[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1623 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1623

   To amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of 
 Veterans Affairs to make publicly available certain information about 
     pending and completed claims for compensation under the laws 
         administered by the Secretary, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 18, 2013

 Mrs. Negrete McLeod (for herself, Mr. Cook, Mr. Ruiz, and Ms. Kuster) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                           Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of 
 Veterans Affairs to make publicly available certain information about 
     pending and completed claims for compensation under the laws 
         administered by the Secretary, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``VA Claims Efficiency Through 
Information Act of 2013''.

SEC. 2. PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF CERTAIN INFORMATION ABOUT PENDING AND 
              COMPLETED CLAIMS FOR COMPENSATION UNDER THE LAWS 
              ADMINISTERED BY THE SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS.

    (a) In General.--Subchapter I of chapter 51 of title 38, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section:
``Sec. 5109C. Information about pending and completed claims
    ``(a) Availability of Information.--The Secretary shall maintain on 
the Internet website of the Department publicly accessible information 
about pending and completed claims for compensation under chapter 11 of 
this title. Such information shall include each of the following:
            ``(1) For each regional office--
                    ``(A) the average number of days between the date 
                of the submittal of a claim and the date of the 
                decision with respect to the claim for each of the 
                preceding 3-month and one-year period;
                    ``(B) the average number of days such a claim is 
                pending during the preceding 3-month and one-year 
                periods;
                    ``(C) the quality and accuracy rating of the claims 
                adjudication process during the preceding 3-month and 
                one-year periods;
                    ``(D) the number of claims pending;
                    ``(E) the number of pending claims that have been 
                pending for more than 125 days; and
                    ``(F) the number of claims completed during--
                            ``(i) the current month, to date;
                            ``(ii) the month preceding current month;
                            ``(iii) the current calendar year, to date; 
                        and
                            ``(iv) the calendar year preceding the 
                        current calendar year; and
            ``(2) For each medical condition for which a claim for 
        compensation is submitted--
                    ``(A) the average number of days between the date 
                of the submittal of a claim relating to such medical 
                condition and the date of the decision with respect to 
                the claim for each of the preceding 3-month and one-
                year period;
                    ``(B) the average number of days such a claim is 
                pending during the preceding 3-month and one-year 
                periods;
                    ``(C) the quality and accuracy rating of the claims 
                adjudication process as applied to claims relating to 
                such medical condition during the preceding 3-month and 
                one-year periods;
                    ``(D) the number of pending claims relating to such 
                condition;
                    ``(E) the number of such pending claims that have 
                been pending for more than 125 days; and
                    ``(F) the number of claims relating to such medical 
                condition completed during--
                            ``(i) the current month, to date;
                            ``(ii) the month preceding current month;
                            ``(iii) the current calendar year, to date; 
                        and
                            ``(iv) the calendar year preceding the 
                        current calendar year.
    ``(b) Updates.--The Secretary shall update the information on the 
website under subsection (a) not less frequently than once every seven 
days.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the beginning of 
such chapter is amended by adding at the end of the items relating to 
such subchapter the following new item:

``5109C. Information about pending and completed claims.''.
                                 <all>