You’ve probably heard about the terrible and completely unacceptable veterans disability backlog. You may even know that they reduced their backlog in years past by about 200,000 cases after outcry from the public and the government.
But most people have no idea how the VA accomplished that rather impressive task… or why it’s unlikely to do the same thing in the near future.
Overtime and Less Emphasis on Accuracy Lower Veterans Disability Backlog
How did they do it? Part of the “solution” was mandatory overtime that gave their workers the chance they needed to get to more claims. This makes sense. If the organization essentially had more time to do the work, of course they completed more of it. But it doesn’t stop there.
Besides having extra time to do the work, VA staffers were also given a mandate to move as quickly as possible when processing veteran disability claims – even if that meant making decisions on cases that they still weren’t completely sure about.
Now, we should be clear; as far as anyone knows, there’s no memo out there explicitly telling VA employees to preference speed over accuracy. But the push to move faster, faster, faster was a definite message to workers that getting the numbers down was more important than being absolutely sure they were right. After all, mistakes can always be fixed on appeals, right?
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Suspension of Overtime a Sign That Leaders Recognize This Problem
Of course Veterans Disability appeals frequently take years, and no one seriously sees them as a good answer. After months of seeing their backlog decrease and their appeals numbers continue to rise, one of the senior VA leaders put a stop to the overtime hours, referencing the policy’s “diminishing returns.”
It’s important that you know the reasons for the decrease in veterans disability backlog – not only because your claim might have been wrongly denied while the VA was trying to speed through their backlog, but also because those currently filing their initial claims should know that they’re not going to experience the same kind of quick decrease in backlogged cases unless the agency thinks of a different and better idea fast.
What this may mean is a return to the slow processing times we’ve seen over the past several years and continued promises that things will get better. We’ll keep covering the latest news and rules changes in our blog, so make sure you check in regularly. For more information download our free e-book, Veterans Disability Claims, Strategies for a Winning Campaign.
