The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced 16 JUL that on-line applications are now accepted from veterans, survivors and other claimants filing initial applications for disability compensation, pension, education, and vocational rehabilitation and employment benefits without the additional requirement to submit a signed paper copy of the application. Effective immediately, VA will now process applications received through its on-line application website (VONAPP) without the claimant’s signature. The electronic application will be sufficient authentication of the claimant’s application for benefits. Normal development procedures and rules of evidence will still apply to all VONAPP applications. VONAPP (www.va.gov/onlineapps.htm) is a Web-based system that benefits both internal and external users. Veterans, survivors and other claimants seeking compensation, pension, education, or vocational rehabilitation benefits can apply electronically without the constraints of location, postage cost, and time delays in mail delivery. VONAPP reduces the number of incomplete applications received by VA, decreasing the need for additional development by VA claims processors. The on-line application also provides a link to apply for VA health care benefits and much more. Over 3.7 million veterans and beneficiaries receive compensation and pension benefits from VA and approximately 523,000 students receive education benefits. Approximately 90,000 disabled veterans participate in VA’s Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program. For more information about VA benefits, go to VA’s website at http://www.va.gov/ or call 1-800-827-1000. [Source: VA News Release 16 Jul 08 ++]

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The Pentagon’s accounting unit agreed 16 JUL to double-check requests by more than 25,000 veterans who were turned down for back benefits, concurring with U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich that “a veteran deserves better.” Kucinich, head of a domestic policy subcommittee House panel that found flaws in the military benefits system, also got the Pentagon’s acting inspector general to order an audit.

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Two veterans’ advocacy groups have asked for copies of all documents relating to the Veterans Affairs Department’s post-traumatic stress disorder policies after an e-mail surfaced asking VA doctors to keep costs down by giving diagnoses of adjustment disorder instead. Veterans diagnosed with PTSD are eligible for health benefits and, in some cases, disability retirement pay. Adjustment disorder, on the other hand, is considered a short-term diagnosis, and does not qualify veterans for benefits, said Brandon Friedman, vice chair of VoteVets.org, one of the advocacy groups. “They can say, ‘Ah, you’ve got something temporary, it’ll go away, so we don’t need to pay you for the rest of your life,’ ” Friedman said. He said several veterans have told him they were diagnosed with adjustment disorder rather than PTSD, and that they felt they had received the wrong diagnosis. “We hear anecdotal evidence all the time that VA is trying to cut costs by not diagnosing PTSD,” said Friedman, a former infantry officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. “But we’ve never actually seen proof that it was being done in an organized way.”

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Ohio ranked second-to-last in compensation for disabled veterans, and federal lawmakers are looking at why cases in other states collect thousands of dollars more. More than 85,000 veterans in Ohio receive disability payments, and they routinely trail their peers from other states, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs survey from 2006. Only Indiana’s disabled veterans earned less.

Rep. Zack Space (D-OH-18) is pushing for the VA to have a national standard for payments. Veterans in Ohio receive as much as $4,800 less than those in New Mexico. Veterans in Oklahoma receive $4,185 more than their Ohio peers, and those in West Virginia earn $3,857 more. Space and his colleagues on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs are looking into the disparity.

Part of the reason for the gap is that each state’s veterans’ system sets its own standards for disability. For instance, a soldier in one state might be classified as only partially disabled and thus eligible for small payments. The same veteran could be seen as a more serious case in another state and eligible for greater payment.

Towards this Rep. Space introduced H.R.5709 on 3 APR which would instruct the VA to watch over the system and evaluate how states rate disabilities. The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and presently has no cosponsors.

VA spokesman Steven Westerfeld said the department has started training workers who decide each veteran’s level of disability. He also said the VA is considering consolidating the grading system. [Source: ArmyTimes AP article 14 Apr 08 ++]

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