Shinseki wants electronic system to deal with claims backlog

The Veterans Affairs Department needs an electronic claims system if it is ever to eliminate its massive claims backlog, new VA Secretary Eric Shinseki told a House committee Wednesday. "If you go into the adjudication rooms where decisions on claims are made, you'll see individuals sitting at desks with stacks of papers going halfway up to the ceiling," Shinseki said. VA has 11,100 people processing claims, and is scheduled to hire another 1,100 this year to keep up with the work. About 885,000 new claims were filed in 2008 on top of a backlog estimated at more than a half a million, Shinseki said.

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