Fiscal Year 2004 Performance and Accountability Report Published November 15, 2004
Back to Table of Contents
|
FY 2004 Obligation ($ in Millions) |
% of Total VA Resources |
Strategic Goal 3: Honor and serve veterans in life and memorialize them in death for their sacrifices on behalf of the Nation. |
$23,293 |
33.3% |
Objective |
Performance Results
| |
|
3.3 Maintain a high level of service to insurance policy holders and their beneficiaries to enhance the financial security for veterans' families. |
Reduced to 1.8 days the average days to process insurance disbursements (goal was 2.7 days) |
$1,912 |
2.7% |
Performance
VA made excellent progress during FY 2004 in meeting Objective 3.3 by continuing to improve upon the already high level of service provided to insurance policy holders. The insurance programs administered and supervised by the Department offer benefits to veterans and servicemembers who may not be able to obtain insurance coverage from the commercial insurance industry due to lost or impaired insurability resulting from military service. The most important measure of success is the timeliness of processing insurance disbursements. Last year the Department processed these payments in an average of 2.4 days, a figure much better than the performance goal for the year. The timeliness with which insurance disbursements were processed was 25 percent better in FY 2004 than it was during the previous year. In addition, VA paid 100 percent of claims arising from Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom within 2 days of receipt of the necessary documents. Using several other measures of the efficiency and effectiveness of the Department's insurance program, VA continued to sustain its longstanding record of providing high-quality service to policy holders and their beneficiaries. In response to the Department's ongoing survey concerning policy holders' and beneficiaries' satisfaction with service delivery, 96 percent gave the program high customer ratings while only 2 percent gave low ratings.
Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) Evaluation
The PART review of the pension program that relates to the accomplishment of Objective 3.3 is scheduled to be conducted during FY 2005 as part of the formulation of the FY 2007 budget. The results of this upcoming PART review will be presented in future reports.
Major Management Challenges
Neither VA's Office of Inspector General nor the Government Accountability Office identified any major management challenges related to Objective 3.3.
Program Evaluations
In support of Objective 3.3, VA contracted to have an independent evaluation of four of the insurance programs administered by the Department; the final report was issued in 2001. This evaluation focused on the extent to which the insurance programs were available and affordable to servicemembers and veterans, regardless of health or disability status. Much of the analysis was based on comparisons to insurance in the private sector. This program evaluation found that VA insurance is generally available when compared to the non-VA sector, regardless of the hazardous nature of certain work in the military or disability status. The VA-administered programs offer coverage that exceeds that typically provided by employers in the private sector. However, the program evaluation concluded that the insurance program for service-disabled veterans is too expensive, that it needs to use a more modern mortality table, and that the maximum basic amount of insurance should be raised substantially. This program evaluation included a variety of other recommendations concerning program and technical changes that the contractors felt VA should consider. The Department has thoroughly evaluated each of these recommendations and continues to work on implementing those that would best improve the effectiveness of this program.
New Policies and Procedures
Several new procedures have been implemented that are improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the insurance program in support of Objective 3.3. For example, VA has:
- Installed a paperless processing system that provides employees with online access to policyholder information; the imaging capabilities of this system have reduced the time required for processing death claims.
- Enhanced access to insurance services through use of an interactive voice response system and a self-service insurance Web site.
- Conducted a special program of telephone and mail outreach to recently separated, severely disabled veterans resulting in about $84 million in life insurance coverage that would not otherwise have been granted.
Objective 3.3 - Key Performance Goal: Maintain average processing time for insurance disbursements at 2.7 days.
Average Days to Process Insurance Disbursements
| |
2000 |
3.2 |
2001 |
2.8 |
2002 |
2.6 |
2003 |
2.4 |
2004 Actual |
1.8 |
2004 Plan |
2.7 |
2005 Plan |
2.7 |
Strategic Target |
2.7 |
Description, Importance, and Results
A disbursement is an electronic funds transfer (EFT) to veterans or their beneficiaries arising from a death payment, policy loan, or cash surrender of the policy's value. The importance in meeting this goal extends from the import of providing financial security to a veteran seeking quick access to funds, or to a beneficiary dealing with expenses associated with the loss of a family member, the policy holder.
The insurance program met its performance goal by maintaining an average processing time of 1.8 days for disbursements.
Management and Policy Issues
The single most significant factor impacting this strategic target is the Electronic Workflow (previously called Paperless Processing) initiative. The imaging and workflow capabilities of this initiative reduce the time required for processing disbursements and other services. This workflow automatically routes work to appropriate staff, thus decreasing processing time. Electronic Workflow for processing death claims is fully operational. In FY 2005, we will add the remaining categories of disbursements, policy loans, and cash surrenders to the system. This should further improve our average processing time.
In addition to the above, we continue to enhance our paperless workflow procedures. Modifications made in FY 2004 included:
- Instantaneous screening of disbursement inputs for adherence to programming specifications.
- The matching of Social Security Administration and Westlaw pro records to obtain current addresses on returned mail.
The achievement of the key measure is not dependent upon any major external factors or major crosscutting activities.
Data Quality
Please refer to the Key Measures Data Table.
|