Politics in America have perhaps never been as divided and polarized as they are right now. But one thing everyone can and should agree on is that government has an obligation to attend to the needs of the brave men and women who served this country in uniform.
Although the Department of Veterans Affairs is full of good people who care deeply for our veterans and wish to provide the best service for them day in and day out, the sad fact is that our government has fallen far short of that obligation for quite some time. Unfortunately, proposed reforms in the current VA budget request would erode that obligation even further.
We have all heard the stories of inadequate facilities and medical treatment and long wait times in VA medical centers. But probably the most dysfunctional element of the VA system is the processing of disability benefit claims.
The VA is experiencing a backlog in disability benefit claims that could well be described as a crisis. A claim is considered “backlogged” when it exceeds 125 days — about four months. Of the approximately 520,000 pending VA disability claims, 191,000, more than one-third, are officially backlogged. This figure skyrocketed during the pandemic last year when the staff at the National Personnel Records Center were sent home and much of the processing work simply ground to a halt. It is only expected to get worse as the effects from exposure to toxic burn pits in Afghanistan and Iraq begin to manifest themselves in veterans of those wars.
You would think that given this egregious backlog of claims, the Biden administration would explore every avenue possible to help provide our veterans with some timely relief. It intends, however, to eliminate an efficient and effective option to file claims.
As of now, veterans have a few options available to them for processing their claims. They can, of course, do it themselves, and a few do. But the process, like any other government process, is cumbersome, complicated, and time-consuming, often requiring more expert help and guidance.
Veterans Service Organizations are available in most parts of the country, but these are for the most part small volunteer-based groups that provide services such as transportation and help with death certificates and the like. They generally lack the required expertise to navigate the sometimes-complicated claims process.
Another option available to veterans is to use the legal representatives accredited and paid for by the VA on a fee-for-service basis. But these lawyers are only available to a veteran after his or her claim has already been denied. They cannot provide help at the earlier stages when the claim is initially filed. Furthermore, the fee-for-service model means attorneys are paid regardless of outcome and offers an incentive to drag claims out as long as possible as fees continue to accumulate.
There is another option currently available to veterans who want help not only with appealing denied claims but in the initial filing stage as well. Private consulting agents are a resource available to help veterans at any step of the process. These are similar to tax preparation specialists, except that they work on a contingency basis — meaning they don’t get paid unless they help deliver a benefit for the veteran. This route offers the most promise in helping clear the claims backlog and getting our veterans the help they need since these agents have the systems and expertise to handle the work efficiently and effectively.
Nevertheless, in the middle of a huge disability application backlog crisis, instead of expanding options for deserving veterans, the Biden administration wants to completely remove this popular, attractive choice.
In its recently released VA budget request, the administration is proposing to eliminate this option by attempting to revive ill-advised VA “reforms” considered in the last Congress that would remove the ability for private claims agents to be accredited to process VA benefits claims. This means that veterans seeking help with their claims will have only the options of trying to use a VSO, which may or may not have the expertise required to help, or the VA’s bevy of fee-for-service lawyers, who only step in when a claim has already been denied and have no financial incentive to prosecute claims in a timely manner.
Our veterans deserve better than this. The American Rescue Plan did provide an additional $272 million to help clear the backlog by digitizing records and pay the overtime costs, but more needs to be done. And the most effective reform would be to expand the accreditation system to include more, not fewer, private claims agents and provide deserving veterans with more options, improved service, and better respect.
Bob Beauprez represented Colorado’s 7th District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2003-2007. He served on the Veterans Affairs Committee.
