VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION

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VE TE RANS BE NE FITS ADMINISTRA TI ON CONTROLLE D UNCLASSI FI E D INFORM ATI ON

VETERANS BENEFITS

ADMINISTRATION

U n d e r S e c r e t a r y f o r B e n e f i t s

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VBA Missions & Service Offerings in FY14 and FY15 to date

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TRANSITION & EMPLOYMENT

− Provided 11K briefings to 143K at

280+ military installations FY15TD − Veterans Employment Center hired

365K Veterans; employers committed to hire 657K FY15 to date

COMPENSATION

−$58.4B paid to 3.9M Veterans in FY14 − Completed record 1.32M claims in FY14

– already completed 1.2M FY15TD −2.7M non-rating end products

completed in FY14 – already completed

2.7M FY15TD (18% higher than same time last year)

HOME LOAN GUARANTY

− Over 2.3M home loans on the books − Guaranteed 521K loans FY15TD (18%

more than FY14) totaling $126B

− Lowest foreclosure rate for 25 of 27

quarters

LIFE INSURANCE

− Insured 6.5M beneficiaries in FY14 − 10th_{largest Insurance program in U.S.}

− Provides over $1.3T in coverage under

10 lines of protection

− Paying insurance death claims in avg. of 6 days FYTD at 99.8% accuracy

EDUCATION

− Provided $12.4B to over 1M beneficiaries; 4.3M claims in FY14 −730K beneficiaries; 3.06M claims

processed FY15TD

− Post-9/11 GI Bill paid nearly $54B

to 1.43M students and schools since inception

PENSION & FIDUCIARY

− Paid over $5B in Pension benefits to

521K Veterans & survivors in FY14 − Paid $6B in DIC to 381K survivors in

FY14

− Over 180K Fiduciary beneficiaries on the rolls in FY15TD – 7K more than FY14

BENEFITS ASSISTANCE SERVICE

− Over 5M registered eBenefits users −410K Facebook likes; 59K Twitter

followers to date

−55K outreach hours to 786K

Veterans at 5,200 events in FY14

VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION & EMPLOYMENT

− More than 93K Veterans received over $1.01B in VR&E benefits in FY14 − Already more than 78K Veterans have

received over $943M FY15TD

−22K employees −$96B in benefits distribution −$2.5B in general operating expenses VBA TRANSFORMATION

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VBA’s caseload has grown at an unprecedented rate since 2009

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VE TE RANS BE NE FITS ADMINISTRA TI ON CONTROLLE D UNCLASSI FI E D INFORM ATI ON 0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18% 20%

2001 - 2015

Dramatic Increase

to 19%!

Spike in Veterans receiving Compensation began in early 2000s and has risen to 19% – more than doubled

Nearly constant at 8.5% over a 40-year window

1960 - 2000

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VE TE RANS BE NE FITS ADMINISTRA TI ON CONTROLLE D UNCLASSI FI E D INFORM ATI ON 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Nearly constant at 30% over 45 years

Dramatic Increase to

47.7% in 15 years!

1950 - 1995

2000 - 2015

Average Degree of Disability has increased to 47.7% in 15 years

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10.5

14.1

16.2

7.1 10.5 11.6 3.4 3.6 4.6 Total Issues

Growth in Compensation recipients and medical issues claimed continues to rise

3.9

4.6

6.4

9.5

2.5 2.9 3.8 5.9 1.4 1.7 2.6 3.6 - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Total Issues Service Connected Non-Service Connected

Gulf War 26.4% Vietnam 20.2% Korean 10.2% WWII 11.7% GWOT IDES 100% GWOT 44.3%

Percent of Living Veterans Receiving Compensation by War Era

Average Issues Claimed

GWOT BDD 99%

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104K 191K 54K 118K 0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000 120,000 140,000 160,000 180,000 200,000

FY09 FY10 FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15

Proj

FY16 Proj

Fiduciary Beneficiaries & Field Exams

Beneficiaries - 84% Growth

Field Exams - 118% Growth

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VBA had been stuck in paper and manual processes for decades

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VA had to transform service to the Veteran community in order to eliminate the backlog of disability claims – thank you to The American Legion for your help

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98% Quality Goal

10 Today, VA makes the correct decision 98 percent of the time in each of the eight

separate categories measured within a Veteran’s disability claim, ensuring the following:

• All Claimed Issues Addressed • All inferred Issues Addressed • Al Development Letters Sent • All Medical Exams Completed

• Service Connection Decision Correct • Evaluation Percentage Correct

• Effective Date Correct • Payment Rate Correct

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Transformation has reaped significant results with The American Legion’s help: Top accomplishments for Veterans, family members and Survivors

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Transformation has reaped significant results with The American Legion’s help: Top accomplishments for Veterans, family members and Survivors

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CONTROLLE D UNCLASSI FI E D INFORM ATI ON 13

140,855 161,588 130,000 135,000 140,000 145,000 150,000 155,000 160,000 165,000

FY14 FY15 to date

Total Rating Receipts from The American Legion

• In FY14, 44% of claims submitted by The American Legion were FDCs – in FY15, nearly 58% are FDCs

• FY15 to date, The American Legion has already submitted 20,000 more claims and over 13,000

more FDCs than in this time FY14

We couldn’t have done it without The American Legion

62,303 94,103 0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000

FY14 FY15 to date

FDC Receipts from The American Legion

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Leadership 101…Accountability Actions Commensurate with Factors

14 1. Nature and seriousness of the offense

2. Employee’s job level and type of employment 3. Employee’s past disciplinary record

4. Employee’s past work record

5. Effect of the offense upon the employee’s ability to perform at a satisfactory level and its effect upon supervisors’ confidence in the employee’s work ability to perform assigned duties

6. Consistency of the penalty with those imposed upon other employees for the same or similar offenses

7. Consistency of the penalty with any applicable agency table of penalties

8. Notoriety of the offense or its impact upon the reputation of the agency

9. Clarity with which the employee was on notice of any rules that were violated in committing the offense, or had been warned about the conduct in question

10. Potential for the employee’s rehabilitation

11. Mitigating circumstances surrounding the offense such as unusual job tensions, personality problems, mental impairment, harassment, or bad faith,

malice or provocation on the part of others involved 12. Adequacy and effectiveness of alternative

sanctions to deter such conduct in the future by the employee or others

The Douglas Factors Legitimate mistake

Unintentional action System issue

Process problem

We all served a country that cares about “due process”

Illegal Unethical Intentional malfeasance Sanctions should fit

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How VBA Ensures Quality, Accuracy and Accountability

• Enterprise wide STAT Review began in Jan 2013 – RO Directors meet with VBA

leadership to discuss processing timeliness/quality

• Redesigned Challenge Training

• Monthly national quality conference calls

• National Training Curriculum

• Quality Review Teams

• In-Process Reviews • Skill Certification testing • SPARC and STAND training

• Evaluation builder and rules-based calculators

• Automatically assigned training to address consistency study deficiencies

• Lean Six Sigma techniques

• Develop mindset of continuous quality improvement

• Focus on systems and processes that increase quality

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Moving Forward on Toxic Exposures

Agent Orange Exposure on C-123 Aircraft

• Expanded eligibility for some benefits for a select group of Air Force Veterans and Air Force Reserve personnel who were exposed to Agent Orange on C-123 aircraft used in Vietnam

• Issued first decision granting compensation for this exposure in July 2015

Camp Lejeune Water Contamination

• Examining 3 conditions for presumptive actions: 1. Kidney Cancer

2. Angiosarcoma of the Liver

3. Acute Myelogenous Leukemia

• Worked with Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry last week

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We Need Your Help: Continued Support for our Overall Requirement

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Requirement Funded or Requested in

President’s Budget July 2014 Requirement Change from July 2014 Requirement March 2015 Revised Requirement 2015 Budget 2016* President's Budget (Above FY15)

Total Increase Remaining Requirement Appeals FTE 769 326 1,095 100 200 300 795 Non-Rating FTE 542 503 1,045 100 320 420 625 Fiduciary FTE 307 22 329 50 85 135 194 Other Support - 165 165 - 165 165 -

Call Center FTE - 578 578 - - - 578

Totals 1,618 1,594 3,212 250 770 1,020 2,192

In addition to FTE received in the 2015 budget and requested in the 2016 President’s Budget, VBA needs 2,192 FTE for appeals, non-rating, fiduciary, and call center work. The following projections were based on receiving funding for the additional FTE in FY15:

• Appeals: 795 FTE will reduce pending appeals inventory in VBA to less than one year of receipts by the end of FY16 and hold at that level in FY17.

• Non-rating: 625 FTE will hold the inventory of non-rating claims and actions in FY15 at FY14 end-of-year level. These resources will also reduce the inventory in FY16 to less than the inventory at the end of FY12 (-230K from the 2016 President’s Budget), bringing inventory to a steady-state of approximately 500K in FY17.

• Fiduciary: 194 FTE will eliminate the fiduciary field examination backlog by the end of FY17. • Call Center: 578 FTE will eliminate blocked calls.

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Appeal decisions by the numbers

Appeals rate holds steady in the historical average range of 11 to 12% – as volume of claims goes up, volume of appeals goes up

• 70% of Notices of Disagreement (NOD) resolved before reaching the Board of

Veterans Appeals (BVA)

• In FY14, VBA resolved 83K appeals

Nearly 73% of all Veteran appellants receiving disability compensation benefits

• Approximately 57% have a disability rating of 50% or higher, or receiving Individual

Unemployability

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VE TE RANS BE NE FITS ADMINISTRA TI ON CONTROLLE D UNCLASSI FI E D INFORM ATI ON Regional Office (RO)

RO and Education Regional Processing Office (RPO) RO and Regional Loan Center (RLC)

RO, RPO & RLC RO, PMC, and RLC

RO, PMC and Insurance Center Appeals Management Center RO and Fiduciary Hub RO, Fiduciary Hub, and PMC District Director

VBA’s NEW regional structure aligns with MyVA – we’re in!

San Juan Seattle Portland Togus Buffalo White River Jct. Manchester Boston Providence Hartford Roanoke Winston Salem St. Petersburg Wilmington New York Philadelphia Newark Baltimore Reno Salt Lake City Albuquerque Phoenix Denver Boise Ft. Harrison Cheyenne Sioux Falls Fargo Lincoln Columbia St. Paul Waco Muskogee Wichita Milwaukee Detroit Houston New Orleans Jackson Little Rock St. Louis Des Moines San Diego Nashville Atlanta Montgomery Indianapolis Chicago Louisville Pittsburgh Oakland Cleveland Los Angeles Huntington DC

53% of VBA employees are Veterans

Did you Know?

Manila

Honolulu Anchorage

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 North Atlantic District

 Southeast District

 Midwest District

 Continental District

 Pacific District Office of Field Operations

Beth McCoy Jon Skelly Sandy Flint Bob Granstrom Keith Thompson Willie Clark

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Drive to 100% electronic service treatment records

and separation health assessment exchanges with DoD Expand employment & educational opportunities for Veterans

Drive and improve adoption of electronic filing

Give Veterans full access to their own

eFolders

One authoritative source for Veterans contact information (address, email, cell phone,

self-service input Move VBA intake & customer

service to more community sites - on campus, at medical centers, CBOCs, storefronts, online, SSA, military bases,

museums, memorials

Improve quality and consistency of C&P exams

Optimize and automate claims workflow and implement predictive

modeling Redesign performance

management systems and align employee performance standards with a Veteran-centric

approach and expanded telework capacity

Increase Resource Capacity for Non-Rating

and Appeals through additional people, system

and process efficiencies

Redesign the C&P quality review process Ensure seamless and effective transition for Servicemembers Transition Call Centers to Service Centers

for easy claims

Provide VBA presence with C&P clinics to improve disability exam process and

sustain Doctors in ROs

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VBA priority actions to achieve MyVA vision

Legend

Aligns with VA Goal 1 Aligns with VA Goal 2 Aligns with VA Goal 3

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Conclusion

In Summary…

• We are serving Veterans in an era of unprecedented demand

• Claims backlog is continuing to decrease (down 84%!)

• Quality is 98% in all but one of eight categories (one at 97.7%)

BOTTOM LINE: We can’t do this without you – we need your help!

1. Remember the FTE numbers – thank you for supporting us being continually

resourced!

2. Appeals can’t be resolved without legislation or people (see #1!)

3. Continue to show leadership in your submission of FDCs – nearly 60% this fiscal

year so far!

4. Get 100% of your Service Officers filing online – not in paper

5. Let us know when you see a problem

6. Please thank every one of your Service Officers for working with us day in

and day out – they are awesome partners!

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