VA secretary talks claims backlog, homelessness, COVID-19 vaccinations during Oct. press conference

Source: Department of Veterans Affairs

Author: Jessica Steele

VA Secretary Denis McDonough took the floor during a press conference on October 20th in Washington D.C. to discuss veteran disability claims, homelessness, and COVID-19 vaccines.

VA claims

McDonough highlighted that over 3,800 toxic exposure claims had been approved for Gulf War Veterans. Veterans have received millions of dollars in benefits so far at around a 62% approval rate.

“We are not going to wait on Congress to act on this, we’re acting ourselves, and we will have more news on that front soon,” McDonough said.

According to an article released by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the claims filed related to Agent Orange and Blue Water Navy that were approved with the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act and the new toxic exposure claims have led to an increasing claims backlog. McDonough said the VA is planning to hire and train around 2,000 additional claims processors to combat this surge in claims. McDonough explained that funding from the American Rescue Plan would cover any overtime pay for claims processors and that the VA will carry out additional budgeting for claims processing. The claims backlog is currently at over 200,000; McDonough plans to cut this number in half to 100,000 by 2024.

Homelessness

McDonough had recently visited “Veterans Row” outside the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center. Los Angeles has among the highest recorded number of homeless veterans in the United States. The secretary announced two steps to addressing homelessness in Los Angeles: The first step is to get all veterans currently living on “Veterans Row” into housing by November of this year, and the second step is to get an additional 500 homeless Veterans residing in various parts of the city into housing by the end of 2021.

COVID-19 vaccinations

McDonough reported that Veterans had received more than 228,000 third immunizations and booster vaccinations from the VA. He encouraged Veterans, and their families should stay in contact with their local VA to confirm availability and vaccine offerings. McDonough concluded his dialogue by saying that the goal is to keep Veterans safe.