Transcript Washington Update
North Carolina Association of Coordinators of Veterans Affairs
ROBERT M. WORLEY II DIRECTOR, EDUCATION SERVICE VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION March 17, 2014
OVERVIEW
• • • • • •
FY11-FY13 trainees/dollars paid/claims completed Long Term Solution FY13 claims processing highlights Claims processing timeliness Principles of Excellence
– – Centralized Complaint System Comparison Tool
EDU realignment
VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION 1
FY11 – FY13 Trainees/Dollars Paid
Benefit Education Program
Chapter 30 Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB)-AD Chapter 32 Veterans Educational Assistance Program (VEAP) *Chapter 33 Post-9/11 GI Bill Chapter 35 Chapter 1606 Chapter 1607 Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance Program (DEA) Montgomery GI Bill Selected Reserve (MGIB-SR) Reserve Educational Assistance Program (REAP) Veterans Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP)
Total FY 11 Trainees / Dollars Paid
185,220 / $1.4B
112 / $1.3M
555,329 / $7.7B
90,657 / $463M 65,216 / $201M 27,302 / $95M N/A 923,836 / $9.8B
FY 12 Trainees / Dollars Paid
118,549 / $932M 76 / $682K 646,302 / $8.5B
87,707 / $455M 60,393 / $157M 19,774 / $77M 12,251 / $6.1M
945,052 / $10.1B
FY 13 Trainees / Dollars Paid
99,755 / $775M 29 / $496K 754,229 / $10.2B
89,160 / $483M 62,656 / $156M 17, 297 / $70M 67,918 / $428M
1,091,044 / 12.1B
*As of March 13 th , VA issued $39 billion in Post-9/11 GI Bill benefit payments to 1,162,591 individuals since program inception (August 2009). VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION 2
Long Term Solution (LTS) Supplemental Automation Summary
VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION 3
FY13 Claims Processing Highlights
• • • • 4,513,286 total education claims processed (28% more than FY12) 561,139 original claims (14% more than FY12) 3,952,147 supplemental claims (31% more than FY12) Payment processing accuracy rate at 98.7% – Exceeded the target of 98% 58% reduction in pending claims volume in FY13 Pending claims at the end of FY13 was 89,331 (FY12 was 213,590 claims) Exceeded claims processing timeliness goals (average days to complete) Original claims at 26.2 days compared to 30.5 in FY12 (14% improvement) Supplemental claims at 9.7 days compared to 16.5 in FY12 (41% improvement) VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION 4
FY13 Original Claims Processing
Timeliness
Education Original Claims Processing Timeliness (Average Days to Complete - All Benefit Types)
45,0 40,0 35,0 30,0 25,0 20,0 15,0 10,0 5,0 0,0 Oct 12 Nov 12 Dec 12 Jan 13 Feb 13 Mar 13 Apr 13 May 13 Jun 13 Jul 13 Aug 13 Sep 13
Goal 28 Days
Original Claims
MGIB (CH30) DEA (CH35) MGIB-SR (1606) Post-9/11 GI Bill (CH33) REAP (1607) VRAP
Average All Programs Oct-12 Nov-12 Dec-12 Jan-13 Feb-13 Mar-13 Apr-13 May-13 Jun-13 Jul-13 Aug-13 Sep-13
40.3
34.2
41.5
41.8
43.3
18.4
35.9
36.9
36.2
39.3
45.6
46.0
17.2
39.0
43.7
49.7
40.9
45.5
46.3
23.8
41.9
33.5
37.1
30.9
34.3
36.5
25.4
32.8
28.5
29.2
29.6
27.8
32.7
29.3
28.4
19.0
32.7
24.3
20.6
26.7
27.4
22.5
12.8
31.2
12.8
15.8
15.5
25.9
18.2
10.5
25.5
10.1
17.1
12.0
19.8
17.3
11.2
26.3
10.0
16.9
12.1
20.7
17.3
11.7
27.9
11.1
18.3
12.5
19.0
18.2
12.6
27.4
11.4
20.2
14.0
15.7
18.9
15.7
31.7
14.6
25.0
17.5
28.3
24.3
VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION
FY13 Supplemental Claims Processing
Timeliness
Education Supplemental Claims Processing Timeliness (Average Days to Complete - All Benefit Types)
25,0 20,0 15,0 10,0 5,0 0,0 Oct 12 Nov 12 Dec 12 Jan 13 Feb 13 Mar 13 Apr 13
Average All Programs
May 13 Jun 13 Jul 13 Aug 13 Sep 13
Goal 14 Days VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION
LTS
– Recent Releases
• • Release 6.3.2 added the following functionality to LTS: • Duplicate Payments fix which addresses premature payments being released when a technical error occurs • Off Ramp Adjustments Adjusted ‘Change of Address” off ramp to decrease number of cases incorrectly off ramped Adjusted ‘Validation Error(s) Detected During Automated Work Product” off ramp to replace non-null values when a termination is received Enabled ‘Change in VADIR Kicker Data has been detected’ off ramp • Additional defect and enhancement request to improve processing and letter generation • Auto-Pause dashboard – feature permits monitoring of automation to detect interruption of services Release 6.4 is tentatively scheduled for March 15, 2014. The functionality in release 6.4 will include: • • • 81 months entitlement (PL 112-154) that authorizes VA to award up to 81 months of entitlement to individuals who use the Survivors’ and Dependent’s Educational Assistance program (chapter 35) Adjustment to the VADIR TOE (Transfer Of Entitlement) Off Ramp Logic Fixes to minor production defects VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION 7
Principles of Excellence – Centralized Complaint System
• • VA and DoD created a complaint system for students to register complaints against educational institutions for fraudulent, deceptive, and misleading practices that will be tracked to the educational institution and responses provided to the complainant • Developed a system with DoD to accept complaints through a webform and the Education Service national call center
Launched on January 30, 2014 285 complaints received within the first 24 hours across agencies (VA, DoD, Dept. of Ed)
1057 complaints received by VA as 3/14/14 • The top two complaints cited were:
COMPLAINTS BY BENEFIT
Post-9/11 GI Bill Veterans Retraining Assistance Program 574 299
COMPLAINTS BY ISSUE
Financial Issues (e.g. Tuition/Fee charges) Other 528 441 VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION 8 8
Principles of Excellence – Comparison Tool
• GI Bill Estimator/Comparison Tool; allows Veterans and family members to calculate estimated GI Bill benefits and research approved educational institutions.
•
Website -
http://benefits.va.gov/gibill/comparison • •
Phase I – Launched February 4, 2014
• Value of their GI Bill benefit at a particular school (estimator) • • School indicators (similar to college scorecard) Veteran indicators (e.g., PoE, Yellow Ribbon, GI Bill beneficiaries)
Phase II
• • • Calculates GI Bill Benefits – Tuition / Fees (pre-populated from ED’s database) – In-State vs. Out of State School Indicators (PL Requirements) – Retention rate – Accreditation Veteran Student Outcomes Measures – During School (Retention Rates, Persistence Rates, Course Completion Rates) – Graduation (Transfer Rates, Graduation Rates, Certificate Completion) VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION 9
Veterans Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP)
• • • • • • Public Law 112-56, Section 211 Sunset/Last Payment Date: March 31, 2014 – statutorily imposed (sec. 211(k)) Stopped accepting applications - October 1, 2013 Received 143,139 VRAP applications Legislation to extend VRAP: • • H.R. 357, Section 15 • January 23, 2014: Legislation passed in the House to extend VRAP for two (2) months.
S. 1982 • Authorizes VA to pay retraining assistance for up to 100,000 more Veterans under VRAP for two additional years, until June 30, 2016.
One-Time Payments • • To enable VRAP participants to complete training for their current enrollment period, VA will make a one-time payment The one-time payments will cover training completed on or after April 1, 2014 through the end of the participant’s current enrollment, or June 30, 2014; whichever comes first VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION 10
EDU Realignment
VBA realigned authority over the planning and management of education claims processing from the Office of Field Operations (OFO) to Education Service (EDU) on October 1, 2013 The realignment only affects managerial staff at the four Regional Processing Offices (RPO). It does not impact the day-to-day work of RPO claims processing staff.
The realignment enhances VBA’s effectiveness by establishing a direct line of authority to EDU to enhance responsiveness between staff responsible for production and staff involved in policy, training, and regulations.
EDU established a new organizational structure to include an Operations Division Key Operations Issues National workload management strategy Updated performance standards Organization structure Reporting requirements.
VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION 11
CONTACT US
VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION 12