Veterans service office reports surge in workload and $216,474 in retroactive payments

The veteran service officer told the Sawyer County Administrative Committee that March was a busy month, with significantly higher client contacts and retroactive payouts for veterans whose claims were decided in their favor.

"We had 499 phone calls, 1,157 letters, emails, or faxes, and 232 office visits, of which 118 were walk ins," the veteran service officer reported. "Received retroactive payment of $216,474.66 for claims that were decided in the veteran's favor."

The officer described a pattern of increased workload caused by federal VA processing problems: claims routed to specialized regional offices (for example, Agent Orange claims), mistakes in initial adjudication, and the need to pursue higher-level reviews and appeals. He said some contracted compensation-and-pension medical exams are required to be within 50 miles but that geography and staffing sometimes make that impractical for rural veterans.

"So then the that regional office that specializes in Agent Orange might have an Agent Orange claim... and that varo picks up and runs with it, they do the prostate cancer claim, portion of the claim, and then they look at the basal cell and say, basal cell carcinoma is not caused by agent orange. Denied," he said, describing how regional routing can lead to denials and additional appeals work.

He also said the VAs experimentation with AI briefly caused mistakes, though the VA limited that application after problems. The veteran service officer said that although there are many capable people at the VA, staffing turnover and inexperienced adjudicators have increased the local office's appeal workload.

The veteran service office said it will continue higher-level reviews and appeals work on behalf of veterans and will attend training to maintain its capacity to handle the caseload.