VA (Veterans Administration) Disability Benefits: Timely Delivery of Military Service Medical Records to VA

摘要

The report reviews several issues concerning the Veterans Administration's (VA's) ability to obtain service medical records from military records centers. VA uses these records to determine whether veterans are eligible for disability compensation benefits. In a later discussion, the authors agreed to provide information on (1) the extent of untimely delivery of service medical records from the military to VA, (2) reasons why military records centers experience delays in providing these records, and (3) records centers' initiatives to improve their response time. In doing the review between November 1985 and March 1986, GAO generally found that although there were large backlogs of requests in 1984, VA currently obtains service medical records from military records centers in a timely manner.