VA, National Archives Team Up to Help Dig Out of Claims Backlog

The Department of Veterans Affairs has teamed up with the National Archives and Records Administration as it tries to evolve to a paperless disability claims process, a process that VA believes is the only way it can finally sort through its huge backlog of claims. VA and NARA have signed a deal to use the archives agency's high-speed, high-quality scanners to digitize the huge quantity of paper records the Veterans Benefits Administration currently uses to make benefits decisions, Roger Baker, VA's chief information officer told reporters Wednesday.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki has set a goal to eliminate the backlog of disability claims at VA by 2015 and make sure at least 98 percent of new claims are processed accurately. As of the end of March, almost 590,000 veterans had been waiting more than 125 days for a decision, which is VA's definition of a "backlogged" claim. In all, nearly 900,000 total claims are pending in the Veterans Benefits Administration. VA said the new paperless claims system isn't a silver bullet for the claims process, but Baker said the agency can't break the backlog without it...