What's Brewin: Claims Department

Several weeks ago, I reported that the Veterans Affairs Department had tapped the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command to develop the IT system to process claims for the new GI bill, which goes into effect August 2009.

The VA told me they needed help from outside the agency because benefits under the new GI bill are far more complex than those under the old GI bill and current VA systems could not handle the complexity. The department needed a new system built with rules-based engines to process the claims.

Since then I've had a frustrating time trying to find out exactly how SPAWAR is going to develop the system, which is slated to go online sometime in 2010. (Until then, VA will hire more folks to process manually new GI bill claims). Evidently SPAWAR still is trying to figure out how it will do this.

SPAWAR spokesman Steve Davis told me in an e-mail that development of the architecture is in the planning phase and under discussion between VA and SPAWAR's System Center Atlantic in Charleston, S.C. "The use of a service-oriented architecture and rules-based engine (with appropriate security controls), which could provide the framework for future VA initiatives, is under consideration," he wrote.

In other words, despite the fact that President Bush in June signed into law the 2008 supplemental appropriations package, which contained the new GI bill, the VA and its IT systems contractor -- SPAWAR -- are still trying to figure out how to do the job.

SPAWAR Qualifications?

I asked Davis what experience SPAWAR, which develops command and control systems for the Navy, had that would help it do the VA job -- one that is akin to insurance claims processing work.

Davis told me that the Systems Center Atlantic helped develop the Navy Standard Integrated Personnel System, which among other things uses roles and rules-based engines. OK, but in 2003, the Defense Department inspector general found that the personnel system had more than its share of problems. The IG said SPAWAR initially decided to develop NSIPS based on commercial human resources software from PeopleSoft (now part of Oracle) for a quick, out-of-the box commercial solution.

But by the time the Navy spent about six years tinkering around with the system, only 4 percent of NSIPS was running on commercial software. In that period, the cost for NSIPS jumped from a projected $92 million to $256 million. This is an experience that does not bode well if SPAWAR takes the same route with the VA job.

Why didn't VA hire an insurance company, which has experience with rules-based systems, to develop the new claims system for the modified GI bill?

The $400 Million Question

I've been told by reliable sources that VA transferred about $400 million in its 2008 budget to pay for a whole mess of IT work beyond the new GI bill system job.

Davis did not address directly the money question. But he did tell me that the Systems Center Atlantic has been supporting the VA office of information and technology with technical engineering program management assistance, software development for the My Health eVet portal, and software engineering studies, analysis and support for the VA/ Defense data integration initiative. The support has been conducted at the new joint VA/Defense hospital in North Chicago, among other places.

During the week of Nov. 17, I'll be in San Diego, where SPAWAR HQ is located, for the AFCEA MILCOM conference. Davis has promised me more will be revealed.

Remembrance Day - Succinctly

My buddy in the State Department, Abigail Friedman, recently did a tour as U.S. Counsel General in Quebec, Canada, where they take Remembrance Day (Veterans Day to us) seriously.

Abigail, who is the author of The Haiku Apprentice: Memoirs of Writing Poetry in Japan sent me this poem she wrote for a Remembrance Day ceremony in Quebec, after I wrote my Veterans Day column. It captures the spirit of the day succinctly and with feeling:

Remembrance Day
The milky eyes of old men
The coldness of medals.

Abigail says it's better in French, so here's the French version:

Jour du souvenir
Des anciens aux yeux laiteux
La froideur des médailles.