According to an investigation by the Office of Inspector General (OIG), the VA spent over $10.1 million on unwarranted reexaminations in just six months and will waste an additional $100.6 million over the next five years. The OIG found that the Veterans Benefits Administration was skipping a pre-exam review by a Rating Veterans Service Representative which is intended to serve as an internal control in 78% of cases.
You might wonder what this means for you. Essentially, the VA is making veterans go through additional, unnecessary barriers just to get the benefits they deserve. The OIG found that 1/3 of vets had to go through unwarranted medical reexaminations to continue receiving benefits. These medical reexaminations are deemed unwarranted because the veterans they have been performed on have a permanent disability or a disability that does not have to be substantiated for over five years.
About 14,200 veterans saw no change to their disability evaluations as a result of these reexaminations.
Making matters worse, the OIG found that these unwarranted reexaminations resulted in benefit reductions for nearly 4,000 veterans.
The unnecessary work created by completing these unwarranted reexaminations reduced the Veterans Benefits Administration from processing claims and slowed the Veterans Health Administration from providing healthcare services.
Read more in this Washington Post article.
If you are a veteran who has a service-connected disability, contact us today.
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