Hiring, Overtime, and AI: VA Is Processing Veterans’ Disability Claims Faster Than Ever

Illustration by Ernest Kroi /> Chip was a radio relay operator and repairman in the Marine Corps (Photo courtesy of Chip) alt="" class="wp-image-43145" style="aspect-ratio:1.0706983084453807" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Chip-photo-1.jpg?resize=1030%2C962&ssl=1 1030w, https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Chip-photo-1.jpg?resize=400%2C374&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Chip-photo-1.jpg?resize=768%2C717&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Chip-photo-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C956&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Chip-photo-1.jpg?resize=780%2C728&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Chip-photo-1.jpg?w=1151&ssl=1 1151w, https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Chip-photo-1-1030x962.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" />

Not too many Vietnam veterans are using ChatGPT.

“I may be a little more technical than other 80-year-olds,” said Chip, a Marine Corps Vietnam vet and former software developer who used artificial intelligence last year for help filing a disability claim with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Chip plugged his symptoms for Agent Orange-related cancer and PTSD into the AI chatbot and asked it to write a narrative for his supplemental disability claim. He proofread it multiple times, then submitted it to VA. A month and a half later, the agency responded with a 100% rating, increasing his monthly disability check by $2,000.

While he was thankful for the high-tech support, Chip—who asked to be identified by his nickname to protect his medical privacy—admits he felt a bit conflicted when he learned who else is using AI: VA has been developing AI systems to help claims processors sift through the hundreds, sometimes thousands, of pages of evidence that veterans submit as part of their disability claims.

“I’m uneasy with AI, but I think it’s here to stay,” said Chip. “It’s kind of like nuclear weapons. Once you invent them, there’s no uninventing it.”

Before going back to school, Chip had never used a computer. Recently, he used ChatGPT to file his disability claim with VA. (Photo courtesy of Chip) alt="" class="wp-image-43138" style="aspect-ratio:0.95245094436687;width:395px;height:auto" title="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/null-30.jpeg?resize=981%2C1030&ssl=1 981w, https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/null-30.jpeg?resize=381%2C400&ssl=1 381w, https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/null-30.jpeg?resize=768%2C807&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/null-30.jpeg?resize=975%2C1024&ssl=1 975w, https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/null-30.jpeg?resize=780%2C819&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/null-30.jpeg?resize=400%2C420&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/null-30.jpeg?w=1070&ssl=1 1070w, https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/null-30-981x1030.jpeg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" />

AI is one of several ways VA has been putting a significant dent in the agency’s years-long disability claims backlog. The result is speeding up the response to veterans from an average of about five months at the beginning of 2025 to under three months now, and—like Chip’s—sometimes faster.

“We’re working toward 30 to 40 days for every claim,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said during an interview with Military.com on April 30. “That’s previously unheard of.”

VA has cut the claims backlog—the number of claims pending for more than 125 days—by more than 70% since the beginning of last year, according to the agency. Currently, the agency’s backlogged claims are below 76,000—the lowest since 2020. Insiders say the agency has accomplished this feat through investing millions into automation technology, aggressive hiring during previous administrations, and the liberal use of overtime. But to some, faster doesn’t always mean better.

“You can do something faster. You can do it good,” said Jason Anderson, a former VA claims rater who left the agency at the end of May last year. “It’s really hard to do both.”

A Huge Investment in Automation

VA has poured millions of dollars into multiple AI programs for claims processing. One of the most impactful is called Automated Decision Support, which is part of a $485 million contract with IBM. The system sorts through key pieces of evidence in a veteran’s file, along with federal records from DOD and VA, and compiles a summary sheet for the claims processor who decides a veteran’s disability rating.

Automated Decision Support is one of the main ways the agency is speeding up claims processing time, said Paul Shute, the former assistant deputy under secretary at VA and previously the director of benefits automation.

“About 86% of the time that a claim was pending was gathering all that information and evidence, synthesizing and understanding that information, and then providing the veteran a decision,” Shute said. Actually making the decision is one of the quickest parts of the claim process.

Shute said it’s important to note that this program does not make the final decision on the rating a veteran receives. “There’s no technology in the world today that can replicate the intricacies of making a disability decision for veterans,” he said.

Automated Decision Support was first rolled out for presumptive conditions—health issues VA assumes were caused by military service—linked to the PACT Act, such as cancers caused by toxic exposures. But at this point, Shute said, it has been deployed for more than 170 VA diagnostic codes.

While the system sounds like a game changer, it had flaws at first. A 2023 report from the VA Office of Inspector General found that Automated Decision Support “failed to recognize duplicate evidence, identified false evidence, and missed relevant information,” ultimately leading to inaccurate decisions on veterans’ claims.

In response to the inspector general’s findings, “VA implemented multiple enhancements to the system to ensure appropriate outcomes,” Quinn Slaven, VA press secretary, told The War Horse, and the watchdog signed off on VA’s progress in December.

But not everyone thinks the AI works perfectly. Derek Debus, an attorney who litigates veterans’ disability cases, said that after filing claims for clients, his staff has to manually check and make sure all the evidence is being looked at, to be sure “it wasn’t overlooked or missed by the AI.” One example is clients being sent letters stating they filled out the wrong forms, when that isn’t the case.

While working as a claims rater, Anderson said he used Automated Decision Support and found it was “really hit or miss.” He said that while it definitely sped up the number of claims he could process, he often had to find what it missed or fix an error. “I don’t know that it’s helped the quality,” he said.

Jason Anderson, an Army veteran, said one of the reasons he enjoyed working at VA was the number of other veterans who also work there. (Photo courtesy of Jason Anderson) alt="" class="wp-image-43139" title="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/null-31.jpeg?w=604&ssl=1 604w, https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/null-31.jpeg?resize=400%2C268&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/null-31.jpeg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px" />

Despite still needing to work out the kinks, VA is continuing to invest in artificial intelligence. At a Congressional hearing in April, Michigan Republican Rep. Jack Bergman mentioned that VA has been piloting an AI program since August 2025 that uses veterans’ medical records to fill out disability benefit questionnaires, reducing the need for in-person doctor visits. VA lists a similar program as still in the predeployment phase on its website.

In December 2025, the agency released an inventory of all its AI programs, including those still in the predeployment phase. Among them is a program called Smart Ratings Recommendation, which would provide not just a summary of evidence like the current program, but a proposed rating for claims processors to manually review and approve.

This would bring VA more in line with the private health care insurance industry, which is already being criticized for using AI to approve or deny prior authorizations of medical procedures and medications. When The War Horse asked about this program specifically, Kasperowicz said, “This initiative has been paused indefinitely and there is no future release date.”

Accuracy Rate Still Below Target

Quality control isn’t a new issue for claims processors. Every week, VA publishes a report with exhaustive data on the current claims in its inventory. In the most recent report, the three-month accuracy rate for whether raters determined individual medical issues correctly was about 94%—four points below the agency’s target of 98%. The accuracy rate for whether an entire claims packet was processed correctly was lower, at 84%.

Though the accuracy rate is at its highest point in two years, it has been below target for more than a decade, and some veterans’ advocates say the agency’s current push to process claims quickly contributes to it.

This worry prompted Congressman Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee, to send a letter to Secretary Collins in early March demanding answers. He said that while he is glad the claims backlog is decreasing, the accuracy rate “appears to be trending down.” Cohen didn’t respond to a request for an interview about his concerns.

Debus has seen the same. “What we’re finding a lot is that we’re getting decisions faster, but a lot of these decisions have anywhere from minor technical errors to pretty major issues,” he said. “So a lot of the feeling that the vet advocate community has right now is that they’re just rushing decisions out the door, quality be damned.”

Kasperowicz was quick to point out that the accuracy rate has been below target for years. “The three-month accuracy rate has increased under President Trump, after it fell precipitously at the end of the Biden administration to 90%,” he said.

VA employs a quality review process in which a specialist reviews three to five randomly selected claims from each rater each month. These specialists also have their reviews randomly audited by a peer.

But Debus said this doesn’t tell the full story. “It’s like the police officers investigating themselves,” he said. He said a better way to judge how many mistakes are being made is to look at how many appeals are granted or returned to claims processors for another look.

The VA data shows a dip in quality since the spring of 2022, when the accuracy rate was consistently closer to 97%. Some say this drop in quality was not due to speed but because the agency hired 10,000 new employees around this time to process claims for the PACT Act, and these new employees needed time to be properly trained.

Ryan Gallucci, executive director of the Washington office of Veterans of Foreign Wars, says issues with the error rate aren’t anything new. “Since the PACT Act, and possibly even a little bit before, you started to see issues with accuracy start to creep up,” he said.

But to Debus, each error is a problem. “The majority of veterans, what I find is that initially they’re reluctant to apply for VA benefits,” he said. “They’re embarrassed or ashamed or don’t feel like they deserve it.” So if they get an error that wrongly denies them benefits, he said, “It feels like a kick in the groin.”

Hiring and Mandatory Overtime

In 2022, John Cordle, a Navy surface nuclear officer veteran, filed a disability claim for sleep apnea and restless leg syndrome after years of working on ships and standing brutal watch schedules.

“Basically, my sleep was demolished by my career,” Cordle said.

Even though he had conducted years of research on how sleep disruption can cause health issues in sailors, Cordle didn’t realize how poor sleep had impacted him until he landed in the hospital with an irregular heartbeat caused by his sleep apnea.

Early in his career, Cordle often had to stand “five and dime” watch schedules, which were five hours on, ten hours off. (Photo courtesy of John Cordle) alt="" class="wp-image-43141" title="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/null-32.jpeg?w=640&ssl=1 640w, https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/null-32.jpeg?resize=400%2C266&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/null-32.jpeg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />

The same year Cordle filed his claim, the claims backlog rose to more than 175,000, as the PACT Act made millions more veterans eligible for service connection, while the COVID-19 pandemic stalled necessary medical exams and put claims on hold. By 2024, the backlog had ballooned to more than 400,000.

Elizabeth Curda, director of education, workforce, and income security issues at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, said the Veterans Benefit Administration, the part of VA that processes benefits, has been on her office’s “high risk” list for decades due to trouble managing its workload. “The basic issue is that they have historically had ups and downs with backlogs,” she said.

To tackle the backlog, VBA first went on a hiring spree, adding more than 10,000 claims processors between 2021 and 2024. Anderson, the former VA claims rater, said his regional office in Boise, Idaho, expanded significantly while he was there. In 2019, he said, there were around 40 to 50 employees. “And then when I left, there were like 170 people.”

When President Trump began his second term in 2025, though, hiring at VA and across the federal government came to a screeching halt. Claims processors weren’t eligible for the federal government’s deferred resignation program, but new positions weren’t open either. So the agency turned to mandatory overtime to speed up claims processing.

Mandatory overtime wasn’t a new phenomenon, Anderson said. In fact, it has been happening on and off for more than a decade. But the new administration increased the overtime requirements from 20 to 25 overtime hours each month, which excited some who wanted extra pay, but frustrated others. Kasperowicz confirmed that in 2025 mandatory overtime began in May, stopped in October during the government shutdown, and began again in December.

Anderson often found himself waking early on weekends to work a few hours to complete his required overtime so he wouldn’t miss too much time with his kids.

“I tried to do like three hours Saturday morning and three hours Sunday morning,” he said. But it was demoralizing to work extra hours while getting messaging from the government that federal workers should resign—even though claims processors weren’t eligible. He said it was like being told, “not only are you useless, but we need you to work more too.”

It wasn’t only claims processors who were working longer hours. Lawyers at the Board of Veterans’ Appeals had their production quotas increased last year too, according to Kate Kovarovic, a lawyer who left the agency in January. The higher production requirement worried her, she said, and was one of the reasons that she left the agency.

“You have attorneys who are exhausted, and they are going to be reviewing claims files more quickly and with less of an eye towards what the evidence actually says, and they’re going to miss things,” she said.

Kasperowicz confirmed that some higher-level attorneys at the Board of Veterans’ Appeals have been given higher quotas, with top attorneys now expected to draft an average of four decisions a week, up from three previously. “This change reflects the higher capabilities of the board’s most experienced decision-drafting attorneys,” he said, noting that this year, the board is deciding cases faster than it has since the process was modernized in 2019.

Cordle had three denials on his claim before it was approved by the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. (Photo courtesy of John Cordle) alt="" class="wp-image-43142" style="aspect-ratio:1.0386904761904763;width:336px;height:auto" title="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/null-33.jpeg?w=376&ssl=1 376w, https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/null-33.jpeg?w=370&ssl=1 370w, https://i0.wp.com/thewarhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/null-33.jpeg?w=400&ssl=1 400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 376px) 100vw, 376px" />

Kovarovic said that while this may not sound like a big change, each case can have hundreds, even thousands of pieces of evidence for attorneys to review, which can take days or weeks to do correctly. In her opinion, when it comes to the attorneys at the Board of Appeals, the quotas “place the integrity of their work at risk.”

Curda from the GAO said that historically, as the claims backlog decreases, appeals tend to increase. “The more quickly you process claims, the more likely they are to deny or to make a mistake, which then gets appealed,” she said. “It’s been a little bit of a Whac-a-Mole.”

But Margarita Devlin, the principal deputy under secretary for benefits at VA, insisted at a recent Congressional hearing that while the total number of appeals has increased, the rate has remained steady at around 11%.

Cordle’s case was reviewed by the Board of Veterans’ Appeals late last year. He said that while the claim itself took years to work through the system, the appeals process moved fairly quickly, and when it got to the board, the judgment took only about a month or two.

And for him, the outcome was what he wanted: an approval, and an increase from 40% to 80% disability, increasing his monthly benefit by $1,400.

“I’m pretty psyched about it,” he said.

This War Horse story was edited by Mike Frankel, fact-checked by Jess Rohan, and copy-edited by Mitchell Hansen-Dewar. Hrisanthi Pickett wrote the headlines.