No “Magic Bullet” Solutions to VA Claims Backlog

Responding to former VA Chairman Bob Filner’s radical proposal to approve all claims for benefits filed by veterans, subject only to random future audits, DAV’s Washington Executive Director Barry Jesinoski recently posted an op-ed to the San Diego Union Tribune website making the case that fixing VA’s claims processing system requires “hard work and careful planning”, not just “sound bites” and “rhetorical bombs.” Jesinoski points out that, “Given the complexity of medical diagnosis and disability evaluation, it is unreasonable to expect veterans to accurately determine both service connection and degree of disability when even the VA can’t always get it right.”