Veterans should get disability checks quickly, commission says

Injured veterans suffering long waits for disability checks could have their claims processed immediately with audits done later, if need be, the head of a special commission said Wednesday.

Separately, two major veterans groups expressed impatience with government delays in improving care for wounded troops. They called on President Bush to move quickly to nominate a new VA secretary who would finally make the "needs of our nation's veterans a national priority."

"This is no time for the president to fill such an important position with a placeholder for the remainder of his term," said David W. Gorman, an executive director of Disabled American Veterans.

Testimony to Congress by retired Lt. Gen. James Terry Scott, chairman of the Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission, is the first among several commissions and task forces to weigh in on the issue of reducing intractable delays in veterans disability pay.

Last week, the 13-member commission issued a 544-page report on the ailing system that called the current 177-day wait unacceptable. It called for better technology, standardized procedures and additional staff to reduce the claims backlog to about 90 days within two years.

Under questioning Wednesday, Scott acknowledged that more radical efforts might be needed. He said a VA pilot program that would allow veterans to get benefits without having to prove their claim first, subject to random audits later for validity, might work if the new VA secretary works closely with Congress to ensure there are no unintended consequences.

Such a proposal has been touted before by Harvard professor Linda Bilmes and more recently by former VA Secretary Jim Nicholson in his final days before leaving office.

Scott said the VA was hesitant with such a radical proposal because of the risk of fraudulent claims that might be difficult to recoup later, but that it might be worth trying in view of the lack of success so far with other measures.

"The VA as an institution has been hit about the head and shoulders so much that trying something new is sometimes resisted because they're afraid they'll be left holding the bag," Scott told the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

"I wouldn't object to a pilot program," he said. "The current system is so complicated, it's a wonder to me that anyone can get a claim processed."

The comments come as the Bush administration and Congress struggle to find clear answers to some of the worst problems afflicting wounded warriors more than seven months after disclosures of shoddy outpatient treatment at the Pentagon-run Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The Government Accountability Office earlier this month in particular cited Army problems in providing personalized medical care and the VA's backlogs in disability pay.

Nicholson, who stepped down Oct. 1, has said his successor will have "think outside the box" to solve intractable delays in disability pay. Gordon Mansfield, the VA's deputy secretary, is serving as acting secretary pending a nomination of a successor by Bush.

On Wednesday, the group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America aired a new television ad that chastises both Congress and the Bush administration for continuing problems in veterans care.