![]() Processors have been “particularly critical” in implementing the new law, Hayes said. An equipment manager tosses unserviceable uniform items into a burn pit in Iraq in 2008. The bill extended eligibility for VA benefits to about 6.2 million veterans who were exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, radiation and other toxic substances during their service, according to the agency. It has led compensation claims to increase by nearly 37% from the year before, the agency said. The VA has received more than 978,000 PACT Act claims since the measure - officially called the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act - was signed on Aug. Those steps, he said, include reviewing the standards system, recognizing high performers, hosting town halls, attempting to reduce employee burnout, hiring more people and adding more training sessions. Hayes said that one of the VA’s top priorities was supporting processors during a time of increased claims and that the agency would “continue to take steps to better support” them. The VA said 500 processors left in 2021, and nearly the same number has already resigned or retired this year, as of the end of August. “The supervisor is going to contact me and say what’s going on, and why haven’t I touched these claims?”Ībout 600 claims processors resigned or retired from the VA in 2022, a 42% jump from roughly 420 in 2020, data shows. “We don’t have enough time to look through every little thing because we got to have so many points a day,” one processor said. Some employees say there’s a heavy focus on volume and a contradicting demand for thoroughness. In a statement, VA press secretary Terrence Hayes said the agency did not define the “acceptable amount of time” that a processor should spend on a particular case “because each claim is unique.” The points system, he said, is based on “total work processed” and not the total number of claims processed. By the time you complete all your cases, you have to take a deep breath and jump right back in again.” “They’re trying to crack the whip,” he said. “It’s an untenable request to make on anybody.”Ī current employee, who has processed claims for the VA for more than a dozen years, said the point system has become more stressful and stringent in the past year, as the workload has doubled. ![]() “It stresses our own internal ethics,” said Gwinn, a Navy veteran, who retired in 2020 because of job stress and physical health issues. She said it was easier and quicker to look for the first thing that would discredit a claim and close it out, rather than find ways to approve it. Gwinn, 63, a single mother to two teenagers, worried she would lose her job if she spent too much time on a case. “If I review all this, then I won’t make my points, and I will be terminated.” ![]() “It’s like this flowchart that is like a thousand pages long, and you’re under so much strain,” said Nancy Gwinn, who processed claims for the VA’s Houston office for about six years.
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