afge local 520 us house and senate committees 01-19-14 vbms, ihr, e-benefits breach

8/13/2019 AFGE Local 520 US House and Senate Committees 01-19-14 VBMS, IHR, E-Benefits Breach

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VARegional OfficeAFGELOCAL 520POBOX 1778COLUMBIA, SC 29202January19,2014

Chairmen, Ranking Members, Members of the US House and Senate Committees of VeteransAffairsDear Committee Members:

AFGE Local 520, the exclusive representative of the bargaining unit of VARO Columbia, SC,wantsto address the history of the Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS), thesingleelectronic health record system betweenDOD & VA, and thecurrent breachofVeterans'informationinE-benefits.The Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS), which was conceived in January 2010,was fullyoperational byDecember2012... New Spending BillAllocatesExtra 294M illion toVeteransAffairs Department to EndDisabilityApp lication Backlog, BrunswickBusinessJournal.net, October21 ,2013TheVBMS Virtual RegionalOffice (VROOw asfundedand thepurposeofthatfunding isoutlinedin,theD epartment Of VeteransAffairs, Recovery A ctProgram-Specific Plan,Information And Technology Systems VeteransBenefits Adminis trat ionSupport Report, June

2010.The VBMS initiativeisdesigned totransitionC&P frompaper-intensive claimsprocessingto apaperlessenvironment. The$2.81Million Recovery Act fundingallocatedto theVBMS Initiativeisprovidingfor aVirtual Regional Office(VRO)prototype.The VROwillbe a flexible,iterative, middle-user developmentprocesstosolidifyuser needs and business requirements through a living specification.Additionally, RecoveryActfundingwill provide Independent VerificationandValidation(IV&V) oversight of planning, design, development,testing,implementation, andmaintenance components of the VBMSinitiative.

Despite thisfunding,over491million dollars initiallyandstill climbing,andafterover3 4yearsofVBMS testingandoperation,it isstillin thedevelopmental stage.


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Excerptsfrom thearticle, VA ,NationalA rchives teamup tohelp dig outofclaims backlog,FederalNews Radio'1500A M,A pri l26,2012,will give some context to amajor component ofVBMS-digitizationofdocuments(emphasis added).

VAstarted usingNARA'sscanned documentsin the newVBMS systemat a pilotlocationinProvidence, R.I., then e xpandedit to VBAclaims processing centersinSaltLakeCity, Fort Harrison,Mont, [sic] andWichita, Neb.[sic], releasingnew capabilitiesin three-month intervals.

The DepartmentofV eterans AffairshasteamedupwiththeNational ArchivesandRecordsAd ministrationas ittriestoevolveto apaperless disability claims process,aprocess thatVAbelievesis theonlyway it canfinally sort throughitshuge backlogofclaims.

VA andNARA have signedadealto use the archives agency's high-speed, high-qualityscanners to digitize the huge quantity of paper records the Veterans BenefitsAdministration currently usestom ake benefits decisions, R oger Baker, VA 's chiefinformationofficer told reporters Wednesday. VAsaidthe newpaperless claims systemisn'tasilver bulletfor theclaims process,butBakersaidtheage ncy can't breakthebacklog withoutit. That systemisjustkey to ourabilitytostart bringing downthebacklog,and it is, bytheway,anexampleof why IT isaninvestment and not anexpense, hesaid. Thisishow ITsystems really needto beviewed. Baker agreed thatsimply scanning documents won'tsolvetheclaims backlog. The bigissuefor us isthat there'salot ofpaper there.We 're goingtohavetoscana lotof documents,andit'sjust something we're goingtohavetowrestle with overthenextseveral years.It's partof theplan, butit'sahuge partof theplan." Arealfocus from ou rstandpointfor us is toreallyge t all newinformationelectronically, he said. We 're trying to reach out and touchDoD and private health

providers sothatwe getelectronic information insteadofpaperso wenever havetodo anyscanningforthat information. VAplanstohavetheVBMS system production-readybyJuly,androllit out to thefirst 16 VBAoffices by September, Bakersaid.

Now,let'sexaminethetest imonyofMr. Will iamJ. B osanko, E xecutive for A gency Services , U.S.NationalA rchivesandRecordsA dmin is t ra t ion(NARA)at the H VA CHearingon 06/19/2012:Reclaiming theProcess: Exam iningthe V BACla imsTransforma tion Planas aMeanstoEffectively Serveou rVeterans, regarding thescanning ofdocuments(emphasis added).> NARA entered intoaone-year agreem ent withtheDepartmentofVeteransAffairs (VA)in June2010 tohelp designascanning architectureand aprocessthat would meetV BA 's particular needs. Under this agreement, NAR A mappedout ascanning workf lowfor claims processing, configuredascanning system, trainedthescanning systemtorecognize thedataonVBA'sforms, anddevelopeda way toindexthedata sothatitcouldbeefficiently retrieved whenneeded...> Basedon thesuccessof the firstpilot, NA R A signedasecond one-year agreement withtheVAinJune2011to further refine thescanningworkflow andhardware configuration


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andtocontinuetoimprovethesystem'sabilitytoautomatically recognize andcompiledatafrom VBA forms.> We are nearihg our completion of meeting the requirements to the V A under the terms ofthe two year-long agreements.Ourcurrent agreement withthe VAendsonJune26,2012.NARAdid notrenewthe contract. This should have beena red flag to the HV AC and theVBA,but VBA was allowed to plow on. During questioning at the HVA C hearing by R ankingDemocratic Member Filnerof Mr. Bosanko, it wasdiscoveredthatitwould take approximately4000employeestoscantherequired600m illion pagesamonthforrollout.NARA had twopurposes - totrainthesystemto recognize datafromVAformsanddevelopawaytoindexthe data. AlthoughVAprivately contracted thescanning, therewasapparentlynome ntion of recognizing the d ata.Theproper indexingofdocumentsand thetime ly scanningofdocuments c ontinueto be aproblem. Becauseof thedelayin scanning documents,the VBA is nowrequiring employeestoelectronically listthedocumentsinVBM S sentto thescanning contractors. This created anotherunnecessarystepin theprocessbecause of the untime ly scanning of docume nts and this takesawayresourcesfrom processing claims.

From: VBACMSSent:Monday, January13,2014 3:07PMTo:VBA CMS_vscSubject:VBM S Documents Pending Scanning BannerThe O perations Center has received a number of inquiries related to the V BMS bannerfor docume nts pending scanninganduploadto theeFolder. Users have reported thatthebanner mustbemanually clearedinsome instances whenthe referenced documents havealready been uploaded into VBM S. If you observe this type of activity, please note thatthishasoccurredinerrorandthatitshouldbereportedto theNational Service Deskandinthe Transformation Chat Room.Reporting these issues will ensure thattheappropriate partiesareabletotestandresolveanypotential issues.

AVSCMMoreover, instead of VBA using employees whose jobs will be eliminated because of thedigitizationofpaper files (i.e. fileandmail clerks), theychosetocontractthescanning out.Now,theVeteran'sdocumentsare out of VAcontroland no oneknowshowmany documentsare at thescanning vendors that havenotbeen scanned. Th eaforementioned action takenbyVBA prove s thatth escanning contractorsarebehind.


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Furthermore,workarounds have become comm on place becauseof thelackofplanninganddevelopmentofVBMS. However,it isde stroying valuable timeandefficiency. Asystem thatwas designedtospeedup theclaims processing is nowdelayingthe process.Excerptsfrom thearticle, VA downplays claimscomputers beingtaken o f f l i n e Starsan dStripes,Apri l19 ,2013,demonstrate the continued problems w ith VBMS (em phasis added).

> The DepartmentofVeterans A ffairs'newclaimsprocessingsystemwastaken offlinefor repairs this week, raising m ore questions aboutthe department'slong-term planstobreakthe claims backlog.

> Themessage,first posted on thewebsite VA Watchdog.org, instructed ratersto useolderprocessing systems until further notice.V Aspokesman Randy Nolle r downplayedtheincident, saying the problems were confined to the ratings tool aspects of VB MS, andwerearesultofsystem updates.> This marksthe13th VBMS release, including patches, issuedin thepastsixmonths, hesaid."Occasionalsystem issues tiedtothis software developmentapproach are to be expected.> Officials said the system was fixed by Wed nesdayafternoon, a little mo re than 48 hoursafter it waspartially shut dow n.But the incident raised eyebrows among critics onCapitol Hill and workers within the VA.> Last month, officials fromtheAmerican Federation of Government Employeescomplained that their mem bers have seen significant glitches in the new system,but the VA has not yetfound aneffectiveway tocomp ileandrespondtothoseerrors.> AreportfromtheVAinspector generalinFebruarysaidthesystemisplagued w ith"disorganizedelectronicclaims foldersandimproper managementof hard-copyclaims.

> House VeteransAffairs Comm ittee Chairman Rep.Jeff Miller, who has similarlycriticized theV A ' sstated plan, said he w as less c oncerned w ith the temporary softwareoutage than VAleadership's overall approach.o The larger issue hereisthat VBM Sissimplynot thepanaceaVAofficialsclaimit tobe, hesaidin astatement. Fixingthebacklog starts with havinganhonest conversation about problems that have plaguedVA foryears:mismanagement,poor planningandlackofaccountability among someemployees.> In thelasttwom onths,theVA'stwo top technology officials Chief TechnologyOfficerPeter Levin and Chief In formation Officer Roger B aker both left thedepartment, although neither resignation waslinkedtoproblem sin the system.

This articlewas inApril2013andraisestheissueofcontinued releases with bugs, worker'scomplaints,theweigh-inof theVAO IGand theHV AC Chairman,and the most telling evidenceof all the flight of top technology officialsin themidstof trouble.Thereareonlytworeasonsforthis flight- disagreements withthedirectiontheprogramwasgoingandexisting beforeitwent downortheir de parturew asusedas a scapegoat.


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Excerpts from thearticle,NewSpendingB il l A llocates Extra 294 Mill ionto Veterans AffairsDepartment to EndDisabil i ty A pplication B acklog, Brunswick Business Journal.net,October2 1,2013shows another'attempt to solve a leadership problem by throwing more money at it and thecontinued ineffectivenessof a lawthatw aspassed in2008tohelp solvethebacklogo fclaims(emphasis added).> The rece ntly passed bipartisan spending bill earmarksanextra$294 million

throughJan. 15tohelpthe VA end thebacklog by2015. Thebilldoesnotspecifyhow the VA must use the money, but previously the V A used suchfundingto pay forovertimefor itsclaimsprocessors.

> Still,it's not aperfect system.Wehave seen FDCsgofroma30-day turnaroundtoamore than 10-month wait this year, perhapsbecauseof theincreasein FDCfilings. To mM urphy, directorof the compensation serviceat theV eterans Bene fitsAdministration,noted thatthe VA receivedmore than148,000FDCsthisyearin arecent congressional testimony. Murphy said that FDCs are processed in less thanhalfthetimeofother c laimsat anaverageof123days.

Let'sfastforwardtoDecember23,2013andexcerpts from thearticle VAPaperless ProcessingSystemShut DownbySoftware Glitch Last Week, Nextgov, December23,2013.

> Lutzsaid, It'snotunusualforissuestoarisewhenafull loadisplacedonnewlyinstalled software. That said,in thelast year,V BMS's unplanned downtime accountedforless than 1percentof itstotal hours.> Hick ey told the Senate thatV Aplans tofield two more generations of V BMS softwarebetween now and2015to meet Secretary EricShinseki'sgoal of eliminating the claimsbacklogbythen.> Asoftware glitch caused a shutdown of the V eteran'sAffairsDepartment's $491 milliondisabilityclaims processingsystem earlylastweek,Nextgovhaslearned.

Does this soundfamiliarto theComm ittees? Howeve r, what aboutthelatency issues (toincludefromsoftware installsoflatest versionsofM icrosoft andW ord),all thedow n timei ttakesf orclaimsprocessorsto put introuble ticketsandcallingthehelp line,all theworkaroundsto theevaluation builders and going back andforthto get workarounds out of threedifferent programsuntilyoufind one that works, adding and deleting textfromnotification letters, ad nauseam. .9

Governmentemployeespay is set by2087 hoursper year, http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/pay-administration/fact-sheets/computing-hourfy-rates-of-pay-using-the-208 7-hour-divisor/O ne percent of the hours employees work would be around 20.86. The article on April9,2013,said alittle more than48hours VBMSwaspartially shut down . . . Megan Lutzsaiddowntime accounted for less than one percent of its total hours). What accounts forVBMS'total hours versus hourso femployee'suse?


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Excerpts from the article VeteransAffairs, Defense Depts. spend bil l ionsin f f o r t tocoordinaterecordsA fter twoyearsand morethan 1bil l ionspent, integratedhealthrecords systemcanceled, TheCenteror Publ icIntegrity, Au g u s t27,2013,showsthecostof thedebaclesinglehealth-records system be tween VA and DOD (emphasis added).> The Department of VeteransAffairsand theDe partmentofDefensespent atleast $1.3billion during the last four years trying unsuccessfully to develop a single electronichealth-records system b etween the two departments leaving veterans' disabilityclaimstocontinue pilingup inpaperfilesacrossthecountry,aNews21 investigationshows.> TheJanus Joint Legacy Viewer,acloud-based medical records system that allowsDODand VAme dical records to be displayed on one screen, launched at nine sites inJuly...Hesaiditwillultimatelybetestedatregionaloffices this year,butonlytwoemployees at eachofficewill have training and access.> The National Defense Authorization Act for 2008mandatedthat the DO D and VA

secretaries develop and implement electronic health-record systemsorcapabilities thatallow forfull interoperability ofpersonal health information betweentheDepartmento fDefenseand theDepartmento fVeterans Aff airs.

Acomparison, of Public Law110-118,Section 1635 Fully Interoperable Electronic PersonalHealth InformationFor TheDe partment O fDefenseAndDepartmentO fVe terans AffairsNational Defense AuthorizationAc tfor FY08) and Public Law113-66, Section 713, ElectronicHealth RecordsO f TheDepartmentO fDefenseAnd TheDepartmentO fVe terans Affairs National Defense AuthorizationActfor FY14 ,showsthatthecycleisstarting alloveragain.However, this time more playersare in thegame- (the establishmentof notmore thansixmembers Executive Committeeand theDefenseScienceBoard) inadditionto thepreviouscompositionof the Interagency ProgramOffice ofDe partments,theOffice of theNationalCoordinator for Health Information Technology of the Department of Health and HumanServicesand the Comptroller General.

The evolutionand/orprocureme nt of new health record systems is an important projectfor the de partments to undertake but it will end up being afutileexercise if the result isnotthe developme nt of systems that will be interoperable,defined as the ability toexchange computable informationelectronically, the report states.Itadds that thereis rising concern that the VA and the DoD will lose sight of the need forinteroperability asthey spend fundsonimprov ing theirownEHRs. VA informationtechnologyappropriations go upunderomnibus ,Fierce G overnment,January 16,2014(emphasis added)

There were benchmarks in the old law aswellas the newone. However,no one washeldaccountable for the first debacle and without proper oversight and accountability by theCommittees, therewillnot be anythistime.


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O urNation'sVeterans and their survivors have earned and the taxpayers paid for results and notaction on paper. However, this time AFGE Local 520 will monitor the progress and track andreporton the benchmarks usingtheFreedom ofInformation Act.The new revelation that the E-Benefits website exposed Veterans' information should be an eyeopening experiencefor theComm ittees. Hereare a fewexcerpts, comments, and theVA'sresponsefrom thearticleI-Team uncov ers veterans privacy breach,11 abc WTVD-TVRale igh-DurhanNC,January 16,2014(emphasisadded).

> Navy veteran Sylvester W oodland saidhecouldn't believe whathe wasseeingWed nesday night when he logged onto the Ve teranAffairs' E-Benefits website.

> It gave me adifferent person's name, each and every time I came back, Wood land said.Atfirst I thought it wasjusta glitch, but the m ore I thought about it, I said, w ait a minute,thisismore thanaglitch, thisis abreach.

> Whenyo uclicko nthesehyperlinkshere, ittakesyou to thebank account,thedirectdeposit, bank account, last four,what bank is it for, Wood land said. I'llbet he has noideathatI'msitting he rein myhouse withhisinformation.

> Wood land saidhecalled theDepartment ofDefense,the VA , andSenatorKay Hagan'soffice,but he didn't get any response until Thursday morning. Then, the website wentdown and an email came from the DO D asking him to scan the few pages he printed outandem ail them over.

> AlreadyI see theblame game going. It'sthe VA. No,it'stheDOD. It's goingtobounceback andforth,but can you proveit'san isolated incide nt? Wood landsaid. Stephanie,adayag o When m y husband and I logged on we were immediatelyconcerned the informationwe sawthat w asn't myhusband's.So wewouldlog out and

backin and itshowed someone else.It waseveningand ofcoursewe couldn't contactanyone but he did get through to somebody at theVA whosaid theyhad anemergency numbertoebenefits andwould pass whatweseenon tothem. Thisisnotgoodand we arewondering howmanypeople seenmyhusband's informationalso." K4GPB adayag o ThanksW TVD for the story~,no other outlet anywhere me ntionsit. Searched Google new s fo r: ebenefits Steve 18hoursago Thissame thing happenedto mybrotherwho isalsoaveteran.He tookthesame actions anddidn't hear anything.H espoketo the V Atech supportand they told him it was not bigdeal...Thank you Sylvester for taking action. TheVA willnot getbetterif wedon'tall careenoughtotakeaction "

> The VA issued astatementto ABC11Friday:T heDepartmentof VeteransAffairs (VA)takesseriouslyou robligat iontoproperly safeguard personali nformation. Wednesdayevening, duringaprocess to improvesoftware supporting thejoint VA andD epartment ofDefense benefits webportaleBenefits, VAdi scoveredasoftware defect. Du ring thatl imitedtimeframe, someVeterans an dServicememberswho hadregisteredand logged


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intoeBenefits were ableto see acombinationof theiro wninformation aswellasdatafrom othereBenefits users. VAtook imm ediate act ionupond iscoveringthe softwaredefect andshutth eeBenefits system downinordertol imitanyproblems. V A i sconductinga full reviewto becertaintheunderlying technological issues have beenresolvedbefore thesystemi sreturnedtooperation.

> VA's independent Data Breach CoreTeam (DBCT) isreviewing this i ssueandbelievesarelatively l imited numberof Veteransha ve beenaffected. OncetheDB CT determinesthenumbero f usersimpacted, their identitiesan dotherpertinentfacts, VAwil ltake theappropriate response, whichmay includefree creditmonitoringfor the affectedindividuals, consis tent with VA's standardpractice.

The speed inwhichV BA istryingtobringtheclaimsprocessintoapaperless,com puterizedjuggernautiscreating m ore problems thanit issolvingandtheyare ignoring common senseandbasic managem ent principles. Speed kills.After 4 years of developing and testing VBM S, many problems continue to exist. There areindexingand scanning timeliness problems, latency issues, software problems, doc uments inmultiple systems, workarounds evenin E-benefits,employee'sconfusiondue to thealmostdailychanges in procedures and instructions because of a system that is not ready. Speed kills.Because theV BAhasbeen blindedby thegoalofreducingthebacklogby anundefined2015,Veteransandtheir survivors continueto se eallclaimsandworkload actionsthataffect theirlivelihood increase.Anyclaim thatnoaction hasbeen takenis abacklogged claim. The VBA hasreducedthenumber of time for Veterans and other entities to subm it evidence to the VB A. However, VBAhasthousands ofclaims just sitting idleand noactionshave been takenonthem.Instead of VBA properlystaffing to work these claims, they are waiting for the V BMS tomagically become efficient and workthese claims. Therefore,thereis an enormous effort byVBAto fix VBM S, so they can elim inate the need for Veterans Service Re presentatives andother positions and reduce the need for the number of Rating Veterans Service Representatives.

VeteransAffairs Department information technology appropriationsfor the currentfiscal yearare set toreach $3.7 billion,anamount that exceed sthed epartmental requestof $3.68billion.Underthe$1.012trillionfundingmeasure (H.R. 3547) thatpassedtheHouseb y avoteof359-67,the VAOffice ofInformation andTechnology would rece ive$1.026 billionfor ITem ployee salaries, $2.18billionforoperationsandmaintenance,and$495 million forsystems development, modernization andenhancement. TheSenate isexpectedtoapprovethebill. VA information technology appropriations go up underomnibus ,Fierce Government,January 16, 2014Underthelegislation...Themeasure contains several provisions aimed attacklingtheV A 's back log of pending disability benefit claims. This includes $90 million in available

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funds fo rovertimefor VAclaims processors, $140millionininform ation technologyupgradestoaccomm odateapaperless claims system,and $88milliontofund theBoardof V eterans Appeals. As ofJan. 11,2013,thenumberofpending disability be nefitsclaims stoodat686,861,over58percentofwhich have been pend ingforover 125days.Military Construction-VA: Spending Levels RemainSteady, CQNews Pol icy ,January13 ,2014Tragically, this miscalculation hasbeenanightmare forVe teransandtheir survivorsas thefollowing self-report numbers from MM WR as January 11,2014 indicate:Veterans Affairs RegionalOffices(VAROs)

Pending/Over125DaysCom pensation: 636,371/384,213 60.4%Aw ards Ad justments: 409,635/292,244 71.3%Program Reviews: 74,560/ 59,194 79.4%Other: 171,7127 93,049 54.2%CompensationTotal:1,292,278/828,70064%Appeals: 266,41 I/No t ReportedVAROsTotals: 1,558,689PensionM aintenanceCenters PMCs)Pending/Over 125 DaysPension E ntitleme nt: 48,522/23,845 49.1%Aw ards A djustm ents: 71,318/28,936 40.6%Program Review s: 38,695/38,187 98.7%O ther: 5,533/ 2,753 49.8%Pension Total: 164,068/93,721 57.1%Burial Claims: 45,691/Not ReportedAccrued (Death) 15,228/Not ReportedTotal PMCs: 224,987793,721GrandTotal: 1,783,676/922,421Whenthe Com mittees asked VBA if they needed more employees, they were as silent as lambs.However, theyarealways asking andgetting more m oney withnoacc ountability fo rresults.The article,G ates skewers Congress,V Abacklogon 'The Daily Show',MarineTimes, Janaury16,2014,theformerD efe nse Secretary answered asfollows:

> Host JonStewart asked Gateswhy theU.S.government cannot takethesame boldactiontoreducethebackloginveterans claimsas he didwhen Military TunesandThe W ashington Post exposed that wounded service members were livinginsubstandard conditionsa tW alter Reed Army Medical Centerin2007.


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> O neof thereasons things changed almost imm ediatelywas I fired thecommanderatthathospital, the surgeon general of the A rmy and secretary of the Army, Gates said,toapplause from theaudience. That gotpeople'sattention. Partof theproblem inWashingtonis theunwillingnesstohold individuals accountable fo rperformance.AFGE Local52 0will continuetoprotect thepublic interest andcontributeto the effectiveconduct of public business as required by law.Therefore, wewill continuetochimeinweeklyonthis most critical subject with objectiveevidence because Ve terans have earnedtherighttohaveaclaims processing system that worksfor allof them and employees can onlyeffectively serve them if they are provided with theleadership, processes,people systems an dworkplace culturethatareconducivetoprovidingtimelyandaccurate de cisions.Finally,asadministratorfor theagency afterWorldWar II,Bradleysaid:"We aredealing withVeterans,notprocedures; with their problem s,notours.

toriald RobinsonPresident(803) 647-2385 (Ofc)(803)239-7682 (Cell)[email protected] s Putting V eterans 1sCF:President ObamaVA Secretary ShinsekiPresident AFGEPresident NVA C60 MinutesNYTimesWashington PostCenter for Investigative ReportingTheW ashington ExaminerVAW atchdog

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