House Committee on Veterans' Affairs

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Washington, D.C. – A report that was requested by House Veterans’ Affairs Ranking Member Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) and released today by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) shows that a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) program that allows disability benefits claims to be filed prior to discharge is more efficient than the traditional VA claims process.

While optimistic about the overall assessment of the program, Congressman Buyer is encouraging VA to make every effort to improve the program and increase separating servicemembers’ access to Benefits Delivery at Discharge (BDD) sites. The program, established in 1998, has yet to be fully implemented at all discharge facilities. Buyer, a long-time advocate for creating a ‘seamless transition’ for servicemembers’ returning to civilian life, recognizes the inherent value of beginning the VA claims process while servicemembers’ medical records are readily available and proof of service connection is easily established.

“With its enormous backlog of pending claims, VA should embrace the BDD program as means of easing the burden at regional offices,” Buyer said. “Common sense dictates that claims established prior to separation from active service are more easily adjudicated than ones filed months or years afterward. Doing so increases both accuracy and efficiency, and processing as many claims as possible in this manner will have a positive impact throughout the entire system.”  

Buyer was pleased to have bipartisan support and interest from nearly fifty Democratic members who joined the list of Congressional requestors of GAO’s assessment. GAO concluded that while the overall BDD claims system is successful, better accountability and access would help improve the program. VA agreed with most of GAO’s recommendations and acknowledged that better data collection would provide feedback to enable further improvements in the program, but it had some disagreements on some specific technical aspects of recommended performance measures. GAO’s findings are likely to be among the Committee’s areas of interest in the upcoming Congress.
 

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