Audit finds Phoenix VA bungled 47% disability claims

Phoenix benefits mishap vexes veterans
Audit finds claims incorrectly processed in 3 disability areas, noted VA agency backlog
by Ken Alltucker
The Republic
Aug. 12, 2012

The federal agency that handles veterans benefits in Phoenix bungled nearly half the temporary-disability, traumatic-brain-injury and herbicide-exposure claims that were examined during a recent audit.

The Veterans Benefits Administration office in Phoenix mishandled 47 percent of the claims in those three areas, according to a limited audit by the agency's inspector general issued last month.

The mishandled claims frustrate veterans who must wait an average of nearly one year before the Phoenix office decides whether they are eligible for compensation. The Phoenix office has a backlog of more than 22,700 claims, with an average wait of 360 days before the cases are decided.

"While the (inspector general) may have found a high error rate in the intentionally limited selection of claims they reviewed, the overall picture of claims processing at the Phoenix (office) is much more positive," the agency's Phoenix office said in a statement.

The highest error rate -- blamed on a computer glitch that has since been fixed -- came from the agency's handling of "100 percent" temporary-disability claims, with 87 percent of those cases incorrectly processed. The local office did not coordinate timely medical evaluations of those veterans.

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