VA Claims Backlog Now at 75,000 - Lowest Since 2009
VA Secretary Bob McDonald Lauren Victoria Burke/AP File Photo
By
Frank Konkel
Greg Giddens, acting chief acquisition officer for VA, told an industry audience Tuesday VA’s “dramatic reduction” in the claims backlog is evidence the agency’s transformational efforts under Secretary Bob McDonald have paid off.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has managed to cut its disability claims backlog to 75,000, according to its top acquisition official.
Greg Giddens, acting chief acquisition officer for VA, told an industry audience Tuesday the agency's “dramatic reduction” in the claims backlog is evidence turnaround efforts under Secretary Bob McDonald have paid off.
At its peak in 2013, the claims backlog topped 600,000, drawing widespread, bipartisan criticism, with paper-based claims stacked so high, they posed safety risks to employees.
Now at 75,000, the backlog is at its lowest point since the agency began measuring the statistic in 2009.
“We’ve made a lot of progress in VA disability claims,” said Giddens, speaking at the ACT-ACT Acquisition Excellence event. “We uncovered things and had a lot of things uncovered that needed improvement. To Secretary McDonald’s and (Deputy Secretary) Sloan Gibson’s credit, we’ve been in the mode of owning that.”
VA expects to finalize 1.4 million claims this fiscal year -- the most it has ever completed.
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