VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION U nveterans d e r Secretary BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION f o r B e n e f i t s N AV CONTROLLED PA C o nunclassified f e r e n c e INFORMATION October 7, 2015 Controlled Unclassified Information
VBA Missions & Service Offerings in FY14 and FY15 to date EDUCATION Provided est. $12.6B to over 1M beneficiaries in FY15 4M claims processed in FY15 Post-9/11 GI Bill paid nearly $56B to 1.5M students and schools since inception COMPENSATION Paid est. $70.5B to nearly 4.5M Veterans in FY15 Completed record-breaking nearly 1.4M claims in FY15 3.1M non-rating end products completed in FY15 15% higher than FY14 PENSION & FIDUCIARY Paid est. $5.5B in Pension benefits to over 500K Veterans & survivors in FY15 Reduced DIC backlog by 86% from peak of 8.8K to 1.2K Over 183K Fiduciary beneficiaries on the rolls in FY15 10K more than FY14 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 3.6 days at 99.2% accuracy in FY15 VBA TRANSFORMATION 22K employees $96B in benefits distribution $2.5B in general operating expenses 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 2.4M home loans on the books Guaranteed 631K loans in FY15 (44% more than FY14) totaling $153B Lowest foreclosure rate for 25 of 28 quarters TRANSITION & EMPLOYMENT Provided 15K briefings to 185K at 303 military installations FY15TD Veterans Employment Center hired over 365K Veterans; employers committed to hire over 668K in FY15 BENEFITS ASSISTANCE SERVICE Over 5M registered ebenefits users 422K Facebook likes; 61K Twitter followers to date Over 50K outreach hours and had over 2.15 encounters with Veterans, family members & survivors in FY15 1
VBA s workload has risen dramatically since 2009
VBA s caseload has grown at an unprecedented rate since 2009 3
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 1960-2000 Nearly constant at 8.5% over a 40-year window Dramatic Increase to 19%! 2001-2015
Average Degree of Disability has increased to 47.7% in 15 years 50% 45% Average Degree of Disability 1950-1995 2000-2015 Dramatic Increase to 47.7% in 15 years! 40% 35% Nearly constant at 30% over 45 years 30% 25% 20%
Growth in Compensation recipients and medical issues claimed continues to rise 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 - Percent of Living Veterans Receiving Compensation by War Era WWII 11.7% 3.9 2.5 Average Issues Claimed Korean 10.2% 4.6 2.9 1.4 1.7 Vietnam 20.2% 6.4 3.8 2.6 Gulf War 26.4% 9.5 5.9 3.6 Total Issues Service Connected Non-Service Connected GWOT 44.3% 10.5 7.1 GWOT IDES 100% 14.1 10.5 3.4 3.6 Total Issues GWOT BDD 99% 16.2 11.6 4.6
VBA had been stuck in paper and manual processes for decades Now processing 99.8% of compensation claims electronically 7
VA had to transform service to the Veteran community in order to eliminate the backlog of disability claims
VBA transformed service to the Veteran community in order to eliminate the backlog of disability claims PAST An organization of 10,000 claims processors highly unionized thumbing through 5,000 tons of paper in a single year, memorizing 850+ medical diagnostic codes; matching against thousands of law based rules PRESENT Completely transformed a complex, paper-bound, compensation claims process Redesigned and deployed new national training program Designed and deployed new quality assurance program and people Designed, piloted, refined, tested and deployed using agile development process its first ever digital claims IT system incorporating rules and tools for more than 56 stations and 30,000 unique user accounts Designed and deployed a complete paper to digits conversion system turning over 1.7 billion images into data and high quality, searchable PDF used by the claims system Designed and deployed Disability Benefits Questionnaires for Physicians to capture evidence-based data Designed concurrently a CRM, Unified Desktop, Knowledge Management capability to more than 1,000 call agents Designed a completely new online claims filing system customer facing with 55+ additional self-service features and drives adoption from 250K to over 5 million users All successfully with minor disruption completing over 1 million claims each year Less than 36 months from paper plan to reality less than 18 months after full implementation Reduced a backlog by 88% in two years; an inventory by 58%; improved accuracy by 8% points over 90% and 96% claim and issue respectively; established new all-time records in productivity and performance on behalf of the customer our Veterans, their Families and Survivors 9
Education Program Highlights Paid an estimated $12.6B in Education benefits to over 1M Veterans, Service members, and their dependents in FY15 Completed 4M education claims with a timeliness of 17.2 days for original claims and 6.3 days for supplemental claims with over 99% accuracy Provided nearly $56B to send nearly 1.5M Veterans and dependents to school under the Post-9/11 GI Bill since 2009 Automated 2.7M claims in FY15 1.4M fully automated Nearly 900K partially automated 382K manually automated
GI Bill Comparison Tool Launched February 4, 2014 as part of EO 13607 implementation Combines resources from more than 17 different web pages and three Federal agencies into one easy-to-use tool Includes a benefits estimator, VA summary (# of GI Bill students), feedback system data, graduation rates, and more 1,718,916 views and over 1M users as of Sept. 15 http://department-of-veterans-affairs.github.io/gi-bill-comparison-tool/
GI Bill Feedback System Beneficiaries eligible for or receiving VA educational benefits can submit their feedback Since launch on January 30, 2014, there have been 3.9K complaints submitted Most common complaint: financial issues (tuition/fees) http://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill/feedback.asp
PL 113-146 Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014 Thanks for your help! Section 701: Fry Scholarship for Surviving Spouses Eligible spouses are entitled to up to 36 months of 100% Post-9/11 of GI Bill benefits, including tuition, fees, monthly housing allowance, & stipend for books/supplies (began on 1/1/15) Since implementation, VBA has received 1,194 applications and issued 731 certificates of eligibility to spouses and 378 disallowances Section 702: In-State Tuition Rates VA will disapprove educational programs under Post-9/11 and Montgomery GI Bill (Active Duty) at public institutions if schools charge certain individuals tuition/fees in excess of in-state rates Affects about 27% of all approved institutions of higher learning 2,500 out of 9,300 Affects 51% of all our education beneficiaries about 400,000 out of 780,000 Currently all but 7 states & territories are compliant and we continue to work with these schools to ensure they become compliant 19
New Outcome Measures Under EO 13607, VA, ED, and DoD have been working to develop outcome measures that will provide information on available educational programs VA published the outcome measures on September 29 to help Veterans to make informed decisions when choosing schools MEASURES Retention Rate Persistence Rate Transfer Rate Graduation Rate Certificate Completion Rate CRITERIA Servicemembers/Veterans Post-9/11 GI Bill (Ch. 33) only First-time Education benefit user VA strongly encourages School Certifying Official participation to ensure that the most accurate and complete information is available to our Veterans Outcome measures are posted on the GI Bill website at http://benefits.va.gov/gibill/outcomes.asp 14
Thank you for your continued support of Veteran Education You are key partners in service to student Veterans We heard you over the last 3 years a contract has been let to give you Ch. 33 access so you can view both these and Ch. 36 benefits Bookmark http://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill/school_training_resources.asp and check out the school training resources available: Take advantage of training opportunities offered by VA (i.e., VA ONCE training, online school official training) Join our quarterly Education Service webinars for SCOs, SAAs, ELRs & VSOC Counselors o Audience has grown from 3,000 participants in FY14 to over 4,000 in FY15 thank you for your participation Important: check out and use the new & improved School Certifying Official Handbook just updated in September Get certifications in as quickly as possible Be on the lookout: a new Choosing a School Guide is coming! 15
What is MyVA? Objectives Improving the Veteran Experience Improving Internal Support Services Improving the Employee Experience Establishing a Culture of Continuous Improvement Enhancing Strategic Partnerships
VBA s NEW district 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 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 Sandy Flint Office of Field Operations Beth McCoy Fargo Sioux Falls Lincoln Wichita St. Paul Muskogee Houston Waco Des Moines St. Louis Little Rock New Orleans Milwaukee Chicago Bob Granstrom Jackson Detroit Indianapolis Louisville Nashville Atlanta Montgomery St. Petersburg Keith Thompson Cleveland 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 New York Newark Philadelphia Wilmington Baltimore North Atlantic District Southeast District Midwest District Continental District Pacific District Willie Clark 17
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, email, 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 18