VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION

Transcription

1 VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION U nveterans d e r S ebenefits c r e t aadministration r y f o r B e n e f i t s T hcontrolled e A m e r i cunclassified a n L e g i oinformation n A u g u s t 2 9,

2 VBA Missions & Service Offerings in FY14 and FY15 to date EDUCATION Provided $12.4B to over 1M beneficiaries; 4.3M claims in FY14 730K beneficiaries; 3.06M claims processed FY15TD Post-9/11 GI Bill paid nearly $54B to 1.43M students and schools since inception LIFE INSURANCE Insured 6.5M beneficiaries in FY14 10 th largest Insurance program in U.S. Provides over $1.3T in coverage under 10 lines of protection Paying insurance death claims in avg. of 6 days FYTD at 99.8% accuracy COMPENSATION $58.4B paid to 3.9M Veterans in FY14 Completed record 1.32M claims in FY14 already completed 1.2M FY15TD 2.7M non-rating end products completed in FY14 already completed 2.7M FY15TD (18% higher than same time last year) VBA TRANSFORMATION 22K employees $96B in benefits distribution $2.5B in general operating expenses PENSION & FIDUCIARY Paid over $5B in Pension benefits to 521K Veterans & survivors in FY14 Paid $6B in DIC to 381K survivors in FY14 Over 180K Fiduciary beneficiaries on the rolls in FY15TD 7K more than FY14 VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION & EMPLOYMENT More than 93K Veterans received over $1.01B in VR&E benefits in FY14 Already more than 78K Veterans have received over $943M FY15TD HOME LOAN GUARANTY Over 2.3M home loans on the books Guaranteed 521K loans FY15TD (18% more than FY14) totaling $126B Lowest foreclosure rate for 25 of 27 quarters TRANSITION & EMPLOYMENT Provided 11K briefings to 143K at 280+ military installations FY15TD Veterans Employment Center hired 365K Veterans; employers committed to hire 657K FY15 to date BENEFITS ASSISTANCE SERVICE Over 5M registered ebenefits users 410K Facebook likes; 59K Twitter followers to date 55K outreach hours to 786K Veterans at 5,200 events in FY14 1

3 VBA s workload has risen dramatically since 2009

4 VBA s caseload has grown at an unprecedented rate since

5 Spike in Veterans receiving Compensation began in early 2000s and has risen to 19% more than doubled 20% 18% 16% 14% 12% 10% 8% 6% 4% 2% 0% Percent of Veterans Receiving Compensation Nearly constant at 8.5% over a 40-year window Dramatic Increase to 19%!

6 Average Degree of Disability has increased to 47.7% in 15 years 50% 45% Average Degree of Disability Dramatic Increase to 47.7% in 15 years! 40% 35% Nearly constant at 30% over 45 years 30% 25% 20%

7 Growth in Compensation recipients and medical issues claimed continues to rise Percent of Living Veterans Receiving Compensation by War Era WWII 11.7% Average Issues Claimed Korean 10.2% Vietnam 20.2% Gulf War 26.4% Total Issues Service Connected Non-Service Connected GWOT 44.3% GWOT IDES 100% Total Issues GWOT BDD 99%

8 Fiduciary Beneficiaries & Field Exams 200, K 180, , , , , K Beneficiaries - 84% Growth 118K 80,000 60,000 54K 40,000 Field Exams - 118% Growth 20,000 0 FY09 FY10 FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15 Proj FY16 Proj Full Fiduciary FTE requirement was 329 got 135 still need 194

9 VBA had been stuck in paper and manual processes for decades Now processing 99.6% of compensation claims electronically 8

10 VA had to transform service to the Veteran community in order to eliminate the backlog of disability claims thank you to The American Legion for your help

11 98% Quality Goal Today, VA makes the correct decision 98 percent of the time in each of the eight separate categories measured within a Veteran s disability claim, ensuring the following: All Claimed Issues Addressed All inferred Issues Addressed Al Development Letters Sent All Medical Exams Completed Service Connection Decision Correct Evaluation Percentage Correct Effective Date Correct Payment Rate Correct 10

12 Transformation has reaped significant results with The American Legion s help: Top accomplishments for Veterans, family members and Survivors

13 Transformation has reaped significant results with The American Legion s help: Top accomplishments for Veterans, family members and Survivors

14 We couldn t have done it without The American Legion 165, , , , , , , ,000 Total Rating Receipts from The American Legion 140,855 FY14 161,588 FY15 to date 100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0 FDC Receipts from The American Legion 94,103 62,303 FY14 FY15 to date In FY14, 44% of claims submitted by The American Legion were FDCs in FY15, nearly 58% are FDCs FY15 to date, The American Legion has already submitted 20,000 more claims and over 13,000 more FDCs than in this time FY14 Thank you to The American Legion Verna 13

15 Leadership 101 Accountability Actions Commensurate with Factors Legitimate mistake Unintentional action System issue Process problem Sanctions should fit the circumstances Illegal Unethical Intentional malfeasance 1. Nature and seriousness of the offense 2. Employee s job level and type of employment 3. Employee s past disciplinary record 4. Employee s past work record 5. Effect of the offense upon the employee s ability to perform at a satisfactory level and its effect upon supervisors confidence in the employee s work ability to perform assigned duties 6. Consistency of the penalty with those imposed upon other employees for the same or similar offenses 7. Consistency of the penalty with any applicable agency table of penalties The Douglas Factors 8. Notoriety of the offense or its impact upon the reputation of the agency 9. Clarity with which the employee was on notice of any rules that were violated in committing the offense, or had been warned about the conduct in question 10. Potential for the employee s rehabilitation 11. Mitigating circumstances surrounding the offense such as unusual job tensions, personality problems, mental impairment, harassment, or bad faith, malice or provocation on the part of others involved 12. Adequacy and effectiveness of alternative sanctions to deter such conduct in the future by the employee or others We all served a country that cares about due process 14

16 How VBA Ensures Quality, Accuracy and Accountability Enterprise wide STAT Review began in Jan 2013 RO Directors meet with VBA leadership to discuss processing timeliness/quality Redesigned Challenge Training Monthly national quality conference calls National Training Curriculum Quality Review Teams In-Process Reviews Skill Certification testing SPARC and STAND training Evaluation builder and rules-based calculators Automatically assigned training to address consistency study deficiencies Lean Six Sigma techniques Develop mindset of continuous quality improvement Focus on systems and processes that increase quality 15

17 Moving Forward on Toxic Exposures Agent Orange Exposure on C-123 Aircraft Expanded eligibility for some benefits for a select group of Air Force Veterans and Air Force Reserve personnel who were exposed to Agent Orange on C-123 aircraft used in Vietnam Issued first decision granting compensation for this exposure in July 2015 Camp Lejeune Water Contamination Examining 3 conditions for presumptive actions: 1. Kidney Cancer 2. Angiosarcoma of the Liver 3. Acute Myelogenous Leukemia Worked with Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry last week 16

18 We Need Your Help: Continued Support for our Overall Requirement Requirement Funded or Requested in President s Budget July 2014 Requirement Change from July 2014 March 2015 Revised 2015 Budget 2016* President's Total Increase Remaining Requirement Requirement Requirement Budget (Above FY15) Appeals FTE , Non-Rating FTE , Fiduciary FTE Other Support Call Center FTE Totals 1,618 1,594 3, ,020 2,192 In addition to FTE received in the 2015 budget and requested in the 2016 President s Budget, VBA needs 2,192 FTE for appeals, non-rating, fiduciary, and call center work. The following projections were based on receiving funding for the additional FTE in FY15: Appeals: 795 FTE will reduce pending appeals inventory in VBA to less than one year of receipts by the end of FY16 and hold at that level in FY17. Non-rating: 625 FTE will hold the inventory of non-rating claims and actions in FY15 at FY14 end-of-year level. These resources will also reduce the inventory in FY16 to less than the inventory at the end of FY12 (-230K from the 2016 President s Budget), bringing inventory to a steady-state of approximately 500K in FY17. Fiduciary: 194 FTE will eliminate the fiduciary field examination backlog by the end of FY17. Call Center: 578 FTE will eliminate blocked calls. *plus flexibility to move money 17

19 Appeal decisions by the numbers Appeals rate holds steady in the historical average range of 11 to 12% as volume of claims goes up, volume of appeals goes up 70% of Notices of Disagreement (NOD) resolved before reaching the Board of Veterans Appeals (BVA) In FY14, VBA resolved 83K appeals Nearly 73% of all Veteran appellants receiving disability compensation benefits Approximately 57% have a disability rating of 50% or higher, or receiving Individual Unemployability Appeals can t be resolved without legislation or people 18

20 VBA s NEW regional structure aligns with MyVA we re in! Anchorage Manila Honolulu Oakland Portland Seattle Reno Los Angeles San Diego Boise Salt Lake City Jon Skelly Phoenix Ft. Harrison Cheyenne Denver Sandy Flint Albuquerque Regional Office (RO) RO and Education Regional Processing Office (RPO) RO and Regional Loan Center (RLC) RO, RPO & RLC RO, PMC, and RLC RO, PMC and Insurance Center Appeals Management Center RO and Fiduciary Hub RO, VETERANS Fiduciary Hub, BENEFITS and PMC ADMINISTRATION District CONTROLLED Director UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION Office of Field Operations Beth McCoy Fargo Sioux Falls Lincoln Wichita St. Paul Muskogee Houston Waco Des Moines Milwaukee St. Louis Little Rock New Orleans Chicago Bob Granstrom Jackson Detroit Indianapolis Louisville Nashville Atlanta Montgomery Keith Thompson Cleveland St. Petersburg White River Jct. Buffalo Pittsburgh Huntington Columbia Did you Know? Manchester DC Roanoke Winston Salem San Juan 53% of VBA employees are Veterans Togus Boston Providence Hartford Wilmington New York Newark Philadelphia Baltimore North Atlantic District Southeast District Midwest District Continental District Pacific District Willie Clark 19

21 VBA priority actions to achieve MyVA vision Ensure seamless and effective transition for Servicemembers Transition Call Centers to Service Centers for easy claims Drive to 100% electronic service treatment records and separation health assessment exchanges with DoD Expand employment & educational opportunities for Veterans Provide VBA presence with C&P clinics to improve disability exam process and sustain Doctors in ROs Redesign performance management systems and align employee performance standards with a Veteran-centric approach and expanded telework capacity Move VBA intake & customer service to more community sites - on campus, at medical centers, CBOCs, storefronts, online, SSA, military bases, museums, memorials Increase Resource Capacity for Non-Rating and Appeals through additional people, system and process efficiencies One authoritative source for Veterans contact information (address, , cell phone, selfservice input Redesign the C&P quality review process Give Veterans full access to their own efolders Legend Aligns with VA Goal 1 Aligns with VA Goal 2 Aligns with VA Goal 3 Improve quality and consistency of C&P exams Optimize and automate claims workflow and implement predictive modeling Drive and improve adoption of electronic filing 20

22 Conclusion In Summary We are serving Veterans in an era of unprecedented demand Claims backlog is continuing to decrease (down 84%!) Quality is 98% in all but one of eight categories (one at 97.7%) BOTTOM LINE: We can t do this without you we need your help! 1. Remember the FTE numbers thank you for supporting us being continually resourced! 2. Appeals can t be resolved without legislation or people (see #1!) 3. Continue to show leadership in your submission of FDCs nearly 60% this fiscal year so far! 4. Get 100% of your Service Officers filing online not in paper 5. Let us know when you see a problem 6. Please thank every one of your Service Officers for working with us day in and day out they are awesome partners! 21

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