American Legion: VA Disability Process 45 Percent Accurate

American Legion- VA Disability Process 45 Percent Accurate

I wish Congress had a set of balls like Ron Burgundy about Sex Panther. We all know VA strategy works for veterans far less than they claim, but Congress rarely calls them on the carpet.

At least Burgundy wasn’t afraid to point out that Sex Panther’s claim to fame makes no sense, “60% of the time, it works every time.”

While VA claims an accuracy level of 90%, an investigation by American Legion says otherwise. Hard-hitting Bob Brewing hammered this issue home on Nextgov.com, and I thought it’d be a good idea to pass thing on.

During a recent Senate Committee hearing, Under Secretary Allison Hickey recently claimed VA had an accuracy level of 90% to Senator Burr and friends.

Meanwhile, Senator Burr confronted Hickey with different statistics. According to an investigation by American Legion, VA is well off the mark.

American Legion conducted a review of VBA claims accuracy and determined an overall error rate of 55 percent, meaning an accuracy rate of only 45 percent. That review looked at 260 claims at 11 VBA regional offices and found error rates ranging from a high of 83.3 percent in Pittsburgh to a low of 31.8 percent in Indianapolis.

Burr questioned Hickey about the statistics she provided. Rather than answering Burr’s question, “Are they wrong?” head on, she repeatedly stated VBA has a “statically valid process.”

This is obviously bullshit. After all, what does “statistically valid” even mean? Anything can be valid but still grossly wrong, invalid or ineffective. Even an ineffective use of statistically can be valid.

The real question Burr failed to ask is, “What is VA’s goal in selecting its statistically valid process?” It could be that VA is merely trying to minimally cover its ass while not accomplishing much on behalf of the veterans they fail week in and week out.

How well do you think VA is doing?

Source: Nextgov.com

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2 Comments

  1. Looks like they have the same problem President Clinton had with what the definition of “is” is. I guess they would say it depends on the definition of accuracy??? It has only one meaning for me and thousands of others. Their math, their processes, their statistics suck. As my Dad used to say, “Figures don’t lie, but liars figure”. Well, I used to work for the government, and used the right percentages of accuracy when I managed a grant program and resisted efforts to kind of tweak my numbers or use some other kind of measurement, but since I was the Program Manager, I told them that this was what it was and if they didn’t like it, they could fire me and get someone else to do my job. Go figure, huh???

  2. During the December 4th hearing at the House – DAMA subcommittee on Complex Claims, the VA professed much the same numbers. However, the VA-OIG went over their audits and found abysmal failure rates across the board on complex claims.

    When pressed for answers about the vast discrepancy in accuracy numbers,by Chairman Runyun, Thomas Murphy – VA Director of Comp and Pen told the panel that the OIG has a different definition of “accuracy”. This is beyond appalling.

    VeteranWarriors is suggesting that the ENTIRE VA use the generally accepted definition of “Accuracy” and start telling the truth. One which the American Legion, VeteranWarriors, Paralyzed Veterans of America, the DAV, the VFW, the IAVA and every veteran in this country know to be the truth.

    VeteranWarriors is continuing the full court press to overhaul the VA. Undersecretary Hickey continues to suborn malfeasance, reward failure and accept mediocrity. Secretary Shinseki is Nero…watching Rome burn while playing with his fiddle.

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