Reps to VA: Office errors affect NY vets

Fourteen local members of Congress, including Long Island's five representatives, are calling on the Department of Veterans Affairs secretary to address problems at the agency's New York office that have led to errors and delays in disability claims from area veterans.

The problems, which led to some Iraq and Afghanistan veterans waiting for pay while others were overpaid, were identified in a July inspector general's report that examined procedures at the VA Regional Office in downtown Manhattan.

"With so many troops returning every day from Afghanistan and Iraq, we are greatly concerned that the New York VARO [Veterans Affairs Regional Office] may not be performing at the level our veteran constituents need," Congress members wrote to Secretary Eric Shinseki in a Sept. 15 letter.

The inspector general's findings were based in part on a review of 68 of the 344 disability claims related to post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, and Agent Orange exposure that the New York regional office completed from October through December.

The inspector general's office also reviewed 30 of 316 rating decisions involving claims for temporary 100 percent disability.

The New York office took an average of 257.1 days to finish compensation claims submitted by veterans, 82 days longer than the VA's target of 175 days, according to the letter.

The report also revealed high levels of inaccuracies in the handling of claims audited. Nearly one in three claims at the New York office were mishandled by VA personnel there, according to the report. Of eight reviewed claims involving traumatic brain injury, five had been mishandled by regional office personnel, who granted them without basing them on required medical records.

Veterans Affairs issued a statement acknowledging claims backlog and error problems generally, and said the VA intended by 2015 to put in place "a system that processes all claims within 125 days at a 98 percent accuracy level."

While some applicants await pay, errors in the 98 disability cases led to at least $250,000 in overpayments to others.

In one case, a veteran whose temporary disability should have been rescinded got a total of $122,465 extra because VA workers never scheduled a required medical re-examination -- a common error in New York claims.

Classifications of temporary 100 percent disability "could have continued uninterrupted over the course of the veterans' lifetimes," the report stated.

Three years ago, the VA ousted the NY regional director after it was found that claims filed at the Manhattan officewere apparently issued false filing dates to cover up delays and make it appear that claims were being processed on time.

Although inspectors found that dates were being applied correctly this time, it blamed the recent problems on inadequate managerial oversight.

"Our veterans must not continue to be subjected to these dreadful and frustrating practices," Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Roslyn Heights) said in a statement. "They deserve better."