Senator has plan to improve vets claims process

The chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee has unveiled a two-part plan for improving the disability claims process.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, proposes some immediate changes that could lead to faster benefits payments, such as giving more weight to private medical opinions, reducing the one-year appeals period to 180 days, and awarding partial disability ratings on complicated claims of multiple disabilities so that at least some payments can be made quickly.

A longer-term solution — which also is part of the bill, S 3517, that Akaka introduced Tuesday — would create a pilot project at six to 10 locations where veterans' disability ratings would be based on medical codes used in the private health insurance system rather than on VA's ratings schedule.