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Nicholson backs new benefits claims system

Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson endorses a controversial idea to attack the huge backlog of veterans’ disability claims by automatically approving some claims.

In a Wednesday interview taped for C-SPAN’s Newsmakers program, which will air Sunday, Nicholson said he was willing, on a trial basis, to try to tackle the large and growing backlog of disability claims with a program that would assume anyone who filed for compensation deserves the payment. After the first check is issued, a claim could be reviewed, with the possibility that payments could be adjusted, Nicholson said.

This speedy process would apply only for initial claims, not for people already receiving disability pay who are seeking to have their ratings revised upward. More than half of the estimated 600,000 claims pending at any time are for people who are already receiving disability compensation for a service-connected injury or disease, Nicholson said.

The automatic payment process would take many changes in law and “a new cultural frame of mind,” Nicholson said, but added, “We want to do it quicker. It irritates people.”

“Everybody would have to understand the new system,” he said, including the possibility that the benefits they are receiving could be reduced, increased or even canceled.

“This would be quick but not necessarily permanent,” he said of the payment.

He won’t be around to see such a change, however, as he has announced he will retire no later than Oct. 1 to return to private business.

The Bush administration and many veterans’ groups have raised red flags over the initiative endorsed by Nicholson out of fear it could lead to widespread cheating by veterans who would assume they could get paid without having to provide any proof of their medical condition.

In the interview, Nicholson mentioned the possibility that veterans found to be ineligible or who receive a bigger payment than warranted could be forced to repay the government, something rarely required under current law because the initial claims process, which now takes an average of 177 days, weeds out most blatant errors and fraud.

Automatic processing of at least simple claims is getting a lot of attention in Congress as a potential way to speed initial paychecks while allowing VA to concentrate on the more difficult claims, such as veterans with multiple disabilities and complicated medical histories that make it challenging to determine whether there is a military cause for the problems.

A big push in Congress for automatic benefits approval came after a March discussion before the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee where Linda Bilmes of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government warned that radical change is needed because the backlog of benefits is only going to get worse. By her estimate, 250,000 to 400,000 disability claims will be filed over the next two years by Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. She proposed having VA pay all disability claims filed by new combat veterans under a streamlined system that included only four ratings levels instead of the current 10.

Bilmes’ idea has since been introduced as legislation by several lawmakers. Nicholson’s endorsement of the basic concept could be of limited help to sponsors because his Oct. 1 resignation date means he will not be around to see even a pilot project implemented.