Trumbull County VSC Director suggests ways to reduce wait times for veterans to receive benefits

Trumbull County Veterans Service Commission (VSC) Director Herman Breuer made an appearance on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning at a hearing with the House Committee on Veterans Affairs (VA).

During the hearing, Breuer took to the podium to provide insight on how the committee can collaborate with advocates to make better and quicker decisions to get veterans the benefits they deserve.

During his testimony, Breuer told the story of how he was wounded by an IED during the Iraq War in 2004. This happened during a time when documents were viewed on paper rather than electronically.

Breuer said the initial development of his claim took about 14 months due to delays caused by the location of his medical records within the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.

"The year after returning home, I became a veterans service officer. The delays in the disability process were evident. Particularly during the development phase," Breuer said.

Breuer explained at the time the VA would issue a letter for veterans to declare whether they had submitted all evidence or needed 30 days to gather more.

The problem was that the regional office would only send this letter after opening the mail to build the file; a process that usually took 60 days.

"If a veteran did not reply promptly, [the VA] would then issue another letter, perpetuating a cycle that could extend the claim development phase up to 12 to 18 months. And that is an extra year plus before veterans could even attend the compensation of pension exam," Breuer said.

Breuer described these delays as "frustrating."

Breuer went on to discuss the National Work Queue (NWQ), which was introduced to address this issue and led to noticeable reductions in wait times.

Despite this, Breuer believes more can be done with the system to further reduce wait times for veterans.

"To optimize this system, it is crucial to truly partner with the advocates on the ground. If a veterans service representative ... sees that a claim requires additional information or evidence, they should first work together with the veteran and then the veteran's accredited representative to obtain that information expediently," Breuer said.

As it stands, Breuer says a phone call or email will be sent only to a veteran, and if they don't respond immediately, the claim will be returned for the NWQ for another 30 days.

Breuer says the only difference between then and now is instead of shuffling through papers and files manually, the same thing occurs, but digitally.

"Seeing this happen as an advocate can be extremely frustrating. Unfortunately, there are incentives in the current system to kick the claim back to the NWQ because there are no risks to following the procedures to the letter," Breuer said.

Breuer says adding veterans service representatives, rating veterans services representatives and an accredited representative as part of this procedure would further reduce delays.