The latest benefit signed into law for veterans aims to help those exposed to the poisonous fumes of burn pits and other sources. VA officials say they were ready for the Pact Act. For an update, Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke with the deputy under secretary for the office of policy and oversight, Ronald Burke.

Interview transcript:

Tom Temin
How many people have signed up since this thing was enacted, since PACT Act actually became law, what was it, about four or five months ago now? Right?

Ronald Burke
Yeah, since Aug. 10, more than 260,000 veterans have filed claims to date. We’ve already decided more than 85,000 of those. An interesting point to call out is that approximately 80% of those decisions have been grants.

        Learn how high-impact service providers have helped the government reinvent the way they deliver their mission and services to the public in this exclusive ebook, sponsored by Carahsoft. Download today!

Tom Temin
Right? And do you have any sense of the number that have applied, that couple of hundred thousand were already in the VA system getting other benefits? Or are these all new people? Or do you track that?

Ronald Burke
We do track that; it’s a combination. We’ve got some first time filers, if you will, we have veterans that were in receipt of compensation for other conditions throughout the course of their lifetime. We’ve got, again, a good mixture of veterans, previously service connected new service connection survivors. So it’s a combination of many of those items.

Tom Temin
Now, in the earlier granting in recent years of benefits, say for exposure to Agent Orange, and the Blue Water being the most recent one, the presumption was that any exposure is there for qualifying for these. In that case, the Agent Orange benefits, that took a long time. In the case of burn pits, is it simply assumed that any condition that’s identified plus having had burn pit exposure, therefore automatically equals the benefit?

Ronald Burke
So the presumption processes is similar in nature to other presumptive processes. We basically concede that if we know a veteran was in a certain location, exposed to certain toxins and has specific conditions, then we find them related. And that’s the presumptive service connection that we use for the conditions in the [Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT)] Act, as well as the presumptive process outside of the PACT Act.

Tom Temin
Right. So therefore, that would mitigate in favor of the high percentage of grants that you described earlier?

Ronald Burke
That is correct. Yes.

Tom Temin
And we say burn pits, and everyone associates burn pits with the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, where there were burn pits. But does this also cover earlier wars?

Ronald Burke
It does. But with respect to the PACT Act, we are focused on what was passed by Congress and the millions of veterans impacted by this specific legislation. And we’re excited about the opportunity to serve all of them.

        Read more: Veterans Affairs

Tom Temin
So what was the exposure mechanism, say, in earlier conflicts, earlier wars? Vietnam, I think there’s some people, there might even be some Korean veterans, I guess, involved here also.

Ronald Burke
Well, the PACT Act has some increased enhanced coverage for veterans from the Vietnam era, the Gulf War, post 9/11 veterans. And again, interested in specifically focusing on the PACT act parameters, and ensuring that we’re hiring and training folks to handle the flux, the influx of claims with respect to what’s contained in the PACT Act.

Tom Temin
Now, since that initial influx of claims, I think you said 260,000, is it tailing off? Have you gotten everyone that feels they might be entitled to this? Or is it still coming in at a high rate?

Ronald Burke
Oh, it certainly hasn’t tailed off. In fact, we know there are many, many more veterans and survivors that are eligible for benefits under the PACT act. And we’re doing aggressive outreach and communications inviting folks to please don’t wait file your claims. We’re pleased with the reaction of the initial 260,000. But we know there are many, many more, and we’re encouraging listeners to file claims. If you have any doubt whatsoever, please file your claim.

Tom Temin
We’re speaking with Ron Burke. He is deputy undersecretary of Veterans Affairs for the Office of Policy and Oversight. And I’m interested in the hiring process that VA did to be able to have people to handle these claims, because backlogs have kind of dogged VA from time to time. Is this a whole separate staff just to deal with PACT act claims?

Ronald Burke
Well, we’ve increased our nationwide staff to process claims. We’ve hired 2,000 net new employees in the past 12 months, we have a goal to hire and we’re on track to hire an additional 1,900 this year. These are folks that are being recruited, trained and deployed to help with all veterans claims, including the surge from PACT act. We’re deploying tools and technology to help improve the process and the accuracy of claims. And we’re prepared, we’re excited. The organization is excited about this opportunity to serve.

Tom Temin
But the claims mechanism, the people that are doing this are part of the the overall claims, benefits, mechanism that VA has to what you’ve added PACT act. But it’s not a separate PACT act set of people just doing those claims.

        Want to stay up to date with the latest federal news and information from all your devices? Download the revamped Federal News Network app

Ronald Burke
No, you’re correct. It’s not a separate entity. It is a growing of our workforce, veteran service representatives, ratings specialists. Those key claims processing positions, all of our nationwide employees have been trained to process PACT act claims. And in addition, we’re adding thousands of additional employees. And I would add for any of your listeners, who were interested in joining us with this challenge, we are hiring lots of folks, please join us.

Tom Temin
And what kinds of backgrounds or experience, do you tend to value in placing people in these positions?

Ronald Burke
In these positions, we’re really looking at folks that are able to help us compile, do what we call claims development, compile evidence in some of our positions, ordering of examinations where necessary. The others are positions that are really skilled and looking at the evidence of record and rendering disability determinations. And the main thing that we look for is people who want to serve those that served.

Tom Temin
And what sort of training do they get? How does that actually happen?

Ronald Burke
We have national standardized training curriculums for both of those key positions. In addition to those claims processing positions, we’re certainly also hiring the support staff and human resources and others, to bring on and maintain this level of workforce. But we have very structured training. A training curriculum that allows our folks to do high quality claims completions, and continue to put our veterans first.

Tom Temin
How long does it take to go through the training?

Ronald Burke
Depending on the position hired, we have eight week sessions. There’s continual refresher training; in fact, all of our existing employees got a series of refresher and new training, relative of PACT Act provisions. So it depends on the position and the duration of employment with our administration.

Tom Temin
And what are the backlog trends and situation right now?

Ronald Burke
Yeah, right now, we are seeing, as expected, an increase in our overall backlog. We’ve been preparing for that, we started hiring personnel a year in advance so that they’d be proficient and ready to handle those claims. And as I said, with respect to PACT Act, specifically, 260,000 receipts have come in, claims have come in since Aug. 10. And we’ve already completed more than 85,000 of those decisions. And we’ll continue to do so.

Tom Temin
And you mentioned some tools and technologies to enable quicker. I imagine a lot of the claims processing takes place online — video conferencing — you’re not expecting every veteran to come in to do this.

Ronald Burke
That is correct. With respect to filing claims, veterans can do that through mail, online. We have an outstanding website that really gives a step by step guide on how to apply, it also lists accredited representatives that can be utilized to assist veterans and filing claims. But the process, mainly paperless environment, has really allowed us to speed up processing times and focus on increasing quality.

Tom Temin
Just a final question on the hires. Are most of them veterans or can someone who is not a veteran, that just might want to help out in this particular area of endeavor, also apply?

Ronald Burke
I think, Tom, that’s a great question. With respect to our organization, we have the luxury of having the most noble mission in the federal government. And we have a great mixture of veterans and nonveterans. You don’t have to be a veteran to care about serving veterans. So we’re encouraging everybody to apply.

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.