Lawmakers want VA to report on its use of automation to process benefits claims
Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., shown here outside a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the U.S. Capitol in December 2023, is backing a bill to compel the Department of Veterans Affairs to report on its use automated tools to process benefits claims. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
The legislative proposal seeks to enhance VA’s adoption of new technologies, including providing lawmakers with “a timeline for modifying and implementing the use of such automation tools” in the benefits claims process.
New legislation would push the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide Congress with details on how it plans to use automated tools to process veterans’ benefits claims.
The proposal, introduced on June 28 by Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., would require the VA “to report on expanding the use of certain automation tools in the Department of Veterans Affairs.”
“Veterans shouldn’t be waiting months for their benefits because of outdated technology at the VA, but sadly that’s happening across the country,” Valadao said in a statement. “This commonsense bill ensures the VA has the technology and resources they need to review veterans’ claims in a more timely and efficient manner.”
Within 180 days of its enactment, the legislation would require VA to submit a report to the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs committees detailing its plan for making automation tools available for use in processing benefits claims by the Veterans Benefits Administration. The agency would then have to report this information to lawmakers on a semi-annual basis moving forward.
That report would have to include details on the “feasibility and benefits” of using automated tools, the modifications needed to make these technologies work for relevant VA components, the tasks that cannot be effectively completed by the technologies, the collaboration needed to make the tools work and “a timeline for modifying and implementing the use of such automation tools.”
Valadao’s proposal also defined such a tool as a technology that automates the location of veterans’ service or health records or collects information regarding a veteran or beneficiary’s claim. The definition also included technology that “provides automated decision support” for processing claims, as well as tools that automate communication between relevant federal agencies or assist with creating correspondence related to benefits claims.
Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., who chairs the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, voiced his support for the legislation, saying in a statement that the proposal “would require VA to develop a plan for how all of [the Veterans Benefits Administrations’s] different offices can and should process veterans’ and their survivors’ claims in a more efficient manner.”
“I look forward to moving Rep. Valadao’s vitally important bill through the legislative process as soon as possible,” He added.
VA officials have said that the adoption and implementation of automated technologies will enhance the department’s ability to support veterans and their beneficiaries, particularly when it comes to processing PACT Act claims. The legislation, signed into law by President Joe Biden in August 2022, increased the number of veterans and their beneficiaries eligible to receive benefits and health services if they were exposed to burn pits and other toxic substances during their service.
The department announced in May that it had granted more than 1 million PACT Act-related claims, with an official saying at the time that the department has been using automation to help process claims and is working to invest in the technologies further.