The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) must address entrenched management deficiencies that continue to delay long-needed modernization of the nation’s largest disability benefits program, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a Monday report.
One of the largest factors behind slow modernization, GAO said, is that the VA has not consistently applied basic reform disciplines such as setting clear goals, defining metrics, or incorporating stakeholder feedback.
Of the eight recommendations GAO made in 2022 to strengthen reform management, two remain incomplete.
“One recommendation is for VA to designate a centralized leadership team to oversee its many reforms. The other recommendation … is for VA to develop and implement a policy describing the leading practices that VA officials should follow when undertaking reforms,” GAO said, noting that fully implementing those recommendations “will help VA consistently follow leading practices for reform and determine how much progress has been made.”
The VA’s disability rating schedule – which evaluates a veteran’s disability compensations based on the severity of the disability – is being overhauled for the first time since 1945 but is a decade behind schedule, in part due to the VA’s lengthy internal and external review period, GAO said.
The schedule update is now set for fiscal 2026, GAO said.
“Without a rating schedule that reflects advances in medicine and changes in the labor market since 1945, VA may overcompensate some veterans while undercompensating others,” GAO warned.
Poor oversight of disability exams – most of which are conducted by contractors – also pose risks to modernization. Quality gaps, incorrect incentive payments, and missing examiner feedback loops have left all five GAO recommendations in this area open.
Other issues include training weaknesses and continued gaps in how the VA monitors training completion and evaluates training effectiveness, GAO added.
The VA’s disability compensation program has been on GAO’s High-Risk List since 2003 due to continuing challenges with managing claims workloads and modernizing eligibility criteria.