Over the last 18 months, VA has been dedicated to implementing the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act of 2017 (Appeals Modernization Act). The Appeals Modernization Act was signed into law by President Trump on Aug. 23, 2017, and has been fully implemented beginning today. VA is proud to now offer Veterans greater choice in how they resolve a disagreement with a VA decision.

Veterans who appeal a VA decision on or after Feb. 19, 2019, have three decision review lanes to choose from: Higher-Level Review, Supplemental Claim, and appeal to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board). VA’s goal is to complete Supplemental Claims and Higher-Level Reviews in an average of 125 days, and decisions appealed to the Board for direct review in an average of 365 days. This is a vast improvement to the average three to seven years Veterans waited for a decision in the legacy process.

Before appeals reform, pending appeals grew 350 percent from 100,000 in Fiscal Year 2001 to 450,000 in Fiscal Year 2017. In November 2017, VA initiated the Rapid Appeals Modernization Program (RAMP) to afford Veterans with a legacy appeal the opportunity to take advantage of the benefits of the new process. RAMP ended Feb. 15, 2019, but VA remains committed to completing the inventory of legacy appeals.

This is a historic day for Veterans and their families. Appeals Modernization helps VA continue its effort to improve the delivery of benefits and services to Veterans and their families.

For more information on Appeals Modernization, visit http://www.va.gov/decision-reviews.

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2 Comments

  1. Makelyia Sheppard February 24, 2019 at 00:15

    This new program is a disappointment. I got my claim decision back February 2019 and it was basically a copy and paste decision that mirrored my last claim denial. There is a section in the claim decision that list all the evidence the VA review and several documents I sent in were missing. I also filed a claim for UI and the denial letter stated that I didn’t meet the criteria of 60 percent for one disability or 70 percent for two or more disabilities. I have been rated at 80 percent since December 2018. This proved that my claim was not completely reviewed. I have always heard of the horror stories other veterans have told but I never thought I would have my own story.

    • Nick February 25, 2019 at 14:18

      Makelyia,
      I’m sorry to hear that and am a US-based minority government contractor and software company working to help fix such gaps using blockchain and other technology my company is moving urgently to get in the hands our vets. Please feel free to email us at (redacted) to share your case so so we can move to help address because it does not need to be that way.

      Kind regards,

      Nick Philliou
      Founder, CEO
      Diversacoin Digital & Blockchain Ventures

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