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Pays to have an advocate!

During fiscal 2014, the number of benefits claims decisions appealed by veterans increased by more than 21,000 – bringing the current total of appeals waiting for adjudication (as of Sept. 8) to 280,297.
The American Legion submitted testimony for the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation’s hearing, “Metrics, Measurements and Mismanagement at the Board of Veterans Appeals.” Zachary Hearn, the Legion’s deputy director for benefits, was among the panelists who testified.

Through Sept. 1 of fiscal 2014, American Legion employees working at BVA handled 8,366 claims appeals. Of those, 2,330 previous denials were overturned and benefits were awarded; another 3,904 appeals were sent back (remanded) to VA regional offices for further development.
Thus, the decisions made for 74.5 percent of appeals the Legion worked on were deemed to be incorrect by BVA. While many denials were overturned, more were remanded because they were inadequately developed and prematurely denied by VA claims adjudicators.