VA hits major milestone in the resolution of legacy appeals
WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced today it has reached a significant milestone in the overall Legacy Appeals Resolution Plan with the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) completing actions on nearly all non-remand legacy appeals as of July 4.
The non-remand inventory includes Notices of Disagreement (NODs) and substantive appeals filed with VBA in the legacy system before passage of the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act of 2017 (AMA).
“Prior to implementing the AMA, the overall VA-wide legacy appeals inventory was more than 400,000,” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie. “From February 2019 to the present — VBA, the Board of Veterans’ Appeals and Veterans Health Administration have worked collectively to reduce the numbers to less than 200,000 — a more than 50% reduction.”
In conjunction with hitting this milestone, VBA’s Appeals Management Office will be known as the Office of Administrative Review (OAR). Under the new name, OAR will work to reduce VBA’s legacy remand inventory, administer VBA’s higher-level review program and oversee VBA’s Decision Review Operations Centers, which processes AMA higher-level reviews, higher-level review returns, and Board remands and grants.
VA continues to be on target to meet the goal of resolving legacy appeals under the Legacy Appeals Resolution Plan by December 2022.
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