MARCH 17, 02:20 EST

Veterans' Claims Still Moving Slow

By LARRY MARGASAK
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) ---- Douglas Cohen says he was one day from foreclosure on his home earlier this year when a $248,000 disability benefits check arrived from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Cohen said his case lingered for nearly 11 years through initial rejections, a successful appeal ---- and months when VA officials told him ``paperwork was sitting on top of somebody's desk'' due to a backlog of claims.

``They said they had so many claims that I'd have to wait for them to get to mine,'' Cohen said, with a final delay causing his frightening brush with foreclosure.

Cohen's case illustrates a problem with the Veterans Benefits Agency that has angered former servicemen and service organizations ---- and will be the subject of a House hearing in May: It takes far too long for the VA to make decisions on disability claims.

Despite spending more than $200 million to upgrade its computers, the benefits agency that distributes compensation for 3.2 million veterans and their survivors takes longer to process claims than it did a decade ago, according to records and interviews.

With more than a half million veterans expected to die this year ---- some while awaiting final resolution of claims ---- a modern, computerized system was considered essential to track cases, reduce backlogs and provide applicants with current information.

But the VBA still maintains hundreds of pages of paper in a typical file and takes an average of 205 days to complete an original disability claim, compared with 164 in 1991, an Associated Press review found.

Cohen, 52, of Niagara Falls, N.Y., said he believes the turning point came more than a year ago, when he went through his mother's possessions after she died and found letters he had written home describing his experiences with precise dates.

Until the VA reversed itself last January, Cohen was unable to convince the agency that his sleeplessness, depression and anger resulted from the rocket and mortar attacks he endured in Vietnam.

But even after the discovery of the letters, he said, his VA service representative told him that there were so many claims that it would be a while before anyone could work on his case. When finally approved, he received the $248,000 lump sum in retroactive benefits just before the planned eviction. He now receives $2,153 a month in benefits.

``After hundreds of millions of dollars spent over the past 10 years on VA computer modernization for processing veterans claims, there has been no tangible return for the veteran or the taxpayer,'' said Rep. Terry Everett, R-Ala., whose House Veterans Affairs subcommittee is investigating what he describes as ``terrible'' service to disabled veterans.

The director of VBA's disability compensation and benefit programs, Robert Epley, acknowledged attempts to upgrade computers have gone through ``fits and starts'' and bounced ``from issue to issue'' without a long-term plan.

But he promised dramatic changes within two years in the programs that dispense $22 billion a year in disability payments to veterans suffering from injury or disease related to their service. The agency also distributes pension benefits to eligible survivors of veterans.

He pledged new computer systems, operated by a better trained workforce and a reduction in errors. Currently, the agency makes an error on about a third of claims. About 8 percent of the errors involve improper benefit amounts.

``Teams are forming who will understand the responsibility of processing claims efficiently, telling veterans not just that we got it (the claim), but here's what we see, here's what we expect, here's an estimate of what it's going to take'' to get a decision, he explained.

The VBA, which is part of the Department of Veterans Affairs, says it spent $238 million since 1991 for hardware, software, contractors and the salaries of VA employees.

AP's review found that despite the spending:

----Most information in a veteran's file is still on paper. Of 58 regional service centers, only the office where a claim was filed has full access to case records and is able to provide a beneficiary with a complete picture of his or her status.

----A computer program called VETSNET, which was supposed to unite all the VA's diverse agencies from loans to health care to cemeteries to benefits, has only limited links.

----VBA caseworkers are saddled with antiquated programs, which date to before the advent of Microsoft Windows. The old software prevents them from quickly maneuvering through a veteran's file. Unable to point-and-click with a mouse, they have to painstakingly scroll through one screen at a time.

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On the Net: The Department of Veterans Affairs site is http://www.va.gov.

The Veterans Benefits Administration is http://www.vba.va.gov.