Transcripts For CSPAN Veterans Affairs Officials Testify On

Youre watching live coverage on cspan. And that really speaks more towards we have the right performance standards, making sure that we have the right training tools. Mr. Burke making sure as we create new reports for managers to manage both workload and employee performance that we bring them together, get on the same page and provide some consistency that wasnt there prior to n. W. Q. Thank you for that. In terms of vacancies, mr. Murphy, did i understand you to say were losing we lose approximately 40 employees per pay period . Mr. Murphy thats correct. Prior to the hiring freeze we lost between 55 and 61 per pay period. There were a good percentage moving to other agencies. That number would reduce down to 40. That would leave the federal government. Ms. Brownley is it advancement or is it theyre leaving . Mr. Murphy this is not turnover, moving to another job. These are people leaving the agency and thats actually a very low number. I come from a sector where we ran 25 , 28 . We typically run in the low Single Digits percentage as an agency. So 40 with a population base of 22,000, thats just normal retirements and ive take and have taken another opportunity someplace else. Ms. Brownley back in 2013 i think when we were first discussing this transition, and i really believe this transition has been is certainly there are plenty indications its been successful so i want to congratulate you all in that endeavor. Obviously i agree there is still more work to be done here. One of the things we talked about was the fact for those people who are doing this processing that what could emerge from the system is are people who are experts across the country 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. Has that is that happening . Do you see that kind of trend . Mr. Murphy we have the data to give us that kind of trend. We havent taken any action on it yet to actually physically realign. The concept youre talking about is lets say st. Paul, minnesota, becomes experts at ptsd. So we route ptsd cases to that rating board because theyre really good at that product. We do that at a lower level now with camp lejeune contaminated claims and we do that in pockets to concentrate low density things. What youre talking about is a center of excellence where we can concentrate high volumes of work. We got the data to do it now but its not an action we have taken yet. Its certainly on the table for future improvements. Ms. Brownley so i think in this weeks monday morning workload report, the los angeles Regional Office, which serves my veterans, the average days pending is 105 while its only 81 days in fargo, north dakota. I presume that the v. B. A. Is tracking these numbers, but are you adding more people and resources in areas where you know there are going they are going to and you can anticipate there are going to e more claims . Yes, maam. We are. D 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. The clerk so one of the things mr. Clark so one of the things we did previously, we would pick cases up physically and move them via you p. S. Or we would just ship cases and now with n. W. Q. , this is why we are able to do things electronically. So only aggregate, our average days pending and average days complete have lowered significantly. We do keep track of all of our claims that are pending and one of the great things about n. W. Q. Is we can just target our send that work to places where we have capacity. So sometimes proportionately maybe certain claims or certain amount of radiation claims or what have you may be pending in a particular area. On average we are sending cases where we need work and where capacity thats where it goes and it goes every day at 4 00 a. M. Mr. Burke and his team of folks move that work around. Ms. Brownley thank you very much. I apologize. I yield back, mr. Chairman. Thank you, ms. Brownley. And mr. Coffman is recognized for five minutes. Mr. Coffman thank you. Mr. Murphy, out of the claims backlog, what percentage would ou just say are ptsd only . Mr. Murphy id have to go back and detail you a number. I dont want to venture a guess. Mr. Coffman is it the largest right now in terms of pending claims . Mr. Murphy in isolation, no. In combination with others, yes. Mr. Coffman and then what are some of the im concerned that were not focused enough on our combat veterans in terms of the claims process. What can you give me again, very rough breakdown of just what i would call agerelated issues in terms of the claims process that whether its hearing loss, its not necessarily associated with in terms of being around explosions or around Aviation Assets and things like that . Mr. Murphy i can tell what you we have in terms of the top five to seven conditions, the ones we see most frequently. Ptsd is high on the list. Traumatic brain injury is high on the list. Much more common than that is tinnitus, hearing loss and muscular dejen tiff for the knees, back. Those are the most frequently occurring conditions. Mr. Coffman what and how well tell me about your shift to a more Electronic System . And i know its somewhat controversial. I know some of the v. S. O. s 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 whole process . Mr. Murphy we dont work cases in paper any longer. There is a small fraction of the percentage thats existing in paper still. Its all a paperless environment. Last year we emptied philadelphia. There is no paper left in philadelphia. We have a team in st. Petersburg right now. In a couple of weeks there will be no paper left in that office. Then were moving across the nation. By end of the fiscal year we will have most of them. By the end of next fiscal year we will be done with paper in all Regional Offices. Mr. Coffman are you down to 18,000 what is the claims backlog right now . Mr. Murphy claims backlog as of this morning is 200 99,000. Mr. Coffman 99,000. Tell me where you want to be a year from now . Mr. Murphy id like it to be as close to zero as we can get. Thats probably, i dont know, 25,000, 30,000, 40,000 depending on the work flow. There are be some cases not under 125 days because you are shortchanging veterans. Radiation claims, Long Research history, exposure, etc. Its an injustice into a veteran to force it under a 125day process. For us to get to zero its not going to happen. Its certainly not it can be smaller. Any system you got no matter how good it is can get better, ours included. Mr. Coffman in pushing these claims to the appeals process, in other words, they are taking them upstairs by trying to expedite and shrink the volume in terms of the claims backlog . Mr. Murphy no, sir. It creates more problems for me later. We are on an eightyear upward sludge, steady growth. In the last three months we have turned it and started reducing the appeals process. The reason for that five months ago i locked in the appeals people and just made them an isolated, nobody could work on anything other than appeals if you are assigned to appeals. So that dedicated work force, 1,495 people work only appeals on their primetime, on their overtime, any time they are working. And then that focus, along with just a little bit extra pressure and few modifications in change in process has resulted in us flattening and starting to bring down the overall number of appeals. Now, inside of that, the number of appeals sitting at the board of veterans appeals is growing because were producing them faster and pushing them across the board of veterans appeals which leads us into the legislation pending in congress now about appeals and reform. Mr. Coffman ok. R. Chairman, i yield back. Mr. Walsh, you are reaked. Mr. Walsh thank you, mr. Speaker. I appreciate it. Mr. Murphy, a special thank you to you. I know youve been through this whole process as the claims reached the peak, as we addressed it. You adjusted fired and reduced them as we were hoping would happen. I for one am grateful you chose not to take your talents elsewhere would you could get paid for. Mr. Murphy its a passion. Mr. Walz its a passion and thats what our veterans deserve. I watched you come here on numerous occasions through this but always with a goal on that end of working together. Im appreciative of that. Just a couple things and this is coming from our v. S. O. s who i know you are a good partner with. I truly know and a special thank you to your employees too. I literally watched those folks out at the st. Paul r. O. Burn the midnight oil on numerous occasions during the backlog and they brokered in a lot through them. I agree with you, we were paying a lot for overtime that needed to be done but i think to smooth this and keep this going, that does make sense. When we talk about accountability, we talk about hiring freezes, we do need to talk about in the long run hiring and retaining really good people cannot only do the right thing for veterans, it can save us money in the long run. I appreciate you on that. Just a couple. Our v. S. O. s expressed their concern they cant get that Contact Information when they need to reach out to an employee to correct an error. How does that happen or how do you respond to them when they say that . Mr. Murphy i would give the details to mr. Burke on that one. Mr. Burke sir, thank you. We tried to ensure no degradation of service or relationship between our v. S. O. s at the local Regional Offices and the staff there. To that end we are learning in that process. We are adjusting fire, as you referenced. But we have designated personnel in each Regional Office. The same Regional Office that the v. S. O. Resides in that have been put on kind of an ancillary role, if you will, that they can serve as a directly ason between that v. S. O. In that office no matter where the claim is. They have a peer to reach out to facilitate those discussions. Immediately its a process we need to improve on. I think were really, really good in some areas and some we get a reminder from our partners it may not be working as intended. So we want to make sure theres that local flavor, both high technology, high touch type thing that was referenced earlier today. But certainly an area that well continue to improve on. Mr. Walz no, i appreciate that. I appreciate the spirit. These are your partners and they are good at it. Thats a force multiplier for all of us. Im grateful for that. I just end with one and you brought it up, mr. Murphy, 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 nemur claims which i am glad it was approved, that we were there and i feel like i added a lot of work for you by pushing that through. When the secretary added, i understand that. And i dont think we gave you the necessary upfront resources once the numur claims went through. Not an excuse but its certainly a reason. Are we going to be ok this time we are not going to see that . I know the numbers are probably far less but not certain of that and how that will be handled. Mr. Murphy are we talking specifically about the camp lejeune cases . Mr. Walz on the 14th, right, march 14 . Mr. Murphy the difference what got us bogged down last time was the unique of the nemur claim and the fact you had to do a page 1 review literally decades old. That doesnt apply in this case. This is claims that we filed since the notice. Its point forward. Completely different type of work. And the fact we put the presumptive in there, yes, its going to bring more volume in the floor but the presumptive speeds the prosuss up. Mr. Walz will you handle that in the normal process or one r. O. . Mr. Murphy we want to keep them in the one r. O. If they cant handle the volume, we have to expand it. We have to keep a close eye on that. Mr. Walz youre concerned, focusing on it, youre ready to adjust to it but you dont anticipate anything near the disruption that the nemur claims mr. Murphy no, that was a tidal wave and this will be a small one in comparison. Mr. Walz again, im grateful. I appreciate you being here. Its about service to those veterans and its clear as i said of watching you over the last half decade or so that youve done youve done what you were expected to do. I yield back. Mr. Murphy thank you, sir. Mr. Roe we want to thank you for your testimony. We appreciate you being here today. If we have any followup questions we will be sending those your way. I thank you for being here and for what you do and hopefully we can improve on this but we need to well move on to our next panel if thats all right. And if the second panel will come to the witness table. Welcome to everyone and thank you for coming today. Our second Panel Includes mr. Zachary hearn, the Department Director of claims of the Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Division of the American Legion. Ms. Kelly yoon, the director of Veterans Benefits of the Vietnam Veterans of america. Mr. Boast and mr. Ryan galluci , the duty director of the National Veteran services for the veterans of foreign wars. And first, well hear from mr. Hearn of the American Legion. Mr. Hearn, youre now recognized for five minutes. Mr. Hearn thank you. American legion Pass National commander Ronald Conley initiated a sear sees of visits to v. A. Facilities in 2003. They said v. A. Was a system worth saving. This truth remains. The American Legion knows v. A. s system is worth saving. Good morning chairman bost, Ranking Memberesty and members of the subcommittee. On behalf of the National Commander charles e. Schmidt and the 2. 2 million members of the American Legion we will speak to you upon the adjudication of claims. Secretary David Shulkin we believe v. A. s a system worth saving. We need v. A. To listen to us. We need v. A. To work with us to ensure management success. The American Legion has over 3,200 accredited representatives with representatives in each of v. A. s Regional Offices. This level of assistance and expertise by these individuals led the American Legion to represent over 408,000 veterans in the last fiscal year. Many view are representatives for veterans. We could be a fleet of advocates for v. A. But they need to not only listen to us but implement it. The system are intertweend. N. W. Q. Is not viable without a properly functioning vbns that has the advocacy of Service Officers. They briefed n. W. Q. It was designed to maximize its work force and adjudicate claims in a more expeditious manner. Routing to v. A. Offices based on availability. We recognized the potential for the program but problems exist regarding execution. The advocacy and adjudication has been a local venture. A veteran residing in a jurisdiction could reasonable expect a claim to be adjudicated at the local v. A. Office. Much of claims advocacy is built on internal and n. W. Q. Would sever some of those. We they would serve as the first filter where the claims are adjudicated. In some offices its untrue. The claims of veterans from minnesota from 99 to 30 over the course of two years. A major complaint received by our Service Officers is the fact that vbns has not the ability to alert local representatives of claims development. V. A. Has established a 48hour window to review claims claims. However, v. A. Has removed a case prior to the close of allotted period of time. The American Legion Host Department Officers School biannually and during the last school in 2016 Service Officers working in Regional Offices were asked to raise their hands. They asked to lower their hand if they saw a case removed prior to the 48hour window. Not one hand was raised. These concerns have been raised to v. A. , yet the problem continues to linger. Even if the local representative where the claim was adjudicated were notified it would be of little assistance. The local representative is not familiar with the veteran or claim. They are employed by state agencies funded by local tax dollars. Those employees are working to assist veterans in their given state. They help veterans residing outside their jurisdiction. The American Legion conducts quality review visits. Last year we discussed to impact of n. W. Q. Some welcomed n. W. Q. However, some had concerns. These concerns existed from line employees to Senior Leadership. The v. A. Employees noticed a disconnect exist. A developer at one location may not develop a claim required at another location causing added delays in the process. Another complaint involved n. W. Q. Pulling cases into the virtue queue and redistributing after substantial development occurred at the local Regional Office. The Regional Office does not receive the credit. One Senior Leader said its disheartening for an employee to complete the bulk of the work while another location gets the credit. In a production environment this could hurt morale. V. A. Has taken Great Strides in reducing the backlog of claim from the peak in 2013. The fully implement of claims and vbns has allowed them to enter the 21st century. They need to make sure they are a