[House Hearing, 111 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
THE FUTURE OF THE POST-9/11 GI BILL
CLAIMS PROCESSING SYSTEM
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
of the
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JANUARY 21, 2010
__________
Serial No. 111-56
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs
----------
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55-224 PDF WASHINGTON : 2010
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing
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Washington, DC 20402-0001
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
BOB FILNER, California, Chairman
CORRINE BROWN, Florida STEVE BUYER, Indiana, Ranking
VIC SNYDER, Arkansas CLIFF STEARNS, Florida
MICHAEL H. MICHAUD, Maine JERRY MORAN, Kansas
STEPHANIE HERSETH SANDLIN, South HENRY E. BROWN, Jr., South
Dakota Carolina
HARRY E. MITCHELL, Arizona JEFF MILLER, Florida
JOHN J. HALL, New York JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
DEBORAH L. HALVORSON, Illinois BRIAN P. BILBRAY, California
THOMAS S.P. PERRIELLO, Virginia DOUG LAMBORN, Colorado
HARRY TEAGUE, New Mexico GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida
CIRO D. RODRIGUEZ, Texas VERN BUCHANAN, Florida
JOE DONNELLY, Indiana DAVID P. ROE, Tennessee
JERRY McNERNEY, California
ZACHARY T. SPACE, Ohio
TIMOTHY J. WALZ, Minnesota
JOHN H. ADLER, New Jersey
ANN KIRKPATRICK, Arizona
GLENN C. NYE, Virginia
Malcom A. Shorter, Staff Director
______
Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
STEPHANIE HERSETH SANDLIN, South Dakota, Chairwoman
THOMAS S.P. PERRIELLO, Virginia JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas, Ranking
JOHN H. ADLER, New Jersey JERRY MORAN, Kansas
ANN KIRKPATRICK, Arizona GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida
HARRY TEAGUE, New Mexico
Pursuant to clause 2(e)(4) of Rule XI of the Rules of the House, public
hearing records of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs are also
published in electronic form. The printed hearing record remains the
official version. Because electronic submissions are used to prepare
both printed and electronic versions of the hearing record, the process
of converting between various electronic formats may introduce
unintentional errors or omissions. Such occurrences are inherent in the
current publication process and should diminish as the process is
further refined.
C O N T E N T S
__________
January 21, 2010
Page
The Future of the Post-9/11 GI Bill Claims Processing System..... 1
OPENING STATEMENTS
Chairwoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin............................. 1
Prepared statement of Chairwoman Herseth Sandlin............. 22
Hon. John Boozman, Ranking Republican Member..................... 2
Prepared statement of Congressman Boozman.................... 22
WITNESSES
U.S. Department of Defense, Captain Mark Krause, USNR (Ret.),
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Program Manager, Space and
Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic, Department of the Navy.. 4
Prepared statement of Captain Krause......................... 23
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Hon. Roger W. Baker,
Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology, Office of
Information and Technology..................................... 6
Prepared statement of Mr. Baker.............................. 25
MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
Post-Hearing Questions and Responses for the Record:
Hon. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Chairwoman, Subcommittee on
Economic Opportunities, Committee on Veterans' Affairs, to
Mark Krause, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Program
Manager, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic,
letter dated January 25, 2010, and responses............... 29
Hon. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Chairwoman, Subcommittee on
Eco- nomic Opportunities, Committee on Veterans'
Affairs, to Hon. Roger W. Baker, Assistant Secretary for
Information and Technology, U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs, letter dated January 25, 2010, and VA responses... 31
THE FUTURE OF THE POST-9/11 GI BILL
CLAIMS PROCESSING SYSTEM
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THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2010
U.S. House of Representatives,
Committee on Veterans' Affairs,
Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 1:13 p.m., in
Room 334, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Stephanie Herseth
Sandlin [Chairwoman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Herseth Sandlin, Perriello, Adler,
and Boozman.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRWOMAN HERSETH SANDLIN
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
The Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Subcommittee on
Economic Opportunity, Oversight Hearing on the Post-9/11 GI
Bill Long-Term Solution will come to order.
I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative
days to revise and extend their remarks and that written
statements be made part of the record.
Hearing no objection, so ordered.
Some of those in attendance may recall that our first
hearing of 2009 was on the implementation of the Post-9/11 GI
Bill. This was followed up by supplemental hearings that sought
to ensure the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA's)
progress on the short- and long-term information technology
solutions.
I hope that it is clear to our panelists before us today
that by making this our first hearing of 2010, we demonstrate
the continued importance of the subject at hand.
I am sure my colleagues will agree that the current delays
in processing education claims are simply unacceptable. A
number of my colleagues not on this Committee have spoken to me
directly or have written to me documenting experiences of
student veterans that they represent who have suffered some of
the consequences of the delays in processing these claims.
While the Administration shares my concerns regarding these
shortcomings, more has to be done. However, the blame doesn't
rest solely with the VA. The processing of a single claim
requires multiple steps involving multiple parties and computer
systems, all of which must work in sync with one another in
order for veterans to receive his or her benefits in a timely
manner. These computer difficulties demonstrate the need for a
fully functional Long-Term Solution.
Furthermore, the Subcommittee's staff recently visited the
VA's Regional Processing Center and Education Call Center in
Muskogee, Oklahoma, and some concerns have been raised from
that visit. They include the closure of Education Call Center
hours on Thursdays and Fridays. This provides veterans only 3
days to call for assistance on education matters. While we
understand the value of using Call Center staff to process
education claims, the VA can have the Call Center open 5 days a
week by dispersing the same work hours throughout the week.
Second, the availability of temporary employees after
September 2010 is a concern. While we all would like to have a
fully operational Long-Term Solution by December of this year,
the reality of the limited time frame to implement this complex
Information Technology (IT) system may require the VA to push
back its deadline. Ensuring that VA has the trained personnel
to continue to process education claims and field incoming
calls can help avoid further delays in receipt of education
benefits.
The third concern involves VA's current policy limiting
Education Call Center operators from taking action on education
claims outside of that particular region. The current policy
requires that claims originating outside of the Muskogee region
must be referred to the appropriate regional office (RO) for
action. We have been informed that by authorizing these
operators, who are responsible for taking all education benefit
calls, to make simple updates to a veteran's file would result
in faster service and avoid long wait periods for action.
And finally, the visit to the Education Call Center raised
equipment concerns that create dropped calls and require
constant maintenance that I hope the VA will address quickly.
I look forward to hearing from our distinguished panelists
participating in today's hearing, specifically on how the VA is
addressing these concerns and making progress in implementing
its Long-Term Solution that seeks to streamline the way
education claims are currently processed. I would now like to
recognize the Ranking Member, Mr. Boozman, for any opening
remarks he may have.
[The prepared statement of Chairwoman Herseth Sandlin
appears on p. 22.]
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN BOOZMAN
Mr. Boozman. Thank you, Madam Chair.
The successful development and implementation of the new
computer system to manage the Post-9/11 GI Bill is vital to
delivering accurate and timely education benefits, not just for
the Chapter 33 but for all of the education programs.
Before we begin, I would like to echo some of the things
that the Chair just spoke in regard to, the three issues that
they had some concern about in the Muskogee RO. I have had the
opportunity to go to Muskogee, and they do a great job. They
work awfully hard. And I think it is an operation that we can
be very proud of.
One of the things that came about while they were there in
meeting with managers and frontline claims and Call Center
workers, the staff expressed their concern, as was mentioned,
that the Call Center was closed 2 days a week to allow the
workers to assist in processing education claims. While the
staff readily agreed that the diversion of some labor hours to
processing claims, they suggested that perhaps spreading those
processing labor hours over the work week would allow the Call
Center to remain open. As a result of that discussion, local VA
management forwarded a request to the VA's Office of Field
Operations to make the changes suggested. And again, I think
therein lies our concern.
And I think we have a little bit of concern about, maybe
about those people not being empowered to, perhaps, being on
the ground to actually determine what they feel like is best
within a degree and, as these things come up, to respond and
have some flexibility to solve these kind of problems.
The Call Center operates from 7:00 to 5:00 central time,
but no one answers calls coming outside those hours. That means
that anyone living outside the continental U.S. has a very
limited window in which to contact the Call Center. Given the
high rates of blocked and dropped calls, I think it is probably
fair to assume that if you are a beneficiary living in the
Pacific and European areas, which there are, a bunch of people
in that category, I think they probably have a significant
problem of getting assistance from the Call Center.
Again, I think that perhaps the solution might be to
stagger the working hours of a few employees to cover the wider
range of the day. If that takes additional overtime or
incentive pay based on the staff's discussions with the Call
Center employees, the extra hours of pay or pay differential
would be welcome.
Another thing that came up was that the staff said that,
every call they take regarding the Post-9/11 GI Bill, it is not
uncommon at all to hear complaints about the difficulty in
getting through to the Call Center. And as I have said earlier,
I think that, in working those things out, I do think that it
would be to everyone's benefit if the Muskogee team had the
flexibility to kind of adjust things depending on how things
were going so that they could be as efficient as possible.
Regardless, closing the Call Center 2 days per week when
there are alternatives to meet the VA's claims production needs
and provide customer service I think are out there at the same
time.
So, again, that is something that we need to perhaps talk
about at a later date. But we just kind of throw that out,
realizing, and again, it is sad that as we have these kinds of
hearings, we are talking about the negative things or things
that we see that perhaps need to be improved. On the other
hand, I very much compliment the people who are working really
hard in Muskogee at the Call Center to do the very best job
that they can do.
I guess what I am saying is, if there is something that we
can do helping you or if you can look or if there are things we
can do to improve that, I think that we would be very happy to
assist you in doing that.
So thank you very much, and I yield back.
[The prepared statement of Congressman Boozman appears on
p. 22.]
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Thank you, Mr. Boozman.
I would like to welcome our panelists testifying before the
Subcommittee today.
Joining us on our panel is Mark Krause, U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs Program Manager (Space and Naval Warfare
Systems Center Atlantic), U.S. Department of Defense (DoD); and
the Honorable Roger Baker, Assistant Secretary for Information
and Technology, Office of Information and Technology (OI&T),
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Mr. Baker is accompanied
by Mr. Jan Frye, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of
Acquisition, Logistics and Construction, U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs; and Mr. Keith Wilson, Director of Education
Service, Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) with the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs.
Gentlemen, welcome. We look forward to your testimony.
Captain Krause, we will start with you.
We welcome you back, and you are now recognized for 5
minutes.
STATEMENTS OF CAPTAIN MARK KRAUSE, USNR (RET.), U.S. DEPARTMENT
OF VETERANS AFFAIRS PROGRAM MANAGER, SPACE AND NAVAL WARFARE
SYSTEMS CENTER ATLANTIC, DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY, U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE; AND HON. ROGER W. BAKER, ASSISTANT
SECRETARY FOR INFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY, OFFICE OF INFORMATION
AND TECHNOLOGY, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS;
ACCOMPANIED BY JAN R. FRYE, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY, OFFICE
OF ACQUISITION, LOGISTICS, AND CONSTRUCTION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
VETERANS AFFAIRS; AND KEITH WILSON, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF
EDUCATION SERVICE, VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION, U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
STATEMENT OF CAPTAIN MARK KRAUSE, USNR (RET.)
Captain Krause. Good afternoon, Chairwoman Herseth Sandlin,
Ranking Member Boozman, and Members of the Subcommittee. I
appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to
discuss the current status of the Chapter (CH) 33 Long-Term
Solution. My testimony will address the key milestones and
dates, current progress of the Long-Term Solution, capabilities
of the planned releases and the project challenges.
The Chapter 33 Long-Term Solution key milestone dates and
milestones are as follows: March 31, 2010, plan date for
Release 1; June 30, 2010, plan date for Release 2; September
30, 2010, plan date for Release 3; December 31, 2010, plan date
for Release 4.
Progress of the Chapter 33 Long-Term Solution: During the 4
months since our last meeting with the Subcommittee, the
Chapter 33 team has accomplished the following: Completed a
rules-based engine locating all Chapter 33 business rules in
one area separate from the application logic, consistent with
service-oriented architecture principles; established the
development and production hosting capabilities in a secure
cloud computing environment with secure network connections to
VA legacy systems; successfully integrated subject matter
experts from the VA's field operations into the development
process to ensure the Chapter 33 Long-Term Solution application
will best support the veterans claims examiners' (VCEs'),
processing requirements and priorities; completed a complex
data interface with VA/DoD Identity Repository, called VADIR,
application.
Our near term goals include deploying an early Chapter 33
Long-Term Solution Release 1.0 in March 2010 to a limited
number of VCEs, or claim examiners, where original claims can
be moved to and processed in the Long-Term Solution automated
rules-based environment.
Explanation of the system being developed: There are four
Veterans Affairs regional processing offices responsible for
processing thousands of claims for veterans seeking to use
Chapter 33 educational benefits. The adjudication process
relies on highly trained VCEs, or claim examiners, to determine
eligibility, calculate entitlement, and process the award. This
requires them to interface multiple disjointed systems and
perform significant manual entry.
The objective of the Chapter 33 Long-Term Solution is to
support new legislative requirements with a Web-based tool that
will provide automation and standardization to the adjudication
process. This will significantly reduce the time to process a
claim and the number of VCEs required. Additional benefits will
be efficiency, accuracy, predictability and reliable results.
Additionally, the tool will support the need for transparent
data exchange and reporting while being flexible enough to
adapt to future changes in policy and law.
The capability of the planned Chapter 33 Long-Term Solution
releases are, Chapter 33 Long-Term Solution Release 1.0 will be
deployed to incorporate the core features necessary to process
new claims to include tuition payments, housing allowances,
reenlistment incentives, books and fees. The primary objective
of Release 1.0 will be to validate application performance,
deployment strategies, and expected changes to business
operations. A key system interface will be eligibility data
from VADIR, the VADIR application.
Release 2.0 will begin the transition from the current
Chapter 33 interim solution front-end tool (FET) and job aid,
enabling the claim examiners to completely migrate off the
Chapter 33 interim solution. Release 2.0 will expand the
capabilities of the earlier release by enabling VCEs, or claim
examiners, to amend awards and process transfer of entitlement
claims.
Release 3.0 will improve claims processing efficiency by
automating the complex Chapter 33 financial transaction/
authorization process currently required to authorize payments
for claims. This will be achieved by establishing a system
interface with the VA's financial accounting system.
The feedback from Releases 1 through 3 will determine the
requirements and scope of Release 4.
The challenges being overcome include translating the
complexity of the Chapter 33 benefits adjudication into a
business rules approach that will enable the system to quickly
adapt to legislative interpretations, changes and priorities.
Number two, it will include access to the limited number of
subject-matter experts in claim adjudication processes and
policies; identifying the myriad number of scenarios for
amending/changing award amounts; converting data from the VA
interim solution because of independent workarounds and
interpretations at RPOs; and five, the complexity and
inconsistency in systems architectures and data across multiple
VA and DoD systems.
Training requirements: A Chapter 33 Long-Term Solution team
is currently developing a Web-based interactive training system
to teach VCEs how to use Long-Term Solution application to
process Chapter 33 claims. The training system will include
self-paced tutorial material and hands-on processing of
simulated Chapter 33 claims; 508 compliant learning system to
assess individual VCE's progress and demonstrate competency
using the LTS system; classroom training materials to teach the
RPO training coordinators how to administer the Web-based
system to the claim examiner community; and on-site support
during the initial RPO deployment.
We are confident that the release of the Chapter 33 Long-
Term Solution will be completed by December 31, 2010.
Madam Chairwoman, this concludes my statement. I would be
pleased to answer any questions you or any of the other Members
of the Subcommittee may have.
[The prepared statement of Captain Mark Krause appears on
p. 23.]
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Thank you, Mr. Krause.
Mr. Baker, you are now recognized.
STATEMENT OF HON. ROGER W. BAKER
Mr. Baker. Thank you and good afternoon, Chairwoman Herseth
Sandlin, Ranking Member Boozman, and Members of the
Subcommittee.
I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today
with my colleagues from both VA and SPAWAR to discuss the
status of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. My testimony will address the
current status of education claims, steps taken to reduce the
pending inventory and prepare for the spring enrollment period,
and the status of the implementation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill
Long-Term Solution.
Since May 1st of 2009, VA has received over 1.5 million
claims for education benefits under all education programs, and
we processed approximately 1.4 million claims. VA has issued
over $1.3 billion in Post-9/11 GI Bill benefit payments to
approximately 180,000 individuals and their educational
institutions.
Claims processing time frames have risen due to the
increased workload from the Post-9/11 GI Bill. As we are all
aware, many veterans enrolled in schools during the fall of
2009 encountered unacceptable delays with respect to their
receipt of their benefits. I believe it is important to convey,
on behalf of Secretary Shinseki and every member of the VA
team, our apologies for those delays and our understanding of
the impact, that the impacts of those delays on veterans are
unacceptable.
We believe we have identified and resolved the causes of
many of those delays, and that the results of the spring
enrollment will be substantially improved over those of the
fall. While we continue to receive fall semester enrollment
certifications even today, there are currently under 1,500 fall
enrollment certificates remaining to be completed, with those
remaining requiring further information from the student before
they can be completed.
VA has taken numerous steps to reduce the number of pending
claims and prepare for the spring enrollment period. I detail a
number of those steps in my written statement, so I won't go
over them here. But as a result of those improvements, VA has
been able to increase its daily completions of Chapter 33
enrollment certificates from an average of 1,800 per day we
experienced during October 2009 to the nearly 7,000 per day or
more we have been able to achieve during January, a very
substantial improvement.
As of January 13th, VA had received Post-9/11 GI Bill
spring enrollments for just over 111,000 veterans, of which
80,000 had been processed. We took aggressive actions to
eliminate the backlog of fall enrollments and were using all
available resources to ensure veterans receive their education
benefits from the spring terms accurately and on time.
To help ensure that veterans who enroll in the spring term
receive their benefits on time, VA set a goal, and one that we
are confident that we can achieve, to process any enrollment
certification that we receive before January 19th, I guess 2
days ago at this point, for payment by February 1st of 2010.
And we believe we are on track to meet that goal.
On November 9, 2009, the Office of Information and
Technology delivered the third and final phase of the interim
claims processing solution, and that is the one we are using
today to process, which provides increased functionality and
additional automation for processing Post-9/11 GI Bill claims.
This phase provides the functionality for processing both
amended awards and overlapping terms. And I am sure we will
have substantial discussion of what amended awards are here
during this, as they are part of the complexity of the Long-
Term Solution.
So, moving to the Long-Term Solution, as you know, we
partnered with SPAWAR to develop an end-to-end claims
processing solution to utilize rules-based industry standard
technologies. And that is our long-term strategy for
implementing both the Post-9/11 GI Bill and other education
claims processing as we move forward.
The Post-9/11 GI Bill includes numerous eligibility
entitlement criteria and contemplates benefit determinations
that can best be made using rules-based technology that
requires minimal human intervention.
The automated system, the long-term automated system, is
scheduled to be released in four phases. Release 1 is to
replace the current functionality of the interim solution and
eliminate the need for external job aids. Release 2 will
provide an automated data feed for both claim and veteran
information. Release 3 will provide automated data feeds into
the VA financial processing systems. And Release 4 will provide
a veteran self-service interface to view the status of claims.
While Release 1 remains scheduled for deployment on March
31st of 2010, this release has been changed to a limited pilot
release, which will deliver the ability to complete original
claims and many other capabilities. We plan to deploy Release 1
to a limited set of claims processors to restrict the impact
and training for the user community.
VA expected Release 1 to also include functionality for a
number of items, including amended awards. The modification
from the reduced functionality of Release 1 is caused by a
substantially increased appreciation of the complexity of
amended awards. As our subject-matter experts worked with the
SPAWAR team, new software requirements were identified, and it
became clear those requirements could not be incorporated into
the March 31, 2010, milestone requirement.
Under the program management accountability system that we
introduced last June, missing that milestone date would have
substantial consequences. And so we made a decision, in
conjunction with VBA, our VBA customers, to allow the delivery
of reduced functionality in order to make the milestone date.
Most importantly, because this will be the first delivery
of software for the Long-Term Solution, I believe it is
critical that real users begin to use this software for
production work, because that is the only way we can assure
ourselves that the software that is being delivered is an
acceptable product and something we can rely on for the long
term. I don't mean to imply any doubt in the product. As a
software person, I just am saying, the only way I know exactly
what I am getting is when real users are using it. And so I am
looking forward to that March 31, 2010, release and putting it
in front of real users.
While complete functionality for the subsequent releases is
yet to be determined, VA anticipates Release 2, to be delivered
on June 30, 2010, will include the remaining features necessary
to migrate the claims processors off the interim processing
solution. VA, OI&T, and SPAWAR will conduct meetings the week
of January 25 to finalize the functional requirements for
Releases 2, 3 and 4 of the Long-Term Solution. We still
anticipate the successful delivery of all functional
requirements to the Long-Term Solution by December of 2010.
Madam Chairwoman, this concludes my statement. I believe
that Mr. Wilson will now go through the PowerPoint slides that
you had asked us to prepare to address some of the direct
questions.
Mr. Wilson. Good afternoon.
Going directly to slide two, the slides that we have
prepared provide amplification of the information that has been
covered by Mr. Krause and Mr. Baker.
Slide two talks about the specifics of the requirements
that we have of the Long-Term Solution and, by extension, our
SPAWAR partners: Obviously, processing of original and
supplemental awards, both claims from veterans as well as
transfer-of-entitlement claims, Frye scholarship claims, et
cetera; automated calculation of those awards, and I would add
to that, not just automated calculation but automated
processing as well, as it is one thing to do the manual
calculations but another to pay the benefit as well; retrieval
of demographic and service information; very importantly,
interfaces to our payment systems, so that we can properly
account for the money being expended; and, vitally important
for many of our customers, a self-service interface as well, a
Web-based self-service interface allowing our customers to go
online and retrieve a lot of the information that they
currently have to call us or e-mail us to receive.
Slide three talks specifically about Release 1 of the Long-
Term Solution and what is being delivered and what is not being
delivered. First of all, on the left-hand side, the
functionality that is going to be provided does allow
processing of original Post-9/11 GI Bill claims. It provides
automated calculation of the payment awards, the overlapping
terms of intervals for amended awards, et cetera. It does not
provide for automated processing. It provides for automated
calculation of the award amounts in those categories, as well
as also providing demographic information. It pulls information
from VADIR, which is our DoD data source.
On the right-hand side, the delayed functionality. What we
will not get is conversion of existing records in the interim
solution into the Long-Term Solution. We will not be able to
process transfer-of-entitlement cases, Frye scholarship cases,
supplemental awards, anything involving a kicker, a Chapter 33
kicker or a supplemental kicker, and claims containing amended
awards.
In other words, what Release 1 is going to give us the
capability of doing is processing any new original claim that
comes to us that does not require any modification. Any
individual whose claim we have already processed in the interim
solution stays processed in the interim solution during Release
1. So, from a user perspective, there is not a large category
of cases that we will be able to work with Release 1, but it
does give us, as Mr. Baker indicated, the ability to begin
using the application itself and begin getting expertise on
that.
The long-term deployment schedule, this has been talked
about a little bit. Slide four provides a summary of the
specific types of functionality we will get in each of the
phases. I have already talked about Release 1. Release 2, from
a user perspective, Release 2 gives us efficiencies. That is
the first point at which we are going to start gaining
productivity. And the reason is, Release 2 gives us the
functionality of auto populating fields as well as auto
calculation of award amounts. So there will be a lot of
replacement of the manual multiple-system typing of information
in. That will be replaced by the automated data feeds that we
will receive from the schools, from the students when they
enroll, as well as automated DoD information coming into the
system. So Release 2 really is a game changer from a user point
of view. That will give us some good efficiencies.
Release 3 will provide that interface into our payment
systems. And from a user perspective, what that means is that
the process that we currently have in place that takes about
200 people to complete the fiscal transactions, the
administrative work to actually get the payments out the door,
will be replaced by that phase, that Release 3 functionality.
And then Release 4 will provide those user interfaces that I
talked about. There will be a Web-based ability to go on, both
self-serve, as well as to find out the status of, for instance,
enrollment certs coming in from schools. Students will be able
to go online and find that information out directly.
Slide five talks about VA future staffing. The key message
here I believe is that VA will be making determinations on how
to gear down staffing based solely on the successful deployment
of the functionality. As you are aware, we hired 530 additional
people originally. We augmented that with 230 additional
people. We have additional people brought in to do fisc-auth
transactions, in other words the administrative transactions to
pay the benefits. We will begin reducing the workforce, subject
to the successful deployment of the Long-Term Solution,
beginning in fiscal year 2011.
Slide six provides some updated information concerning
exactly where we are with the spring enrollment. These are the
same figures on this slide as Mr. Baker mentioned in his
testimony. I do have updated information. As of this morning,
VA has received enrollment certifications for 123,887 students.
VA has processed 103,843 of those enrollment certs for the
spring semester.
We have taken a lot of actions over the last many months as
we have learned from our experiences in the fall term. The
bottom line is we have increased our staffing, claims
processing staff, from approximately 800 individuals at the
beginning of the fall enrollment to 1,200 claims examiners
currently. That includes contract support for working some of
our simpler non-Chapter 33 claims, redirecting 200 American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) hires from five different
regional offices around the country, implementing significant
streamlining policy and procedures, obviously providing the
advance pay mechanisms and continuing to utilize the 230
additional staff that were hired under ARRA.
Slide seven in some ways talks again about the requirements
of the Long-Term Solution. The importance of the Long-Term
Solution is its flexibility, providing that self-service
functionality that students need, providing the flexibility for
a rules engine that will allow us to quickly adapt to new
changes in legislation, payment rates, et cetera, and
developing all of this in a service-oriented architecture that
will be flexible as we continue to expand the system.
Obviously, what we are trying to do is minimize human
intervention as much as possible.
Slide eight--unfortunately, I should have removed slide
eight. It is a repetition of the earlier release dates that I
talked about. I don't believe there is anything particularly
new on that slide.
That concludes my portion of the presentation. We would be
happy to take any questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Baker, and the referenced
slides, appear on p. 25.]
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Thank you.
Thank you all for your testimony.
Let me start with a statement, Mr. Wilson, that you made.
On slide four, the Long-Term Solution Release 2.0 scheduled for
June 30, 2010, that allows for the automated data feeds from
the schools. You said this is a game changer from the user
point of view.
For Mr. Baker or Mr. Wilson, I assume that the goal for the
Long-Term Solution Release 2.0 is to have that operational for
processing fall 2010 semester claims, correct?
Mr. Baker. Yes, that is correct.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. That being the case, Mr. Baker,
according to your testimony, Release 1.0 has been modified to
reduce its functionality because of this new software
requirement that you recently identified.
Mr. Baker. Yes, the increased complexity, yes.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Why did it take until just recently to
identify the need for the new software requirement?
Mr. Baker. Actually, what occurred is, as the subject-
matter experts and the software people were sitting down
together to walk through, what does an amended authority really
mean, what are the intricacies, the decision trees required for
an amended award, they kept uncovering, if you will, more and
more depth of what was required in the software and amended
awards. And it went beyond the estimates they had originally
had for what it was going to take to do amended awards.
So as we determined that the amount of work required to
make that March 31st date exceeded the amount possible to
accomplish, we had to determine what would come out of that
release.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. How confident are you that the June
30th date deadline can be met in light of how important that
deadline is to the fall semester?
Mr. Baker. We are pretty confident of that. As you can
imagine, we have had some significant focus on that as well.
What we have talked about is, what is it possible to do in the
June 30th time frame? We know that we can get everything in
that was originally scheduled for Release 1. And Release 1 was
intended to be the replacement for the current system, so a
functional replacement. If we had delayed Release 1 until about
mid May, we would have had a fully functional release. There is
about that much additional work that was added. So we know that
will come in. And we will be releasing that functionality in
incremental pieces along the way to mid May and, if VBA
determines it is appropriate, allowing the users to work with
the increased functionality in that time frame and then adding
those automated feeds that are critical as we ramp up to June
30th.
So we have a reasonably good confidence in the June 30th,
and if you don't mind, I will elaborate on that just a little
bit further. The thing that I have to tell you that I am
pleased with in the slip, and I know this is going to sound a
little strange, is that in December, this project team was able
to tell us that they had a problem with meeting the March 31st
date. That is not a usual thing inside of VA projects. Usually
you hear about it March 30th, you know, that it is going to
happen on March 31st. That gave us time to make rational
decisions about, do we want to allow the slip, or do we want to
force the delivery date so that we see the software? And what
is the impact of that on subsequent releases? And so that is
why we have a reasonable degree of confidence that we are going
to have what we need on June 30th for a more automated system
going into the fall semester. That has exactly been our focus
with that June 30th release.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Well, I would request that, as the
project team--with all the internal milestones you are trying
to meet, and you have been very helpful to our Committee and to
our Committee staff in sharing information at every step of
this process. But in light of the problems that we have had
with the interim solution, in light of the importance of this
Long-Term Solution, we need to stay on top of this day by day,
week by week. If there is any other problem that is revealed to
your project team, we just need to be made aware of some of
that ongoing work because of the importance of these deadlines
in meeting the benefits needs for the students and
understanding what more you might need from us. This is a high
priority, not only among this Committee, but the colleagues
that we hear from who have student veterans that are
experiencing problems.
We want to make sure that we are able to answer questions
immediately for them, which will lead to some of the other
questions that we are going to have about what is happening in
the spring semester. But we really want to work closely with
you to ensure these targets are met; we are ready to go in the
fall. For example, do you have a target date for getting the
new software requirements then? When are you supposed to have
that? Since that was going to possibly slip until May, you have
reduced the functionality so you can stick to the March 31st
timeline. When will the new software requirements that were
uncovered in December be ready? What is the target date to
integrate them after Release 1.0 in March? If you can answer,
great. But that is one thing I think we need to have.
Mr. Wilson. Let me try to take a shot at it, and Mr. Baker
probably can do a more articulate job than I, but from an
operational perspective, from a non-IT perspective, I look at
it this way. We provided the functional requirements for what
we needed in the Long-Term Solution at the beginning. That has
been laid down. But when you look at those functional,
requirements, in some ways it is like an onion. You know what
you have in front of you, but as you peel it back, there is
more and more inside. So as the users are sitting down with the
programmers and they are saying, first of all, they are saying,
we need to be able to account for interval pay. They understand
that, but as they get into that, they have to understand what
the mechanics are that are involved with interval pay. And
those discussions occur on a regular basis because of the agile
development process. They are constantly going around and
around working on those things, moving on to the next stage.
Mr. Baker. I think, directly to your question, I believe we
have those detailed requirements now. It was, as we were
putting those specifically down, we determined that there was
more there than could be met for March 31st. But we know that
short, what we call sprints, additional sprints, will get those
done after the March 31st and deliverable after the March 31st
date. That is why we believe that all of those requirements
that would have gone into the first release that we originally
scheduled for March 31st, it is about mid May that they will be
able to have walked through all of those things.
Now, I am going to look at Mr. Krause and see if I can make
certain that we are in agreement on this one.
Captain Krause. Yes ma'am, Madam Chairwoman, the
requirements, the bow wave of requirements that we saw in the
beginning of December are going to be completed by June 30th in
Release 2. This is a good news story. If we had done this the
traditional way, the waterfall way, where you get all your
requirements up front and you just start plugging away at the
plan, this would have been a 2-year slip, a 1- to 2-year slip,
having hundreds of requirements show up a few months before you
are getting ready to deploy.
But that is not what we did. We have an agile methodology.
We do 2 week sprints, and we were able to recover. It looks
like we are going to do a 3-month functionality slip. That is
unheard of in a major software project. So this is good. A
limited release is industry best practice. The big bang, I know
you have seen other examples of a big bang strategy with
software releases. That usually doesn't go very well. So a
limited release is a proven industry best practice, where we
will ring out the application; we will refine the production in
deployment processes and production support mechanisms; and we
will be able to gauge the real world impact on the users of the
data sources and legacy systems. So this is going to really be
good, and it will make the June 30 deployment of Release 2 much
easier. So this is good-good, win-win stuff I think.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Okay. You have alleviated some of my
concerns. Although I don't know, is the onion fully peeled yet?
Captain Krause. It is not, but a large majority of it is.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. You answered one of the questions I
had for you, Mr. Krause, which was that these are limited
releases.
Captain Krause. Release 1 is a limited release.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Are all the releases limited?
Captain Krause. No. Release 2 will be to all the VCEs, if
you will, the veterans claim examiners.
Mr. Baker. Release 2 will be a full replacement of what we
are using right now for functionality. We will no longer be
using the old interim solution. We will be fully on to the new
Long-Term Solution.
Captain Krause. And there will be a transition where the
users will have to transition off that. That may take a few
weeks. You can't just say, okay, turn off your computer; now
use this one.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. That will lead to some other questions
I have about the training, but I do want to recognize the
Ranking Member for his questions.
Mr. Boozman. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Captain Krause, in regard to Release 3, is there any way at
all to get that done in time for the fall 2010 semester?
Captain Krause. Release 3 is, and this is good news, too,
is that VA, the financial accounting system folks, the people
that maintain that application, have stepped up to the plate
and said that interface belongs to us; we are going to do the
lion's share of that work. And they have. So a lot of that,
that question would have to be answered by someone that is
doing the financial accounting system. But they have stepped up
to the plate. We are partnering with them. And I don't know if
they can increase the--I don't know the answer to that
question, but I think we as a team can find that out.
Mr. Baker. Let me give you a very direct answer to that.
This team has been highly accurate, from my view, in what they
can tell me about what is going on. One of the things that we
are going to offer to do with your staffs is start bringing
them in and talking about the monthly project plans that we
get. They are very, very good. I would be very reticent to tell
you that we can move up functionality. We have been asked that
several times in the past, and the answer is, we are doing
about what we can do to make this deliver.
The good news is, as Captain Krause says, they are doing
very short bursts of work verifying that and then moving on to
the next piece, so much as all of us would like to move it up.
The other thing that I will tell you is that we will do that
release on September 30th and make that available to Education
Service to determine whether they want to install it. One of
the things, as IT people, we have to be sensitive to on the
business side is, what is the impact of installing a new
release, especially on a date like September 30th, which is
right in the middle of the peak for the fall semester? And so
we will at that point in time know all the training required,
all the benefits, from a processing time, they will gather all
of the intricacies of doing the change and be able to make a
business decision of, does it make sense to install this on
September 30th, or does it make sense to put it in at a
different point in time?
I think all those things have to factor in. Right now,
given the fact that we have just experienced a reduction in
functionality, I really hate using the word ``slip,'' but I
think I will go ahead and do it, I wouldn't want to then try
and say, how do we do more? How do we bring things back in?
I am focused on, and I think everybody here sees that we
are focused on March 31st, June 30th, and December 2010. Those
to me are the hardest dates in there. The September date, while
important, is the one that I think we leave up to VBA to
determine when they want to install it.
Mr. Boozman. Captain Krause, I have three daughters, and
they help me with my iTunes and get songs, legally, not any
other way. But I guess what I am saying is, is that, I can text
and this and that, but using some technology can be a bit
challenging. On the progress of the CH 33 Long-Term Solution in
your testimony, will you explain to me the first two bullet
points?
Captain Krause. What page is that on, sir?
Mr. Boozman. Page 2, where it starts, ``completed a rules-
based engine locating all CH 33 business rules.''
Captain Krause. Is this under the section under the
progress or the milestone?
Mr. Boozman. Under the progress.
Captain Krause. Progress. Essentially this is the question
about the secure cloud computing environment. And actually, you
are using a cloud right now. If you have an e-mail account with
Google or Yahoo or one of the e-mail or even your music that
your daughters help you download, you have to go to a cloud to
get it. The cloud essentially is maintained by the service
provider, and it has the applications and the data in it. So,
in our case, we have gone to a commercial provider where our
applications and data will be stored and maintained, and we
don't really have to think or worry about the infrastructure.
That is not really our concern.
We rent--no, we don't rent. We lease that service. We
purchase a service from this commercial provider. It is a
hosting service. And so another way of explaining cloud
computing, it is an application hosting service instead of
something we buy or maintain. And so it is very scaleable. And
essentially all you have to worry about is connecting to the
cloud. You don't have to worry about the details inside the
cloud. So that is kind of a real simple way of describing cloud
computing.
And in this particular case, they have given us a segmented
cloud of our own for the VA that specifically complies with the
VA security requirements, pays attention to personal
identifiable information, which is sensitive data like your
Social Security number, that you don't want exposed. Those
kinds of protections this cloud environment gives us in this
situation that is maintained for us. So that is the second
bullet.
Mr. Baker. If I could, I just need to put a point as the
security head for VA and the IT. We have sent the folks out and
determined this is as secure as if we were processing it in one
of our own data centers. There is a lot of security around
this. So I want to assure people there is not an issue with
that.
Captain Krause. And Mr. Baker I think has the final sign-
off on that solution, too, so we stay very close with him on
giving briefs on what the status of that is.
And sir, you asked about the third bullet.
Mr. Boozman. Just the first two.
Captain Krause. Okay, the first two. Again, the rules-based
engine is essentially an engine where you can input the rules
and essentially update the software--in the old way of
thinking, if you made a change to software, you would have to
go in and change all the code, do regression testing, test the
whole application. And it could take several months, if not
years, to do it.
In this application, the vision eventually is for Mr.
Wilson's folks to have access to the rules-based engine, and
when he comes up with a rule, they come out with a Frye
amendment or some other change. His folks go into the Web,
change the rules engine, and it automatically is implemented in
the software without having to go in and change the application
code. So that is kind of what service-oriented architecture,
that is one of the benefits of service-oriented architecture
(SOA), is you can reuse code and you can go in and make changes
on the fly that are immediately implemented.
So that is why we are laying the foundation for this
project on a SOA-based foundation, which may be painful now,
but in the long run, it will avoid years of software changes
that are not going to be required. We will be able to do it
very immediately.
Mr. Boozman. Good. Thank you very much. One other thing,
this came up at the Call Center when the staff was down
visiting. It appeared--well, what seems to be happening is that
if a veteran calls with an issue and the employee sees a simple
fix to the solution; in other words, it comes into the Call
Center, they could go in and dig around and figure out what was
wrong, and yet unless the call came from the jurisdiction of
the Muskogee center, they really couldn't fix the problem. So
is that--I guess what we are asking is if that is really--is
there a way perhaps for those very simple things that--is there
a way to do that instead of fixing it, then having to send a
request to another center someplace, and then that kind of
stacking up there until they get to it, does that make sense?
Mr. Wilson. It does make sense. And the short answer is,
yes, that capability exists. When we set up the National
Education Call Center, we did staff the Education Call Center
with a certain number of veterans claims examiners to be able
to address specifically those situations. So I do have as a
task following this hearing to find out the specifics I need to
provide a full answer. But right now, the Education Call Center
does have that capability.
Mr. Boozman. Okay. Good. I appreciate that. Like I said,
that is a little thing, but it does seem like it might be
something that might make things a little bit more efficient. I
think what you are going to do for us, Mr. Baker, in the sense
of updating us periodically with your briefings, I think that
is really excellent, and we appreciate you being willing to--I
think that will just help us as we go along with the process.
So thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Thank you, Mr. Boozman.
A question for any of you. I think when we were talking
about the Release 1.0 versus Release 2.0, is Release 2.0 pretty
much fully supplanting Release 1.0? How long do you anticipate
it is going to take to train the veterans claims examiners in
each of the releases?
Captain Krause. In the testimony, I talked about our
strategy for training the veterans, if you will, using folks
on-site.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Training veterans to use it.
Captain Krause. On training the veterans claims examiners,
you are right. We haven't done this before. SPAWAR folks have
not trained VCEs before. All the training now has been done
inside of VA. So I don't know that we have a feel for that yet.
I think we will have a feel for that once we do the limited
release. I think we will have a better feel for it.
The things that I mention on page 5 of the testimony are
things that are ongoing right now. But I think if you can go to
the Web and you can actually do your training online and do
simulated claims and if you have an on-site person to help you,
I think it--I don't know that we have an estimate to determine
that.
Mr. Wilson. The training that is going to be used for the
Long-Term Solution is different than the way we have trained
people in the past in that integrated into the application
itself is self-paced training modules. So those individuals
will be able to use the application itself to train. It will
have use cases, et cetera, in it. So we would expect that to be
a more efficient process than gathering people together in
classrooms, preparing training material, et cetera, et cetera.
What I can tell you is the training for the interim
solution, the initial training for the interim solution was
about 40 hours per person, about a work week per person. We
would expect this initial training to be something less than
that, but we don't have yet exactly defined what that less
would be at this point.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Well, that will be important to pull
together and to share with us after Release 1.0. Because while
meeting the technical requirements of the system, you know the
personnel training requirement could cause a slip, in terms of
meeting the needs of the veterans when they need it as we get
ready and into the fall semester.
Mr. Baker. Part of the reason for the June 30th release
date is to make certain that we have plenty of time to do the
training to make certain that people are really up to speed. I
mean, clearly, one of the issues in the fall was we had a
brandnew law, brandnew system, lots of new folks. And bringing
them up to speed was one of the issues. They know--the people
are there. They are trained. They know the law. They know the
process now. We won't have those issues. But it is a new
system, and we know we are going to need training time on this.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Captain Krause, it sounds, as you
described it, in terms of this kind of service that there is a
significant degree of flexibility so that if Congress chooses
to modify this benefit in any way, that we have a flexible
system to work with. We don't have to start from scratch, and
we don't have an old legacy system and the restrictions that
imposes on us to be able to make legislative changes to modify
benefits and then can't meet the expectation of the delivery of
those benefits. We want to make sure that it is flexible in the
future. While you have described the flexibility it offers to
set it up, after the system is established, what happens? I
mean, the relationship here continues, or is the VA somehow
going to have the in-house technological expertise to go in and
make some of the changes, given the flexibility of the system
that, Captain Krause, you described the system would provide? I
mean, is VA going to be able to do that?
Captain Krause. In my opinion, I think so. The people that
I have met that work in the VA, they have some really highly
competent IT technical experts that could easily do that.
Eventually we will be transitioning this system over to a VA
data center to be managed by the VA, but I am confident that
they can. They have SOA experts, service-oriented architects,
experts that are working closely with us, that we are working
closely together. And I think there will be the cross
pollination there by the time it is deployed.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Okay.
Any thoughts.
Mr. Baker. I think the logical thing is to expect a
transition. I don't think any of us expect that on December
31st, it will be all VA and no SPAWAR on this. Because while it
is rules-based, I think the best way to think of rules-based
is, in between natural language and programming, there is an
area. And we talk about training. We are going to want to make
certain that the subject matter experts in the Education
Service really understand what they are doing when they change
those rules. And so there will be support on that.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. I am sure you would appreciate if
Congress knew what we were doing when we changed the rules.
Mr. Baker. That is really what education is doing, is
reflecting Congress's will.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. So we want to make it easier. Nice
answer.
We are going to work to share information because there are
some very important pending bills, some of which we have had a
chance to discuss, have hearings about, that we already have
found agreement to try to change and support. The new benefit
is very complex, but there will be changes made. We want to
make sure that we are sharing information; we have an
understanding, so that when we do make those changes, we are
easing the path, not complicating it.
Mr. Baker. Just to be very clear, implementing a rules-
based engine does not guarantee that every time there will be
no programming. It greatly increases the probability that we
can change something without having to say, it will take us 6
months and 15 programmers to do that.
But given the range of things that Congress might decide
that it wants to do with a program such as this, with a benefit
such as this, there is no way to anticipate everything that
could possibly occur. I say that as the person that is going to
have to implement these things after SPAWAR is no longer
involved with it.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. I have some questions here on the Call
Center. Mr. Boozman has already directed some of his questions
to you on that, as well as sort of workforce issues here to
sort of elaborate on the PowerPoint on page 5, but I will
submit those to you in writing.
I just want to spend the rest of our time, a few more
moments on the still-pending claims for the fall semester of
last year and the spring semester of 2010. I know you gave us
the updates on the numbers here.
Mr. Baker, I think you said there are 1,500 remaining
claims for the fall 2009 semester, and that, for the bulk of
those, more information is needed from the student. What kind
of information? The student has the responsibility of providing
some information, but is there any way, in light of the fact
that these are pending claims for last semester, that we can
expedite this? What kind of additional information do you need
from the student?
Mr. Baker. I am going to ask Mr. Wilson to answer that one.
Mr. Wilson. It will generally fall in a couple categories.
First of all, the 1,500 number, we are down to about somewhat
less than 1,000 now.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Is that certificates of merit, or is
that payments?
Mr. Wilson. These are payments. We are specifically talking
about fall payments.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. So all the certificates of eligibility
for last fall, there is nothing pending there.
Mr. Wilson. No, that is not correct.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Is it less than 1,000 pending
payments?
Mr. Wilson. Of payments. I am talking strictly about
enrolled students, individuals we know are enrolled for the
fall, that had not received payment yet.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Is it payment for tuition? Is it
payment for housing?
Mr. Wilson. Depending on the case, whatever entitlement
they are eligible for, no payment has gone out on those to
either the school or, if it is due to the veteran, the housing
or books stipend had not gone out. There could be information--
first of all, every individual in this category has been
contacted by VA, and we have been in contact with them to let
them know specifically what is needed.
It could be information that is lacking concerning service
verification from the Department of Defense. It could be
information from the schools. It could be that the student did
not fill out the required information on the application.
Unfortunately, it would be a case-by-case specific situation.
It could be that the school is waiting to submit the enrollment
information to us because the student may not have completed
some kind of requirement at the school. We would be happy to
look into it further, but all I have right now is just broad
categories of those situations.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. I think we do need to look into it
further. I appreciate that every one of them has been
contacted, but as you said, it is case by case.
Is service verification from DoD, the student's
responsibility?
Mr. Wilson. No, that would be our responsibility.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Again, I think we need more
information so we can clear the decks as soon as possible.
Mr. Wilson. I understand. I am happy to do that.
[The following was subsequently received by the VA:]
VA contacted students and schools to receive required claim
and enrollment documents, and all of the 1,000 claims have been
processed. VA continues to receive enrollments for both spring
and fall terms. VA is now processing payments for all Chapter
33 claims within 7 to 10 days of receipt and consistently
completing more claims per week than received.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Regarding spring 2010. I appreciate
you taking us through some of the steps that you have taken;
where you are with the numbers. You have bumped up the number
of claims examiners to deal with some of that. Some of these
will relate to the questions I will submit in writing with
regard to the personnel issues in terms of the temporary
workers, who you are going to keep, when you start losing
temporary employees, et cetera.
I think that, Mr. Baker, you had said it wasn't out to the
schools, being a notification, right, that anything received by
January 19--let me find where that question is.
Mr. Baker. That is correct.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin [continuing]. Would be processed by
February 1, right?
Mr. Baker. Yes.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. What has been the response from the
schools thus far? Did you get a significant number of
enrollment certifications after that letter was sent out a
couple of days ago?
Mr. Wilson. I don't know that we have had enough time to
determine the response from the letter. What I can tell you is
last week we received 115,000 enrollment certs from schools, so
we are beginning to get in that highest volume period. We will
probably top out the 1st week of February in terms of the
volume of incoming work, and then it will decline fairly
rapidly from there.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. So you have said to those schools,
those 115,000 that came in last week, will all be processed by
February 1.
Mr. Wilson. Yes, ma'am. February 1 if they are due payments
on February 1.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Okay. Do you have any other questions?
Mr. Boozman. I am sorry, Madam Chair. I had just one other
thing real quick, and this refers back to the staff visit. You
guys, we need to keep them at home so that we won't make your
work more difficult.
But when they were out there, they requested a report
detailing the workload and resources needed to meet VA
strategic goals for the education programs through next
September.
I guess the question is when we might expect that report.
And that is important so that we can accurately reflect as we
do our views and estimates. If we have that information, then
we can try and figure what kinds of resources we need to
request to help you get the backlog worked out. Again, I think
we can be helpful to you in that way, but we have to understand
what is going on.
Mr. Wilson. Understood. I can commit to you that we will
have an answer concerning when we will have that information to
you, this week. We are still working out some, I guess,
``modeling,'' for lack of a better term, concerning what--when
the claims will be in. We feel, as Mr. Baker indicated, very
comfortable that we can meet the February 1 deadline that we
put out. Once we get to that point and we believe we have
achieved that, then we can look more effectively at the
resource issues and address perhaps some of the Call Center
issues, et cetera.
Mr. Boozman. Well, again, thank you guys for being here. We
do appreciate you and your staffs and all that you guys
represent. I know that you are working really very, very hard,
and it is just everybody working together try to go sort this
out, giving you the resources that you need. We have a great, a
great program, but we have to figure out how to administer it.
Like I said, we appreciate your hard work. Thank you.
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Thank you, Mr. Boozman.
I just have one question that I will ask on behalf of both
of us. Since we sent the VA a letter together, November 12 of
last year, we are just wondering if you could provide an update
to us, Mr. Wilson, as to whether you have implemented any of
the recommendations that Mr. Boozman and I made. Could you
speak to that?
Mr. Wilson. Yes. Unfortunately, I don't have the specifics
here. I will be happy to provide it for the record.
[The VA subsequently provided the answer in response to
Question #8 in the Post-Hearing Questions and Responses for the
Record, which appears on p. 33.]
Ms. Herseth Sandlin. Okay. Yes, if you could get back to
us, just so we know which recommendations you have acted on,
because these were made in light of the problems in the fall
that we hope to avoid in the spring. We thought we had some
good ideas. So let us know, if you didn't implement some of
these, what the justification was.
I think that is going to wrap us up, but I really do
appreciate the testimony and the presentations.
Before we adjourn the hearing today, I do want to echo Mr.
Boozman's opening remarks with regard to the work done by VA
employees at the Muskogee Regional Processing Center and the
Education Call Center for their service to our Nation's
veterans and their dependents. I know Mr. Wilson that we will
work with you and Ms. Ruben, to address some of the issues that
we have raised here today.
The VA employees there, their strong commitment to our
veterans is one that we all share on this Subcommittee. I know
that the staff appreciated the opportunity to be there more
recently. As Mr. Boozman said, he has been there previously as
well.
We will continue to work to make sure that these dedicated
employees have the resources that they need, that you have the
resources as leaders in your organizations and departments,
that you need to reduce the backlog of the pending education
claims to provide timely customer service. There are existing
authorities should be utilized for the benefit of the veterans
as the first priority.
We thank you for your service to our Nation's veterans, and
for your testimony today.
The hearing stands adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 2:20 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
----------
Prepared Statement of Hon. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin,
Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
Some of those in the audience may recall that our first hearing of
2009 was on the implementation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. This was
followed up by supplemental hearings that sought to ensure VA's
progress on the short- and long-term information technology solutions.
I hope that it is clear to our panelists before us today that by making
this our first hearing of 2010, we demonstrate the continued importance
of the subject at hand.
I'm sure my colleagues will agree that the current delays in
processing education claims are unacceptable. While the Administration
shares my concerns regarding these shortcomings, the blame does not
rest solely with the VA. The processing of a single claim requires
multiple steps involving multiple parties and computer systems, all of
which must work in-sync with one another in order for a veteran to
receive his or her benefits in a timely manner. These computer
difficulties demonstrate the need for a fully functional Long-Term
Solution.
Furthermore, the Subcommittee staff's recent visit to the VA's
Regional Processing Center and Education Call Center in Muskogee,
Oklahoma has raised some concerns. They include:
The closure of Education Call Center hours on Thursdays
and Fridays provides veterans only 3 days to call for assistance on
education matters. While we understand the value of using Call Center
staff to process education claims, the VA can have the Call Center open
5 days per week by dispersing the same work hours throughout the week;
Second, the availability of temporary employees after
September 2010. While we all would like to have a fully operational
Long-Term Solution by December 2010, the reality of the limited time
frame to implement this complex IT system may require the VA to push
back its deadline. Ensuring that VA has the trained personnel to
continue to process education claims, and field incoming calls, can
help avoid further delays in receipt of education benefits;
The third concern involves VA's current policy limiting
Education Call Center operators from taking action on education claims
outside of the Muskogee region. The current policy requires that claims
originating outside of the Muskogee region be referred to the
appropriate Regional Office for action. We have been informed that by
authorizing these operators, who are responsible for taking all
educational benefit calls, to make simple updates to a veterans file
would result in faster service and avoid long wait periods for action;
and
Finally, the visit to the Education Call Center raised
equipment concerns that create dropped calls and require constant
maintenance which I hope VA will address quickly.
I look forward to hearing from our distinguished panelists
participating in today's hearing, specifically on how the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs is addressing these concerns, and making
progress in implementing its Long-Term Solution that seeks to
streamline the way education claims are currently processed.
Prepared Statement of Hon. John Boozman,
Ranking Republican Member, Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
Good afternoon. Madam Chair, the successful development and
implementation of the new computer system to manage the Post-9/11 GI
Bill is vital to delivering accurate and timely education benefits, not
just for Chapter 33, but for all the education programs.
Before we begin, I would like to address three other issues that
affect delivery of education benefits to our veterans and are easily
solvable. The first two are issues involving the operation of the
National Call Center in Muscogee.
Our staffs visited the Regional Processing Office and the National
Call Center in Muscogee last week. They met with managers and frontline
claims and Call Center workers. While meeting with management, the
staff expressed their concern that the National Call Center was closed
2 days per week to allow the workers to assist in processing education
claims. While the staff readily agreed that diversion of some labor
hours to processing claims they suggested that spreading those
processing labor hours over the work week would also allow the Call
Center to remain open. As a result of that discussion, local VA
management forwarded a request to the VA's Office of Field Operations
to make the changes suggested and therein lies my concern: Why does it
take a suggestion from congressional staff to raise such a commonsense
issue and why do those responsible at the local level need to get
permission from central office?
Second, the Call Center operates from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. central time
with no one to answer calls coming outside those hours. That means
people living outside the continental U.S. have very limited windows in
which to contact the Call Center. Given the high rates of blocked and
dropped calls, I suspect beneficiaries living in the Pacific and
European areas have little chance of getting assistance from the Call
Center. Again, the solution is simple . . . stagger the working hours
of a few employees to cover a wider range of the day. If that takes
additional overtime or incentive pay, based on the staffs' discussions
with Call Center employees, the extra hours or pay differential would
be welcome.
Madam Chair, my staff says that every call they take regarding the
Post-9/11 GI Bill includes complaints about the difficulty getting
through to the Call Center. The way VA is managing Call Center
operations defies logic and decisions on working hours should be left
to the Muscogee management team. Regardless, closing the Call Center 2
days per week when there are alternatives that meet VA's claims
production needs AND provide customer service at the same time, I
suppose that is a subject for the future, but given the challenges
facing VA, the Department does not need to be making their own lives
more difficult by mismanaging its operations and I hope they will
reconsider how they are operating the Call Center.
Madam Chair, I look forward to today's testimony and yield back.
Prepared Statement of Captain Mark Krause, USNR (Ret.),
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Program Manager,
Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic,
Department of the Navy, U.S. Department of Defense
Good afternoon, Chairwoman Sandlin, Ranking Member Boozman, and
Members of the Subcommittee. I appreciate the opportunity to appear
before you today to discuss the current status of the Chapter 33 Long-
Term Solution (LTS--Chapter 33 of Title 38, United States Code). My
testimony will address the key milestones and dates, current progress
of the Long-Term Solution, capabilities of the planned releases, and
project challenges.
CH 33 LTS Key Milestones and Dates are as follows:
March 31, 2010--Planned date for Release 1.0
June 30, 2010--Planned date for Release 2.0
September 30, 2010--Planned date for Release 3.0
December 31, 2010--Planned date for Release 4.0
Progress of the CH 33 Long-Term Solution
During the 4 months since our last meeting with the Subcommittee
the CH 33 team has accomplished the following:
Completed a rules-based engine locating all CH 33
business rules in one area separate from the application logic
consistent with Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) principles.
Established the development and production hosting
capabilities in a secure cloud computing environment with secure
network communications to VA legacy systems.
Successfully integrated subject matter experts from the
VA's field operations into the development process to ensure the CH 33
LTS application will best support the Veterans Claim Examiners' (VCEs')
processing requirements and priorities.
Completed a complex data interface with the VA/DoD
Identity Repository (VADIR) application.
Near-Term Goals
Deploying an early CH 33 LTS Release 1.0 in March 2010 to
a limited number of VCEs where original claims can be moved to and
processed in the LTS automated, rules-based environment.
Explanation of the System Being Developed
There are four Veterans Affairs Regional Processing Offices (RPOs)
responsible for processing thousands of claims from veterans seeking to
use the CH 33 educational benefits. The adjudication process relies on
highly trained VCEs to determine eligibility, calculate entitlement,
and process the award. This requires them to interface multiple
disjointed systems and perform significant manual entry.
The objective of the Chapter 33 LTS is to support the new
legislative requirements with a Web-based tool that will provide
automation and standardization to the adjudication process. This will
significantly reduce the time to process a claim and the number of VCEs
required. Additional benefits will be efficiency, accuracy,
predictability and reliable results. Additionally, the tool will
support the need for transparent data exchange and reporting while
being flexible enough to adapt to future changes in policy and law.
Capabilities of the Planned CH 33 LTS Releases
CH 33 LTS Release 1.0 will be deployed to incorporate the core
features necessary to process new claims to include tuition payments,
housing allowances, re-enlistment incentives, books and fees. The
primary objective of Release 1.0 will be to validate application
performance, deployment strategies, and expected changes to business
operations. A key system interface will be eligibility data from VADIR.
Release 2.0 will begin the transition from the current CH 33
interim solution front-end tool and job aid, enabling the VCEs to
completely migrate off the Chapter 33 interim solution. Release 2.0
will expand the capabilities of the earlier release by enabling VCEs to
amend awards and process transfer of entitlement claims.
Release 3.0 will improve claims processing efficiency by automating
the complex CH 33 financial transaction/authorization process currently
required to authorize payments for claims. This will be achieved by
establishing a system interface with the VA's Financial Accounting
System (FAS).
The feedback from Release 1.0 through 3.0 will determine the
requirements and scope of Release 4.0.
Implementation Challenges
The challenges being overcome include (1) translating the
complexity of the CH 33 benefits adjudication into a business rules
approach that will enable the system to quickly adapt to legislative
interpretations, changes, and priorities; (2) access to the limited
number of subject matter experts in claim adjudication, processes, and
policies; (3) identifying the myriad number of scenarios for amending
(changing) award amounts; (4) converting the data from the VA interim
solution because of independent workarounds and interpretations at
RPOs; and (5) the complexity and the inconsistency in systems
architectures and data across multiple VA and DoD systems.
Training Requirements
The CH 33 LTS team is currently developing a Web-based, interactive
training system to teach VCEs how to use LTS application to process
Chapter 33 claims. The training system will include (1) self-paced
tutorial material and hands-on processing of simulated Chapter 33
claims, (2) 508 compliant, learning management system (LMS) to assess
individual VCEs progress and demonstrate competency using the LTS
system, (3) classroom training materials to teach the RPO training
coordinators how to administer the Web-based system to the VCE
community, and (4) on-site support during the initial RPO deployment.
We are confident that the release of the CH 33 LTS will be
completed by December 31, 2010.
Madam Chairwoman, this concludes my statement. I would be pleased
to answer any questions you or any of the other Members of the
Subcommittee may have.
Prepared Statement of Hon. Roger W. Baker,
Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology,
Office of Information and Technology, U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs
Good afternoon, Chairwoman Herseth Sandlin, Ranking Member Boozman,
and Members of the Subcommittee. I appreciate the opportunity to appear
before you today to discuss the status of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. My
testimony will address the current status of education claims, steps
taken to reduce the pending inventory and prepare for the spring
enrollment period, and the status of the implementation of the Post-9/
11 GI Bill Long-Term Solution.
Current Status
On May 1, 2009, VA began accepting applications to determine
eligibility for the Post-9/11 GI Bill. On July 7, 2009, we started
accepting enrollment certifications from school certifying officials
for veterans utilizing their Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits for the fall
term, and began processing claims for payment. Since May 1, 2009, we
have received over 1.5 million claims for education benefits under all
education programs, and have processed approximately 1.4 million
claims. More than 389,000 veterans have applied for certificates of
eligibility under the Post-9/11 GI Bill. VA has provided decisions with
respect to approximately 346,000 of these veterans. VA has issued over
$1.3 billion in Post-9/11 GI Bill benefit payments to approximately
180,000 individuals and their educational institutions.
Claims-processing time frames have risen due to the increased
workload from the Post-9/11 GI Bill. For fiscal year 2009, the average
time to process all education benefit claims took 26 days for original
claims and 13 days for supplemental claims. For this fiscal year, our
average processing time is 59 days for original claims and 26 days for
supplemental claims. Original applications under the Post-9/11 GI Bill
are taking an average of 61 days to process, while enrollment
certifications are taking an average of 38 days.
Fall Enrollment
As you are aware, many veterans enrolled in schools during the fall
of 2009 encountered unacceptable delays with respect to receipt of
their benefits. I believe it is important to convey, on behalf of
Secretary Shinseki and every member of the VA team, our apologies for
those delays and our understanding that the impacts of those delays on
veterans are unacceptable. We believe we have identified and resolved
the causes of many of those delays, and that the results for the spring
enrollment will be substantially improved over those of the fall. The
three primary contributors to the fall processing delays were:
1. Substantially longer time to process each claim than expected,
caused by the rudimentary IT tools available in the interim solution;
2. Startup problems including delays in interim solution
functionality that caused us to fall behind;
3. Insufficient staffing levels to compensate for the shortfalls
caused by 1 and 2.
Although we continue to receive fall-semester enrollment
certifications even today, there are currently under 1,500 enrollment
certificates remaining to be completed, with the remaining certificates
requiring further information from the affected students before they
can be completed.
Spring Enrollment
VA has taken numerous steps to reduce the number of pending claims
and prepare for the spring enrollment period. As a result of these
improvements, VA has been able to increase its daily completions of
Chapter 33 enrollment certificates from the average of 1,800 per day we
experienced during October to the nearly 7,000 per day we have been
able to achieve during January. These improvements include the
following:
On October 28, 2009, VA awarded a 90-day contract to
Affiliated Computer Services in London, Kentucky to provide claims
processing support for non-Post-9/11 GI Bill claims. This effort allows
VA to focus resources on the more complex Post-9/11 GI Bill claims. As
of January 8, 2010, the contractor has processed over 51,500 claims,
and has been instrumental in helping VA reduce its pending workload.
VA continues to utilize the 230 term employees hired
through the funding provided by Congress under the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). In addition, we implemented a mandatory
overtime policy at the four Regional Processing Offices (RPOs),
requiring all employees to work 3 additional days per month.
In an additional effort to reduce the workload and allow
the RPOs to divert resources to other areas, we are utilizing 200 ARRA
employees at five VA satellite offices in addition to the 230 term
employees to authorize Post-9/11 GI Bill payments. The employees work 7
days a week based on the workload.
On November 9, 2009, VA's Office of Information and
Technology (OI&T) delivered the third and final phase of the interim
claims processing solution, which provides increased functionality and
additional automation for processing Post-9/11 GI Bill claims. This
phase provides the functionality for processing both amended awards and
overlapping terms. Amended awards include changes in a student's actual
charges for tuition and fees and reduced or increased course loads.
We have implemented policies to streamline the entire
claims process based on case reviews and identifying duplication of
efforts and redundant or unneeded development.
Because veterans were not receiving their benefits
timely, VA began issuing advance housing-allowance payments to veterans
on October 2, 2009. As of January 11, 2010, VA made advance payments to
over 113,000 veterans, totaling approximately $330.2 million. Out of
this total number of advance payments made, approximately 76,000
veterans eligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill received approximately
$226.5 million.
Although VA continues to receive and process fall enrollments, we
are also focusing on the significant number of spring enrollments that
we are now receiving for all education programs. As of January 13, VA
has received Post-9/11 GI Bill spring enrollments for 111,470 veterans,
of which 80,464 have been processed. We took aggressive action to
eliminate the backlog of fall enrollments, and we are using all
available resources to ensure veterans receive their education benefits
for the spring terms accurately and on time. To further ensure veterans
who enroll in the spring term receive their benefits on time, VA set a
goal, one that we are confident we can achieve, to process any
enrollment certification we receive before January 19, 2010, for
payment by February 1, 2010.
Long-Term Solution
VA partnered with the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center
Atlantic (SPAWAR) to develop an end-to-end claims processing solution
that utilizes rules-based, industry-standard technologies for the
delivery of education benefits. This is our Long-Term Strategy for
implementing the Post-9/11 GI Bill. The Post-9/11 GI Bill includes
numerous eligibility and entitlement criteria and contemplates benefit
determinations that can best be made using rules-based technology that
requires minimal human intervention.
VA's automated IT system is scheduled to be released in four phases
to ensure robustness and stability. Release 1 of this effort is to
replace the current functionality of the interim solution and eliminate
the need for external job aids to process Post-9/11 GI Bill claims.
Release 2 will provide automated data feeds for both claim and veteran
information. Release 3 will provide automated data feeds into the VA
financial processing systems. Finally, Release 4 will provide a veteran
self-service interface to view the status of claims.
While Release 1 is scheduled for deployment on March 31, 2010, this
release has been changed to a limited ``pilot'' release, which will
deliver the capability to complete original claims; automatically
calculate awards including tuition and fees, housing, books and
supplies, Yellow Ribbon, Montgomery GI Bill-Active Duty and Reserve
Educational Assistance Program kickers; and automatically calculate
awards for overlapping terms and intervals. OI&T plans to deploy
Release 1 to a limited set of claims processors to restrict the impact
on the user community.
VA expected Release 1 to also include the functionality to convert
and transfer data from the interim processing solution to the Long-Term
Solution in order to enter supplemental awards for a claimant after an
original award was processed in the interim solution; process Transfer
of Entitlement and Fry Scholarship claims; amend awards for increases,
reduction, or terminations; and pay Post-9/11 GI Bill kickers and
supplemental kickers.
The above-mentioned modification from the reduced functionality in
Release 1 is caused by a substantially increased appreciation of the
complexity of amended awards. As our subject matter experts (SMEs)
worked with the SPAWAR team new software requirements were identified,
and it became clear these new requirements could not be incorporated by
the March 31, 2010, milestone requirement. Under our Program Management
Accountability System (PMAS), missing a milestone date has substantial
consequences, and so a decision was made in conjunction with VBA to
allow the delivery of reduced functionality in order to make the
milestone date. Most importantly, as this will be the first delivery of
software for the Long-Term Solution, I believe it is critical that real
users begin to use the software for production work, as this is the
only way to assure ourselves that the project is delivering an
acceptable product.
While complete functionality for the subsequent releases has yet to
be determined, VA anticipates Release 2, to be delivered on June 30,
2010, will include the remaining features necessary to migrate the
claims processors off the interim processing solution. VA, OI&T, and
SPAWAR will conduct meetings the week of January 25, 2010, to finalize
the functional requirements for Releases 2, 3, and 4 of the Long-Term
Solution. We still anticipate the successful delivery of all the
functional requirements for the Long-Term Solution by December 2010.
Temporary Claims Examiners
To support Post-9/11 GI Bill claims processing, VA hired 530 term
employees under a 13-month authority that can be extended up to 4
years. The term employees are part of VA's short-term solution until
OI&T delivers the long-term claims processing solution. VA will
routinely measure the impact the Long-Term Solution has on our ability
to accurately and timely process Post-9/11 GI Bill claims.
Madam Chairwoman, this concludes my statement. I would be pleased
to answer any questions you or other Members of the Subcommittee may
have.
__________
[Text version of PowerPoint Slide Presentation]
Post-9/11 GI Bill Long-Term Solution Implementation
January 2010
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Education Service
Washington, D.C.
Long-Term Solution Requirements
VA enlisted SPAWAR to develop a rules-based automated
Post-9/11 GI Bill claims processing system that includes and expands
upon functionality provided by the interim solution.
Key requirements
Processing of original and supplemental Post-9/11 GI
Bill claims, including Transfer of Entitlement (ToE) and Fry
Scholarship claims.
Automated calculation of all Post-9/11 GI Bill awards,
including: tuition and fee payments, housing allowance, books and
supplies stipend, and Yellow Ribbon payments; benefit program kickers;
overlapping and interval terms, and award amendments.
Retrieval of demographic and service data from VADIR.
Interface to payment system for automated payments.
Veteran Self-Service capabilities.
Long-Term Solution Release 1 Functionality
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Included Functionality Delayed Functionality
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Processing of original Conversion and data transfer
Post-9/11 GI from
Bill claims FET into LTS
Automated calculation Processing of ToE and Fry
of payment Scholar-
awards (including tuition and ship claims
fees,
housing, etc.) Processing of Supplemental
claims
Automated calculation Chapter 33 kickers and
of overlapping supplemental
term and interval awards kickers
Demographic and Claims containing award amend-
service data from
VADIR ments (increases, decreases, etc.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Long-Term Solution Deployment Schedule
LTS Limited Release 1, March 31, 2010--Pilot group of
users processing original claims to evaluate the technology and
reengineered business processes. Only original clean claims; no data
transfer from FET; no Transfer of Entitlement (ToE) or Fry Scholarship.
LTS Release 2, June 30, 2010--Replace Front-End Tool
(FET) and Job Aid functionality, process ToE and Fry Scholarship
claims, and receive data transfer from FET.
LTS Release 3, September 30, 2010--Adds interface to
financial accounting system.
LTS Release 4, December, 2010--External interface to
allow for veteran self-service for applications and claims management.
VA Future Staffing
VA originally hired 530 term employees for 13-month terms
that may be extended up to 4 years.
VA will begin reducing term employee workforce in the
first quarter of FY2011.
VA will monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of the
LTS to inform term employee reductions.
VA will make a final determination on when employment
terms should end based upon completion of LTS delivery.
VA Benefits During Spring Semester
VA has received enrollment certifications for 90,604
veterans, and has processed 61,595.
VA has taken many steps to decrease the claims backlog,
including:
Awarding a 90-day claims assistance contract to ACS,
Inc. for recommendations on non-33 claims.
Redirecting 200 ARRA employees at regional offices
nationwide to claims and payment functions.
Implementing streamlining policies and procedures.
Providing advance payments to individuals awaiting
normal benefit payments.
Continuing to utilize 230 ARRA employees hired through
August 2009 for claims processing.
VA Requirements For LTS
The VA has tasked SPAWAR SYSCEN Atlantic with developing
the Chapter 33 Long-Term Solution (CH33 LTS) to replace the VA's
interim solution for processing veteran education claims under the
Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008.
By offering more ``self-service functionality,''
developing an accurate yet flexible rules engine, and implementing a
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) infrastructure, the system will
minimize manual intervention and maximize efficiency.
LTS Implementation Date
It is expected that the Chapter 33 Long-Term Solution
will be fully implemented by December 2010.
This solution will deliver incremental capabilities using
an Agile software development methodology with four planned releases to
achieve full operating capability (FOC):
Release 1 will improve upon existing claims-processing
functionality;
Release 2 will add automation and efficiency to claims
and veteran data;
Release 3 will add automation and efficiency to
financial data; and
Release 4 will improve upon the veteran/claimant
experience with self-service features.
POST-HEARING QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES FOR THE RECORD
Committee on Veterans' Affairs
Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
Washington, DC.
January 25, 2010
Mr. Mark Krause
Department of Veterans Affairs Program Manager
Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center
810 Vermont Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20420
Dear Mr. Krause:
I would like to request your response to the enclosed questions for
the record and deliverable I am submitting in reference to our House
Committee on Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
hearing on The Future of the Post-9/11 GI Bill Claims Processing System
on January 21, 2010. Please answer the enclosed hearing questions by no
later than Monday, February 22, 2010.
In an effort to reduce printing costs, the Committee on Veterans'
Affairs, in cooperation with the Joint Committee on Printing, is
implementing some formatting changes for material for all full
Committee and Subcommittee hearings. Therefore, it would be appreciated
if you could provide your answers consecutively on letter size paper,
single-spaced. In addition, please restate the question in its entirety
before the answer.
Due to the delay in receiving mail, please provide your response to
Ms. Orfa Torres by fax at (202) 225-2034. If you have any questions,
please call (202) 226-4150.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin
Chairwoman
JL/ot
__________
Questions for the Record
The Honorable Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Chairwoman
Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
House Committee on Veterans' Affairs
The Future of the Post-9/11 GI Bill Claims Processing System
January 21, 2010
Question 1: When you are finished, will VA own all the software and
hardware?
Answer: Yes, the Veteran's Administration, as a Federal entity,
will own all SPAWARSYSCEN Atlantic purchased hardware, all government
employee developed software, and all software license rights acquired
in non-commercial software. Commercial software license rights acquired
by SPAWARSYSCEN Atlantic transfer to the Veteran's Administration.
Question 2: You state that you have developed the production
hosting capabilities in a secure cloud computing environment with a
secure network. Where in VA is this being done and where will the bulk
of equipment reside?
Answer: Currently, on behalf of the Veteran's Administration (VA),
SPAWARSYSCEN Atlantic is leasing a dedicated cloud computing
environment within a commercial hosting facility located in Culpepper,
Virginia. The production environment is within a dedicated private
cloud for the exclusive use of the VA. At the conclusion of the CH 33
Long-Term Solution project, the VA can continue to pay for this
commercial hosting service, or transition the application to one of the
VA's data centers.
Question 3: It is my understanding that the current system can only
recognize the 2009 BAH rate and not 2010 at the same time, making it
difficult for claims processors to provide veterans a more accurate
rate. Will Release 1.0 be able to calculate the housing stipend using
multiple BAH rates?
Answer: Release 1.0 is a limited pilot release for new claims only.
However, based on direction from the VA, to ensure consistency with
claims processing until the CH 33 Long-Term Solution is fully deployed,
Release 1.0 will use the same business rules as implemented in the CH
33 interim solution for applying multiple BAH rates to housing
allowances/stipend calculations.
Question 4: When do you anticipate having the Web-based interactive
training system completed and ready to be used as a training tool?
Answer: Release 1.0 of the CH 33 Long-Term Solution Web-based
interactive training system will be available to train the VA Education
Service Training Team beginning 16 March 2010. Release 2.0 of the CH 33
Long-Term Solution Web-based interactive training modules is scheduled
to be available for the Veteran's Administration Education Service
Training Team by 15 June 2010 to support the CH 33 LTS Release 2.0
deployment.
Question 5: How far along are you in testing the completed rules
based engine?
Answer: The commercial off-the-shelf rules-based engine
infrastructure has been integrated into the CH 33 Long-Term Solution
and is an integral component of the Release 1.0 capabilities. The
business rules have been defined, fully tested and integrated into the
LTS Release 1.0 application. As new business rules are incorporated
they are being tested on a daily basis to validate the performance of
the rules-based engine.
Question 6: What problems do VA's legacy systems present for the
new system?
Answer:
Many legacy VA capabilities were developed as stand-
alone solutions not intended for an Enterprise Architecture approach.
Legacy systems are built on obsolete code without
sufficient documentation and institutional knowledge which makes
developing interfaces for the CH 33 Long-Term Solution challenging.
Lack of standardized IT architectures and data
structure across multiple VA and DoD systems creates challenges
building systems interfaces for the LTS.
Question 7: Can you elaborate on how Release 1.0 will: validate
application performance, deployment strategies and expected changes to
business operations?
Answer: Application Performance--SPAWARSYSCEN Atlantic has worked
with the Veteran's Administration to define the performance and demand
requirements for the applications. We have designed the CH 33 Long-Term
Solution with the appropriate infrastructure to support these
requirements. In order to test/validate the application performance, we
have developed performance models and will be conducting the necessary
load testing. We will also integrate various application performance
management tools to monitor and collect metrics to measure the
performance of the production system.
Deployment Strategies--We are planning to deploy Release 1.0 for
use at each of the four Regional Processing Offices (RPOs)
incrementally on a weekly basis. From a technical deployment
perspective, we have deployed multiple virtual environments within the
development and production cloud computing environments to support
testing, pre-production, and production. We will capture lessons
learned from the limited adoption of Release 1.0 to improve future
release deployments to become more effective and efficient.
Business Operations--Upon the deployment of Release 1.0 we will
capture feedback from the RPOs to assess the impact and identify
improvements to business operations. We will leverage lessons learned
to help improve the operational performance of the RPOs in streamlining
the adjudication of CH 33 claims.
Question 8: Are you confident that VA will be able to maintain and
update the system?
Answer: Yes, we are confident the VA will be able to maintain and
update the CH 33 Long-Term Solution.
Question 9: How much training time will be needed to train the
claim examiners?
Answer: We expect it will take a week to train the Veteran's
Administration (VA) Education Service Training Team Members (train the
trainers) so they can train the Veterans Claim Examiners at the four
RPOs. We defer to the VA to answer how long it will take them to train
the VCEs, or how this training will integrate into their training
processes.
Question 10: For the system being developed today for VA, how long
into the future will the system be useful and how difficult will it be
to perform updates?
Answer: Generally speaking, software applications that are well
maintained and updated can continue to be useful for over 20 years. The
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) foundation the CH 33 LTS is built
on will allow ``faster, better, cheaper'' updates and evolutions in the
future.
Committee on Veterans' Affairs
Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
Washington, DC.
January 25, 2010
The Honorable Roger W. Baker
Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
810 Vermont Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20420
Dear Assistant Secretary Baker:
I would like to request your response to the enclosed questions for
the record and deliverable I am submitting in reference to our House
Committee on Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
hearing on The Future of the Post-9/11 GI Bill Claims Processing System
on January 21, 2010. Please answer the enclosed hearing questions by no
later than Monday, February 22, 2010.
In an effort to reduce printing costs, the Committee on Veterans'
Affairs, in cooperation with the Joint Committee on Printing, is
implementing some formatting changes for material for all full
Committee and Subcommittee hearings. Therefore, it would be appreciated
if you could provide your answers consecutively on letter size paper,
single-spaced. In addition, please restate the question in its entirety
before the answer.
Due to the delay in receiving mail, please provide your response to
Ms. Orfa Torres by fax at (202) 225-2034. If you have any questions,
please call (202) 226-4150.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin
Chairwoman
JL/ot
__________
Questions for the Record
The Honorable Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Chairwoman
Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity
House Committee on Veterans' Affairs
The Future of the Post-9/11 GI Bill Claims Processing System
January 21, 2010
Question 1: How many permanent and temporary employees is VA
projecting it will need beyond 2010?
Response: In FY 2011, the implementation of the long-term automated
processing solution for Post-9/11 GI Bill claims will allow us to
address the expected workload and improve claims processing timeliness
with 1,521 direct permanent full time employees (FTEs). We will
carefully measure the impact the Long-Term Solution has on our ability
to accurately and timely process Post-9/11 GI Bill claims and make
appropriate staffing adjustments.
Question 2: You state that Regional Processing Offices (RPOs) have
diverted resources to other areas. As we understand from staff who
visited the Oklahoma National Call Center, employees are being
transferred from their primary job to process claims. Why is this being
done and how are the primary job areas being affected?
Response: Timely delivery of education benefits is a top priority
for VA. The backlog of education claims was driving call volume at our
Call Center in Muskogee, Oklahoma to an all time high of 1.26 million
call attempts during November. To help veterans receive their Post 9/11
GI Bill benefits more promptly, VA trained existing phone technicians
at the Education Call Center to process pending education claims.
Nearly 80,000 claims were pending and timeliness measures were
extremely high in December when VA decided to redirect phone agents to
claim processing.
On December 10, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA)
redirected 155 Call Center employees to claims processing on Thursdays
and Fridays, our lowest call volume days. These employees joined 1,032
existing education employees nationwide in processing pending education
claims for the fall and spring semesters. There is a direct correlation
between pending claims and increased call volumes; the volume of calls
exponentially decreases as we are able to pay more veterans.
This temporary measure improved the timely processing of veterans'
Chapter 33 claims, and resulted in a lower call volume and blocked call
rate during the month of January 2010. On February 18, 2010, the Call
Center resumed normal business hours 5 days a week.
Question 3: VA received the third and final phase of the short-term
solution on November 9, 2009 to process amended awards and overlapping
terms. What delay did this create and was VA able to process amended
awards and overlapping terms before November 2009?
Response: The delay in deployment of the final phase of the interim
solution caused a delay in issuing payment on amended awards and
overlapping terms. These types of awards can now be completed with the
same timeliness as all others. However, since the interim solution did
not materially improve the speed of processing, the overall effect of
deploying the final phase on timely distribution of checks will be
moderate. VA expects to begin seeing significant improvements in
timeliness with the deployment of Release 2 of the Long-Term Solution
in June 2010.
Question 4: In visiting the Call Center, it seems that most of the
phone technicians were unable to make corrections when a veteran calls
them based on regional jurisdiction. Why is this the case and is this
being reviewed to permit them to make corrections?
Response: VBA and the Office of Information and Technology (OI&T)
are working to improve access across jurisdictions. The primary systems
used by the education program are The Image Management System (TIMS),
Benefits Delivery Network (BDN), and the interim solution. All systems
are used to process and make corrections to claims. These systems are
limited in the volume of users and the capability to cross RPO
jurisdictional lines. Due to these system limitations, VBA developed
internal processes that allow the Call Center technicians to expedite
processing and make adjustments to claims identified as having
financial hardships. Non-hardship claims are provided to the RPO of
jurisdiction for normal processing.
OI&T plans to make changes to TIMS and BDN over the next few months
to improve response time and access for VBA staff. For BDN, OI&T has
modified processor usage allocations to provide immediate relief to
production activities. OI&T is also considering the following options:
Add processors to increase the overall capacity of the
system;
Modify ancillary system programming to reduce the number
of queries; and
Schedule development, batch processing, and test
activities that utilize BDN after normal business hours.
The following improvements are planned for the TIMS application
infrastructure:
Upgrade application hardware storage;
Shorten downtime for system backups by deploying faster
tape devices;
Balance the distribution of application functions across
disk arrays to reduce input/output contention;
Upgrade to a more stable version of Oracle;
Allow claims folder access across jurisdictions;
Monitor the application continuously for application load
rebalancing;
Secure additional application software licenses for
additional users; and
Determine potential to provide technical contract support
on weekends.
Question 5: The Call Center is currently opened from Monday to
Wednesday during the week. Why is this schedule being followed and why
can't the center open 5 days a week?
Response: The timely delivery of education benefits is a top
priority for VA. There is a direct correlation between the number of
pending education claims and call volume. A high pending inventory
equals a high call volume. Phone technicians spend a significant amount
of time informing veterans that their claims are still pending.
Reducing the pending inventory was a key factor in improving Call
Center performance; therefore VA needed to find additional resources
that could quickly have a positive impact on the pending inventory.
Call Center technicians were familiar with VA systems and could be
trained in claims processing faster than new hires. As a temporary
measure, VA decided to close the Call Center Thursdays and Fridays to
process more claims for veterans. Thursdays and Fridays are the lowest
call volume days.
Since the closure of the Call Center on Thursdays and Fridays,
customer service and CH 33 claims processing performance improved
significantly.
Improved Customer Service
The Call Center received 769,637 call attempts on
Monday thru Wednesday during the first 2 weeks in December 2009. By
comparison, the Call Center received 381,442 call attempts on Monday
thru Wednesday during the first 2 weeks in January 2010. The overall
call volume continues to trend down.
Improvement in CH 33 Claims Processing Performance
Call Center employees complete an average of 700 claims
per day on Thursdays and Fridays, plus overtime. They completed
approximately 18,000 claims.
Pending CH 33 inventory is the lowest since August
2009.
Timeliness has improved by 13 days since the end of
November 2009.
VBA is making significant progress with processing the spring
enrollments. Through March 4, 2010, VA has received spring enrollments
for 200,384 veterans, of which 190,386 have been processed. The
decision to supplement claims processing staff by the Call Center
employees was a key factor in these improvements. Based on our
progress, VA resumed normal business hours at the Call Center on
February 18, 2010.
Question 6: In visiting the Call Center, the employees mentioned
that they needed dual monitors and a better phone system. Who in VA
will be following up with the Call Center to get them the equipment
they need?
Response: The local IT staff received and installed 140 dual
monitors for the Call Center employees. The issues with the current
telephone system in Muskogee have been reviewed extensively. The
primary issue involves the stability of the current Call Center call
routing system, and will be resolved with the planned Veterans
Relationship Management initiative that includes national call routing.
The remaining issues involve difficulties with the local instruments
and flexibility needed to meet mission needs. The local phone switch
may need replacement, and options are being evaluated for the phone
switch replacement and design.
Question 7: You state that insufficient staffing levels caused
problems. Do you believe that you have sufficient staff?
Response: The insufficient staffing levels VA experienced during
the fall enrollment period were remedied with the delivery of phase
three of the interim claims processing solution, the utilization of
ARRA employees to assist with the education workload, and the claims
processing support provided for under the contract with Affiliated
Computer Services. As a result of these efforts, VA has increased its
daily completions of Post-9/11 GI Bill enrollment certifications from
an average of 1,800 per day during October to the nearly 7,000 per day
in February.
Question 8: Has VA implemented any of the recommendations that were
sent to VA from this Subcommittee on November 12, 2009?
Response: VA has considered or implemented many of these
suggestions and is working diligently to improve the efficiency of
claims processing for veterans.
VA initially encouraged claimants to apply early for benefits. We
received an overwhelming response from veterans, including those who
have no immediate plans to enroll in school. With the level of our
current claims inventory for veterans already enrolled, we encourage
individuals who are interested in receiving education benefits but not
yet ready to attend school to wait until they have decided on a school
and an educational program. This will allow us to focus on the claims
of those who are currently attending school. Although our application
process does not require an individual to positively state they are
currently in school, we were able to identify those students for whom
we received certifications of enrollment through our data systems. This
allowed our processing offices to prioritize processing for those
veterans.
We also contacted school officials to encourage them to submit
enrollment information as quickly as possible, since VA cannot process
payments until we receive verification from schools that the student is
enrolled.
We agree that VA should inform veterans that they should expect to
receive their first housing allowance and book stipend in arrears.
Although payment of these benefits is consistent with other VA benefit
payment practices, there is a need to raise awareness about when to
expect these payments. Earlier last fall, we issued a news release,
sent a letter to schools, and posted information to our networking
sites to explain the payment policy.
VA informs veterans of the potential benefit of applying for
additional Federal education programs that could enhance their VA
education benefits. We are working with the Department of Education to
share information about programs available to veterans. Our GI Bill
Website also features links to several Federal financial aid sources.
VA conducted extensive outreach to inform veterans of the Post-9/11
GI Bill. Each individual identified in our data files as having
potential eligibility was mailed two letters last year. North American
Precis Syndicate published articles for VA, as well as a television
spot. We also entered into a contract with a marketing firm to develop
a national media campaign, which will be ready by summer 2010. The
marketing firm will explore ways to enhance VA's Website and create the
kind of interactive features suggested in your letter.
Veterans receiving educational assistance under the Montgomery GI
Bill program are required to certify their school attendance each
month, but those receiving Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits are not. VA's
interim payment system does not support a monthly verification process
for Post-9/11 GI Bill. However, VA's future payment system, which
should be fully deployed in December 2010, is expected to utilize a
monthly enrollment verification process. VA will propose a change to
existing regulations to coincide with our ability to support a monthly
verification process.
Question 9: The VA made advance payments to over 113,000 veterans.
Do you anticipate issuing advance payments this semester if veterans do
not receive their benefits for the spring 2010 semester?
Response: Because spring enrollment certifications are being
processed timely, VA is not making advance payments for the spring 2010
semester.