WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced a new field structure for supervising the administration of financial benefits for veterans.
The new organization stresses accountability and will promote consistency in operations as VA moves to implement reforms in claims processing to speed up services for veterans.
VA developed four subdivisions for its national network of regional offices administering veterans’ benefits in compensation, pension, vocational rehabilitation and employment and other financial benefits. Four offices will be based in the field within their respective areas, each coordinating operations of from 12 to 16 regional offices in their territory.
The directors of the new area offices and their office locations are: Eastern Area, James Whitson, Detroit; Central Area, William Fillman, Muskogee; Western Area, Diana Rubens, Phoenix; and Southern Area, Thomas Jensen, Nashville. They will report to Associate Deputy Under Secretary for Field Operations Michael Walcoff in Washington.
The new field structure replaces a former “service delivery network” of nine groupings of regional offices reporting to two officials in Washington, one for the eastern part of the country and the other for the west.
The changes were recommended by a task force that was commissioned last year to improve the efficiency of VA’s Veterans Benefits Administration. The task force called for the new structure to provide clear lines of communication and to ensure uniform implementation of directives. It found that the loose organization of the prior groupings of regional offices designed to promote resource sharing did not provide an effective span of control.
By contrast, the new area directors will have line authority over their group of regional offices to ensure accountability, rather than the prior status of 57 individual regional directors reporting to Washington officials.
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Reporters and media outlets with questions or comments should contact the Office of Media Relations at vapublicaffairs@va.gov
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