Inspection report finds some errors in Wichita VA benefit payments to veterans

The Wichita Veterans Affairs Regional Office does pretty well in paying out benefits to veterans, according to an inspection report released Wednesday. The inspection found several errors, but some resulted in overpayments to veterans.

The national VA Office of Inspector General studied a sample of claims at the Wichita office as part of a program it started five years ago to inspect benefits at regional offices every three years.

This was the second inspection conducted in Wichita.

The report emphasized that it’s not an all-encompassing review of the Wichita claims office because it only looks for common errors.

Karen Townsend, director of the Wichita VA Regional Office, said her office already has fixed all of the claim errors found in the inspection when national inspectors visited in December.

Townsend and Stacey Bonnett, veterans service center manager for the Wichita VA, said staff members have already worked to address all the problems found in the inspection.

Overall, the inspectors found that the Wichita office inaccurately processed two of the three types of claims it reviewed. It did not accurately process claims known as “temporary 100 percent disability evaluations” and “special monthly compensation.” No problems were found with claims involving traumatic brain injuries.

In fact, only one problem was found out of 30 traumatic brain injury claims, a significant improvement from the 2012 inspection that showed half the samples contained errors.

In some cases, the mistakes favored the veterans. The inspection found that 12 out of 72 claims reviewed contained processing inaccuracies. That resulted in $73,700 of overpayments to veterans between February 2011 and December 2014.

To correct some of the problems, Bonnett said the Wichita office designated some of its most experienced officers to double-check all of the higher-level Special Compensation Claims, which she said are historically some of the most complex claims. She said the Wichita office started that second review in July.

This story was originally published August 26, 2015 at 8:03 PM with the headline "Inspection report finds some errors in Wichita VA benefit payments to veterans."