Disability Assistance Chairman Luttrell: "Veterans deserve timely and high-quality [disability exam] decisions, and that starts at the top."

Hearing

"The subcommittee will come to order.

Good morning, everyone.

Thank you to all our witnesses for being here today.

We are here today to discuss V.A.'s management of disability exams.

We will also have the opportunity to hear from the Office of Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office about their work and recommendations on this matter.

V.A. disability exams are crucial to ensuring that veterans receive accurate decisions on their disability claims.

They are an important piece of a veteran's disability claim file and a step towards ensuring that veterans can receive their earned benefits.

Congress first granted V.A. the authority to contract disability exams out in 1996 and the program has grown since.

This freed up many V.H.A. providers, who were previously conducting disability exams, to focus on patient care.

The contractors are now responsible for roughly 85-90% of the disability exams veterans receive.

Because of this, it is important that V.B.A. is conducting proper oversight of the contract medical exam program.

Veterans deserve timely and high-quality decisions, and that starts at the top.

From the first step of writing the contracts, to issuing guidance to the contractors, to providing training, to holding the companies accountable for errors…this responsibility starts at the top.

In a 2018 report, G.A.O found that only one contractor was meeting V.A.'s target accuracy rating.

As of today's hearing, V.A. reported that overall quality has been trending up for the past 6 quarters and the overall quality score is over 96%.

Additionally, almost all of the vendors across all four regions have showed sustained, or improved in some instances, quality percentages from the first to second quarter of this fiscal year.

V.A. has made strides in the past five years with this program to ensure that vendors are meeting their accuracy requirements and are holding them accountable if they don't.

Veteran satisfaction and vendor quality both remain high however the production percentages for all vendors are seemingly not meeting contractual requirements.

I am interested to see how V.A. addresses this issue and what steps are being taken to rectify this issue.

V.A. has made strides to implement the recommendations from G.A.O. and O.I.G. but there is always room for improvement, especially with programs of this magnitude.

With that being said, more veterans have been applying for benefits since the passage of the PACT Act.

Exam scheduling requests are up 30% so far, and of these, 39% are connected to the PACT Act.

V.A. must exercise effective oversight as the number of exams rises.

I am looking forward to hearing from G.A.O. and O.I.G. on their relevant work, as well as updates from V.A. on how they are implementing the recommendations.

I want to thank everyone again for being here today and I am looking forward to a fruitful conversation.

With that, I yield to Ranking Member Pappas for his opening statement."

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