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VSOs

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Matt Wagner edited this page Jun 10, 2021 · 3 revisions

Background

Veterans Service Organizations have the following overall goals:

  • Assist Veterans in moving through the appeals process
  • Helping the veteran by giving reminders and advice about forms, hearings
  • Representing Veterans who have elected a hearing at their hearing.

There are two groups of VSOs: National and Field (state/county).

  • National VSOs write and submit Informal Hearing Presentations (IHPs) for Veterans who have not elected a hearing. Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs) currently access their appeals work in VACOLS. They also have access to the Veteran's claims folder in VBMS.
  • Field VSOs currently have a read only view of VACOLS, so that will continue with Caseflow.

Under AMA, they will still be writing IHPs. The Board does not need to wait for an IHP to be submitted, though it currently tends to wait.

If a Veteran has chosen the Direct Review lane under AMA, meaning they are not submitting any new evidence, the Board has a goal timeframe of deciding the case within 365 days from the NOD date. This timeframe will take precedence over waiting for the IHP to be submitted.

Goals

  • Facilitate VSOs knowledge of actions they could take for their Veterans' cases
    • e.g. submit IHP (VSOs are assigned appeals in VACOLS for this today)
    • e.g. prepare for hearing (VSOs are not assigned appeals in VACOLS for this today)
  • Provide VSOs with as lightweight of functionality as required before AMA effective date

Assumptions

  • We could use a lightweight MVP for VSOs
    • Build queue for VSO users - see a list of appeals assigned to that VSO
    • Search for appeals, only see appeals at that VSO

Phases and User stories

At any point

  • As a VSO representative, I need to be able to see all Veterans' appeals that have chosen me as their representative. (Case search?)
  • When a VSO searches for an appeal, the results can only show Veterans' appeals that have chosen them as their VSO.
  • As a VSO representative, I need to be able to access Veterans' claims folders in VBMS that have chosen me as their representative.

Hearings

  • As a VSO representative, I want to be notified of my Veterans' upcoming hearings, so I can contact them, prepare for the hearing, and help the Veteran through the process. (connect with hearing schedule? a view of hearing prep?)

Informal Hearing Presentations (IHP)

This is likely where the bulk of the functionality lives.

  • As a VSO representative, I need to see which appeals have been routed to me (specifically) for an IHP, so I can quickly write it and don't hold it up in the appeals process.
  • As a VSO representative, I need to see which AMA or legacy docket the appeal is in, so I know how quickly I need to complete my work (Direct Reviews have a 365 day goal).
  • When a VSO representative has finished writing the IHP, they need transfer the case back to the Board, so that the attorney and judge can consider it for the BVA decision.

Caseflow URLs

URLs:

  • PVA: appeals.cf.ds.va.gov/organizations/pva
  • American Legion: appeals.cf.ds.va.gov/organizations/american-legion
  • DAV: appeals.cf.ds.va.gov/organizations/disabled-american-veterans
  • VVA: appeals.cf.ds.va.gov/organizations/vietnam-veterans-of-america
  • AMVETS:
  • VFW: https://appeals.cf.ds.va.gov/organizations/veterans-of-foreign-wars

Open Questions

  • What data can/can't VSOs see that Board employees can?
  • What access hurdles do we need to get over first? (none; requisite users have CSS access)
  • How does Jed currently know which employees are with which VSOs?
  • Can we scope out case assignment to employees within VSO organizations to complete specific tasks? (Jed's case assignment program does this for one VSO)
  • Does VSO access equate to access for other representatives that use single sign-on? (https://github.com/department-of-veterans-affairs/caseflow/issues/5581#issuecomment-394783431)
  • What is our strategy for answering VSO questions about getting access to Reader?
  • What can we do / how does the Board want to manage timeliness by VSOs? The Board has mentioned not requiring or waiting for IHPs, especially for Direct Docket cases and the 365 day goal.
  • What is our stance on providing VSOs access to the hearing schedule and how might it fit into the Hearing Schedule roadmap

Resources

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