The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) must make critical improvements to its travel reimbursement program for the nation’s military veterans, wrote U.S. House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Ranking Member Mike Bost (R-IL) in a July 22 letter sent to VA Secretary Denis McDonough.
Rep. Bost, who was joined in signing the letter by U.S. Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester (D-MT), formally expressed “ongoing concerns” regarding last year’s rollout of the VA’s new Beneficiary Travel Self-Service System (BTSSS), which is designed to streamline the VA’s mileage reimbursement service and reduce payment errors by allowing veterans to submit claims online.
“While you and your team have taken a number of actions to help smooth the implementation of this new system, we see issues that remain and will cause further challenges if they are not adequately addressed,” the lawmakers wrote.
In fact, many veterans are still choosing to submit paper claims rather than use the BTSSS, while many more have stopped accessing this benefit altogether, according to their letter.
“For a system that was intended to make the process easier and more accessible, this is discouraging,” wrote Rep. Bost and his colleague. “One of the main reasons VA pursued the new BTSSS was to improve ease of access and utilization of the beneficiary travel mileage reimbursement benefit for veterans. It is imperative that goal is met.”
Rep. Bost and Sen. Tester also expressed concerns about the number of veterans reporting higher wait-times for their reimbursements than with the previous system, and highlighted the need to have a permanent, sustainable staffing plan in place to address paper claim backlogs, among other issues.
“Staffing is one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle in addressing the backlog, encouraging veterans to utilize the new system, and warding against error and fraud,” they wrote. “VA needs to have a permanent, sustainable staffing plan in place in order for this new system to be a success.”
Rep. Bost and his colleague posed several questions to the secretary to help “shed light on these concerns and facilitate further discussions and planning,” and said they expect to continue receiving regular updates from McDonough “until these issues are resolved.”