VA falls behind on disability ratings overhaul

VA falls behind on disability ratings overhaul By Rick Maze
Army Times
Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Sep 11, 2012

The Veterans Affairs Department is more than a year behind on its plan to overhaul its disability rating schedules, in part because of difficulties in trying to determine lost earnings for particular disabilities, according to a new report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office.

There is no chance that VA will meet its self-imposed 2016 deadline for revising how it assigns the levels of disability that go into determining compensation rates, the report said, noting that VA officials have “moved the original project completion date from 2016 to an unspecified future date.”

In a written response to the report, VA officials said they are taking steps to improve the review process, including appointing a program manager to focus solely on the pay-loss evaluations. They also are trying to develop a plan to update ratings on a regular basis.

VA spent about $40 billion in 2011 on disability compensation for 3.4 million veterans.

The ratings schedule has not undergone a full revision since 1945, GAO said. The ambitious update project involves a medical review that takes into account medical and technological advances in determining the severity of disabilities and also a disability-by-disability review of the earnings loss suffered from service-connected disabilities.
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