Strategic Goal: Provide One VA world-class service to veterans and their families through the effective management of people, technology, processes, and financial resources. VA will operate as a veteran-focused organization that provides high quality, accessible, and timely information and service through the development and maintenance of a high-performing workforce, the application of state-of-the-art technologies, the continuous improvement of processes, and the effective allocation of dollars.

Objective: Improve VA’s overall governance and operational management, and access to benefits and services to meet or exceed the expectations of veterans and their families, while ensuring full compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and financial commitments.

Improvement in technical accuracy is the highest priority as an element toward expediting and improving the adjudication of compensation and pension claims. This priority is reflected on VBA’s balanced scorecard with accuracy having the heaviest weight. Baseline technical accuracy levels were established during 1998 from special reviews of nationwide samples of cases. Baseline accuracy was 64 percent for core rating work. Core rating actions include original compensation claims, original dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC) claims, original pension claims, reopened compensation claims, reopened pension claims, routine examinations, and reviews due to hospitalization.

We will pursue several initiatives during the fiscal year that will significantly improve claims processing performance. The most important ones are briefly described below.

• Additional FTE Resources – VBA will redirect 183 existing FTE and hire 243 new FTE to claims adjudication to improve accuracy and timeliness of processing. With full implementation, this should result in significant improvement in accuracy as new employees gain experience.

• Training and Performance Support Systems (TPSS) – This initiative consists of four comprehensive training and performance support systems: basic rating, veterans service representatives, journey-level rating specialists, and decision review officers.

• Systematic Technical Accuracy and Review (STAR) Program – Continued implementation of STAR will allow for review of statistically valid samples at the national, service delivery network (SDN), and regional office level.

• Systematic Individual Performance Assessment (SIPA) – This initiative complements the STAR program by bringing performance assessment and accountability to the journey-level individual. A representative sampling of work products for each employee will be reviewed for quality. The initiative requires 110 additional FTE in FY 2001.

• Development and Case Management – This initiative will improve accuracy of claims processing by providing a single capability which addresses complete claims development, claim status, and case management.

• Rating Board Automation (RBA) Redesign – The shortcomings of the current RBA system will be remedied by a stricter definition and control of data fields, and by capturing data on special issues of interest.

• VETSNET Migration (C&P Benefits Payment Replacement System) – VA will pursue an incremental strategy as the most effective means to complete the development of the C&P payment system. A key component of the strategy is the completion of the award, payment, and accounting subsystem. Completion of this forms the basis for replacing the finance and accounting code with a standardized, on-line accounting and payment system that will interface with the Financial Management System.

Achievement of this performance goal is not directly dependent on other agencies.

The Department has two major management challenges that may affect achievement of the performance goal: the increased complexity of the workload and the loss of highly experienced decision-makers.

Decision-makers are faced with significant changes in the body of law governing the compensation and pension programs. Compared with the past, the process of evaluating claims using a combination of regulations and precedent decisions is much more complex, requires additional research time, and is more prone to error.

During the next five years, VA will experience the loss of over 1,100 experienced decision-makers due to retirement. To avoid a two-to-three year skill gap, we need to stabilize the claims processing workforce by hiring and training substantial numbers of new employees before the actual losses occur.

The C&P Service determines accuracy rates by reviewing a statistically valid sample of cases for each SDN. The national accuracy rate is calculated by compiling the results from the nine SDNs. The sample size is large enough to ensure a 95 percent confidence level with a sampling error rate of +/- 5 percent. Each SDN sample will reflect a regional office’s relative share of its respective SDN’s total completed workload. The accuracy rate for the Nation is a compilation of the C&P Service review results for the nine SDNs, weighted to reflect relative share of the national workload. Program experts who are independent of field operations management conduct the reviews.

(For additional information on this performance goal, refer to General Operating Expenses, Volume 4, Chapter 2B.)