Modernizing All Veterans and Survivors

Key Points

• The VA would be required to create a plan within one year to expand the use of automation tools across the department. These tools would automatically retrieve service and health records, compile evidence for claims, provide decision support, and generate correspondence, all aimed at speeding up how veterans' benefit claims are processed.
• A new annual report on veteran deaths would be required, tracking the primary and secondary causes of death, manner of death, and whether the veteran had a total service-connected disability rating. This data would help Congress identify health trends and risks facing veterans. The reporting requirement sunsets after five years.
• The VA must set up automatic alerts so claims processors are notified when a child of a veteran may be eligible for increased dependency compensation or educational assistance. This ensures children's benefits are not overlooked or delayed.
• The VA would also need to submit a plan to fix how documents in the Veterans Benefits Management System are labeled. Mislabeled documents can cause delays and errors in processing claims, so the plan would cover correct labeling when files are uploaded, including when automation tools are used.