[RETVET-INFO] VA Paperless Claims System 'Spontaneously' Shuts Down

From: RETVET-INFO@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: <RetVet-Info@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2013 15:29:39 -0600
The Veterans Affairs Department's $491 million paperless claims processing
system frustrates examiners with "spontaneous system shutdowns," Sondra
McCauley, VA deputy assistant inspector general for audits and evaluations, told
a hearing of the House VA Committee.
 
McCauley said 25 staffers in the in the Houston, Newark and Milwaukee regional
offices of the Veteran Benefits Administration told the IG that the Veterans
Benefits Management System, or VBMS, also has latency problems that have slowed
downloading of medical documents.
 
Nextgov reported on Jan. 4 that sluggish response times on VBMS made it
difficult for claims examiners to perform simple actions on veteran claims
files, such as search, update, save or retrieve.
 
McCauley told the hearing on Wednesday that VBMS mislabeled electronic evidence
in claims files and mixed up evidence in the file of one veteran with that of
another veteran. Such malfunctions, she said, force users to rely on older
systems to process claims.
 
VA completed  installation of VBMS in all 56 VBA regional offices in June.
However, McCauley said, VBA has only one VBMS pilot site with "the capability to
process claims from initial application through review, rating, award, to
benefits delivery."
 
VBMS, key to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki's goal to elimination of the massive
claims backlog by 2015, is ill-suited to handle complex claims -- those
involving multiple medical conditions -- well, due to the limitations of its
design, an official of the Paralyzed Veterans of America told the hearing.
 
VBMS is a rules-based system that lacks the "human interaction to fully
understand the circumstances of a specific injury," Sherman Gillums Jr.,
associate executive director for Veterans Benefits at the PVA told the hearing.
 
"Unfortunately, rules-based systems treat all veterans the same and can be
flawed by imperfect rulemaking and application," Gillums said. He said the
numerous issues faced by veterans with "with catastrophic injuries create a
complex set of outcomes that cannot be easily reconciled by logic-based systems
that cannot appreciate nuance in disability assessment."
 
Calculators in rules-based systems historically have failed to compute the right
ratings for people with multiple issues, Gillums said.  This type of decision
analysis uses decision trees that attempt to enable the rater to simplify and
resolve complex questions, Gillums said. "This technique, however, can be
problematic when the analysis involves highly qualitative assessments that are
reduced to binary choices," he said.
 
Experienced claims examiners, not algorithms, "best factor in the nuances of
special monthly compensation and areas of subjective interpretation that can
lead to an incorrect decision," Gillums said.


-------
SOURCE:  NextGov.com article at
http://www.nextgov.com/defense/2013/12/va-paperless-claims-system-spontaneously-
shuts-down/74978/?oref=govexec_today_nl




== RETVET-INFO Mailing List ==

1.  The following options may be used to join\leave this mailing list:

    a.  ONLINE OPTION:  Online subscription\unsubscription options are 
available at:

        http://www.hostmtb.org
        http://www.hostmtb.org/retvet.html
        //www.freelists.org/list/retvet-info

    b.  E-MAIL OPTION:  Subscription\unsubscription may be performed by sending 
an E-Mail message to the following address:

        (1)  To subscribe to this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to 
RETVET-INFO-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' as the subject.

        (2)  To unsubscribe, send an E-Mail message to 
RETVET-INFO-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' as the subject.

2.  If the above subscribe or unsubscribe procedures don't work or if you have 
questions, comments, etc., about this mailing list, please contact 
Milton.Bell126@xxxxxxxxx
[RETVET-INFO] VA Paperless Claims System 'Spontaneously' Shuts Down

Other related posts:
