True to his word, Secretary Robert Wilkie has been busy calming the waters at Veterans Affairs, implementing reforms to improve the veteran experience, and streamlining the delivery of services he committed to improving when taking office on July 30, 2018.

Customer service is one of Wilkie's top priorities. This month he rolled out a number of initiatives to honor his commitment to making VA a friendlier and easier place for veterans to be served:

1. VA.gov Redesign. After gathering feedback from over 5,000 veterans, servicemembers, their families, caregivers and survivors, VA took a bold step forward in modernizing its homepage to help veterans navigate the website to get at the content they need, quicker and easier. With 10 million visits a month to the website, customers frequently voice their complaints and frustration with the layout and navigability, saying it focused too much on presenting information about VA as an organization and not what customers need.

“Veterans, their families, caregivers and our many customers have successful online transactions in their day-to-day lives,” Wilkie said. “They should expect the same exceptional digital experience coming to VA. Our customers will receive a more simple and intuitive experience when accessing our online front door - the new VA.gov.”

Click here and check it out! Tell MOAA know what you think of the website redesign at legis@MOAA.org.

2. Benefits Initiatives. VA also announced some benefit improvements to help servicemembers and veterans in need-see how these improvements may help you or someone you know:

• Benefits Delivery at Discharge Program- new improvements allow servicemembers filing disability claims between 90 to 180 days before they separate from service to receive a decision on their claim within 30 days of discharge.
• Veterans Impacted by Super Typhoon Yutu and Hurricanes Florence and Michael - VA declared the typhoon in the Northern Mariana Islands and hurricanes in Florida, North Carolina and Georgia significant disasters to warrant prioritizing and moving veteran benefits appeals claims to the top of the list for resolution.
• Free Federal Agency Legal Assistance - VA joined with the Departments of Labor, Justice, Defense, Homeland Security, and others, committing to improving and increasing access to free legal services for veterans facing eviction or home foreclosures, driver's license revocations, child support or those with other critical needs that impact their ability to work or seek health care.

3. VA Health System Realignment. Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, VA announced its plan for reorganizing the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The plan is part of a bigger initiative directed through an executive order signed last year by President Donald Trump, requiring reorganization of the entire federal government.

The plan is to break up dozens of program offices, consolidating them into four offices to provide “greater accountability and clearer governance over these critical functional areas” - an integration and consolidation effort Wilkie says will reduce bureaucracy and help the agency focus on the veteran.

The four new offices are:

• The Office of Population Health. This will focus on health care in a particular region, looking at population segments and markets to eliminate administrative burdens and redundancies, while aligning VA with other federal agencies and private institutions to promote best practices and standards.
• The Discovery, Education and Affiliates Networks (DEAN) Office. This combines two former offices, the Office of Academic Affiliations and the Office of Research and Development. The office is charged with advancing cutting-edge medical care and innovations to address the complex health issues of veterans. It also provides a platform for the next generation of physicians to deliver the most innovative care, thus also improving medical care for all Americans as VA history of medical innovations has shown.
• Engineering and environment of care functions will merge into a single office to address environmental and safety issues across the system to ensure VA continues to deliver high quality health care.
• Human resources functions delivered through four different offices at VA headquarters will combine into a single office to improve efficiency, transparency and provide more consistent service across VHA.