Transforming How Veterans' Benefits Claims Are Processed

Today, VBMS’ digital filing system intakes close to 1 million files daily, making them accessible online from any VA office. “Someone in Vermont can now work claims that originated in Oregon, Nebraska—anywhere,” says Elizabeth Buske, a Booz Allen digital solutions leader.

The automated queuing system we designed distributes work between VA’s 56 regional benefits offices based on capacity rather than location, ensuring that veterans who have been waiting the longest receive priority, no matter where they reside.

With VBMS in place, VA’s claims backlog now hovers near 69,000—its lowest point on record. The average time a veteran waits for a decision is down 68 percent from its peak.

Throughout the project, our VBMS team epitomized Booz Allen’s consulting heritage with their steady support for the VA employees adopting the software as the new foundation of their day-to-day work. Regularly hosting groups of said employees at our offices was key to this effort.

“For 2 weeks out of every 12-week agile development cycle, we’d have VA employees from across the country come sit with us and test the software,” Joey says. “Just by working side-by-side, we learned something.”

These face-to-face dialogues helped us better understand the needs of our end users as we helped them learn the software and improved it using their feedback.

They also kept our developers focused on VA’s mission. “We ask our people to live our clients’ missions—not just do their jobs coding or debugging, but to remember why we do it,” Elizabeth says. “Meeting the people whose work ultimately connects veterans with their benefits helps us see how we’re changing lives for the better.”