BALTIMORE (AP) — Maryland’s U.S. senators are demanding immediate action by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to improve claims processing in Baltimore.
Democratic senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin responded Monday to a General Accountability Office report that found the Baltimore office has the nation’s highest percentage of backlogged cases. It also has the highest rate of errors.
The office handles claims for all of Maryland.
The senators have been pressing the VA since 2011 to address these problems. They say more training and quality checks are needed to correct what they called an “inexcusable” situation.
The VA aims to process claims within 125 days by 2015. The GAO found that 84 percent of claims at the Baltimore office exceed 125 days, with an average wait time of nearly 12 months.
(Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
