Claims Activities of the Department
TARGET
Virginia Department of Veterans' Affairs
implemented this best practice in 1997
Qualifying under the Best Practices catalogue:
3 Provide Capabilities
32 Support resources
322 Enhance/upgrade organizational capabilities
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Best Practice Summary
(how it works, how you measure it)
The Virginia Department of Veterans' Affairs has 16 field locations for providing assistance to veterans and their dependents in filing claims for benefits administered by the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The VA Regional Office for Virginia is located in Roanoke and the systems that house information on veterans are located in this regional office. In the past the field offices, located throughout Virginia, have had to rely on the employees in the Roanoke Central Office to access VA systems or manually retrieve information to respond to client inquiries or to obtain information needed for filing a claim for benefits. This resulted in a delay of anywhere from three days to a week, depending on the nature of the inquiry or the information needed to complete a claim. After several years of meetings and talks with VA officials, this agency and all similar agencies in other states were allowed to install software and equipment for direct access to VA claims, appeals and other information by field offices and other offices not located in the Regional Office.
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Impact on the Process Organizational Performance (OUTCOMES)
Quicker access to client information housed in VA systems, enhanced the response time to clients from three days or more to a virtually instant response, and expedited the claims filing process tremendously. It further freed staff in the Roanoke Central Office to concentrate more on reviewing incoming claims for quality and working with client appeals.
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Best Practice Qualification
Efficiency has been greatly improved, thereby eliminating the need for additional staff to keep up with the inquiry workload.
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For Additional Information
Virginia Department of Veterans' Affairs
270 Franklin Road, S. W.
Room 503
Roanoke, VA 24011-2215
Bonnie S. Giese
(540) 857-7104
Bgiese131@Worldnet.Att.Net
Donald W. Duncan
Director
(540) 857-7104
Dduncanvdva@worldnet.att.net