The Veterans Affairs and Defense departments launched an enhanced, Web portal to try and address its notorious backlog of benefits claims affecting hundreds of thousands of veterans. The VA said the integration of the eBenefits portal with the new internal Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS) electronic claims processing system “marks a major milestone” in its move from paper to digital claims. The VA has recently completed the implementation of VBMS at all 56 of its regional offices, a spokesman said. The portal features a “step-by-step, interview-style application, with pre-populated data fields and drop-down menus similar to popular tax preparation software.” VA Secretary Eric Shinseki has made chopping through the benefits backlog—caused by a flood of returning veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—a top priority, and the department is counting on automation to help eliminate it by the end of 2015. The VA said that more than 65,000 claims—or 97% of all claims over 2 years old—“have been eliminated from the backlog.”
—Joseph Conn
