Thursday, January 20, 2011

VA Using Automatic Hearing Loss Disability Compensation Program

Full Article at: VA employee-developed hearing loss calculator has 100 percent accuracy

By Bob Brewin 01/20/2011

Renford Patch a disability claims reviewer at the Veterans Benefits Administration regional office in Phoenix, Ariz., developed a hearing test calculator to automate the steps for determining compensation owed for varying degrees of hearing loss. Mike Walcoff, VA's acting undersecretary for benefits, stated that VBA deployed it for use by claims examiners throughput the agency in September.

According to Patch his program "analyzes audio metric data from a hearing test and then determines whether a veteran has a hearing loss, the extent of the loss in terms of decibels, and the level of disability. The calculator then generates a narrative text file, citing relevant regulations for payment."

"Walcoff added he believed VBA could adapt the calculator to expedite claims processing for nine other medical conditions, which he did not specify."

No comments:

Post a Comment