According to a recent article from Federal News Network, the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is growing its benefits division’s workforce and is using new funding to hire an additional 1,900 employees in the first half of the 2023 fiscal year. The VA is also focused on training its employees on how to handle PACT Act claims, which expands eligibility for VA health care and benefits and is expected to bring an additional 3.5 million veterans into VA care.
The agency has already received 213,000 PACT Act-related claims for benefits and has trained 50-60% of its total workforce so far. The VA has already hired over 2,000 employees last year in anticipation of its growing workload and is looking to hire thousands more this year and implement additional automation tools to process claims faster. However, the agency anticipates its claims backlog will temporarily increase as it takes on its additional workload under the PACT Act.
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