Monday, February 2, 2009

Linda Blimes possibly the next head of Veterans Benefits Administration ?.

Here's hoping that the article is correct and the VA goes to a "honor system" for disability claims. The years of needless pain and suffering that this type of system would save is incalculable.

Full article at:
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/02/military_vba_claims_020209w/

Potential VA benefits chief has new ideas

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Feb 2, 2009 17:36:26 EST

A Harvard University researcher with some radical ideas about how to reduce the backlog of veterans disability claims appears to be in line to head the Veterans Benefits Administration.

Linda Blimes, a public policy lecturer and research at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, wants the Department of Veterans Affairs to operate like the Internal Revenue Service — on an honor system that trusts veterans claiming service-connected disabilities. All veterans claims would be approved as soon as they are filed, with a random audit conducted to “weed out and deter fraudulent claims,” Blimes told the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee in testimony in 2008.

Ninety percent of veterans disability claims end up being paid after they make it through the system, she said — proof, she said, that most veterans are asking only for what they deserve.