1.Reports on progress of the
Secretary of Veterans Affairs in addressing causes for variances in
compensation payments for veterans for service-connected disabilities
(a)Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment
of this Act, and every year thereafter through 2012, the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs shall submit to the congressional veterans affairs committees a report
describing the progress of the Secretary in addressing the causes of variances
in compensation payments for veterans for service-connected
disabilities.
(b)Each
report under subsection (a) shall include the following:
(1)A description of
the efforts of the Veterans Benefits Administration to coordinate with the
Veterans Health Administration to improve the quality of examinations of
veterans with service-connected disabilities that are performed by the Veterans
Health Administration and contract clinicians, including efforts relating to
the use of approved templates for such examinations and of reports on such
examinations that are based on such templates prepared in an easily-readable
format.
(2)An assessment of
the current personnel requirements of the Veterans Benefits Administration,
including an assessment of the adequacy of the number of personnel assigned to
each regional office of the Administration for each type of claim adjudication
position.
(3)A description of
the differences, if any, in current patterns of submittal rate of claims to the
Secretary of Veterans Affairs regarding service-connected disabilities among
various populations of veterans, including veterans living in rural and highly
rural areas, minority veterans, veterans who served in the National Guard or
Reserve, and veterans who are retired from the Armed Forces military retirees,
and a description and assessment of efforts undertaken to eliminate such
differences.
(c)In
this section:
(1)The term
congressional veterans affairs committees means—
(A)the Committee on
Veterans' Affairs of the Senate; and
(B)the Committee on
Veterans' Affairs of the House of Representatives.
(2)The term highly rural, in the case of an area,
means that the area consists of a county or counties having a population of
less than seven persons per square mile.