Goals Not Met for Implementation of the Beneficiary Travel Self-Service System

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) established the beneficiary travel program to reimburse veterans and caregivers for travel expenses for approved healthcare appointments. VHA spent over $1.3 billion on this program in fiscal year 2021. Both VA and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) have identified the beneficiary travel program as susceptible to significant improper payments. In September 2016, VA awarded a contract to create a web-based system called the Beneficiary Travel Self-Service System (BTSSS) to automate the travel reimbursement claims process, reduce long-term costs, provide better oversight, and decrease the risk of improper payments. In November 2020, VA started using the new system nationwide. Complaints to the OIG suggested the new system had not been meeting its intended goals, prompting a review of its implementation. Although VHA has made improvements since BTSSS rollout, the OIG found it needs to do more to ensure successful implementation. The Veterans Transportation Program (VTP) office, which oversees the beneficiary travel program, established four goals to measure success. The OIG found that from February 2021 through July 2022 (the review period), BTSSS fell short of all four metrics on increased automated claims adjudication, reduced manual overrides, greater new system usage, and more self-service use. VA concurred with the OIG’s four recommendations. They included that the VTP director determine what system changes are needed to meet auto-adjudication goals and implement them, as well as conduct outreach to users, solicit feedback, and then consider whether system changes are needed to increase self-service portal usage. The OIG also recommended the assistant under secretary for health for operations create an action plan to phase out continued use of the legacy beneficiary travel function and coordinate with the VHA finance office and assess whether duplicate payments were made to veterans requesting travel reimbursement since the new system went live.