keenly focusing on is the reduction of our rework. We have an automated process that allows us to catch any time and employee indicates that a claim has to move backwards in the process. To that end, were able to discern whether that movement could have been avoided or whether it was unavoid bable. This allows us to take a look at improving training. Improving gaps in policy or procedure. And really tailoring our training to meet the trends that we see. So, one of the biggest things this environment has allowed us to do by the implication of the automated deferral process is to capture the data we did not have before. That really speaks more towards making sure we have the right performance standards. Making sure that we have the right training tools. Making sure that as we create new reports for supervisors to use to mage both workload and f employee performance, that we bring them together, get on the same page and provide consistency that wasnt there prior to nwq. Thank you for that. In terms of vacancies. Mr. Murphy, did i understand you to say that were losing, we lose approximately 40 employees per pay period . Thats correct. Prior to the hiring freeze, we lost between 55 and 61 per pay period. Theres a good percentage of those that were movements to other agencies if theyre no longer hiring, that number will be reduced down to about 40. Are there additional reasons why youre losing that many people per pay period . Is it advancement, theyre leaving . Its not turnover, moving to another job. Theyre leaving the agency. Thats a very low number. Come tr from a tor wisector whe we ran 28 we typically run in the low single digits, so 40 people with a population base of 22,000, thats just normal retirements and ive taken another opportunity some place else. When back in 2013, i think when we were first discussing this transition, really did believe this transition has been, is certainly there are plenty of indications its been successful and so i want to congratulate you all in that endeavor. Obviously, i agree. Theres still more work to be done here. But one of the things we talked about was the fact that for those people who are doing this processing, that what could emerge from this system is our people who are experts across the country. In a particular, in a particular type of claim. And perhaps with that expertise, that that in and of itself, would streamline and make the system more efficient. Is that happening . Do you see that kind of trend . We have the data to give us that kind of trend. We havent taken action on it yet to actually physically realign and the conflict youre talking about is say safe home minnesota becomes ek perts at ptsd. So we route the case to that rating board theyre really good at that product. We to that now with claims, camp lejeune contaminated claims. Theres several hoothers to kop trait low density things. What youre talking about is a center of excellence where we would concentrate high volumes of work. Thats, we got the data to do it now, but its not an action weve taken yet. Its certainly on the table for future improvements. So, i think in this weeks monday morning workload report, the los angeles Regional Office, which is serviced my veterans, the average days pending is 105. While its only 81 days and fargo, north dakota. I presume that vba is tracking these numbers. But are you adding more people and resources in areas where you know they are going to and you can anticipate there are going to be more claims . Really want to yes. Maam. We are. And i recall going back, i oversaw the region of which l. A. Was one of those offices and there was a point in time that the average claim was well over six months, so, one of the things that we did previously, we would pick cases up physically and move them via ups or we would just ship cases and now, with nwq, this is why were able to do things electronically. So, only ak regait. Our avrerage day is pending and complete. We do keep track of all of our claims that are pending and one of the great things about nwq is we can just target or send that work to places where we have capacity. So, sometimes, proportionately, maybe certain claims or radiation claims or what have you, maybe pending at a particular row, but only aggregate. We send cases where we have a need to send work and where there is capacity thats where it goes. And it goes every day at 4 00 a. M. Mr. Burke and his team of folks moves that work around. Thank you very much. I apologize. I yield back, mr. Chairman. Mr. Coffman is recognized for five minutes. Mr. Murphy, out of the claims backlog, what percentage would you say are ptsd only . Is it the largest right now . In terms of pending claims . In islation, no. In combination with others, yes. Im concerned that were not focused enough on our combat veterans. Can you give me a very rough breakdown of what i would call age related issues in terms of the claims process . Where wl its hearing loss thats not associated in terms of being round, explosions or round Aviation Assets and thipgs like that. I can tell you what we have in terms of the top five to seven conditions. The ones we see most frequently, so ptsd is high on the list. Traumatic brain injury is high on the list, but much more common than that is t teni the tis, hearing loss and muscular injuries for knees, back. Those are the most frequently occurring conditions. Okay. And how well are tell me about your shift to a more electronics system. I know thats somewhat controversial. I think some of the vsos have fought to retain a paper system because its simply easier for some of the veterans to that arent sophisticated in terms of electronic communications, to be able to utilize, but where are we at in that process. We dont work cases in paper any longer. Theres a small fraction of a percentage thats existing in paper still. Its all a paperless environment. A week ago, we hampered philadelphia. Theres no paper left in philadelphia. We have a team in st. Petersburg right now and then were moving across the nation by the enof the year, well have most of them done by the enof next fiscal year, well be complete pli done with all paper in offices. Is it 18,000 in the claims back . Claims backlog as of this morning is give or take 100, 200 claims. How much . 99,000. 99,000. Okay. And tell me where you want to be a year from now. Id like it to be as close to zero as we can get. Thats probably 25, 30, 40,000 depending on the work flow. There are some cases that are never going to be out in 125 day days because youre shortchanging the veterans. Long radiation claims, exposure, et cetera. The its an injustice to a veteran. So to say that were going to get to zero, thats just not going to happen. Its not the right thing to do. Its certainly not, it can be smaller. Any system youve got no matter how good it is, can get better. Weve just been pushing these claims to the appeals process. In other words, that were just taken upstairs by trying to expedite and shrink the volume. It just creates more problems for me to deal with later. We have stopped the growth in inventory in the appeals process. Were on an eightyear steady growth in the last three months, weve turned it and started reducing in the appeals process and the reason for that is five months ago, i locked in the appeals people and just made them an isolated nobody could work anything other than appeals if you were assigned appeals, so that dedicated workforce is 495 people working only appeals, on their overtime, anytime theyre working and then that focus along with the u just little bit of extra pressure and a few modifications has resulted in us flattening and starting to bring down the overall number of appeals. Now, inside of that, the number of appeals at veterans is is growing. Were producing them faster and pushing them across the board of appeals, which brings us into the legislation pending. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Walsh. Mr. Nur murphy, a special thank to you. As we addressed it, you adjusteded fire and fired for affect and reduced them as we were hoping would happen. I am grateful you chose not to take your talentes and go elsewhere. I appreciate that. It is a passion and its been apparent and i think thats what our veterans deserve. Its what they demand. I think its important. Ive watched you come here on numerous occasions through this. But always with a goal on that end. Im appreciative of that. Just a couple of things. I know youre a good partner with and id like to special thank you to your employees, too. I watch those folks at the st. Paul ro burn the midnight oil on numerous occasions during the backlog and they brokered in a lot to them. I agree with you on this. We were paying a lot of money for overtime that needed to be done, but i think to smooth this and keep things going, it makes more sense, so when we talk about accountability, we talk b about hiring freee ining freeze. We need to talk about it in the long run. Hiring and retaining good people cannot only do the right thing for veterans, it can save us money in the long run, so i appreciate you on that. Our vsos express concerns their rep cant find that Contact Information when they need to reach out to an employee in the ro to correct an error. How does that happen or how do you respond when they say that . Going to give the details to mr. Burke on that one. Sir, thank you. Weve tried to ensure no degradation of service or relationship between our vsos at the staff there. We are learn frg thing from the process. We are adjusting fire as you reference, but we have designated personnel in each Regional Office. The same Regional Office that the vso resides in, that have been put on kind of a ancillary role that they can serve between that office no matter what wr the office is. They have a peer to reach out to. Admitically, tas process we need to improve on. I think were really, really good in it in some areas and in some, we get a reminder from our partners once in a while that it may not be working as intended. So, we want to make sure theres the local flavor. Both high technology, high touch type thing referenced earlier today, but certainly, an area that will continue to improve. I appreciate the spirit youre approaching. These are your partners and if theyre good at it, they know. Just a force multiplier for all of us. Im grateful for that. Id end with one. You brought it up, with with camp lejeune and were coming up on the 14th. Having and i said this in hearings at the time. I continue to say it a lot of the backlog came out of the newman neemer claims, which i am glad it was approved and we were there. I added a lot of work for you, i understand that, and i dont think we gave you the necessary up front resources once the claims went through. That did cause that. Not an excuse, but its a reason. I know the numbers are far less, but not certain of that. And how that will be handled. We talking specifically about the camp le jean case . On the 14th . March 14th the difference, what got us bogged down last time was the uniqueness of the claim and the fact that you had to go back and do a page one review literally decades old. That doesnt apply in this case. This is claims that have filed since we did the notice. So, its point forward to completely different type of work. And the fact we put presumptive in there. It helps speed up the process. Are you going to funnel those through or handle it in a normal process . Ideally, we want keep them in the one because we have the center of excellence. If they cant handle the volume, were going to have to train another and expand it. So, but youre not, youre concerned, focusing on it, but you dont anticipate anything near the disruption that the claims nothing at all. The it was a tidal wave and this is going to be a real small one by comparison. Again, im grateful. I appreciate you being here, its about service to those veterans and its clear as i said, watching you over the last half decade or so that youve done what you were expected to do. I yield back. Thank you, sir. We want to thank you for your testimony. If we have follow up question, well be sending those your way. Thank you for being here. And for what you do and hopefully, we can improve on this, but we need to move on to our next panel. Its a second panel will come to the witness table. Our second panel included zachary hearn, Department Director of claims, miss kelly yune, director of the Vietnam Veterans of america and mr. Ryan luchy. The drirector of the National Veterans services for the veterans foreign wars. First sh well hear from mr. Hearn of the American Legion. Youre now recognized for five minutes. Thank you. American legion passed National Commander Ronald Connolly initiated a series of visits in 2003. Over 13 years have passed since that, but this truth remains. The American Legion knows va is a system worth saving. Good morning, chairman, Ranking Member and members of the subcommittee. On behalf of the National Commander, charles e. Schmidt and 2. 2 million members, we welcome this opportunity to speak with you regarding the impact of work on the claims. Va secretary echoed the sentiments regarding the value and place va has with our nations veterans during his confirmation hearing. We believe its a system worth saving. We need va to listen to us. We need va to work with us to ensure managements success. The American Legion has over 3200 accredited representatives in each office. This level of assistance led the American Legion to represent over 804,000 veterans in the last fiscal year. Many view our representatives as advocates for veterans ch we could be a fleet, but they not only need to listen to us, but also implement what we are asking. Nwq and veterans system are intertwined. Its not viable without a properly functioning vbms that allows for full by officers. They began briefing the American Legion in 2015. It was designed to maximize the workforce in a more expeditious manner. The American Legion recognized the potential for the program however concerns existed and continue to exist regarding its implementation and execution. The advocacy of claims has been a local venture. A veteran could reasonably expect a claim to be developed at the local va office. Much of claims add voe sa ki is built on internal relationships and nwq would serve some of those relationships. Va advised that the local Regional Office would service the first filter wrrks the claims would be add jujudicated however, in some office, this has proven untrue. From minnesota, 99 to 30 over the course of two years. A major complaint received by our Service Officers is the fact that vb mrms does not have the ability to alert representatives in claims development. Va has occasionally removed a case prior to theted period of. During the last in july of 2016, Service Officers were asked to raise their hands. They were asked to lower them f they had come across a case that had been removed prior to the window. Not one hand was raised. These concerns have been raced to va yet problem b continues to lirng. Even if the local representative where the claim was notified, it would be of little assistance. The local representative is not familiar with the veteran and associated claim. Many of our officers are funded by state agencies. Those employees are working to assist veterans in their given state. It is unfair for them to also assist veterans residing outside of their jurisdiction. The American Legion regularly conducts a quality review. Last year, we met with va employees to discuss the impact of nwq. Some welcomeded it, others had concerns. This existed from line employees to senior leadership. The va employees noted that a disconnect exists. A developer causing added delays in the process. Another complaint involved nwq pulling bad cases in and redistributing after a substantial amount occurred at the office. Despite completing the bulk of the work, the office does not receive the credit. One said its disheartening while another gets the credit. In a production environment, this could hurt moral. Va is taking Great Strides in reducing its backlog in march of 2013. The clams have allowed va to enter the 21st century. Va needs to believe that Veterans Service organizations are stakeholders and a fleet of advocates that could be used to improve their product. They need to listen. Chairman bose, Ranking Member, again, on behalf of the Largest Service ors, we thank you for the opportunity to speak about this issue and ill be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Mr. Hearn and mr. Luchy, youre recognized for five minutes. Members of the subcommittee, on behalf of the 1. 3 million members of the vfw, i want to thank you for the opportunity to testify on this issue. I know in my written testimony, the situation with National Work q looks dire, but i want to clarify that they support and this is how they can maximize efficiency using every resource to deliver consist ept, quality, accurate and timely benefits to veterans. Nwq shows promise in meetings. Our concerns rest with the final step in the process for veterans represented by the vfw. Unfortunately, this issue is so complex that we saw prugh doesnt to articulate every way to deliver a quality product to veterans and to buy policy va 48 hours to perform a final quality review on decisions, allowing us to identify any potential errors and get them corrected before a decision is sent to the veteran. They see this as chance to make sure they get it right every time. We find errors in about one out of ten claims we process and we can usually work with va to fix them before the veteran ever knows. This is not only a positive for the veterans we cerf, but also a benefit to v ark. On a grand scale, they can perform quality reviews on all ratings and ek plae and explaine cut down on appeals. On a local scale, they become stronger advocates. Staff learn to be more meticulous and veterans receive consistent, accurate and timely benefit decisions. While this policy has been supported by va management, the they have seen examples where Regional Offices potentially reacting to pressures on productivity will finalize rating decisions before the 48 hours expire. We have also seen poll ratings while theyre still in the 48 hour, meaning representatives lose optics on them while the clock ticks. Weve seen brokered workstations for work if no representative is present in the office. This makes it impossible for the vso representatives who originated claims to track their worth regard redskins less of t filtering work. We appreciate that the va has offered these work arounds like zip code filtering, but as we articulated in our written ir remarks, these dont solve the problem. As such, we align our resources to either the needs of the community as we see in north dakota, or the special mission of the va Regional Office like we see in winston alem and salt lake city. When vfw takes power attorney for a veteran client, theyre facing their trust to serve as quality advocate, but also ensuring any awarded benefit is accurate. Our representatives in field must prove trust with their clind, but also their colleagues to properly advocate for veterans. When our advocates dont have the opportunity to review u, everybody suffers. At first, it may look good, but this is no good if the decision is inaccurate. As a representative in north dakota said, we have lost local advocacy. The vfw is really threefold. First, return proposed rating decisions to the stage of origination so the representative most familiar with the claim can conduct a proper review. Second, lock the 48 hour clock so staff cannot pull back the rating decision before the vso click rescue viewed or the 48 hours lapses. Third, allow them to mark ratings as queried so that they can track errors an hold staff accountable. The it is a more simple solution than building a new filtering option in vbms. The partners have asked for these solutions since they were first proposed. Unfortunate unfortunately, we worry these have been pushed aside. We understand va has objectives, but our purpose today is is to demonstrate to this subcommittee and to va that the priorities are also vas. The vfw believes in nwq and we want to work with the subcommittee to make this successful, if va can execute these, we believe we will have advanced in our mission of providing timely, quality and consistent benefits to our o veterans. Chairman, this concludes my testimony an im happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you and we want to recognize you just for purposes of boston. Boston. Thats what the name is now. Its okay. Everybody does it. Just so everyone knows. Thank you. Good morning, chairman. Ranking member, este. Thank you for inviting vda to testify today about the work u used on claim processing. Vva is supportive of using technology to create a better claims sk, but not as the currently, it is easier to track a fedex package than a claim. They have sidelines vsos by not prioritizing the crucial role of Service Representatives. Consequently, the veteran claims process has suffered to the debtment of the veteran. Only interest is to use the National Work cue as a tool to eliminate the backlog. And nothing else. They strongly oppose the expansion to appeals and nonrating claims until the three recommendations we put forth in a written statement are fully implemented. Id like to take this time to discuss three barriers to the claims process. The v vva currently experiences. First, vsos are unable to track accurately, its claim that is need review before a final decision is issued in vbms. For example, if our Service Officer files a claim in seattle, washington, that could be kicked to atlanta. That Service Officer is unable to track that claim to its rating decision being issued. Vba believes when our Service Officers are unable to review the claims they filed, va is depriving veterans of f their right to confident representation. For more than two years, vva has stressed the importance of a station of origin search filter and vbms, the va continues to give this request zero priority. Adding a station of origin feature will permit officers who file the claim, to assist their veterans through the entire claims process regardless of if the claim is adjudicated in another station. The second barrier. Assuming the vso is able to identify which ro the claim has been sent to, va has yet to provide accurate Contact Information for each station. Often, the email addresses provided are incorrect or wrout dated, leaving the vsos unsure of f who to contact. This is extremely important when were trying to contact during the 48 hour review period. And finally, the third barrier. Even if we have the correct Contact Information, for the station, it is difficult to receive a timely response if we get one at all. Since implementation of the National Work cue, Service Representatives are further distanced from the claims process and in some instances, bl blocked out entirely. Consequently, vba has forced to amore claims, which adds to the backlog. That is all these problems did not happen prior because Service Representatives developed working relationships with va raiders at their home station and all claims were jude kate a in the same station. It is a unique system. It seeks to be nonadversary yal and pro veteran. So that veterans and representatives are again included in the process. Thank you again for this opportunity and im happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Ill go with the first five minutes of questioning. Mr. Hearn. Our number of backlog game claims when we started the process was about 76,000, now, its about 101,000 or there abouts. Dupg do you think the w, the nwq is actually has improved the situation or not . The pleernlegion noted theren increase as far as if it contributed to the backbacklog, couldnt say, but it hasnt been, it hasnt decreased it. What suggestions would the va, what suggestions would you have to improve this . A lot of it when we go through and we look at how these claims are being adjudicated or processed in the system, theres a lot of back and forth thats going on. Between the vs rrr and rards. In one election, you take a full process and that developer cuts the mustard as far as theyre concerned there. Then it goes to a higher performing area, where they wouldnt accept as a necessary development. So they take it back. Had this been in the same office, they could have walked across the service center, we need to schedule an exam, do this level of development. I just asked you specifically what input you would have through your organizations. Item going to ask this of all three members. Has the va asked each one of you what could they could do to improve this and what has been the response . They have asked. We have offered solutions and we continue to ask for those same, keep getting asked over and over again i would say. I want to reiterate what mr. Hearn said. We persistently make requests of va on things they need to prioritize in changing their business processes. What were trying to convey is that our priorities theyre the priorities of those they serve. They need to be able to provide that for them. It also becomes a b problem, not to get on too much of a tangent, where these different processes happen in different offices. Weve heard that sometimes, theres duplicate work happening, so they may order an exam that wasnt necessary needed or as mr. Hearn said, it will get kicked back into the process, so i think my recommendations would likely echo the American Legions in improving the business flow. Its good to hear the va wants about 50 of the work to stay at the original office of jurisdiction, but again, i dont know if thats going to solve their problem. Automation has the potential to improve the process. I would also concur with mr. Hearn and mr. Gallucci. Vba has for years Blood Pressure working with the va to try to explain what we need in order to assist the claim process. Like i mentioned, because of our inability to properly track and assist claims with the original Service Officer who worked on it, it forces us to appeal claims that we wouldnt have had to appeal preNational Work u there by adding to the backlog, so i would emphasize that again, as mr. Gallucci said, we are all on the same team. We are trying to do the same thing and achieve a final and just decision at the lowest level possible. The recommendations weve put forth, seek to achieve that. In your original testimony, you brought up the fact that commune kags come with the wrong email address. So, as it was early stated, the va has provided a Contact Person or generic mailbox at reach ro, so if we dont know who to contact at that ro, if you dont know the reader, were instructed to email this email address. Its either a personal email address, a name, someones name at va. Gov or a corporate email box. Those addresses are often wrong and well send the email to the person were supposed to contact and the response, if we get a response, which is common to not get a response, your contacting the wrong person. I dont do this. So, the request weve made in our written statement is that va publish on its website an updated list. We certainly understand theres turnover and the person of contact could switch. But they need to be able to provide that real time updated to Service Organizations so we know who to contact. At that point. Thaing. Over to Ranking Member. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Ipg were on the same page. I think its going to be up to us to prioritize this. If we want these quality measures and transparency in place, we need to prioritize that. Your partnership in ensuring that happen, i have no doubt the va wants this, too, but if its not prioritized from is it a 50 goal enough . We heard from mr. Murphy their goal is now to return 50 or leave 50 in the ro. Any thought frs the three of you on whether we think thats an appropriate goal . You may have seen in my written testimony that in talking about these some these solutions, to the vf with wrk, they seem like work arounds ch its better than 30 . Dont get me wrong. Having a station of origination work filtered in vbms is is better, but i dont think its a 100 solution for some of the reasons ive pointed out before. The manual allows va to immediately promulgate decisions if we have no vso representative in that office and just for a little bit of background, the way that resources are aligned, sometimes, we have turnover in those offices. The example that i had in my written testimony was a Regional Office that had a vacancy at the moment. We were tracking a claim we were working with in the hopes of when it was posted for the 48 hour review period. It nevered happened because the office was immediately promulgating decisions, so eve fn we had the filter, it wouldnt have helped us in the situation with the veteran. Whats interesting about the case is that va failed to e vail wait the claim and it to try to resolve that issue, so the filter so us, 50 stage of origination work doesnt really solve the problem. Really, our testimony was more of a wish list. If we had an optimal situation, what we would want is return to the soo. Freeze the clock so they cant pull it back into the National Work cue and allow us to Mark Readings at queried in vbms as opposed to reviewed or lapsed. Thank you, thats helpful. Im thinking we managed to crack the code in immigration cases. A coding system they used that allowed us to track miss yoon, as you mentioned, whos handling the case, how has it been coded. Could we do better coding so youd know who was in charge to get sent some place else. You would be able to go and look at that ro site and say wait a minute, 132 is not there. We may need to push va to say you need to in a way that aloys us to encode this. Maybe we could look at utilizing exactly this technology so say if youre going to use it, use it for the benefit of veterans. Id welcome your thoughts on whether we can use the technology. There was another point in the kelsey offices, this is becomes problematic because it takes reporting of errors outside of that environment. Mr. Murphy that theyve been able to glean so much data. Theres no such opportunity, by having to send a separate email to a random va staffer or corporate inbox, theres no account bability for reporting those errors and when we look reviewed or let the 48 hours lapse, theres then no accountability on the back end for vsos. Hey, we found an error, it wasnt addressed in a timely manner. Thats one of the reasons were asking them to be mark ed as queried. I think thats a really important point and if were getting incomplete data about the error rate, thats really important we figure out how to code that and i think we should continue on with that. Thank you very much. Thanks for all you do for the veterans. They vary in their scope, in some of the populations they serve. Im hope frg all i dont have u you, that you are working hard to enthose veterans to whether they join the American Legion, the Vietnam Veterans of america, we need know whats going on amongst the youngsters, that have served so honor bly. To all of you, the va has claim ed that the nwq would improve have you noticed an improvement of these areas. The American Legion conducts quality review visits every year. We just did return from san juan last week. And to their credit, to san juans credit, they are fastly improved of where they were from 18 to 24 months ago. The American Legion has historically difed in what the definition of error is and a static rate or even decline iin rate is strictly that. That doesnt mean your quality is better. It just neen means more or less people have appealeded. And not just strictly a yes or no or grant or denial. Its not the pancea to vas problem as far as the error rate is concerned. Thank you for that question. Its tough to draw a conclusion at this point. Its a reason we wanted to get out in front of this and address the committee today. From the vfws perspective, we think moving work in a space around va has potential to improve accuracy. I dont think were there yet. We find about one in ten have an error. Thats been consistent, but a few months ago, we were getting up closer to 210. Whether thats because of National Work cue, its tough to say. Because looking at vas data, thats a number thats been decreasing over the past few years, but when they break down claim spaced accuracy, it also is directly correlated to the number of issues that a veteran claims, so one to two issues per claim are more likely to be accurate than if you have seven to 12 in that claim. And that becomes a problem because veterans are claiming more issues as they become more aware of the issues as to which they are intitled. At least from the perspective, its too soon to tell, but u one of our objectives is to get in front of it and make sure they can provide us with the tools they need to hold them account bable and fix them before they go out the door. I dont have too much to add. I concur with both statements, already made. I would also just emphasize that it is too early to determine whether its helping. I do agree that there is potential. With the Additional Data that we can get from the National Work cue. However, i would also etmphasiz that if we continue along the pathway that we are without including the vsos into the process of the claims process, then it could potentially have very negative impacts on the accuracy of decisions. Thank you. Mr. Hearn. How do you feel the va handled the roll out of nwq . Its kind of interesting because when va was testifying, the statement had been made they were just now hearing that cases arent being adjudicate d at th local level as much as the vsos would like. As it rolled out, we were told essentially, the right of first refusal was the office. When you drop from 90 plus percent down to 30 in minnesota. Thats not hitting majority. Thats been a big problem with us. Its not only that, but its deal wg the issues of claims development, not getting our mail. Thats the monotra were hearing from our Service Officers, we want our mail back. If something happens along the claims process as far as development is concerned, unless the vso or Service Organization is specifically putting that veterans claim number in, theres no way for the veteran or the representative to know. So we need this type of information as well. Thank you. Mr. Bradley. It seems to me this is a Pretty Simple problem to resolve. There are ways in which it can be. I would ask the chairman and a Ranking Member, we dont have a va here now. So, we cant ask them that question. When are they going to take these recommendations in and have a response to them. We believe its a priority. When can they report back on us to make sure it happens. Within the va sent out a fact sheet, when this process was going to be incorporated and they made a strong commitment that the relationship between vsos and the ro managers will not change of this new process, n wrwq. Clearly, youre making it clear to all of us that that is not the case. So, timelyness of these benefit claims are important, but the quality of those claims and the role you play is equally as important, so, i hope that we can clear this up sooner rather than later. Can the veterans check the status of the claims through their e benefit accounts . Yes, they can. But its not like dominos where you know for certain theyre putting the cheese on the pizza. Sometimes, they say theyre putting the cheese on the pizza, but theyre just putting the sauce. Its not a good reporting structure. Its not a good reporting structure because in other words, from the input weve gotten, ill be looking at vbms and its not matching up exactly. And so and so i have raised this issue before going back years and ive said you know, again, using dominos as an example, if they can figure this out, as far as where theyre going, what toppings their putting on the pizza, why cant va use a similar technology. Ive never gotten a similar response. To me, that would be an easy solution like you were talking about. Okay. Well, i guess i really dont have anymore questions. It seems the problems have been laid out pretty clearly and i think to revolve it seems to be Pretty Simple. Soly yield back. Mr. Cough man. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Let me ask each of you first, do you think that the claims process, when we switch to the new system, will the claims processors up to speed and ready to go, were they trained up for this . Mr. Hearn, start with you. By claims process, on va side or our representatives. Va side. Anytime you implement a new system, there are going to be problems, but at large, they were trained on how to do it. I think one of the things we need to caution and everything is getting more electronic. Theyre gasolileaning all this information out of the system. No baseball umpire is a computer. We still need the human element. There is too much reliance within the network. If the computer shows this could be an error, to avoid a quality review hit, they wont, they wont override that. And thats sometimes has been some of the problem weve noted. But as far as their understanding, its been my ek appearance that theyve been properly trained. I would tend to agree. There was proper training prior to implication. However, because this was such a complex overhaul, i think the a overhaul, i think the unforeseen consequences made it much more problematic, at least on our end as vsos, just how much work was moving around. I pointed out in my testimony they moved work for the benefit delivery discharge claims. There were hiccup all over the v. A. System for this. Our rating review specialists in winston, salem identified a number of claims disappearing during the 48 hour ku. When we reported to it v. A. They didnt think it was happening at first. It took back and forth and providing claim numbers and hardcount of the claims pulled back from winstonsalem pendi i rating review, 10 of them assi n assigned to the cloud jurisdiction 499 for the National Work queue. They didnt believe us at first. They didnt recognize this was happening during their own business process. I think there were a lot of unforeseen complications with the rollout of National Work queue. Again, one of the reasons we wanted to come here today and articulate this, not to take too many shots at v. A. But we want to be a constructive partner on this. This is what were seeing on the ground and we hope theyll be responsive to the needs of our clients, veterans we serve. Thank you for the question. I would agree the training was when generally sufficient. One thing exposed they often have their own internal claims and systems. If a claim is sent to another r. O. And were used to a 16 way at this r. O. , the other r. O. Might do something else. The lack of consistency at each office has been more parent and in the future that is something that could hopefully be standardized more. Very quickly. Were over 90,000 in terms of claims backlogged right now. So we made some progress but we have a lot of progress to go. If you we are going to identify one issue as the leading issue the Veterans Administration needs to change to reduce the backlog, what would that issue be . Mr. Hearn, lets start with you. Thats a big question, congressman. I think this isnt going to impact the backlog as much as appeals and quality of decisi decisions, to stop and look at what youre doing as a rater and vsr and make sure youre considering the entirety of the evidence. That has been one of the biggest problems weve seen, the reason why you have a 50 remand rate at the board and 25 grant rate at the board, because nobody is sitting back and really thinking about what theyre doing when it comes to these decisions. Congressman, thank you for that question. I think you saw my head nodding a couple times. It has to do with conflating timeliness and accuracy. Theres so much focus on the time it takes to get a claim on, get them out the door and move to this process fast fast fast fast. Were finding hayes make s wast. A col mon euphemism a common euphemism. Pardon me for my dad joke. Our clients come for what theyre claiming is accurate, that the v. A. Took into consideration the entirety of evidence and makes its easier on the backhand. I believe the board of appeals docket is backed several years. Thats harder on those veterans. Yes, they may have a rating decision but probably an inaccurate rating decision. We want to get this right the first time. This becomes a problem with the 48 hour review. Sometimes weve been told we need to get the rating out there, the veteran needs it quickly. Were talking two days in 125 day process. The clients we work with, they understand when they get a quality check, it will only affect their benefits for the positive on the back end. That two days is ample time to make sure the rating decision i accurate. Miss heyoon. Im over time. I welcome emphasize to reevaluate the work Credit System v. A. Employees have. Again, theres this emphasis on speed and theres not as much of an emphasis on accuracy. Again, our accuracy measurements may be a little bit different than v. A. s accuracy. There needs to be an emphasis on reviewing the entire claims file, development, looking to see if there is any more development that is needed and more importantly, if an exam has been issued, was that exam adequate. One of the most common reasons we see cases kicked back from the board is because the exam is inadequate. Thats an example of something that can be worked on and improved at vba. Thank you for being here. Also, let me tell you that the chairman in the new position hes got is an error and the error that i let the v. A. Leave the room before you spoke. I wont do that again. I think they should be here and you should get answers to those questions. If it needs to be done in front of this committee, thats exactly where i think it needs to be done because we can hold them accountable. I think the idea and intent of this program is good. We want the process to be as smooth as possible. When it takes away your ability to be the advocates you need to be, not saying the v. A. Doesnt have their best interests of the veteran, you being the overseers that you are, we want to have you have the opportunity to do that. We will redo this at some time and make sure we can tell the v. A. We want to see a progress date where were at and where the communications are opened up with you. I say that with this committee we will definitely move forward with that and do this again. Committee is adjourned. Tomorrow, we will release the suls of our survey that ranks every u. S. President on 10 attributes of leadership. 91 ranked the former occupants of the white house. The results will be on our web page, cspan. Org. Cspan with our comcast partners will explore the life history of richmond, virginia. Well talk to Virginia Governor Douglas Wildman of the life in the political arena now a professor at virginia commonwealth university, he was the first africanamerican to be elected governor of the commonwealth. I keep an ear to the ground, people are always politicians, politicians hear what i want to hear and people hear what they have to hear. A poet who was a richmond native and housing the largest collection of mr. Poes manuscri manuscripts, artifacts and memorabilia. If it hadnt been for richmond, poe wouldnt have had his best work and experiment in his early 20s and find his literary voice. On sunday, 2 00 p. M. Eastern, explore history from the american revolution, the civil war and today and then well visit the home of maggie walker, a leader in richmonds Africanamerican Community at the turn of the 20th century. She became the first female ceo at a bank in the united states. Mrs. Walkers goal was to primarily help women of the organization. Black women in the entire community. Thats what the strength of the independent order of st. Luke came to be. From that platform, working with the independent order of st. Luke, mrs. Walker goes on not just to have an effect in richmond, but towards civil rights and equal opportunities for black women across the united states. Watch the cspan cities tour in richmond, v. A. Saturday afternoon at noon and sunday at 2 00 p. M. On cspan3, working with our affiliates across the country. An official at the Homeland Security department warned house lawmakers mexican drug cartels are able to exert leverage in cities across the u. S. And pose a major Security Threat to the united states. That hearing is next. Then, Federal Reserve chair, janet yellen, testifies about u. S. Interest rates and u. S. Monetary policy. Later, a look at the fighting in yemen and prospects for peace. Cspans washington journal live everyday with super bowls issues that impact