McClatchy: Report: VA's performance on benefits slips or is unchanged

[babylonsister]

Report: VA's performance on benefits slips or is unchanged
By Chris Adams | McClatchy Newspapers

* Posted on Wednesday, November 28, 2007


WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs fell farther behind this year in its attempts to give veterans timely decisions on their disability claims, new records show.

The latest numbers are in an annual report the VA prepares for Congress detailing a range of short- and long-term goals for its disability, health and other benefit programs. Overall, the agency either has fallen behind or has made no progress in improving its performance in more than half of what it lists as its key goals.

In the benefits measure the VA has said is "most critical to veterans" — the speed of processing disability claims — the agency lost ground for the third year in a row.

Moreover, McClatchy has found that the VA put a positive spin on many of its numbers, and in two instances provided Congress with incorrect or incomplete figures.

The agency said it took an average of 183 days to process a claim in fiscal 2007, longer than in any of the five years tracked in the report. Processing exceeded its 2007 goal of 160 days and its long-term goal of eventually reducing processing time to 125 days.

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/22191.html