VBA Regional Office 283
Appeals
VA’s appeals process provides veterans with an opportunity to challenge a decision made by the AOJ or the Board. However, much of the work that occurs between an AOJ’s initial decision and the Board’s disposition of the appeal is performed by VBA and requires the same pool of resources as those needed to process initial claims.
VBA has improved its ability to identify errors in the initiation of an appeal by requiring all appeals to be initiated on a standard form. This change will reduce the time AOJ personnel spend identifying and clarifying the scope of an appeal and the reason for disagreement with a prior AOJ decision.
GAO survey data indicate that DROs could greatly or moderately improve their effectiveness at managing appeals if their responsibilities were limited to this task.