That appears to be the thinking of the folks on the House Appropriations Committee, who think the Veterans Affairs Department could model its disability and pension claims process on electronic tax filing systems.
In its report on the fiscal 2010 VA spending bill, the committee said advances in technology may enable automation of even the most complicated of claims administration processes.
The report said commercial software has automated the filing of taxes and receipt of state and federal returns and suggested "such user-friendly technology may be adaptable for the administration of claims processing while also supporting the transition to electronic records," part of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki's grand plans to make the department as "paperless as possible."
I don't have any idea if TurboTax can be adapted to help veterans file claims with the VA, but any idea is worth exploring to help speed up a truly Dickensian process managed by 13,39 claims processors (with another 1,200 slated for hire next year) who shuffle around mounds of paper.
The VA must have a large green eyeshade bill.
COMMENTS
It makes sense to me. After all, no matter where you go the government has us pigon holed into a number. Social Security, get a number almost at birth. Military, get a service number, oh that's right, you don't need that now, we can use your social. Need a weapon, what is the style, description and serial numbers? You want amunition? That's another number. Where is your mission tonight soldier? Get the grid numbers. Wounded, get on flight number..., go to the hospital in ward number..., bed number.... File a VA claim, why....95489053435680964569, oh, that mens you are denied, sorry about that.
Herb Worthington 07/13/09 05:41 pm ET
Our "helpful" Congress again.
FJ 07/13/09 03:50 pm ET
This is NUTS!
Ronnie Moseley 07/13/09 03:14 pm ET
Actually, there are few taxpayers who simply file the W2 and form. The tax code is anything but "black and white." What I would say is that the filing of tax returns, because of the complexity of the tax code, more often than not means the use of a paid preparer but that is because of the rigors and judgements needed to complete entries not the complexity of the automated forms.
Charles 07/13/09 10:17 am ET
foolishness in the extreme. Filing a disability claim is not like filing your taxes. Many documents are necessary for a veteran to establish both his/her eligibility for benefits and to support his/her contention that they have incurred a service-related disability.
When most people file their taxes, all they have to include is their W-2.
So unless you assume that Veterans have electronic copies of all necessary service-related and medical examination documents, this won't work.
Also, taxes are pretty black and white and easier to audit. Proving a disability is much more complicated. Fraud is prevalent (a veteran loses nothing if he files a false claim and it's rejected...a taxpayer can be in big trouble).
while VBA needs to go paperless in terms of handling documents, it's rather hard to imagine that most of the filing could feasibly done in an all electronic environment anytime soon.
Jack 07/13/09 08:11 am ET
After hearing Dr Linda Blimes testify to Congress a few years ago on this idea, I fully support it, there are a few questions about the medical issues that are now subject to a raters perception to severity as is now the case for PTSD it gets rated from 10%, 30%, 50% 70% and 70% TDIU and 100% how would those claims get adjudicated? But for the most part many of the claims have set percentages like Tiinitus (ringing in the ears) 10%, hypertension controlled by medication 10%, scars 10% diabetes 40% or 60% depending on symptoms, CAD 60% or 100% depending again on severity.
This process would stop this insane 4 years of appeals that many of this nations veterans have to go thru now, auto process the claims and only audit the claims that raise red flags instead of treating every claim as they do now as fraudulent. Use the VARO employees to actually help the veterans and to do audits on the problem cases, the nation would be better served and the PROMISE could actually be kept.
Mike Bailey 07/11/09 12:11 am ET