The Claims Process: Inside a VA Regional Office

Last week, I had the opportunity to visit a Regional Office.  As you might know, I’ve worked on a number of benefits technology projects, but until last week, I’d never actually seen an RO up close, in action

By Lauren Bailey for VAntage Point

And because I hear and read the complaints—because I’m aware many Veterans view regional offices as black holes where their claims go to languish—I decided we should start trying to shed some light on what these offices are, how they work, and how their staffs do their jobs.  A good place to start, I thought, would be the office that functions as the national touch point for the Fast Track claims processing system—Nashville.

The Regional office is situated in downtown Nashville, housed in an unassuming Federal building that is also home to part of the Social Security Administration and the Federal Courts.  I was met by Assistant Director Alan Bozeman (who is also the business owner of the Fast Track system) who took me on a tour of the building.

VA’s claims processing operation takes up two floors that I saw.  My immediate observation, like all my colleagues at Central Office promised, was that my colleagues in the field are literally buried in paper.

The picture here is one that VA Chief Technology Officer Peter Levin took when he first visited a Regional Office.  I like Dr. Levin a lot—one of his best qualities is his ability to tell a story, which is exactly what I thought he was doing when he showed me this picture the first time. There’s no way everyone’s desk looks like that, is there?

I thought there would be one or two VA employees who weren’t so good at processing claims that would have stacks and stacks and stacks of paper surrounding them while the rest had empty desks and were playing Minesweeper and surfing the web.  Oh how wrong I was.  Each Veteran who submits a claim has at least, at least,  three folders that make up their total claim.

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