DAV and American Legion have concerns on claims scanning

Official: VA Would Need Staff of 4,000 to Scan All Its Backlogged Benefit Records
By Bob Brewin
Nextgov.com
Updated: June 19, 2012

Jeffrey Hall, assistant national legislative director for Disabled American Veterans, said “NARA's decision to stop performing this work caught [the Veterans Benefits Administration] somewhat by surprise.”

The Veterans Affairs Department would have to employ 4,000 more workers in order to scan billions of pages of paper benefit claims, William Bosanko, a top executive at the National Archives and Records Administration, told a hearing of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

NARA has performed sophisticated scanning operations for the department at five sites for the past two years under contracts valued at $9.7 million, Bosanko told lawmakers at the hearing. The system NARA developed for VA not only scans documents, but also has been taught to recognize and compile data from 170 different forms the Veterans Benefits Administration uses, he said. VA’s contracts with NARA expires next week.

Bosanko said NARA has recommended VA seek help from the private sector for meeting its systemwide scanning requirements.

VA holds records on millions of veterans dating as far back as World War II. Bosanko estimated the department would have to scan 60 million pieces of paper a month so that records could be used with VA’s new paperless claims-processing system, the Veterans Benefits Management System -- a feat that would require a staff of 4,000. He did not say how long the process could take.
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