VCS Urges VA Leaders to Place VBA Staff Inside All VHA Facilities
Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) believes the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) should significantly increase the number of VBA offices in each state in order to provide friendly face-to-face assistance for our Veterans and their families with the fastest access to important documents and VBA decision makers. Using a carefully designed plan, VBA facilities of differing sizes can be opened over several years. VCS provided this information to the Presidential Transition Team in 2008, and to VA’s Advisory Committee on Disability Compensation in 2009.
The Veterans Benefits Administratin (VBA) maintains 58 regional offices, usually one per state, to provide non-medical benefits assistance to 23 million Veterans and their families. VBA is frequently seen as an isolated and inaccessible agency because nearly all communication between VBA and Veterans remains through the mail through impersonal, complicated, and quasi-legal letters. A single VBA regional office far away often prevents our Veterans and their families from obtaining friendly face-to-face assistance from VBA, submitting documents to VBA in a timely manner, and promptly scheduling required medical examinations.