VA to automate Agent Orange claims

WASHINGTON, March 9 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is automating how it pays disability claims related to exposure to the chemical Agent Orange, officials said.

Without automation, the system "is likely to break" from the additional 228,000 Agent Orange claims expected during the next two years, VA spokesman Peter Levin told USA Today in a story published Tuesday.

It is the VA's first attempt to automate claims in the agency's 80-year history.

The VA has an overall backlog of more than 1 million disability claims pending. On average, VA disability claims take 161 days to process and would increase to 190 days without automation, VA officials said.

The new Agent Orange claims will come from VA Secretary Eric Shinseki's decision to add three more illnesses to those linked to the Vietnam War-era herbicide: Parkinson's disease, B-cell leukemia and heart disease.

Old, incomplete or complicated cases have slowed the VA's move to automation, but once the information from a veteran's discharge papers is entered into a computer, the VA can quickly verify service in Vietnam -- a prime factor for determining eligibility for Agent Orange benefits.