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Robert A. McDonaldSecretary for Veterans Affairs
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Mission
Overview
President Lincoln's immortal words - delivered in his Second Inaugural Address more than 140 years ago - describe better than any others the mission of the Department of Veterans Affairs. We care for Veterans, their families, and survivors - men and women who have responded when their Nation needed help. Our mission is clear-cut, direct, and historically significant. It is a mission that every employee is proud to fulfill.
VA fulfills these words by providing world-class benefits and services to the millions of men and women who have served this country with honor in the military. President Lincoln's words guide the efforts of approximately 280,000 VA employees who are committed to providing the best medical care, benefits, social support, and lasting memorials that Veterans and their depoendents deserve in recognition of Veterans' service to this Nation.
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Strategic Goals & Objectives
Agencies establish a variety of organizational goals to drive progress toward key outcomes for the American people. Long-term strategic goals articulate clear statements of what the agency wants to achieve to advance its mission and address relevant national problems, needs, challenges and opportunities. Strategic objectives define the outcome or management impact the agency is trying to achieve, and also include the agency's role. Each strategic objective is tracked through a suite of performance goals, indicators and other evidence. Click here for more information on stakeholder engagement during goal development.
Strategic Goal:
Empower Veterans to Improve Their Well-being
Statement:
Empower Veterans to Improve Their Well-being
Strategic Objectives
Statement:
Improve Veteran Wellness and Economic Security
Description:
Summary:
Numerous programs provide a broad spectrum of benefits and support services that assist Veterans and eligible beneficiaries. To enable Veterans and eligible beneficiaries to choose the best benefits and services for their needs, VA will improve coordination between our programs, leverage supportive interactions between programs, and reduce overlap across programs. Success will be measured by the differences made in the lives of the Veterans we serve, including decreasing Veteran unemployment, decreasing home foreclosures, decreasing homelessness, reducing processing times for disability compensation claims, increasing preventive care and healthy lifestyle changes, and increasing access to and utilization of virtual care modalities.
Strategies:
VA will eliminate Veteran homelessness by the end of FY 2015. VA, in collaboration with its Federal partners, will continue to provide rehabilitation services for homeless and at-risk Veterans, including employment assistance, access to permanent and transitional housing, and other supportive services. As the number of homeless Veterans continues to decline, the focus will shift from rescue to prevention.
VA will improve Veteran career readiness to reduce Veteran unemployment. We will synchronize and align Veteran employment programs managed by VA, and improve coordination across the various Federal Veteran employment initiatives. We will increase support to our Veterans with disabilities and those who are GI Bill eligible through programs offering educational and vocational counseling. VA will increase support to Veteran entrepreneurs through public-private partnerships to provide capacity building and by providing access to Federal contracting opportunities.
VA will provide Veterans and eligible beneficiaries with personalized, proactive, patient-driven health care to optimize health and well-being, while providing state-of-the-art disease management. VA’s Patient Aligned Care Teams (PACT) will ensure patient engagement in self-care, preventive services, primary care, and mental health services. PACT is a partnership between the Veteran and the health care team with an emphasis on prevention, health promotion, and self-management. PACTs use a team-based approach, with various members of the team stepping in at different points in time to provide needed care. We will expand and refine, in coordination with DoD, research into the long-term consequences of TBI and PTSD. VA will increasingly seek to understand underlying health, injury and disorder mechanisms to create evidence-based diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation methods for Veterans and eligible beneficiaries with support from their families.
Priority Goal: End Veteran Homelessness
Statement:
In partnership, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and VA aim to reduce the number of Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
Indicators:
- Reduction in homeless Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
- The “Number of Homeless Veterans” on a single night is determined by the PIT Count, which is conducted annually the last week of January each year “The PIT Count reflects the results of the work performed and the fiscal obligation/budget made in the prior fiscal year.”
- Reduction in total homeless Veterans temporarily living in shelters or transitional housing to 12,500 (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
Description:
VA has taken decisive action toward its goal of ending homelessness among Veterans. The End Veteran Homelessness initiative is intended to prevent Veterans and their families from entering homelessness and to assist those who are homeless in exiting as safely and quickly as possible. VA’s “no wrong door” philosophy will ensure that homeless and at risk for homeless Veterans have timely access to appropriate housing and services. Any door a Veteran comes to - at a medical center, a regional office, or a community organization - will lead to the tools to offer Veteran assistance. Ending homelessness among Veterans will advance the mission of VA by ensuring that all Veterans and their families achieve housing stability.
On a single night in January 2014 during the Point in Time (PIT) Count [1], there were 49,933 homeless Veterans in the US. Effectively ending homelessness among Veterans requires rapid access to permanent housing, health care, employment, benefits, and other supportive services. VA works closely with community partners to meet current and new demands for any Veteran who is experiencing or is at imminent risk of homelessness. Housing First and Rapid Re-housing are two of the many evidence-based approaches VA uses to end homelessness. The Housing First model follows the philosophy of providing permanent housing as quickly as possible to Veterans/individuals experiencing homelessness and then wrapping health care and other supportive services as needed around the Veteran to sustain housing and improve their quality of life. Rapid Re-housing is a set of strategies to help families quickly move out of homelessness and into permanent housing. It typically involves: housing search and landlord mediation assistance, short-term or flexible rental assistance, and transitional case management services. Rapid Re-housing provides crisis intervention services to quickly place an individual or family who is currently homeless into a permanent, sustainable housing situation.
[1] The annual PIT estimates are a snapshot of homelessness. They are submitted to HUD each year by communities and account for homeless Veterans in emergency shelters or transitional housing on the night of the PIT count (i.e., sheltered) as well as homeless Veterans who are in places not meant for human habitation such as the streets, abandoned buildings, cars, or encampments (i.e., unsheltered). Communities typically conduct their PIT count during the last week in January when a large share of the homeless population is expected to seek shelter rather than stay outside. Because counting people in shelters is more precise than conducting street counts, the timing of the PIT count is intended to improve the accuracy of the estimates. (Source: Veteran Homelessness: A Supplemental Report to the FY 2010 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress).
Statement:
Increase Customer Satisfaction through Improvements in Benefits and Services Delivery Policies, Procedures, and Interfaces
Description:
Summary:
VA is a customer service organization. Complicated application processes, long processing timelines or difficulties getting information and appointments all impact the client’s experience and satisfaction. Veterans and eligible beneficiaries deserve a support system that is responsive to their needs. VA must keep pace with Veterans’ expectations and transform its customer services – soliciting regular customer feedback, streamlining processes, and delivering consistent service across customer-preferred channels.
We live in a connected world. The rapid pace of technological advancement is reshaping Veterans’ expectations regarding how services, benefits, and support should be delivered. Today’s client expects instant access to information and self-service options via the Internet, and increasingly through mobile devices like tablets and smartphones (and the next generation “smart” devices that are yet to be deployed).
To provide a personalized experience, we must listen, learn, and understand the needs and expectations of those we serve. We must have the knowledge, information and insight to understand why some choose not to fully engage with VA.
Strategies:
VA will provide timely, accurate decisions on Veterans’ disability claims and eliminate the claims backlog. We will then implement a robust plan, and revisit procedures to ensure claims are addressed in no more than 125 days with at least 98 percent accuracy. The plan includes redesigning policies and procedures, continuing to enhance training for claims processors, and utilizing the most advanced IT. We will also increase the use of video teleconference hearings to address claims appeals.
VA will continue to expand implementation of PACT to improve partnerships with Veterans and eligible beneficiaries, increase team-based care coordination and management, and expand access to care. VA will improve patient-facing and clinician-facing e-health systems by expanding the development and use of health-related virtual modalities. These modalities include telehealth[1], E-Consult[2], secure messaging, MyHealtheVet, and mobile applications.
VA will enhance client satisfaction by capturing client data once, sharing it enterprise-wide, and using this client data for a lifetime, which will promote more efficient use of data across business lines. We will identify sources of consistent, reliable, and authoritative Veteran data. We will establish architecture, business rules, roles and responsibilities, and governance to enable VA lines of business to use the authoritative common client data to improve delivery of benefits and services to Veterans. VA will gain access to additional external data, knowledge, and experiences so we can broaden our understanding of our client’s needs and expectations. We will enable secure, privacy-protected electronic exchange of personal, health, and economic data on Veterans from induction oath through the final survivor benefit.
VA will rethink its operations as a Department, defining the fundamental crosscutting capabilities and interdependencies required to perform them. We will identify and address any internal organizational, policy, procedural, perceptual, and cultural boundaries that constrain our ability to coordinate, integrate, and deliver benefits and services.
VA will streamline its virtual presence (Web sites, portals and call centers), reducing duplication and enhancing personalization to enable clients to get the information they need, on their schedule.
VA will increase access to burial benefits in national cemeteries through its plans to construct five new national cemeteries and by recognizing and addressing the unique needs of Veterans and eligible beneficiaries who reside in densely populated urban areas as well as sparsely populated rural locations. We will ensure that the service and appearance of our national cemeteries meets the highest standards commensurate with these national shrines.
[1] Telehealth uses information and telecommunication technologies to provide health care services in situations in which the patient and practitioner are separated by geographical distance. Telehealth in VA increases access to high quality health care services using Clinical Video Telehealth (CVT), Home Telehealth (HT) and Store and Forward Telehealth (SFT).
[2] E-Consult is an approach to provide clinical support from provider to provider. Through a formal consult request, processed and documented in the Computerized Patient Record System, a provider requests a specialist to address a clinical problem or to answer a clinical question for a specific patient. Utilizing information provided in the consult request and/or review of the patient’s electronic medical record, the consultant provides a documented response that addresses the request without a face-to-face visit.
Priority Goal: Improve Veterans Experience with VA
Statement:
Improve Veterans Experience with VA:
Fulfilling our country’s commitment to Veterans, VA will deliver effective and easy customer experiences in which Veterans feel valued.
By September 30, 2017, reach 90% agreement with the statement “I trust VA to fulfill our country’s commitment to Veterans.”
Because this is a new measure, VA will establish the baseline in FY16 and add the measure to surveys covering all of VA’s primary services and product lines.
Description:
VA offers a remarkable array of services and benefits to Veterans and eligible dependents. But the experience is disjointed and inconsistent. There are hundreds of phone numbers and thousands of websites, each operating independently under different standards. Similarly, there are a wide array of VA and non-VA resources at the Federal, state, local, corporate, non-profit and tribal level that are not coherently organized or coordinated into a single source or reference point for the Veteran. Veterans deserve better and so do VA staff, who care deeply about delivering the best possible outcome for Veterans.
The Veterans Experience team is leading a powerful new effort to improve customer experiences across VA, nationwide. Our goal: Fostering the delivery of effective and easy customer experiences in which Veterans feel valued. We are achieving this goal the same way the world’s most successful companies do: by listening to our customers – Veterans, their families and supporters – when they describe how they want things to work. Equally important, we are listening to our employees about obstacles to excellence on-the-job. Employee empowerment is an essential part of the equation. This is user-centered design. It puts Veterans and the employees who serve them front and center.
VA and the Veterans Experience team face a number of challenges and barriers:
- Siloed products and services without a common view of customers and their needs and wants.
- Customer touchpoints and experiences owned by individual product and service teams, not integrated within a complementary suite of offerings.
- Insular approach that does not account for the community resources used by customers.
The APG will track our ability to overcome these barriers by implementing the strategies described in the next section.
To build trust among our customers, VA must consistently deliver customer experiences marked by effectiveness, ease, and engagement.[1] To ensure comparability across VA’s disparate service and product lines, the same measures of Trust and Customer Experience will be applied.
Trust
VA earns trust among Veterans by knowing them and showing that we care; by understanding and anticipating their needs; by providing fair benefits and timely services; by being there when they need us; and by keeping our promises. With every interaction, VA has the opportunity to deepen a trusting relationship with Veterans, or to diminish that trust.
Our Agency Priority Goal states: By September 30, 2017, VA will reach 90% agreement with the statement “I trust VA to fulfill our country’s commitment to Veterans.”
Timeline:
Q1 FY16: Trust and Experience measures incorporated into existing customer experience surveys
Q2 FY16: Baseline data collection begins
Q3 FY16: Baseline measurement established; quarterly targets specified
Q4 FY 2016: Publish quarterly update
Q1 FY 2017: 70 percent of VA customers surveyed ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ with Trust statement Customer Experience
Q2 FY 2017: 75 percent of VA customers surveyed ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ with Trust statement Customer Experience
Q3 FY 2017: 80 percent of VA customers surveyed ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ with Trust statement Customer Experience
Q4 FY17: 90% of VA customers surveyed ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ with Trust statement
Customer Experience
Trust in VA is built one interaction at a time. The experience must be effective; it must be easy; and, ideally, it must be engaging and reflective of a valued, personal relationship with our customer. Trust is broken when VA does not consistently meet expectations in these three categories. VA will use customers’ ratings of their individual experiences as indicators of performance toward the overall Veterans Experience APG.
The measures will include level of agreement with questions such as:
- Effectiveness: “I got the service I needed.”
- Ease: “It was easy to get the service I needed.”
- Engagement: “I felt like a valued customer.”
These measures are also new, and will be implemented along the timeline for the Trust measure indicated above. They will be added to new and existing VA customer experience surveys where responses will be correlated with operational data to highlight performance improvement opportunities that will improve Veterans experiences.
[1] Adopted from the Forrester Research customer experience framework.
Priority Goal: Improve Veteran Virtual Access to VA Benefits and Services
Statement:
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Improve client and stakeholder awareness of, and access to, Veterans benefits and health care services. By September 30, 2015, VA will increase the use of virtual service options by increasing the percent of claims received electronically, by increasing the number of accredited Veterans service officers registered on the Stakeholder Enterprise Portal, by increasing the number of registered eBenefits users, and by increasing the percent of patients who access VA health care using a virtual format such as video telehealth or online services.
Indicators:
|
Description:
VA’s focus in Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 is to deliver seamless and integrated services while increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of virtual access. To achieve the best possible outcomes for Veterans, Servicemembers, and eligible beneficiaries, VA will improve access to, and encourage the use of, its virtual benefits and services. VA and Department of Defense (DoD) have established a jointly supported portal known as eBenefits, which allows Veterans, Servicemembers, and other eligible beneficiaries to access and submit information when, where, and how they want.
The development and proliferation of virtual access to care supports an organizational approach that is personalized, proactive, and patient-driven. VA virtual health services use technology and health informatics to provide Veterans with better access and more effective care management. Advances in virtual care expand where health care services can be accessed, reduce the need for travel to medical facilities, and transform VA’s delivery of health care and its effect on patients’ health outcomes.
Priority Goal: Eliminate the Disability Claims Backlog
Statement:
|
Improve accuracy and reduce the time it takes to complete disability compensation benefit claims. Eliminate the disability claims backlog and process all claims in 125 days in FY 2015.
Indicators:
* VA is in the midst of reviewing its claims processing accuracy metrics and goals to ensure VA continues to drive decisions of the highest quality. VA plans to engage its VSO partners and other stakeholders as more information becomes available. |
Description:
VA will provide timely, accurate decisions on Veterans’ disability compensation and eliminate the claims backlog in Fiscal Year (FY) 2015. Improving quality and reducing the length of time it takes to process disability claims are integral to VA's mission of providing benefits to eligible Veterans in a timely, accurate, and compassionate manner. In FY 2013, VBA began measuring the accuracy of individual issues for each claim (“issue-based accuracy”), as it provides a more detailed measure of workload proficiency. However, VBA will continue to monitor and report out on claim-based accuracy as a key indicator for this Agency Priority Goal. To improve benefits delivery, VA is transitioning to an electronic claims process that will reduce processing time and increase accuracy. As of the end of June 2015, over 94 percent of VBA’s inventory is in an electronic format and is being processed electronically by VBA employees using the Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS). All claims are either received electronically or are converted to electronic format for processing.
Priority Goals
Statement:
|
Improve client and stakeholder awareness of, and access to, Veterans benefits and health care services. By September 30, 2015, VA will increase the use of virtual service options by increasing the percent of claims received electronically, by increasing the number of accredited Veterans service officers registered on the Stakeholder Enterprise Portal, by increasing the number of registered eBenefits users, and by increasing the percent of patients who access VA health care using a virtual format such as video telehealth or online services.
Indicators:
|
Description:
VA’s focus in Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 is to deliver seamless and integrated services while increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of virtual access. To achieve the best possible outcomes for Veterans, Servicemembers, and eligible beneficiaries, VA will improve access to, and encourage the use of, its virtual benefits and services. VA and Department of Defense (DoD) have established a jointly supported portal known as eBenefits, which allows Veterans, Servicemembers, and other eligible beneficiaries to access and submit information when, where, and how they want.
The development and proliferation of virtual access to care supports an organizational approach that is personalized, proactive, and patient-driven. VA virtual health services use technology and health informatics to provide Veterans with better access and more effective care management. Advances in virtual care expand where health care services can be accessed, reduce the need for travel to medical facilities, and transform VA’s delivery of health care and its effect on patients’ health outcomes.
Statement:
|
Improve accuracy and reduce the time it takes to complete disability compensation benefit claims. Eliminate the disability claims backlog and process all claims in 125 days in FY 2015.
Indicators:
* VA is in the midst of reviewing its claims processing accuracy metrics and goals to ensure VA continues to drive decisions of the highest quality. VA plans to engage its VSO partners and other stakeholders as more information becomes available. |
Description:
VA will provide timely, accurate decisions on Veterans’ disability compensation and eliminate the claims backlog in Fiscal Year (FY) 2015. Improving quality and reducing the length of time it takes to process disability claims are integral to VA's mission of providing benefits to eligible Veterans in a timely, accurate, and compassionate manner. In FY 2013, VBA began measuring the accuracy of individual issues for each claim (“issue-based accuracy”), as it provides a more detailed measure of workload proficiency. However, VBA will continue to monitor and report out on claim-based accuracy as a key indicator for this Agency Priority Goal. To improve benefits delivery, VA is transitioning to an electronic claims process that will reduce processing time and increase accuracy. As of the end of June 2015, over 94 percent of VBA’s inventory is in an electronic format and is being processed electronically by VBA employees using the Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS). All claims are either received electronically or are converted to electronic format for processing.
Statement:
In partnership, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and VA aim to reduce the number of Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
Indicators:
- Reduction in homeless Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
- The “Number of Homeless Veterans” on a single night is determined by the PIT Count, which is conducted annually the last week of January each year “The PIT Count reflects the results of the work performed and the fiscal obligation/budget made in the prior fiscal year.”
- Reduction in total homeless Veterans temporarily living in shelters or transitional housing to 12,500 (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
Description:
VA has taken decisive action toward its goal of ending homelessness among Veterans. The End Veteran Homelessness initiative is intended to prevent Veterans and their families from entering homelessness and to assist those who are homeless in exiting as safely and quickly as possible. VA’s “no wrong door” philosophy will ensure that homeless and at risk for homeless Veterans have timely access to appropriate housing and services. Any door a Veteran comes to - at a medical center, a regional office, or a community organization - will lead to the tools to offer Veteran assistance. Ending homelessness among Veterans will advance the mission of VA by ensuring that all Veterans and their families achieve housing stability.
On a single night in January 2014 during the Point in Time (PIT) Count [1], there were 49,933 homeless Veterans in the US. Effectively ending homelessness among Veterans requires rapid access to permanent housing, health care, employment, benefits, and other supportive services. VA works closely with community partners to meet current and new demands for any Veteran who is experiencing or is at imminent risk of homelessness. Housing First and Rapid Re-housing are two of the many evidence-based approaches VA uses to end homelessness. The Housing First model follows the philosophy of providing permanent housing as quickly as possible to Veterans/individuals experiencing homelessness and then wrapping health care and other supportive services as needed around the Veteran to sustain housing and improve their quality of life. Rapid Re-housing is a set of strategies to help families quickly move out of homelessness and into permanent housing. It typically involves: housing search and landlord mediation assistance, short-term or flexible rental assistance, and transitional case management services. Rapid Re-housing provides crisis intervention services to quickly place an individual or family who is currently homeless into a permanent, sustainable housing situation.
[1] The annual PIT estimates are a snapshot of homelessness. They are submitted to HUD each year by communities and account for homeless Veterans in emergency shelters or transitional housing on the night of the PIT count (i.e., sheltered) as well as homeless Veterans who are in places not meant for human habitation such as the streets, abandoned buildings, cars, or encampments (i.e., unsheltered). Communities typically conduct their PIT count during the last week in January when a large share of the homeless population is expected to seek shelter rather than stay outside. Because counting people in shelters is more precise than conducting street counts, the timing of the PIT count is intended to improve the accuracy of the estimates. (Source: Veteran Homelessness: A Supplemental Report to the FY 2010 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress).
Strategic Goal:
Enhance and Develop Trusted Partnerships
Statement:
Enhance and Develop Trusted Partnerships
Strategic Objectives
Statement:
Enhance VA’s Partnership with DoD
Description:
Summary:
VA’s life-long engagement with its clients begins when Servicemembers first enter service and continues through the remainder of their lives. In support of this engagement, VA and DoD are working together to improve the access, quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of health care, benefits, and services provided to Servicemembers, Veterans, and other beneficiaries. VA will work closely with DoD to ensure that these benefits and services are delivered through an integrated client-centric approach that anticipates and addresses client needs; that the delivery of health care is provided through a patient-driven health care system that delivers quality, access, satisfaction and value consistently across the Departments; and through the efficiency of operations that are delivered through joint planning, training, and execution. The Departments must ensure that authorized beneficiary and health information is accessible, usable, shared, and secure in order to meet the needs of clients, customers, and stakeholders.
Strategies:
VA and DoD will continue to work towards achieving these goals with its many DoD partners through the VA-DoD Joint Executive Committee (JEC) in order to improve business practices, ensure high-quality, cost effective services for both VA and DoD beneficiaries, facilitate opportunities to improve resource utilization and sharing, and to remove barriers that might impede collaborative efforts.
VA and DoD will create an authoritative source of health information for DoD and VA beneficiaries, which will include the delivery of a highly flexible, reliable, secure, maintainable, and sustainable systems. VA and DoD will jointly implement the separation health assessment based upon the joint common criteria established by the Departments. VA will continue to partner with DoD and increase the information and self-service capabilities available through the eBenefits portal for active duty Servicemembers and Veterans and eligible beneficiaries.
Statement:
Enhance VA’s Partnerships with Federal, State, Private Sector, Academic Affiliates, Veteran Service Organizations and Non-Profit Organizations
Description:
Summary:
While VA is not the sole provider of benefits, services, and resources to Veterans and eligible beneficiaries, we hold ourselves accountable for each Veteran’s success, no matter who provides assistance. To provide Veterans and eligible beneficiaries an integrated, coordinated, personalized portfolio of benefits and services efficiently and effectively, we must improve our communication, coordination, and relationships with our partners in other Federal agencies; state, tribal, and local governments; VSOs; MSOs; academic affiliates; unions; nonprofits; and private industry. We must develop a partnership culture that entails trust, transparency, mutual benefit, responsibility, productivity, and accountability. Increased public-private partnership opportunities empower staff with effective tools and resources for collaborations, and allow for building open innovation platforms.
Strategies:
VA will leverage responsible and productive partnership opportunities that can supplement VA services and help fill urgent or emerging gaps in services. We will pursue opportunities for partnering with organizations that can best provide what we cannot or should not.
VA will establish a partnership award program to acknowledge and recognize successful partnerships in various organizational and service categories.
VA will foster stronger collaboration and information exchange with across the spectrum of care, benefits and services providers.
Priority Goal: End Veteran Homelessness
Statement:
In partnership, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and VA aim to reduce the number of Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
Indicators:
- Reduction in homeless Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
- The “Number of Homeless Veterans” on a single night is determined by the PIT Count, which is conducted annually the last week of January each year “The PIT Count reflects the results of the work performed and the fiscal obligation/budget made in the prior fiscal year.”
- Reduction in total homeless Veterans temporarily living in shelters or transitional housing to 12,500 (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
Description:
VA has taken decisive action toward its goal of ending homelessness among Veterans. The End Veteran Homelessness initiative is intended to prevent Veterans and their families from entering homelessness and to assist those who are homeless in exiting as safely and quickly as possible. VA’s “no wrong door” philosophy will ensure that homeless and at risk for homeless Veterans have timely access to appropriate housing and services. Any door a Veteran comes to - at a medical center, a regional office, or a community organization - will lead to the tools to offer Veteran assistance. Ending homelessness among Veterans will advance the mission of VA by ensuring that all Veterans and their families achieve housing stability.
On a single night in January 2014 during the Point in Time (PIT) Count [1], there were 49,933 homeless Veterans in the US. Effectively ending homelessness among Veterans requires rapid access to permanent housing, health care, employment, benefits, and other supportive services. VA works closely with community partners to meet current and new demands for any Veteran who is experiencing or is at imminent risk of homelessness. Housing First and Rapid Re-housing are two of the many evidence-based approaches VA uses to end homelessness. The Housing First model follows the philosophy of providing permanent housing as quickly as possible to Veterans/individuals experiencing homelessness and then wrapping health care and other supportive services as needed around the Veteran to sustain housing and improve their quality of life. Rapid Re-housing is a set of strategies to help families quickly move out of homelessness and into permanent housing. It typically involves: housing search and landlord mediation assistance, short-term or flexible rental assistance, and transitional case management services. Rapid Re-housing provides crisis intervention services to quickly place an individual or family who is currently homeless into a permanent, sustainable housing situation.
[1] The annual PIT estimates are a snapshot of homelessness. They are submitted to HUD each year by communities and account for homeless Veterans in emergency shelters or transitional housing on the night of the PIT count (i.e., sheltered) as well as homeless Veterans who are in places not meant for human habitation such as the streets, abandoned buildings, cars, or encampments (i.e., unsheltered). Communities typically conduct their PIT count during the last week in January when a large share of the homeless population is expected to seek shelter rather than stay outside. Because counting people in shelters is more precise than conducting street counts, the timing of the PIT count is intended to improve the accuracy of the estimates. (Source: Veteran Homelessness: A Supplemental Report to the FY 2010 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress).
Statement:
Amplify Awareness of Services and Benefits Available to Veterans through Improved Communications and Outreach
Description:
Summary:
The benefits, services, and resources available to our current and future clients, and the means and mechanisms for delivering them, must be widely-known and well understood. We will expand the ways in which we connect to our clients to amplify awareness of the services and benefits available to Veterans and eligible beneficiaries. We will connect with Veterans and eligible beneficiaries, our partners, and the Nation through clear, aligned, and proactive interactions.
Strategies:
VA will establish a robust, authoritative communications capability that provides and aligns a clear, concise, positive, and compelling message. We will establish standardized corporate communications policies and procedures to coordinate efforts across the Department.
VA will establish internal standardized enterprise outreach policies and procedures to coordinate efforts across the Department.
VA will develop outreach plans and strategies in collaboration with our partners to ensure Veterans and eligible beneficiaries and their families are aware of all of the programs for which they are eligible; not only those provided by VA and not solely programs designed to serve a Veteran-only population. We will pursue joint outreach campaigns to enable sharing of communications channels and audiences to reach more Veterans and eligible beneficiaries.
Priority Goals
Statement:
In partnership, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and VA aim to reduce the number of Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
Indicators:
- Reduction in homeless Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
- The “Number of Homeless Veterans” on a single night is determined by the PIT Count, which is conducted annually the last week of January each year “The PIT Count reflects the results of the work performed and the fiscal obligation/budget made in the prior fiscal year.”
- Reduction in total homeless Veterans temporarily living in shelters or transitional housing to 12,500 (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
Description:
VA has taken decisive action toward its goal of ending homelessness among Veterans. The End Veteran Homelessness initiative is intended to prevent Veterans and their families from entering homelessness and to assist those who are homeless in exiting as safely and quickly as possible. VA’s “no wrong door” philosophy will ensure that homeless and at risk for homeless Veterans have timely access to appropriate housing and services. Any door a Veteran comes to - at a medical center, a regional office, or a community organization - will lead to the tools to offer Veteran assistance. Ending homelessness among Veterans will advance the mission of VA by ensuring that all Veterans and their families achieve housing stability.
On a single night in January 2014 during the Point in Time (PIT) Count [1], there were 49,933 homeless Veterans in the US. Effectively ending homelessness among Veterans requires rapid access to permanent housing, health care, employment, benefits, and other supportive services. VA works closely with community partners to meet current and new demands for any Veteran who is experiencing or is at imminent risk of homelessness. Housing First and Rapid Re-housing are two of the many evidence-based approaches VA uses to end homelessness. The Housing First model follows the philosophy of providing permanent housing as quickly as possible to Veterans/individuals experiencing homelessness and then wrapping health care and other supportive services as needed around the Veteran to sustain housing and improve their quality of life. Rapid Re-housing is a set of strategies to help families quickly move out of homelessness and into permanent housing. It typically involves: housing search and landlord mediation assistance, short-term or flexible rental assistance, and transitional case management services. Rapid Re-housing provides crisis intervention services to quickly place an individual or family who is currently homeless into a permanent, sustainable housing situation.
[1] The annual PIT estimates are a snapshot of homelessness. They are submitted to HUD each year by communities and account for homeless Veterans in emergency shelters or transitional housing on the night of the PIT count (i.e., sheltered) as well as homeless Veterans who are in places not meant for human habitation such as the streets, abandoned buildings, cars, or encampments (i.e., unsheltered). Communities typically conduct their PIT count during the last week in January when a large share of the homeless population is expected to seek shelter rather than stay outside. Because counting people in shelters is more precise than conducting street counts, the timing of the PIT count is intended to improve the accuracy of the estimates. (Source: Veteran Homelessness: A Supplemental Report to the FY 2010 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress).
Strategic Goal:
Manage and Improve VA Operations to Deliver Seamless and Integrated Support
Statement:
Manage and Improve VA Operations to Deliver Seamless and Integrated Support
Strategic Objectives
Statement:
Make VA a Place People Want to Serve
Description:
Summary:
VA recognizes that an organization is only as strong as its people, and realizes that it must build on successes and continue to transform the way it manages human capital. VA is a customer service organization. VA’s greatest asset is its workforce.
VA’s workforce must be able to adapt to the changing demographics, needs, and expectations of the Veteran population as well as changes in the workforce population. More than 30 percent of VA’s workforce is eligible for retirement, including roughly 50 percent of VA’s senior executives. Today, we have skills gaps in health care, acquisition, claims processing, human resources (HR), and IT, and we need to address those and build the workforce for tomorrow. The skills needed for success in the future are not the skills of today. VA must recruit, train, motivate, and lead its workforce with inspired and inspiring leadership. VA must consider human capital management and workforce planning as key enablers for every initiative or project we undertake in order to have the right people with the right skills in the right job at the right time.
Strategies:
VA will identify the critical skills and competencies needed to achieve the best current and future results and develop workforce planning and development strategies that are tailored to address skills gaps. To fully succeed in transformation and continue on the successes built to date, VA will develop strategic leaders and build a cadre of talented successors in the federal government’s management and executive functions. VA will develop and cultivate leadership skills and build the pipeline for future leaders to ensure effective succession management plans.
VA will improve enterprise-wide governance of human capital management using a strategic approach that includes top management, employees, and other stakeholders. .
VA will improve strategic HCM by implementing an enterprise-wide, career development and training management program, and identifying organizational owners for occupational specialties.
VA will require ongoing development of leadership capabilities and develop enterprise-wide human capital strategies that, when implemented throughout the organization, will improve employee engagement, increase individual contribution and satisfaction by fostering ownership, empowerment, resiliency and commitment to serving Veterans and eligible beneficiaries.
Statement:
Evolve VA Information Technology Capabilities to Meet Emerging Customer Service / Empowerment Expectations of Both VA Customers and Employees
Description:
Summary:
The explosion of information capabilities available to all citizens via the Internet and mobile computing has forever changed how individuals communicate with each other and with providers of goods and services. Information “on demand” is now a core expectation; so is the ability to transact both work and personal business “anytime, anywhere.” These trends have resulted in tremendous changes to what individuals expect in terms of customer service as well as how they expect to manage their own work life and career. For VA this presents huge challenges and opportunities in terms of how it delivers services to Veterans and eligible beneficiaries and how it empowers its employees to perform their duties. New and emerging IT capabilities must be delivered that:
- Enable each Veteran to manage his/her relationship with VA in a unified manner, with both the Veteran and the VA employees serving them able to access and maintain a holistic view of the Veteran’s complete profile along with services entitled, available, and provided.
- Enable Veterans and eligible beneficiaries, VA employees and trusted partners with the ability to access authorized VA-maintained information “anytime, anywhere.”
- Enable VA employees with the flexibility to take advantage of emerging technologies to increase alternative work arrangements such as telework.
Inherent in these capabilities is recognizing the need to continually evaluate and address concurrently emerging information security challenges. Safeguarding Federal computer systems and supporting critical IT infrastructure has been an ongoing Federal concern. Increased information sharing and use of mobile computing also serve to highlight the need to strengthen information security.
Strategies:
VA will implement an enterprise shared services strategy to offer broader service-based capabilities instead of point solutions.
VA will support and enhance enterprise-wide information sharing through the implementation of a Customer Data Integration (CDI) environment to identify, develop, designate and enforce authoritative information sources and services.
VA will continue its efforts on the Ruthless Reduction Task Force (RRTF) to identify and eliminate redundancies within VA’s IT environment.
VA will implement its Unified Communications Strategy to further leverage common services and reduce its IT footprint through the convergence of our facility voice, contact center, video, audio conferencing, and collaboration environments into a single platform and operational model.
VA will accelerate the implementation of our wireless infrastructure.
VA will develop and implement strategies to support “bring your own device” and “use your own device” to support the increasingly mobile workforces and Veteran population.
VA will continue to implement and extend the Continuous Readiness in Information Security Program (CRISP) operating model, including security management, contingency planning, configuration management, segregation of duties, and access controls for protecting VA sensitive information.
VA will continue to implement the use of Personal Identity Verification (PIV) Only Authentication (POA) for access to VA computer systems as mandated by Federal identification standards (Homeland Security Presidential Directive [HSPD] -12).
VA will pursue cost-effective system modernization to enhance operational and management processes and improve oversight.
Statement:
Build a Flexible and Scalable Infrastructure through Improved Organizational Design and Enhanced Capital Planning
Description:
Summary:
The size of the Veteran population may be decreasing, but the demographics and preferences are increasing in complexity. VA’s infrastructure – organizational structure, equipment, and facilities – must become more flexible and scalable in order to better serve Veterans of today and tomorrow.
Strategies:
VA will rethink how it operates as a Department, defining the fundamental cross-cutting capabilities and interdependencies required to achieve them. We will identify and address any internal organizational, policy, procedural, perceptual, and cultural boundaries that constrain our ability to coordinate, integrate, and deliver benefits and services. VA will evaluate alternate organizational designs that improve integration of benefits and services to provide the client a coordinated experience when utilizing multiple benefits and services.
VA will explore opportunities for sharing facilities and services across VA and with other federal agencies; state, tribal, and local governments; nonprofits; and private industry to support Veterans and Veterans’ families.
VA will continue capital planning efforts to provide safe, secure, modern, and sustainable infrastructure, and enhance capital planning efforts that increase the flexibility of VA’s capital infrastructure to accommodate integration of services and promote sharing of physical and virtual space within and between VA and its partners.
VA will expand “connected” health benefits and services which may reduce our dependency on physical infrastructure.
Statement:
Enhance Productivity and Improve the Efficiency of the Provision of Veteran Benefits and Services
Description:
Summary:
VA has a fundamental responsibility to be an effective steward of taxpayer dollars. VA must continue to eliminate wasteful spending and ensure that the proper controls, practices, and safeguards are in place to prevent misspending of tax dollars.
Strategies:
VA will continue to be good a steward of its resources by closely monitoring agency travel to mission essential needs. We will continue working to decrease improper payments, recapture misallocated funds, and dispose of unnecessary real estate.
VA will improve the models and systems used to forecast and capture cost. We will adopt the direct tracking of people, equipment, and consumables. We will implement a modernized financial management system.
VA will continue to mature its capability based planning, programming, budgeting, and execution (PPBE) process to tie strategy to budget and budget to performance.
VA will continue to review its internal buying patterns and identify opportunities for strategic sourcing to achieve significant savings for recurring requirements.
VA will develop a strategic capital equipment planning model and a plan to improve medical equipment life cycle.
Statement:
Ensure Preparedness to Provide Services and Protect People and Assets Continuously and in Time of Crisis
Description:
Hurricane Sandy (2012), the bombing at the Boston Marathon (2013), the emergence of the H7N9 influenza strain in China (2013), and the fertilizer plant explosion in West, TX (2013) all serve as recent reminders that natural, public health, and technological disasters and terrorist attacks can occur at any time, in any place, and with little or no warning. VA must protect against and prepare to respond to as well as recover from all hazards to ensure the safety and security of Veterans and eligible beneficiaries, volunteers, employees, and visitors at VA facilities while integrating, improving, and increasing VA’s resilience through operational continuity and preparedness.
VA defines “readiness” as the ability to serve Veterans and eligible beneficiaries now and on a day-to-day routine basis, and “preparedness” as the ability to serve Veterans and eligible beneficiaries in times of crisis and to serve as a national asset to the Nation. These aspects of “readiness” and “preparedness” define the Department’s 4th Mission. The priorities of the 4th Mission include personnel accountability (e.g. Veterans and eligible beneficiaries, employees, contractors, and others on VA property); establishing and maintaining command, control, and communication; continuing to provide services to Veterans and eligible beneficiaries; and for VA to serve as a National asset following an emergency or disaster.
Strategies:
VA will continue to develop and refine our Continuity Program in accordance with HSPD-20 – National Continuity Policy. Through the VA Comprehensive Emergency Management Program, VA will support DoD, DHS/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and other Federal Departments and Agencies in support of Presidential Policy Directive-8 – National Preparedness. VA will utilize the VA Integrated Operations Center (VA IOC) in order to provide the Secretary a single office responsible for proactively collecting, coordinating, and analyzing information in order to make recommendations to VA leadership. VA will continue to develop a comprehensive Department Exercise, Training, and Evaluation Program in accordance with DHS National Exercise program.
VA will standardize the on-boarding, monitoring, and off-boarding process for VA employees, contractors, and affiliates. VA will fully implement HSPD-12 to include the Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card as the standard process for provisioning logical access to VA information systems (LACS) and standardize Physical Access Control Systems (PACS) to VA facilities to ensure the safety and security of Veterans and eligible beneficiaries, volunteers, employees, and visitors.
VA will evaluate and streamline vulnerability assessment programs of VA facilities to mitigate against natural and technological disasters and terrorist attacks. VA will establish a comprehensive Active Threat/Active Shooter Incident Response Program to maximize response success in any VA facility.
VA will develop and implement an Insider Threat program in accordance with Executive Order 13587 - Structural Reforms to Improve the Security of Classified Networks and the Responsible Sharing and Safeguarding of Classified Information in order to protect classified material in the VA.
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FY16-17 Agency Priority Goals
An Agency Priority Goal is a near-term result or achievement that agency leadership wants to accomplish within approximately 24 months that relies predominantly on agency implementation as opposed to budget or legislative accomplishments. Click below to see this agency's FY16-17 Priority Goals.
Agency Priority Goal:
Statement:
Improve Veterans Experience with VA:
Fulfilling our country’s commitment to Veterans, VA will deliver effective and easy customer experiences in which Veterans feel valued.
By September 30, 2017, reach 90% agreement with the statement “I trust VA to fulfill our country’s commitment to Veterans.”
Because this is a new measure, VA will establish the baseline in FY16 and add the measure to surveys covering all of VA’s primary services and product lines.
Description:
VA offers a remarkable array of services and benefits to Veterans and eligible dependents. But the experience is disjointed and inconsistent. There are hundreds of phone numbers and thousands of websites, each operating independently under different standards. Similarly, there are a wide array of VA and non-VA resources at the Federal, state, local, corporate, non-profit and tribal level that are not coherently organized or coordinated into a single source or reference point for the Veteran. Veterans deserve better and so do VA staff, who care deeply about delivering the best possible outcome for Veterans.
The Veterans Experience team is leading a powerful new effort to improve customer experiences across VA, nationwide. Our goal: Fostering the delivery of effective and easy customer experiences in which Veterans feel valued. We are achieving this goal the same way the world’s most successful companies do: by listening to our customers – Veterans, their families and supporters – when they describe how they want things to work. Equally important, we are listening to our employees about obstacles to excellence on-the-job. Employee empowerment is an essential part of the equation. This is user-centered design. It puts Veterans and the employees who serve them front and center.
VA and the Veterans Experience team face a number of challenges and barriers:
- Siloed products and services without a common view of customers and their needs and wants.
- Customer touchpoints and experiences owned by individual product and service teams, not integrated within a complementary suite of offerings.
- Insular approach that does not account for the community resources used by customers.
The APG will track our ability to overcome these barriers by implementing the strategies described in the next section.
To build trust among our customers, VA must consistently deliver customer experiences marked by effectiveness, ease, and engagement.[1] To ensure comparability across VA’s disparate service and product lines, the same measures of Trust and Customer Experience will be applied.
Trust
VA earns trust among Veterans by knowing them and showing that we care; by understanding and anticipating their needs; by providing fair benefits and timely services; by being there when they need us; and by keeping our promises. With every interaction, VA has the opportunity to deepen a trusting relationship with Veterans, or to diminish that trust.
Our Agency Priority Goal states: By September 30, 2017, VA will reach 90% agreement with the statement “I trust VA to fulfill our country’s commitment to Veterans.”
Timeline:
Q1 FY16: Trust and Experience measures incorporated into existing customer experience surveys
Q2 FY16: Baseline data collection begins
Q3 FY16: Baseline measurement established; quarterly targets specified
Q4 FY 2016: Publish quarterly update
Q1 FY 2017: 70 percent of VA customers surveyed ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ with Trust statement Customer Experience
Q2 FY 2017: 75 percent of VA customers surveyed ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ with Trust statement Customer Experience
Q3 FY 2017: 80 percent of VA customers surveyed ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ with Trust statement Customer Experience
Q4 FY17: 90% of VA customers surveyed ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ with Trust statement
Customer Experience
Trust in VA is built one interaction at a time. The experience must be effective; it must be easy; and, ideally, it must be engaging and reflective of a valued, personal relationship with our customer. Trust is broken when VA does not consistently meet expectations in these three categories. VA will use customers’ ratings of their individual experiences as indicators of performance toward the overall Veterans Experience APG.
The measures will include level of agreement with questions such as:
- Effectiveness: “I got the service I needed.”
- Ease: “It was easy to get the service I needed.”
- Engagement: “I felt like a valued customer.”
These measures are also new, and will be implemented along the timeline for the Trust measure indicated above. They will be added to new and existing VA customer experience surveys where responses will be correlated with operational data to highlight performance improvement opportunities that will improve Veterans experiences.
[1] Adopted from the Forrester Research customer experience framework.
Agency Priority Goal:
Statement:
Improve VA’s Employee Experience by developing engaged leaders at all levels that inspire and empower all VA employees to deliver a seamless, integrated, and responsive VA customer service experience. Success by September 30, 2017 will be measured by an increase of 4 points or more in the percent of positive responses by VA employees (over VA’s FY 2015 baseline) to the following statements:
1) My supervisor provides me with constructive suggestions to improve my job performance.
2) In my work unit, steps are taken to deal with a poor performer who cannot or will not improve.
3) Employees have a feeling of personal empowerment with respect to work processes.
4) I feel encouraged to come up with new and better ways of doing things.
5) How satisfied are you with the information you receive from management on what's going on in your organization?
6) My organization's leaders maintain high standards of honesty and integrity.
Description:
Leader and managerial actions can help boost job satisfaction and ultimately improve business outcomes. Strong leaders are important to creating a positive organizational climate. Employees who are regularly engaged with their leaders are more innovative than others, more likely to want to remain with their employer, absent less often, enjoy greater levels of personal well-being, and perceive their workload to be more sustainable than others. Ultimately, our customer, the Veteran, will enjoy a higher level of satisfaction with VA services as a result of an improved Employee Experience.
VA is committed to creating a work environment which provides all employees with a more consistent, positive Employee Experience, which ultimately improves the Veteran’s experience with our organization. Studies indicate that employees who are satisfied with leadership behaviors provide a higher level of positive responses on employee surveys.
To evaluate progress, VA will use six questions from the Federal Employment Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) to pulse VA employees on a quarterly basis about their experience with VA leaders. The six questions were selected after a thorough review and assessment of what leadership behaviors can drive the biggest improvements in employee engagement and job satisfaction.
Transformational leaders engage in relationship-building and relationship maintaining behaviors with their employees. Strong leaders tend to have the ability to motivate employees, establish trust, communicate goals, and generate commitment. Changing an organization’s culture may take a decade or longer, especially with a large organization such as VA. This APG, which covers only a two-year time period, focuses on a strategy that primarily addresses improving leadership practices, and that can bring about measurable changes in a relatively short period of time.
The leadership strategy in this APG is supported by myriad programs and activities including strategic communications which, over time, should lead to improved favorable responses to the six employee survey questions. The leadership strategy also supports the accomplishment of one of VA’s Strategic Objectives, “Make VA a Place People Want to Serve,” and VA’s MyVA Initiative. Furthermore, it is one of the twelve VA “Breakthrough Priorities.”
VA realizes that it will take more than one program or initiative to improve the Employee Experience and/or change VA employees’ perceptions of its leaders. Furthermore, analyzing employee survey results carries its own set of risks of misinterpretation. However, overall, VA believes that participation in leadership programs and the subsequent implementation of leadership practices should have a significant positive impact on employee perceptions of leadership.
Potential barriers to improving the VA Employee Experience include:
- Lack of leader/employee engagement to execute improvement ideas
- Resistance to change
- Inadequate leader development, training and experience
- Insufficient execution of communication strategies by leadership
Agency Priority Goal:
Statement:
Improve Access to Health Care as Experienced by the Veteran. By September 30, 2017, the VA national access composite score will improve by 15 percent over baseline.
Description:
VA has experienced unprecedented growth in demand for its services as a result of better recognition of service-connected conditions; innovative and favorable clinical offerings for complex and costly health conditions; and the growing needs of an aging Veteran population. VA is also embedded within the larger U.S. health system, which is similarly experiencing increased demand for services and shortages of key clinical professions due to advances in technology and the aging of the population[1].
In 2015, a congressionally-mandated Independent Assessment of VA Healthcare Capabilities[2] as well as an Institute of Medicine report[3] highlighted that VA access, while meeting timeliness standards on average, still had unacceptable levels of variation by site for specific services. These independent reviews are candid in stating that highly specialized services required by Veterans are frequently not available in their communities even from private sector providers. Those independent reports interviewed many of U.S. medicine’s thought leaders, and these experts highlighted the critical importance of addressing access challenges by taking a systems approach, and recommended strategies such as modeling system supply and demand relationships, exploring design and policy changes, and creating a culture of service excellence that empowers the front line to experiment, identify limitations, and learn from trials.
The ultimate success of these strategies and programs must be evaluated through the eyes of the Veteran, as a noticeable improvement in their self-reported ability to receive needed care. Assessing access to health care through direct survey of patients is the only access measure currently endorsed by the National Quality Forum. Using a survey-based approach to measure access also provides additional advantages, such as 1) ability to benchmark with private sector health systems and 2) avoiding the shortcomings of current VA scheduling software (a replacement scheduling system will not be in place until late 2017).
[1] Rosenthal E. Long waits for doctors’ appointments have become the norm. New York Times July 5, 2014.
[2] www.va.gov/opa/choiceact/factsheets_and_details.asp
[3] Institute of Medicine, Transforming Health Care Scheduling and Access. Washington: National Academies Press, 2015.
Agency Priority Goal:
Statement:
Improve access to benefits and the customer experience for Veterans who are entitled to additional benefits for their dependents. By September 30, 2017, VA will reduce the overall inventory of dependency claims to 100,000 or fewer (a 56 percent improvement from the FY 2015 baseline of 227,000) and improve the average days to complete (ADC) dependency claims to 125 days (a 43 percent improvement from the FY 2015 baseline of 221 days).
Description:
It is VA’s mission and responsibility to ensure Veterans receive the benefits and services they have earned accurately and within a reasonable amount of time. Since FY 2009, VA’s Agency Priority Goal (APG) for improving access to benefits was focused on eliminating the backlog of disability claims, defined as the number of rating-related claims pending more than 125 days. VA has made dramatic progress in reducing the backlog, improving the timeliness of decisions, and reducing the overall pending inventory of disability rating claims – while at the same time improving the quality of its decisions. To achieve these service improvements, VA defined the requirement, transformed claims processing through implementation of streamlined processes and systems, and accordingly focused resources on achieving the goal.
Veterans who are awarded disability compensation at the 30-percent level or higher are entitled to additional compensation for their eligible dependents. Approximately 70 percent of the 4.1 million Veterans currently receiving compensation are eligible for this additional benefit – nearly 45 percent more than those eligible for the same benefits just five years ago. As the status of these Veterans’ dependents change (through marriage, divorce, death, birth or adoption of children, step-children, and school attendance for children over 18 years of age), adjustments must be made to Veterans’ compensation awards. With VA’s record-levels of production of disability rating decisions (almost 1.4 million disability claims completed in FY15), more and more Veterans continue to be added to the compensation rolls. The result was an inventory at the end of FY15 of almost 227,000 pending dependency claims that have been pending, on average, nearly a year.
Ensuring that Veterans receive timely and accurate claim decisions is paramount. As VA continues to improve timeliness of disability claims decisions, VA will also focus on the dependency claims that are the direct result of the dramatic increase in completed disability rating decisions and growth in the number of Veterans receiving compensation at the higher disability evaluation levels.
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FY14-15 Agency Priority Goals
An Agency Priority Goal is a near-term result or achievement that agency leadership wants to accomplish within approximately 24 months that relies predominantly on agency implementation as opposed to budget or legislative accomplishments. Click below to see this agency's FY14-15 Priority Goals.
Agency Priority Goal:
Statement:
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Improve client and stakeholder awareness of, and access to, Veterans benefits and health care services. By September 30, 2015, VA will increase the use of virtual service options by increasing the percent of claims received electronically, by increasing the number of accredited Veterans service officers registered on the Stakeholder Enterprise Portal, by increasing the number of registered eBenefits users, and by increasing the percent of patients who access VA health care using a virtual format such as video telehealth or online services.
Indicators:
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Description:
VA’s focus in Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 is to deliver seamless and integrated services while increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of virtual access. To achieve the best possible outcomes for Veterans, Servicemembers, and eligible beneficiaries, VA will improve access to, and encourage the use of, its virtual benefits and services. VA and Department of Defense (DoD) have established a jointly supported portal known as eBenefits, which allows Veterans, Servicemembers, and other eligible beneficiaries to access and submit information when, where, and how they want.
The development and proliferation of virtual access to care supports an organizational approach that is personalized, proactive, and patient-driven. VA virtual health services use technology and health informatics to provide Veterans with better access and more effective care management. Advances in virtual care expand where health care services can be accessed, reduce the need for travel to medical facilities, and transform VA’s delivery of health care and its effect on patients’ health outcomes.
Agency Priority Goal:
Statement:
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Improve accuracy and reduce the time it takes to complete disability compensation benefit claims. Eliminate the disability claims backlog and process all claims in 125 days in FY 2015.
Indicators:
* VA is in the midst of reviewing its claims processing accuracy metrics and goals to ensure VA continues to drive decisions of the highest quality. VA plans to engage its VSO partners and other stakeholders as more information becomes available. |
Description:
VA will provide timely, accurate decisions on Veterans’ disability compensation and eliminate the claims backlog in Fiscal Year (FY) 2015. Improving quality and reducing the length of time it takes to process disability claims are integral to VA's mission of providing benefits to eligible Veterans in a timely, accurate, and compassionate manner. In FY 2013, VBA began measuring the accuracy of individual issues for each claim (“issue-based accuracy”), as it provides a more detailed measure of workload proficiency. However, VBA will continue to monitor and report out on claim-based accuracy as a key indicator for this Agency Priority Goal. To improve benefits delivery, VA is transitioning to an electronic claims process that will reduce processing time and increase accuracy. As of the end of June 2015, over 94 percent of VBA’s inventory is in an electronic format and is being processed electronically by VBA employees using the Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS). All claims are either received electronically or are converted to electronic format for processing.
Agency Priority Goal:
Statement:
In partnership, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and VA aim to reduce the number of Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
Indicators:
- Reduction in homeless Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
- The “Number of Homeless Veterans” on a single night is determined by the PIT Count, which is conducted annually the last week of January each year “The PIT Count reflects the results of the work performed and the fiscal obligation/budget made in the prior fiscal year.”
- Reduction in total homeless Veterans temporarily living in shelters or transitional housing to 12,500 (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
Description:
VA has taken decisive action toward its goal of ending homelessness among Veterans. The End Veteran Homelessness initiative is intended to prevent Veterans and their families from entering homelessness and to assist those who are homeless in exiting as safely and quickly as possible. VA’s “no wrong door” philosophy will ensure that homeless and at risk for homeless Veterans have timely access to appropriate housing and services. Any door a Veteran comes to - at a medical center, a regional office, or a community organization - will lead to the tools to offer Veteran assistance. Ending homelessness among Veterans will advance the mission of VA by ensuring that all Veterans and their families achieve housing stability.
On a single night in January 2014 during the Point in Time (PIT) Count [1], there were 49,933 homeless Veterans in the US. Effectively ending homelessness among Veterans requires rapid access to permanent housing, health care, employment, benefits, and other supportive services. VA works closely with community partners to meet current and new demands for any Veteran who is experiencing or is at imminent risk of homelessness. Housing First and Rapid Re-housing are two of the many evidence-based approaches VA uses to end homelessness. The Housing First model follows the philosophy of providing permanent housing as quickly as possible to Veterans/individuals experiencing homelessness and then wrapping health care and other supportive services as needed around the Veteran to sustain housing and improve their quality of life. Rapid Re-housing is a set of strategies to help families quickly move out of homelessness and into permanent housing. It typically involves: housing search and landlord mediation assistance, short-term or flexible rental assistance, and transitional case management services. Rapid Re-housing provides crisis intervention services to quickly place an individual or family who is currently homeless into a permanent, sustainable housing situation.
[1] The annual PIT estimates are a snapshot of homelessness. They are submitted to HUD each year by communities and account for homeless Veterans in emergency shelters or transitional housing on the night of the PIT count (i.e., sheltered) as well as homeless Veterans who are in places not meant for human habitation such as the streets, abandoned buildings, cars, or encampments (i.e., unsheltered). Communities typically conduct their PIT count during the last week in January when a large share of the homeless population is expected to seek shelter rather than stay outside. Because counting people in shelters is more precise than conducting street counts, the timing of the PIT count is intended to improve the accuracy of the estimates. (Source: Veteran Homelessness: A Supplemental Report to the FY 2010 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress).
