TOPICS
TOPICS
An IRS Approach for VA Claims?
That appears to be the thinking of the folks on the House Appropriations Committee, who think the Veterans Affairs Department could model its disability and pension claims process on electronic tax filing systems.
In its report on the fiscal 2010 VA spending bill, the committee said advances in technology may enable automation of even the most complicated of claims administration processes.
The report said commercial software has automated the filing of taxes and receipt of state and federal returns and suggested "such user-friendly technology may be adaptable for the administration of claims processing while also supporting the transition to electronic records," part of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki's grand plans to make the department as "paperless as possible."
I don't have any idea if TurboTax can be adapted to help veterans file claims with the VA, but any idea is worth exploring to help speed up a truly Dickensian process managed by 13,39 claims processors (with another 1,200 slated for hire next year) who shuffle around mounds of paper.
The VA must have a large green eyeshade bill.
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COMMENTS
- Interesting idea in theory. We wish to point out though that if you wish to electronically submit your taxes to the IRS, you can not just do that. Instead you MUST file forms produced by an approved IRS vendor, such as Turbo-tax, who has an existing contract with the IRS and you as the filer must pay Turbo-tax for that service and the thus there is a fee associated with any filing. If you want to use the IRS's own paper forms you can't just electronically submit them to the IRS, even though the IRS forms are free to the public and CAN be electronically submitted, because the IRS rules say you must go through their approved contractor who has a proprietary software package. Yet, if you want to submit for FREE the forms you can file them out and mail them in through the US mail. Now, the signature wound of this recent series of wars is Traumatic Brain Injury; an injury, that may not be apparent for years and may have co-morbid mental disorders and may become change or even become worse as the person ages. So the nature of a TBI injury means you may have to change your claim over time multiple times. As you can see from the link, the VA's disability forms are very complex and extensive. see: Veteran Administration TBI Disability Worksheets: vba.va.gov/bln/21/Benefits/exams/disexm58.htm The evidence detail from speciaists required for TBI injuries, could give the IRS tax code a run for the money. So our question is what will be the proposed fee structure for the first electronic submission and the probable multiple reopening of the disability claim process? Is the preparation software going to be open source and free use to the injured veteran or is there going to be a cost burden to the veteran to make a claim or have a claim reevaluated because pre-approved proprietary contractor software packaged programmes must be used? We think the answers to these questions need to be part of the discussion too. Ziled Group Posted July 13, 2009 11:22 PM
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