Wisconsin Accusation: A failure to take care of vets’ disability issues

Saturday, November 24, 2007
Accusation: A failure to take care of vets’ disability issues

According to insiders, Wisconsin “wasn't doing very well in the late 90’s on disability benefits,” so managers at the vets’ agency included funding in the state budget at the time for three mobile claims officers to expand marketing and claims processing and to inform veterans of the benefits they didn't know they were eligible for.

Every veteran that went through the homeless program, for instance, was triaged for disability issues.

Training programs for service representatives who process disability claims (for the CVSOs and veterans groups such as VFW) were enhanced.

Quality claims officers and “the best claims manager” (the late) Mark Rutberg from the federal VA was hired.

Senior managers worked at the national level (National Veterans Leadership Forum) to effect change on how the federal VA adjudicates claims.

As a result, performance on disability issues in Wisconsin improved.

In 2003, for example, Wisconsin veterans received $448 million in compensation and benefits, which was a $43.2 million increase over 2002, a 10.6 percent increase - in one year.

After John Scocos got the secretary’s job in a closed session of the Veterans Affairs Board in October 2003, insiders say “he proceeded to dismantle the highly-successful WDVA disability claims program.”

He allegedly terminated the mobile claims officer program in 2004.

“To this day, no one knows where the budget authority for three positions went. Certainly, not to the overworked claims staff,” an insider said.

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