Inspection of VA Regional Office White River Junction, Vermont

We evaluated the White River Junction VA Regional Office (VARO) to see how well it accomplishes its mission. We found the VARO staff did not accurately process 11 (22 percent) of 49 disability claims reviewed. We sampled claims we considered at higher risk of processing errors, thus these results do not represent this VARO’s overall disability claims processing accuracy rate. Specifically, 6 of 30 temporary 100 percent disability evaluations we reviewed were inaccurate, generally because management did not ensure timely processing of temporary 100 percent cases requiring reduced evaluations and medical reexaminations. VARO staff incorrectly processed 1 of 10 traumatic brain injury claims. Staff also incorrectly processed 4 of 9 special monthly compensation (SMC) claims due to a lack of training and an ineffective second-level review process. All 11 Systematic Analyses of Operations (SAOs) were either incomplete or not submitted because of a lack of management oversight to ensure staff completed the SAOs correctly. VARO staff did not timely or accurately complete 6 of 27 proposed benefits reduction cases because management did not prioritize this workload. We recommended the VARO Director implement a plan to ensure staff timely process temporary 100 percent disability evaluations and review 33 such cases remaining from our inspection universe. The Director should provide refresher training and strengthen the additional level of review for SMC cases, ensure SAOs are complete, and implement a plan to ensure management oversight and processing of benefits reduction cases. The VARO Director concurred with all recommendations.