Review of Alleged Data Manipulation of Appealed Claims at VA Regional Office Wichita, Kansas

In April 2015, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) received an allegation that Wichita VA Regional Office (VARO) management instructed staff to input inaccurate data when entering Notices of Disagreement (NOD) into the Veterans Appeals Control and Locator System (VACOLS). Allegedly, VARO staff entered inaccurate data to improve timeliness measures associated with appealed claims processing actions. The Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) uses VACOLS, an electronic records system, to track and manage its appeals workloads. The effectiveness of tracking appeals is dependent upon the accuracy and timeliness of the information entered in VACOLS. We substantiated the allegation that VARO management instructed staff to enter inaccurate data when recording NOD information into VACOLS rather than entering the actual diagnostic code for the disability or disabilities being appealed, as required. We found that in all 36 appealed claims, staff did not follow VBA policy when entering the NODs in VACOLS. We could not determine whether VARO management took these actions to improve timeliness measures. Data integrity issues identified at the Wichita VARO occurred because of the lack of management oversight and the subsequent conflicting guidance provided by Compensation Service that required VARO staff to enter incomplete and/or inaccurate information in VACOLS. As a result, VARO staff did not always update VACOLS with accurate information. This may have resulted in veterans not having received the correct information regarding their claims. In addition, inaccurate claims information in VBA’s system of records would result in unreliable appeals workload reporting, as well as an inefficient research and inaccurate responses to inquiries. We recommended the Wichita VARO Director take action to correct the 36 NODs established in VACOLS and implement a plan to provide adequate oversight to ensure staff establish NODs using accurate data. We recommended the Under Secretary for Benefits develop a plan to notify staff at its 56 VAROs of the modified policy, effective July 29, 2015, to ensure correct processing of an appellate claim. The Under Secretary for Benefits and VISN 3 Director concurred with our findings and the corrective actions were responsive to the recommendations. We considered Recommendation 1 closed and will follow up as required on the remaining recommendations.