Veterans find long waits on disablity claims

Long waits for payments from a backlog of disability claims are still vexing veterans as VA Secretary Jim Nicholson prepares to end his two years on the job Oct. 1.

Utah Veterans Affairs executive director Terry Schow heard echoes of Nicholson's assessment of the VA's successes and shortcomings this week while he was in Maryland at a national conference of state VA directors. Nicholson addressed Congress on Tuesday.

"I think we're fortunate, in my view, that the Salt Lake regional VA office is one of the best in the country," Schow said about claims processing for veterans in Utah.

Nationally, there are about 402,000 claims being processed, and about 150,000 of those could be considered a backlog, according to Douglas Wadsworth, Utah's VA regional office director in charge of administering veteran benefits in this state.

"But I wouldn't say it's anywhere near an epidemic of claims," Wadsworth said Tuesday. He said the VA system expects about 250,000 disability claims to be in process at any one time.

The average processing time for claims in Utah, Wadsworth said, is about 98 days. That ranks about eighth in the nation among 57 regional offices, he added.

Part of the success in Utah is attributed to an "aggressive" effort to meet incoming veterans as they return from a deployment to inform them of the benefits they have coming and how to apply for them. "So, it's a real good coordinating effort," Wadsworth said.

And there's more help on the way.

Schow heard from a VA official this week that the VA has hired 1,100 more people to handle claims. About 26 of those new hires will be working in Utah, where the regional VA office also handles claims for veterans in an area defined as west of the Mississippi River.

Schow said the problems that have been creating backlogs nationally stem from the time it takes to train someone to process claims. It normally takes about two years to fully train a claims processor, but Schow and Wadsworth said the VA is working on a new program to cut that training time in half. Wadsworth said a fully proficient claims processor has to understand myriad medical terms, knowledge that he said takes time to acquire.

Having the right paperwork at the right time also is key to a more timely claim, Schow said. Also, some cases become more complex and therefor take longer to process when there is more than one medical concern affecting a veteran at one time, Schow said.