Restore the capability of veterans with disabilities to the greatest extent possible and improve the qualtiy of their lives and that of their families.

VA will restore the capability of veterans with disabilities by maximizing the ability of these
veterans, including special veteran populations, and their dependents and survivors to become, to
the degree possible, full and productive members of society through a system of health care,
compensation, vocational rehabilitation, life insurance, dependency and indemnity compensation,
and dependents and survivors education. This system of benefits and services is aimed toward the
broad outcome of restoring the individual capabilities of our Nation’s veterans with disabilities.

Objective 1.1:  Services to Veterans with Disabilities

Maximize the physical, mental, and social functioning of veterans with disabilities and be recognized as a leader in the provision of specialized health care services.

Purpose and Outcomes:
VA is committed to maintaining its leadership
role in medical services for conditions uniquely
related to veterans’ health. The purpose of this
objective is to maximize the functional status of
veterans with disabilities within the limits of each
veteran’s illness or injury. Providing for the
specialized health needs of veterans is an integral
component of VA health care. Due to the
prevalence of certain chronic and disabling
conditions among veterans, VA has developed
strong expertise in certain specialized services
that are not uniformly available in the private
sector. For the purposes of this document, VA
has designated the programs in the following
eight areas as its special emphasis programs that
focus primarily on restoration:
• Spinal Cord Injury;
• Blindness;
• Traumatic Brain Injury;
• Amputation;
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder;
• Serious Mental Illness;
• Homelessness; and
• Substance Abuse.
VA remains firmly committed to meeting the
needs of veterans who have come to rely on us
for these special emphasis programs. This
includes VA’s coordination of health care and
other benefits in a manner that enhances the
likelihood of restoration of an individual veteran
to wholeness. For example, a veteran suffering a
catastrophic injury or illness should expect that
VA will focus on his or her immediate needs as
well as on the coordination of all benefits,
including research and other rehabilitation
benefits that have the highest likelihood of
optimizing his or her life functioning over time.
Strategies and Processes:
VA will be the leader in understanding and
providing restoration services that are uniquely
related to veterans’ health. Although VA has
undergone a significant transformation over the
past 5 years, with an increased focus on
providing outpatient care in ambulatory clinic
settings, we remain committed to providing the
best possible specialized health care services.
VA will establish and use Centers of Excellence
for research and treatment of illnesses and
disabilities related to special populations. For
example, VA recently established two Centers
of Excellence to develop new therapies for
veterans with spinal cord injuries. The centers
will explore the use of pharmaceuticals to treat
secondary disabilities of spinal cord injury and
will study pain management, recovery of motor
and sensory function, and other related issues.
VA will maximize the independent functioning
of veterans in the least restrictive setting. We
will improve and enhance home care services
and develop an assisted living strategy. The use
of care management to facilitate care in the least
restrictive and most efficient setting will be
promoted. For example, VA’s specialized
homeless treatment program will strive to restore
patient function through: aggressive outreach to
veterans living on the streets and in shelters;
clinical assessment and referral to needed
medical treatment for physical and psychiatric
disorders; long-term sheltered transitional
assistance, case management, and rehabilitation;
employment assistance and linkage with
available income supports; and supported
permanent housing.
Access to Blind Rehabilitation Services is
currently being evaluated. The Visual
Impairment Advisory Board is addressing
alternative settings for providing services,
including expanding outpatient capacity
through a number of programs including
providing some services in the home and shifting
some computer access training from an inpatient
setting to an outpatient setting. These and other
initiatives will significantly reduce waiting times
for veterans to be admitted to one of the Blind
rehabilitation programs.
VA will provide coordinated, comprehensive,
and integrated care to promote health and
improve patient functioning. Variability of
health outcomes will be reduced by providing
for a more consistent delivery of services. VA
will optimize the use of telehealth care
information and technology for the benefit of the
veteran by accelerating the development of the
Health Data Repository, HealtheVet, and
telehealth initiatives.
VA will continue to implement a comprehensive
program of education and outreach in the area
of preventive medicine. We will proactively
reach out to veterans who participate in VA’s
special emphasis programs to ensure that they
are informed about the importance of receiving
screening for illnesses such as influenza,
Pneumococcal pneumonia, and various forms of
cancer. We will also provide information and
counseling services regarding tobacco
consumption and alcohol and substance abuse.
In addition, VA will ensure the consistent
delivery of health care by implementing
standard measures for the provision of
preventive care. The prevention measure
includes several indicators that allow
comparison of VA and private health care
outcomes. The Prevention Index II is a secondgeneration
composite measure comprised of nine
disease or health factors that measure how well
VA follows nationally recognized primary
prevention and early detection recommendations
that determine health outcomes. The indicators
within the Index include screening for influenza,
Pneumococcal pneumonia, tobacco
consumption, alcohol abuse, breast cancer,
cervical cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate
cancer, and cholesterol levels. This improved
prevention measure includes additional
diagnoses.
Crosscutting Efforts in Health Care
VA has a vast number of sharing agreements
with the Department of Defense (DoD) that
result in both increased access to, and quality
of, medical care for recently separated military
personnel and veterans. The sharing agreements
with DoD provide access to care for key
subgroups of current and recently separated
military patients for conditions such as spinal
cord injury and acute traumatic brain injury. In
addition, collaboration and sharing of
information assists both agencies in providing
care to other special populations such as those
with Gulf War illnesses and those in need of
prosthetic services. VA and DoD will identify
Centers of Excellence where specialized services
can be made available to eligible beneficiaries.
VA will continue its partnership with HUD and
community organizations to enhance home care
services and develop an assisted living strategy.
Special Emphasis Areas Increase score on the Prevention Index II for emphasis areas 74% 85%
Substance Abuse Increase the percent of patients entering substance abuse
treatment who maintain continous treatment involvement for
at least 90 days
35% 65%
External Factors:
Improvements in the overall health in special
emphasis areas will be affected, in part, by
constituencies who influence these programs as
well as by other government agencies and private
interest groups.

Objective 1.2:  Disability Compensation

Provide timely and accurate decisions on disability compensation claims to improve the economic status and quality of life of service-connected veterans.

Purpose and Outcomes:
The Nation has a long and extensive history of
providing benefits to war veterans — “caring for
him who shall have borne the battle.” The
compensation program provides monthly
payments to veterans who have disabilities
resulting from their military service. The
outcomes for this program are to:
• Recognize the impact of disability on a
veterans’ quality of life and support
pursuit of maximum individual
potential;
• Improve the security of veterans with
disabilities by making payments that
offset the average loss of earning capacity
resulting from service-connected
disability or disease;
• Ensure servicemembers and veterans
understand and have easy access to all
benefits for which they are eligible based
on service-connected disability or
disease; and
• Ensure servicemembers and veterans are
confident that VA will properly
compensate them for service-related
disabilities.
In addition, as part of the restoration goal and to
improve the quality of life for severely disabled
veterans, VA provides grants through the
Specially Adaptive Housing Program. Veterans
may obtain and use these grants to buy, build,
or modify homes specifically adapted for their
use, including distinctive housing needs such as
wide doorways, ramps, and other special needs.
VA also provides additional benefits through the
Automobile Allowance and Adaptive
Equipment Programs. These programs provide
assistance to certain service-connected veterans
who have disabilities that warrant special
assistance with their transportation needs.
Most beneficiaries are compensated for
disabilities rated at 30 percent or less, but most
of the actual dollar value of the benefits is paid
to veterans with more severe disabilities.
The number of veterans receiving compensation
is expected to increase slightly over the next 5
years. At the end of FY 2002, over 2,414,000
veterans were receiving benefits. This number
is expected to increase to 2,583,000 by FY 2008.
Claims processing has been affected by several
factors that have increased the complexity of
adjudicating claims. Factors contributing to this
increase include: (1) disabilities worsen as
veterans age (the average degree of disability has
increased in the recent past from 32.44 percent
in FY 1999 to 34.87 percent in FY 2002); (2) multiissue
claims are increasing (in FY 2002 there was
an average of three issues per claim); (3) issues
tend to be granted at higher levels of disability
than in the past; and (4) recent legislation has
increased benefits.
Strategies and Processes:
VA will demonstrate its leadership in addressing
the following important issues facing the
compensation program and implementing VA’s
strategies and processes to achieve this objective.
• During FY 2001, VA increased its veterans
service representative workforce by 1,298
employees. In addition, a centralized training
program was successfully implemented to train
these new hires. VA now has more journey-level
employees to perform claims work and improve
claims processing timeliness.
• During the next 5 years, a significant portion
of VA’s workforce will be eligible to retire. We
project that over 1,000 veterans service
representatives will actually retire. These are our
most experienced employees who make decisions
on the most complex claims. Training
replacements for these individuals takes up to 3
years. To avoid a 2-3 year skill gap that will
exacerbate service delivery challenges, VA has
developed a comprehensive succession planning
strategy to address the loss of experienced
decision-makers. Key strategies that will be
implemented to achieve our intended outcomes
in conjunction are as follows:
• Enhanced telephone systems and
information centers are providing easier
access to information and services.
Veterans can use the telephone system to
access general information and certain
payment information 24 hours a day, 7
days a week. For more detailed
information on claims, veterans need to
contact the regional office during regular
hours of operation. VA has also
established two virtual information
centers (VICs). VICs consist of groups of
regional offices whose telephone systems
are coordinated so that incoming calls can
be routed to alternate sites during heavy
call periods, resulting in faster, efficient
telephone service. This coordination
continues to assist VA in reducing
blocked and abandoned call rates. VA
will establish a third call center in FY 2003
and the final center in FY 2006.
• Veterans are able to submit applications
for certain benefits by using the Internet.
Veterans Online Application (VONAPP)
has been available to the public since
August 2000 at http://vabenefits.vba.va.gov.
There are currently three VBA forms and
one VHA form available through this
system. VA expects to add 10 additional
VBA forms to the system in FY 2003. VA
and DoD will collaborate on the
development of an online benefits
application process that will allow
servicemembers to submit applications
directly to the appropriate federal
agency.
• VA implemented the Claims Processing
Improvement (CPI) model in all 57
regional offices in FY 2002. This initiative
called for the regional offices to reorganize
their Veterans Service Centers (VSC) into
teams that concentrate on specific
portions of the claims process. The effect
of reorganization has been and will
continue to be increased productivity,
quality, and timeliness of claims
processing. This reorganization of the
VSC will reduce cycle-times and
consequently enhance service to veterans.
• Through the cooperation of regional
offices and VA medical centers, and
partnership with DoD, VA is conducting
discharge medical exams for
compensation claims. This initiative
continues to improve our efforts to be
more accessible to servicemembers
separating from service and streamline
the eligibility process for compensation,
health care, and vocational rehabilitation
benefits. In addition, VA will work with
DoD to develop a physical examination
protocol that will be considered valid and
acceptable for all military service
separation requirements and acceptable
for VA’s disability compensation
requirements.
• VA has initiated the Compensation and
Pension Examination Project (CPEP) to
assess and improve the quality and
timeliness of Compensation and Pension
(C&P) examination reports. The program
was established in 2001 to develop
baseline goals and expectations for
examinations, develop national standards
for exam report quality, and develop
training systems to convey performance
standards. CPEP has completed a
baseline study of national C&P report
quality of the 10 most frequently
requested exams and is now collecting
quality data for analysis. Through this
program, VA expects to consistently
provide complete, high-quality,
responsive, and timely C&P exam reports.
• VA centralized the processing of pension
maintenance work starting January 2002.
Previously performed at all 57 regional
offices, these functions were consolidated
at three sites (Milwaukee, Philadelphia,
and St. Paul). Centralized processing of
the pension program allows VA to focus
more regional office resources on the
compensation workload. Processing of
the workload in the paperless Virtual VA
environment began in Philadelphia in
August 2002.
• Stakeholder involvement is critical in the
determination and development of
outcomes for all VA benefit programs. To
date, VA has developed interim outcomes
for the compensation program and will
finalize these program outcomes and
develop performance measures and
targets based on further analysis and
consultations with our stakeholders.
• At this time, VA plans to use several
measures to assess the outcome of the
compensation program. We will measure
the percentage of veterans in receipt of
compensation benefits whose total
income meets that of like-circumstanced
veterans (veterans who entered the
military with similar socioeconomic
backgrounds, but did not sustain service
connected disabilities or illnesses) and
the percent of veterans in receipt of
compensation benefits whose total
income meets that of like-circumstanced
non-veterans (individual in the general
public with similar socioeconomic
backgrounds who have similar
disabilities or illnesses). We will also
assess the percentage of recipients who
perceive that VA compensation
redresses the effect of service-connected
disabilities. Finally, recognizing the
importance of our partnership with
DoD, we will measure the percent of
recently inducted servicemembers who
report that the existence of VA’s
compensation program was a factor in
their decision to enter the military.
External Factors:
• Workforce - Competition with the
private sector in periods of low
unemployment may impact VA’s
recruitment activities.
• Partnerships - Our ability to effectively
partner with DoD and others will affect
achievement of program outcomes and
service delivery.

Objective 1.3:  Employment

Provide all service-disabled veterans with the opportunity to become employable and obtain and maintain employment, while providing special support to veterans with serious employment handicaps.

Purpose and Outcomes:
The Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment
(VR&E) program provides services and
assistance necessary to enable veterans with
service-connected disabilities and employment
handicaps to become employable. The program
also provides independent living services for
severely disabled veterans who do not have
employment potential. VA expects the number
of program participants to remain stable during
the planning period. The impact from legislation
or economic shifts may affect the number of
program participants. At the end of FY 2002,
there were 69,600 program participants.
The purposes and outcomes of the VR&E
program are to:
• Enable service-connected disabled veterans
to become employable and to obtain and
maintain suitable employment;
• Enable service-connected disabled veterans
to achieve a level of independence in daily
living; and
• Meet the rehabilitation needs of serviceconnected
disabled veterans.
The primary source population for vocational
rehabilitation is recently discharged veterans
who are adjudicated to have a service-connected
disability. Sustainable employment is the desired
outcome of the vocational rehabilitation process.
During FY 2002, over 16,408 veterans ended their
participation in a rehabilitation program. Of
these, 62.2 percent successfully completed the
rehabilitation program (47.5 percent ended with
employment and 14.7 percent ended with
independent living). VA’s performance target for
successful rehabilitation is 70 percent by FY 2008.
Strategies and Processes:
The following is a discussion of issues facing the
VR&E program and VA’s strategies and
processes to address these issues and achieve this
objective.
Veterans’ access to VR&E information and
benefits is critical to the success of the program.
By its very nature, the VR&E program requires a
close relationship between VA personnel and
veterans, almost always involving face-to-face
contact. This relationship hinges on veterans
having easy access to VA personnel. However,
veterans sometimes must travel great distances
to see their case managers.
The strategies used in this program are designed
to improve access for veterans through use of
technology and partnerships that result in an
improved quality of life for veterans. VA will
implement the following strategies to assist
service-disabled veterans to become employable,
achieve maximum independence in daily living,
and receive world class-service delivery:
• VA will continue to provide veterans
with easy access to information and the
opportunity to obtain benefits and
services at a convenient time and place;
• VA will maximize direct contact with
veterans through the case management
approach and the use of information
technology and improved workforce
skills. This effort will result in improved
customer satisfaction, improve cycletimes
for claims processing, and
improved accuracy; and
• VA will build or enhance partnerships
with the Department of Labor and other
organizations to improve the
coordination of employment services. VA
will enhance outreach to veterans with
disabilities through alliances with other
Federal agencies.
Stakeholder involvement is critical in the
determination and development of outcomes for
all VA benefit programs. To date, VA has
developed interim outcomes for the VR&E
program and will finalize these program
outcomes and develop performance measures
and targets based on further analysis and
consultations with our stakeholders.
External Factors:
Economic Conditions – Program participation
and successful attainment of rehabilitation goals
are closely related to the national economy and
the employment market.

Objective 1.4:  Standard of Living

Improve the standard of living and income status of eligible survivors of service-disabled veterans through compensation, education, and insurance benefits.

Purpose and Outcomes:
The Nation has a long and extensive history of
providing benefits to families of war veterans.
There are two programs that help meet Objective
1.4, Dependency and Indemnity Compensation
(DIC) and Dependents Educational Assistance
(DEA). The purpose of the DIC program is to
provide monthly payments to veterans’
survivors. This program recognizes the veterans’
sacrifice made in defense of the Nation and
redresses the loss the family suffered. The
program outcomes for the DIC Program are to:
• Recognize and compensate the surviving
spouse and dependent children of
veterans whose deaths are determined to
be service-connected;
• Ensure a minimum standard of living and
acceptable level of income for surviving
spouses and dependent children in
receipt of DIC; and
• Provide parents’ DIC to low-income
parents of veterans whose deaths were
related to military service. In doing so,
these beneficiaries will receive a measure
of security in their lives.
At the end of FY 2002, approximately 331,000
survivors were receiving DIC benefits. The
number of survivors in receipt of DIC is expected
to decline slightly as the source population
(service-connected disabled veterans) ages and
dies.
Strategies and Processes:
The DIC Program is a component of the VA’s
Compensation and Pension Program. Therefore,
the same improvement strategies and processes
addressed in Objective 1.2 apply to the DIC
Program and will be used to ensure survivors of
veterans are able to maintain a minimum
standard of living.

Ensure a smooth transition for veterans from active military service to civilian life.

Veterans will be fully reintegrated into their communities with minimum disruption to their lives
through health care, readjustment counseling, employment services, vocational rehabilitation,
education assistance, and home loan guarantees.

Objective 2.1:  Reentry into Civilian Life

Ease the reentry of new veterans into civilian life by increasing awareness of, access to, and use of VA
health care, benefits, and services.

Purpose and Outcomes:
The purpose of this objective is to ensure that
active duty and recently separated
servicemembers are aware of and are able or
inclined to access the benefits to which they are
entitled as they transition to veteran status.
Awareness of eligibility for VA benefits has a
direct and lasting impact upon demand for VA
services, and the degree to which VA can meet
the needs of our Nation’s veterans. Through
readjustment counseling, VA will help veterans
become fully reintegrated into their communities
with minimal disruption to their lives. In
partnership with DoD, VA conducts outreach
activities and transition assistance to separating
servicemembers. VA will make health care
services available for veterans newly returned
from a combat zone, even without a serviceconnected
disability. This eligibility lasts for 2
years after a veteran leaves active duty, although
anyone with medical problems related to
military service can qualify for life-long VA
health care.
In addition, our Nation’s reserves are eligible for
a wide variety of VA benefits. The ultimate
outcome of this objective is a smooth transition
from military service to civilian life for every
individual being discharged from active military
service.
Strategies and Processes:
VA regional offices and medical center
personnel will continue to work with military
personnel to expand our presence at major
military separation points. VA is currently active
at 128 military installations in 39 states. In
addition, VA has established a presence
overseas, including Germany and Korea. There
are 38 out-based claims processing centers
staffed by VA personnel to provide on-site
disability determinations, vocational
rehabilitation counseling, and assistance with all
VA benefits within 30 days of military
separation. At many of these locations, military
physicians are providing medical examinations
that meet military separation criteria as well as
VA disability evaluation criteria.
To ease the reentry of new veterans into civilian
life, VA will undertake the following
overarching strategies:
• VA will modify its IT Enterprise
Architecture to achieve a much higher
level of veteran-centric service. All VA
business lines will be transformed to
achieve a secure veteran-centric delivery
process that would enable veterans and
their families to register and update
information, submit claims or inquiries,
and obtain status on pending items.
• VA will provide veterans with easy
access to information and the
opportunity to interact with VA for
benefits and services, at a convenient
time and place.
• VA will build or enhance partnerships
with DoD, DOL, and other organizations
to improve the transition to civilian life.
VA will work with DoD to develop
transition counseling programs for
servicemembers, not only at the time of
discharge, but also focused on the
servicemember at the time of enlistment.
• VA will work with DoD to utilize the
Defense Eligibility and Entitlement
Records System (DEERS). DEERS is a
computerized enrollment and eligibility
database of military sponsors, families
and others worldwide who are entitled
under the law to TRICARE benefits.
DEERS registration is required for
TRICARE eligibility. VA and DoD
submitted a joint IT business case to
develop an integrated, shared registration
and eligibility system. During FY 2004,
VA will test an integration solution that
creates a VA data repository with an
electronic connection to DEERS.
• VA will inform servicemembers and
veterans of the benefits and services to
which they may be entitled. VA will
enhance outreach to transitioning
servicemembers through alliances with
other Federal agencies and improve
outreach for servicemembers with
disabilities and other special groups of
individuals transitioning to civilian life.
VA and DoD will enhance collaborative efforts
to improve access to benefits: streamline
application processes, eliminate duplicative
requirements and correct other business practices
that complicate the transition from active duty
to veteran status. This will be accomplished
through joint initiatives that: ensure wide
dissemination of information on the array of
benefits and services available to both VA and
DoD beneficiaries; enhance educational
programming on eligibility criteria and
application requirements, increase sites
providing Benefits Delivery at Discharge (BDD),
improve the physical examination and claims
process; and develop interoperable information
management systems necessary for the
administration and management of beneficiary
claims.
In the health care area, VA will increase provider
and veterans’ knowledge of the impact of
military service on health. Collaboration
between VA and DoD during the military
discharge process will be increased to invigorate
and update the Transitional Assistance Program
(TAP). VA will also collaborate with DoD to
develop a complete lifelong health record for
veterans. VA will intensify efforts to implement
the Veterans’ Health Initiative (VHI), including
fully incorporating each veteran’s military
history and potential consequences of service
into the Computerized Patient Records System
(CPRS). VA will provide electronic access to
health care information/medical history to
recently discharged veterans.
In addition, VA will provide readjustment
counseling services to eligible veterans at risk for
psychological trauma from active military duty
in combat theaters of operation, or from militaryrelated
sexual assault. These individuals will be
provided timely access to clinically effective
counseling that is culturally sensitive and results
in positive customer feedback. Readjustment
counseling services includes professional
readjustment counseling, community education,
outreach to special populations, brokering of
services with community agencies, and provides
a key access link between the veteran and other
services in VA. Pre-discharge physicals will be
offered to ensure accurate information is
available at the time of discharge.
External Factors:
• To ensure a smooth transition from
military to civilian life requires the
cooperation of external partners such as
DoD and DOL.

Objective 2.2:  Education

Provide timely and accurate decisions on education claims and continue payments at appropriate levels to enhance veterans’ and servicemembers’ ability to achieve educational and career goals.

Purpose and Outcomes:
The GI Bill of 1944 is one of the most significant
pieces of domestic legislation in the history of
the Nation. This legislation established the
precedent for providing educational assistance
to veterans of military service. Overall, VA
administers six education and training programs
for veterans, servicemembers, and reservists, in
addition to the vocational rehabilitation and
employment program. The Montgomery GI Bill
active duty and reserves programs account for
over 89 percent of the participants. A small
number of veterans participate in four programs
that were established between the end of the
Vietnam Era GI Bill and enactment of the
Montgomery GI Bill. The purposes and outcomes
of the education programs are to:
• Assist in readjustment to civilian life;
• Assist in obtaining affordable higher
education;
• Provide vocational readjustment and
restore lost educational opportunities;
• Assist in the recruitment and retention of
active duty personnel and reserves; and
• Enhance the Nation’s competitiveness
through the development of a more
highly educated and productive
workforce.
During FY 2003 – FY 2008, VA does not anticipate
a significant change in the training population.
Strategies and Processes:
The following is a discussion of issues facing the
education programs and VA’s strategies and
processes to address these issues and achieve this
objective.
The primary source population for VA’s
education programs is recently discharged
veterans or reservists. Over the next 5 years, VA
projects the number of separations from active
military service to remain fairly constant at
approximately 183,000 per year, but declining to
about 181,000 by 2008. Nearly all eligible
servicemembers participate in the Montgomery
GI Bill program. Through FY 2001, nearly 58
percent have used at least a portion of their
entitlement. Today’s veteran is different from
veteran populations under previous GI Bills.
More are women and minorities. They are older
at the time of separation from active duty and
more are likely to be married and have
dependents. This suggests that today’s education
and training needs are different from previous
programs.
A program evaluation of VA education
programs, completed in 2000, found that the
current program has continued the success
established by the GI Bill of Rights and, in
general, meets the intent of the legislation.
Compared to those who had not taken advantage
of VA education programs, those who
participated have lower unemployment rates,
higher attainment of career and education goals,
and higher earnings. However, the study also
showed that the monthly benefits have not kept
pace with education costs. While monthly GI Bill
benefit payments to veterans and other eligible
beneficiaries were increased by 21 percent in FY
2000 and another 20 percent in FY 2002, they do
not necessarily cover all of the cost of tuition,
fees, subsistence, and other expenses at
educational institutions. Therefore, benefits
must be leveraged with other Federal, state,
local, and private financial assistance. For
instance, DoD supplements these benefits with
additional benefits (or “kickers”) for recruits
who enter certain hard-to-fill military
occupations. About 16 percent of current MGIB
beneficiaries receive a “kicker” in addition to the
basic monthly benefit. Legislation enacted in
FY 2000 permits an active duty servicemember
to contribute an additional amount, up to $600,
to receive a higher basic monthly benefit. For
example, an individual who contributes the
maximum amount of $600 will receive a full time
rate of $1135 monthly (effective October 1, 2003)
or $150 per month more than the basic benefit.
Finally, many states offer assistance to active
members of the) National Guard. The challenge
for VA is to identify and seek those other sources
of financial aid and convey the information to
our customer trainees.
Since the program evaluation was published,
Congress has enacted legislation restoring some
of the purchasing power eroded by education
costs that have historically exceeded the annual
increases in the Consumer Price Index. Public
Law 107-103 mandates increases to the full-time
rate under the Montgomery GI Bill, as follows:
• $800 monthly effective January 1, 2002;
• $900 monthly effective October 1, 2002;
and
• $985 monthly effective October 1, 2003.
In addition to the rate increases, Public Law 107-
103 provided a number of benefit enhancements
for VA beneficiaries. Among these enhancements
are:
• Accelerated payments for high cost
programs leading to employment in hightech
industries. This provision became
effective for enrollments in courses or
programs of education on or after October
1, 2002.
• Expansion of work-study opportunities
providing additional locations and
activities where a student can work and
receive VA work-study benefits.
• Revised definition of educational
institution allowing more entities to offer
VA approved training. This provision
particularly affected businesses and
organizations offering courses required
for licensing and certification in high-tech
occupations.
The 106th Congress improved the VA education
benefit program by enacting a provision allowing
servicemembers to receive Montgomery GI Bill
benefits for any tuition or school expenses not
paid by the military service through their tuition
assistance program. This same Congress passed
legislation to:
• Pay benefits for some licensing and
certification tests;
• Allow servicemembers to add to their
Montgomery GI Bill eligibility accounts
for an additional benefit when going to
school; and
• Eliminate the requirement that
Montgomery GI Bill eligibility be based
on the initial period of active duty. This
provision allows more veterans to
become eligible for benefits.
The education program is focused on providing
education beneficiaries with meaningful
educational or training opportunities, adequate
financial assistance, access to benefit information
and specialists, and convenient self-service
opportunities. VA will:
• Improve access and dissemination of
information. While more can and will be
done, veterans and reservists are
currently able to access some benefit
information and verify school enrollment
through the Internet. Veterans, reservists,
and other interested parties can also use
the Internet to ask questions regarding the
use of education benefits. VA has already
provided students with toll-free
telephone access to the Regional
Processing Offices (RPO).
• Simplify the administrative rules and
regulations governing the application and
eligibility determination process.
• Assess the work processes, organizational
structure, performance measures, and
related workforce factors to improve
operational effectiveness and efficiency.
VA will use innovative information
management and technologies, as well as
partnerships with training institutions, to
improve service to veterans. We are
currently modifying work processes
through the development of “expert”
systems referred to as TEES. The
organizational structure was modified by
consolidation to four RPOs.
• Build or enhance partnerships with the
DoD, educational institutions, and other
organizations to improve delivery of
education benefits. In the near future, VA
will deploy eCert, a web-based solution
that provides school officials access to
important benefit information about their
students.
• Provide information about the
Montgomery GI Bill at entry on active
duty. At various periods during military
service, servicemembers are provided
additional information related to
educational benefits.
Since on-the-job-training (OJT) and apprenticeship
programs appeared to be underused, Congress,
in Public Law 107-104, mandated that State
approving agencies actively promote the
development of programs of training on the job.
The current Congress is considering legislation
that addresses OJT and apprenticeship issues.
They are considering an increase in benefits for
individuals pursuing apprenticeship or OJT as
well as incentives for early program completion
and modification of benefit entitlement charges.
They are also considering a provision to address
the need for coordination of data among the
Departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense, and
Labor with respect to on the job training.
External Factors:
• Education Costs – Cost of education may
continue to increase at current or higher
rates.
• Statutory Changes – Benefits levels may
not keep pace with education costs;
thereby impacting on the program’s
ability to achieve the outcome to “assist
in obtaining affordable higher
education.” As a result, statutory changes
may be required to encourage greater
participation by eligible veterans who are
currently unable to use their benefits
because of personal economic reasons.
• Technology – Emerging technologies are
likely to increase the demand for
education and training for veterans.
• Recruitment and Retention Variables –
DoD recruitment and retention variables
affect, and are affected by, VA’s education
program.
• Demographics – Changing veterans
characteristics and demographics suggest
education and training needs are different
for new veterans.

Objective 2.3:  Homeownership

Improve the ability of veterans to purchase and retain a home by meeting or exceeding lending industry standards for quality, timeliness, and foreclosure avoidance.

Purpose and Outcomes:
The purpose of VA’s Loan Guaranty Program is
to help veterans and active duty personnel
purchase and retain homes in recognition of their
service to the Nation. The outcomes for the Loan
Guaranty Program are to:
• Assist veterans and active duty personnel
in purchasing a home;
• Assist veterans and active duty personnel
who are seriously delinquent on their VAguaranteed
mortgage in retaining their
homes; and
• Ensure home ownership for veterans at a
rate equal to or higher than the general
population.
Home loan origination volume is expected to be
stable in FY 2003 and FY 2004. VA guaranteed
over 317,000 loans in FY 2002, and expects to
guarantee approximately 248,000 loans in FY
2008.
Strategies and Processes:
VA will implement the following strategies to
ensure that veterans receive the assistance they
deserve when purchasing a home, have the
opportunity to retain their homes, and receive
world-class service:
• VA will provide veterans with easy access
to information and the opportunity to
interact with VA for benefits and services,
at a convenient time and place.
• VA will build or enhance crosscutting
partnerships with the private lending
institutions and other organizations to
improve delivery of home loan benefits.
• VA will design and implement information
systems that integrate with the systems
of our lender partners and other key
organizations to optimize service delivery
of loan guarantee benefits.
External Factors:
• Economy - A significant downturn in the
economy nationwide, or in specific areas
of the country, would have an adverse
effect on the ability of veterans to obtain
or retain their homes.

Honor and serve veterans in life and memorialize them in death for their sacrifices on behalf of the Nation.

Veterans will have dignity in their lives, especially in time of need, through the provision of
health care, pension programs and life insurance and the Nation will will memorialize them in
death for the sacrifices they have made for their country. VA will achieve this goal by improving
the overall health and providing a continuum of health care for all enrolled veterans and eligible
family members. VA will ensure that the burial needs of veterans and eligible family members
are met, and provide veterans and their families with timely and accurate symbolic expressions
of remembrance.

Objective 3.1:  Health Care

Provide high-quality, reliable, accessible, timely, and efficient health care that maximizes the health and functional status for all enrolled veterans, with special focus on veterans with service-connected conditions,
those unable to defray the cost, and those statutorily eligible for care.

Purpose and Outcomes:
The purpose of this objective is to provide health
care for all veterans enrolled in the VA health
care system with priority access to veterans with
service-connected disabilities rated 50 percent
or more. VA’s health care
system, through the
auspices of the Veterans
Health Administration
(VHA) and its network of
21 Veterans Integrated
Service Networks
(VISNs), is organized to
deliver a comprehensive
spectrum of health care
serving the needs of
America’s veterans by
providing a full
continuum of patientcentered
medical, surgical, psychological and
social services. The VA health care system is
designed to treat the “whole veteran.” These
services are provided through preventive and
outpatient care, inpatient care, specialized care,
and related medical and social support services.
Examples of these services include programs
such as primary care, the full range of acute
inpatient services, long-term care, hospitalbased
home care, specialized care, adult day
care, and respite and hospice services.
VA will work to guarantee that the needs of
special populations of veterans are met, such as
women, minority, and Gulf War veterans. VA
will assess the needs of special populations of
veterans and promote the use of programs and
services to which they are entitled.
The quality of these services is paramount to VA.
VA will continue to drive toward the highest
quality health outcomes by using the best
scientific evidence available in clinical practice.
VA will also use a comprehensive performance
management system that aligns with the
Department’s overall vision, mission, and
strategic goals and objectives.
This management system will
also measure progress in
meeting those quantifiable
objectives. VA has set national
benchmarks for the quality of
preventive and therapeutic
health care services that exceed
U.S. Government Healthy
People 2010 goals and private
sector performance.
It is projected that the number
of veterans desiring enrollment
in the VA health care system will increase from
4.7 million veterans in FY 2000 to 8.3 million in
FY 2008.
To ensure VA has the capacity to care for
veterans for whom our Nation has the greatest
obligation – those with military-related
disabilities, lower-income veterans or those
needing specialized care such as blind or spinal
cord injury rehabilitation – additional
enrollments for veterans with the lowest
statutory priority, Priority 8, have been
suspended. This suspension is subject to annual
review. Priority 8 veterans already enrolled may
continue use of the VA health care system. At
the same time, VA will continue to diversify its
funding base. Through the VA + Choice
initiative, VA health care will be made available
to Medicare eligible veterans with cost
reimbursement provided by the Department of
Health and Human Services. As VA’s more
diversified funding base matures and stabilizes,
VA will be able to expand capacity to best serve
all veterans.
VA expects to continue to develop its national,
integrated health care delivery system. The
future system will provide opportunities for VA
to function together and, in concert, with public
and private health care facilities to meet the
health care needs of the enrolled population and
to minimize duplication of services. This health
care system will continue to promote satisfaction,
efficiency, assure high quality care, and provide
optimal access for the veteran population. VA
will strive to achieve a level of quality and access
that sets a national standard of excellence for the
health care industry.
Strategies and Processes:
VA will pursue a number of strategies to achieve
this objective:
VA will continuously improve the quality and
safety of health care for veterans to be the
benchmark for health care outcomes. VA will
lead the advancement of knowledge and the
practice of quality and patient initiatives to
include: (a) using preventive medicine practices
and guidelines for chronic disease management;
(b) increasing the use of automated systems to
reduce the likelihood of errors; and (c) developing
a culture of error reporting, analysis, and
learning. We will identify high-quality
evidence-based medical care and continue to
measure clinical processes and outcomes to
assure and improve the delivery of high quality
care. The image of VA as our Nation’s premier
health care system will continue to be enhanced.
VA will improve patients’ satisfaction with their
VA health care by implementing “servicerecovery”
with standardized patient satisfaction
surveys that provide real-time results and data
aggregation and reporting. Information and
other technologies such as telehealth used in the
HealtheVet initiative will be applied to streamline
administrative, business, and care delivery
processes to improve care provider and patient
interface, minimize wait times, and reduce the
incidence of errors. HealtheVet allows veterans
to be partners and take a more active role in their
own health care. VA providers will be able to
track patient-centered metrics such as blood
pressure, blood glucose, weight, and pulse
without having to wait and see the patient in
person. This will enable providers to avert
problems more quickly.
VA is working to improve access to clinic
appointments and timeliness of service. We
continue efforts to develop ways to reduce
waiting times for appointments in primary care
and key specialty clinics nationwide. Past
experience in measuring access has led to the
development of a number of new access measures
that will provide even more detail into waiting
times for both specialty clinic appointments and
new enrollees.
VA will improve access, convenience, and
timeliness of VA health care services. VA will
provide incentives for ongoing, continuous
health care system redesigns to streamline work,
and to analyze, identify, and promulgate
improved health care practices. VA will work
with state agencies, especially in long-term care
services, to reduce the redundancies and gaps in
veterans’ services.
Timely, accurate, and affordable access to
prescription drugs is a critical element of patient
safety, well-being, and satisfaction. Access to
prescription drug benefits is a rapidly growing
area of demand for our enrolled veteran
population. Through VA’s Consolidated Mail
Out Pharmacy (CMOP) program, veterans are
able to conveniently refill prescriptions by mail.
Availability of this benefit has helped drive
veteran enrollment in the VA health care system
in the last 3 years.
VA will create a health care environment
characterized by patient-centered services where
individual health care decisions are made on the
basis of current medical knowledge, consistent
with patients’ informed preferences and needs.
We will implement initiatives to support shared
decision-making and patient empowerment.
Interactive technology strategies will be
implemented to provide care in the least
restrictive environments to allow patients and
families maximum participation in disease
management and health maintenance.
A large percentage of veterans enrolled in the VA
health care system have one or more chronic
diseases. As a means to improve our
management of chronic diseases, VA will follow
nationally recognized clinical guidelines for
treatment and care of patients with one or more
high-volume diagnoses. This will result in
improved health outcomes for veterans. To assess
our progress and results associated with our
treatment of patients with chronic diseases, VA
will use the Clinical Practice Guidelines Index.
This is a composite measure comprised of seven
evidence and outcomes-based indicators for highprevalence
and high-risk diseases that have
significant impact on overall health status. The
indicators within the Index include ischemic
heart disease, hypertension, chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease, diabetes mellitus, major
depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and tobacco
use cessation.
VA will continue to implement a comprehensive
program of education and outreach in the area
of preventative medicine. We will proactively
reach out to veterans to ensure that they are
informed about the importance of receiving
screening for illnesses such as influenza,
Pneumococcal pneumonia, and various forms of
cancer. We will also provide information and
counseling services regarding tobacco
consumption, alcohol, and substance abuse. VA
is also the leader in hepatitis C screening, testing,
treatment, research, and prevention. The VA
National Hepatitis C Program works to ensure
that patients with or at risk for hepatitis C virus
infection receive the highest quality health care
services. VA will ensure the consistent delivery
of health care by implementing standard
measures for the provision of preventive care.
The prevention measure includes several
indicators that allow comparison of VA and
private health care outcomes. VA will use the
Prevention Index II described in objective 1.1 to
assess the results of our initiatives in the area of
preventive medicine under this objective for all
veterans that participate in our health care
system.
Over the past 5 years, there has been greater focus
on VA’s ability to meet the increasing need for
long-term care for aging veterans. Eligibility for
extended, institutional benefits is prescribed by
statute and is increasingly reserved for the
highest priority veterans. VA has responded to
the need for long-term care through new
initiatives to invest in home and communitybased
care, State Veterans Homes, and assisted
living situations, as well as attempts to revitalize
the community nursing home program. VA will
increasingly emphasize rehabilitation efforts after
hospitalization, where appropriate, as an
alternative to institutionalization, in order to
better facilitate patients returning to their
community and, if possible, to their own home
environment.
VA is currently enhancing the actuarial long-term
care model to better capture the latest trends of
utilization and reliance for the full spectrum of
services to meet the long-term care needs of the
aging veteran. The enhancement will reflect latest
survey results, trended disability and use rates,
an adjustment for marital status and an analysis
of the relationship between nursing home care
and home and community-based care. The work
is guided by a steering committee and includes a
workgroup (with representatives from the
CARES Planning Office, VA Office of Actuary
and long-term care experts from the field).
Deliverables are in two phases, preliminary
estimates in July 2003 and final estimates by
March 2004.
Crosscutting Efforts in Health Care
VA will continue its partnership with DoD to
develop an interoperable VA/DoD medical
information system and ensure the availability
of veterans’ active duty health records to VA care
providers. VA will continue working with DoD
to implement clinical practice guidelines to assure
continuity of health care and seamless transition
for a patient moving from active military duty to
veteran status. Collaboration will continue on
the development of joint guidelines and policies
for the delivery of high-quality care and
assurance of patient safety; joint training in
multiple disciplines including ancillary services;
and exploration of opportunities to enhance
collaborative activities in Graduate Medical
Education. In addition, VA and DoD will identify
and foster opportunities for sharing information
and resources in the areas of deployment health
surveillance, assessment, follow-up care, and
health risk communications.
VA is working to improve medical linkages
through participation in the Joint Working Group
on Telemedicine. VA collaborates with HHS to
develop non-VA benchmarks for bed-days of care
that are obtained from the Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services (CMS) database. VA is
able to obtain data on ambulatory procedures
from the National Center for Health Statistics.
To maximize resources available for direct patient
care, VA collaborates with many agencies (DoD,
Department of Agriculture, GSA, Indian Health
Service, National Park Service, the Merchant
Marine Academy, and others) to determine its
facility infrastructure and real property
utilization, allocation of excess property, and
acquisition of energy and utility services.
External Factors:
The strategy to ensure the consistent delivery of
health care by implementing standardized health
practices depends upon both electronic and
external reviews of care by the External Peer
Review Program (EPRP). The EPRP is a
contracted, on-site review of clinical records and
serves as a functional component of VA’s quality
management program. VA will continue to
participate with DoD in the joint development
and implementation of clinical practice
guidelines. These guidelines must have a longrange
view toward assuring continuity of care
and seamless transition for a patient moving from
one system to the other. Enactment of legislation
authorizing VA to bill Medicare for health care
provided to certain veterans is considered
essential.

Objective 3.2:  Pension Claims

Process pension claims in a timely and accurate manner to provide eligible veterans and their survivors a level
of income that raises their standards of living and sense of dignity.

Purpose and Outcomes:
The Nation recognizes its obligation to veterans
who defended the country during wartime. VA’s
Pension Program ensures basic dignity for needy
wartime veterans. The purpose of the Pension
Program is to provide monthly payments to
needy wartime veterans who are permanently
disabled as a result of disabilities not related to
military service. The pension program also
provides monthly payments, as specified by law,
to needy surviving spouses and dependent
children of deceased wartime veterans. The
outcomes identified for the monetary payment
of pension benefits are to:
• Ensure veterans and their families get the
information and help they need to access,
understand, and participate in the
Pension Program and related health care
options;
• Provide entitled wartime veterans and
survivors the income they need to afford
the basic necessities of life;
• Ensure pensioners and their families can
rely on the financial continuity and
stability of VA pension in time of need;
and
• Ensure VA pensioners are accorded the
dignity and respect earned through a
veteran’s service to our Nation during
wartime.
The number of veterans and survivors in receipt
of pension benefits will decline slightly from FY
2002 to FY 2008. At the end of FY 2002, there
were approximately 346,000 veterans and 228,000
survivors receiving pension benefits. By the end
of FY 2008, VA expects that 335,000 veterans and
184,000 survivors will be receiving pension
benefits.
Strategies and Processes:
VA will implement the following strategies to
ensure veterans and their survivors have a
standard of living that provides for basic dignity
in their lives and the delivery of world-class
service to wartime veterans:
• VA will provide veterans and survivors
with easy access to information and the
opportunity to interact with the VA for
benefits and services, at a convenient time
and place.
• VA has centralized the pension claims
process at three regional sites located in
Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Philadelphia.
By centralizing the process and using the
Virtual VA system, VA is enhancing
workforce skills. We expect to continue
an improvement in quality and timeliness
of pension claims processing, and
ultimately improved veterans’
satisfaction.
• Stakeholder involvement is critical in the
determination and development of outcomes
for all VA benefit programs. To
date, VA has developed interim outcomes
for the Pension Program and will finalize
these program outcomes and develop
performance measures and targets
through program evaluations, program
reviews, and further consultations with
our stakeholders.
External Factors:
• Legislation — Legislation may be required
to achieve anticipated program outcomes.

Objective 3.3:  Insurance

Maintain a high level of service to insurance policy holders and their beneficiaries to enhance the financial
security for veterans’ families.

Purpose and Outcomes:
Servicemembers placed in harm’s way do not
have the same access to life insurance benefits as
those citizens who do not serve their Nation.
Also, veterans with disabilities cannot obtain
comparable insurance coverage as compared to
healthy individuals. The purpose of VA’s
insurance programs is to provide those benefits
that servicemembers and veterans cannot obtain.
The outcome of the VA insurance programs is
the additional financial security provided to
active duty personnel and their families through
life insurance coverage and options to veterans
and servicemembers that are competitive and
comparable to healthy individuals and those who
do not have military service. The four insurance
programs currently available are:
• Service-Disabled Veterans Insurance
(S-DVI) – Providing insurance coverage
and services to disabled veterans and
their families;
• Servicemembers Group Life Insurance
(SGLI) – Providing insurance coverage
and services to active duty and reserve
members of the uniformed services and
their families;
• Veterans Group Life Insurance (VGLI) –
Providing term insurance options to
veterans transitioning from active duty;
and
• Veterans Mortgage Life Insurance (VMLI)
– Providing mortgage life insurance to
severely disabled veterans.
VA has developed outcomes for the insurance
programs, utilizing program evaluations and
program reviews. The outcomes for the VA
Insurance Programs are:
• S-DVI - Insurance coverage available at
standard preminum rates for a reasonable
time period following release from service
and establishment of a service-connected
disability;
• SGLI – Insurance coverage and
conversion privileges unaffected by
military service, are available to
servicemembers and are comparable to
group life insurance offered by large-scale
employers to their employees and their
families;
• VGLI – Term insurance is available to
separating servicemembers that is
comparable to what a healthy individual
could obtain in the commercial insurance
market; and
• VMLI – Veterans with severe serviceconnected
disabilities can purchase
mortgage life insurance comparable to
that offered by commercial companies to
healthy individuals.
The number of veterans, servicemembers,
spouses and children VA serves will decline
steadily as World War II, Korean Conflict, and
Vietnam Era veterans age and die. At the end of
FY 2002, VA served approximately 4.5 million
servicemembers and veterans and 3.1 million
spouses and children. By 2008, that number is
expected to decline to approximately 3.8 million
servicemembers and veterans and 3.1 million
spouses and children.
Strategies and Processes:
VA will implement the following strategies to
assist active duty members, reservists, and
veterans to obtain life insurance coverage and
benefits and receive world-class service:
• VA will provide life insurance benefits
and services in an accurate, timely and
courteous manner and at the lowest
achievable cost;
• VA will provide veterans with easy access
to information and the opportunity to
interact with VA for benefits and services
at a convenient time and place. Through
the Internet and through enhanced
telephone service, veterans and
beneficiaries can access information and
provide information to the VA about their
insurance policies; and
• Through enhanced partnerships with
DoD and other organizations, VA will
inform servicemembers of insurance
benefits and services as they enter duty
and as they transition to civilian life, and
use improved interactions through
outreach to thereafter service their
policies.
External Factors:
• Legislation – Continuing to keep pace
with insurance coverage amounts and
competitive rates will require legislation.

Objective 3.4:  Burial Needs

Ensure that the burial needs of veterans and eligible family members are met.

Purpose and Outcomes:
The purpose of this program is to ensure that the
burial needs of our Nation’s veterans and eligible
family members are met.
Annual interments in the VA national cemeteries
are projected to increase from 91,000 in FY 2003
to 110,000 in FY 2008, an increase of 21 percent.
VA projects a steady increase in cremation
interments from 36.8 percent in September 2002
to 38 percent in 2008.
The outcomes identified to achieve this objective
are to:
• Increase access by establishing additional
national cemeteries in areas not served;
• Expand existing national cemeteries to
continue to provide service to meet
projected demand, including the
development of columbaria and the
acquisition of additional land; and
• Develop alternative burial options
consistent with veterans’ expectations.
Strategies and Processes:
VA will pursue the following strategies to achieve
this objective:
• VA will be developing new national
cemeteries to serve veterans in the areas
of Atlanta, Georgia; Detroit, Michigan;
South Florida; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;
and Sacramento, California.
• VA will expand existing national
cemeteries by completing phased
development projects in order to make
additional gravesites and/or columbaria
available for interments.
• National cemeteries that will close due to
depletion of burial space will be identified
to determine the feasibility of extending
the service period of a cemetery by the
acquisition of adjacent or contiguous
land, or by the construction of
columbaria.
• State veterans cemeteries will be
established or expanded to complement
VA’s system of national cemeteries. VA
administers the State Cemetery Grants
Program (SCGP) which provides grants to
states for establishing, expanding, or
improving state veterans cemeteries,
including the acquisition of initial
operating equipment.
• The Veterans Millennium Health Care
and Benefits Act, Public Law 106-117,
directed VA to contract for an
independent demographic study to
identify those areas of the country where
veterans will not have reasonable access
to a burial option in a national or state
veterans cemetery and the number of
additional cemeteries required to meet
veteran burial needs through 2020.
Volume 1 of the study, Future Burial Needs,
published in May 2002, identifies those
areas having the greatest need for burial
space for veterans. This report will serve
as a valuable planning tool for new
national cemeteries.
• VA will also continue to provide highquality,
responsive service in all contacts
with veterans, their families and friends,
and other visitors. These contacts include
scheduling the interments, greeting the
corteges and bereaved families for the
committal services, and providing
information about the cemetery and the
location of specific graves.
• While VA does not provide military
funeral honors, national cemeteries
facilitate the provision of military funeral
honors and provide logistical support to
military funeral honors teams. VA also
works closely with the different military
services of DoD and veterans service
organizations to provide military funeral
honors at national cemeteries.
• VA will continue to elicit feedback from
veterans, their families, and other
customers to ascertain how they perceive
the quality of service provided by the
national cemeteries. Since 2001, an
annual nationwide mail survey, Survey of
Satisfaction with National Cemeteries, has
been VA’s primary source of customer
satisfaction data regarding national
cemeteries. The survey collects data from
family members and funeral directors
who have recently received services from
a national cemetery. The information is
used in the strategic planning process to
develop additional strategies for
improving service delivery.
• To accommodate and better serve its
customers, VA has designated Jefferson
Barracks National Cemetery as the
primary cemetery to provide weekend
scheduling of interments in national
cemeteries for specific times in the
ensuing week.
• To further enhance access to information
and improve service to veterans and their
families, VA will continue to install kiosk
information centers at national and state
veterans cemeteries to assist visitors in
finding the exact gravesite locations of
individuals buried there. To date, VA has
installed 45 kiosks at national and state
veterans cemeteries. In addition to
providing visitors with a cemetery map
for use in locating the gravesite, a kiosk
information center provides general
information such as the cemetery’s burial
schedule, cemetery history, burial
eligibility, and facts about VA’s National
Cemetery Administration.
External Factors:
• VA has established partnerships with
states to provide veterans and their
eligible family members with burial
options. It is difficult to project future
activity for this program because requests
for grants are generated from individual
states. A state must enact legislation to
commit funding to a project that will
serve a clearly defined population and
require state funds for maintenance in
perpetuity.
Performance Measures
• Veterans and their families may
experience feelings of dissatisfaction
when their expectations concerning the
committal service (including military
funeral honors) are not met.
Dissatisfaction with services provided by
the DoD (military funeral honors) or the
funeral home can adversely affect the
public’s perceptions regarding the quality
of VA service.

Objective 3.5:  Expressions of Remembrance

Provide veterans and their families with timely and accurate symbolic expressions of remembrance.

Purpose and Outcomes:
The purpose of this objective is to recognize the
sacrifices of our Nation’s veterans and their
families by providing timely and accurate
symbolic expressions of remembrance. The
amount of time it takes to mark the grave after
an interment is extremely important to veterans
and their family members. The headstone or
marker is a lasting memorial that serves as a focal
point not only for present-day survivors but also
for future generations. In addition, it may bring
a sense of closure to the grieving process to see
the grave marked. Delivery of this benefit is not
dependent on interment in a national cemetery.
Strategies and Processes:
VA will continue to provide headstones and
markers for the graves of eligible persons in
national, state, and other public and private
cemeteries. In addition, VA will continue to
ensure Presidential Memorial Certificate delivery
is accurate and timely. A Presidential Memorial
Certificate conveys to the family of the veteran
the gratitude of the Nation for the veteran’s
service. VA also provides American flags to
drape the caskets of eligible veterans. Delivery
of these benefits is not dependent on interment
in a national cemetery.
VA strives to mark graves in its national
cemeteries within 60 days of interment. We have
also begun to develop the mechanisms necessary
to measure the timeliness of providing headstones
or markers for the graves of veterans who are not
buried in VA national cemeteries. VA plans to
assess data collection procedures to ensure that
data collected to measure timeliness of delivery
of headstones and markers are accurate, valid,
and verifiable.
VA will improve accuracy and operational
processes, reducing the number of inaccurate or
damaged headstones and markers delivered to
cemeteries. VA will use, to the maximum extent
possible, state-of-the-art technology to automate
its operational processes. Online ordering using
VA’s Automated Monument Application System
– Redesign (AMAS-R) and electronic transmission
of headstone and marker orders to contractors are
improvements that will increase the efficiency of
the headstone and marker ordering process.
VA’s chaplain service will also be available to
conduct regular memorial services for families in
health care facilities and at national cemeteries.
External Factors:
Headstones and markers are supplied by outside
contractors throughout the United States whose
performance greatly affects the quality of service
provided to veterans and their families. The
timeliness of delivery of headstones and markers
is dependent not only on the performance of the
manufacturer, but also on the performance of the
contracted shipping agent. Extremes in weather,
such as periods of excessive rain or snow, or
extended periods of freezing temperatures that
impact ground conditions, can also cause delays
in the delivery and installation of headstones and
markers.

Contribute to the public health, emergency management, socioeconomic well-being, and history of the Nation.

VA will support the public health of the Nation as a whole through medical research, medical
education and training, and serving as a resource in the event of a national emergency or natural
disaster. VA will support the socioeconomic well-being of the Nation through the provision of
education, vocational rehabilitation, and home loan programs. VA will also preserve the memory
and sense of patriotism of the Nation by maintaining our national cemeteries as national shrines
and hosting patriotic and commemorative ceremonies and events.

Objective 4.1:  Preparedness

Improve the Nation’s preparedness for response to war, terrorism, national emergencies, and natural disasters by developing plans and taking actions to ensure continued service to veterans as well as support to national, state, and local emergency management and homeland security efforts.

Purpose and Outcomes:
The purpose of this objective is to ensure that, in
times of war or national emergency, VA continues
to operate and provide services to veterans and
also contributes to the national response
capability. VA’s efforts will be coordinated with
the Department of Homeland Security, DoD,
HHS, and other government agencies. The
program outcome is to train VA Central Office,
field-based officials, emergency planners, and
key personnel on VA’s Continuity of Operations
plan.
Strategies and Processes:
VA will improve plans, training, and other
advanced approaches to prepare for any potential
contingencies. VA will develop and maintain
appropriate emergency operations capability to
ensure focused, coordinated emergency response
and to integrate VA emergency operations with
the Department of Homeland Security and other
government agencies, and will ensure that
information technology is available to support
this effort. VA will continue to maintain
readiness as required by Public Law 97-174, and
implement the Memorandum of Understanding
between VA and DoD which requires joint plans
and procedures for using the VA medical system
as the primary backup to DoD during war and
other national emergencies. VA will continue to
support the VA/DoD Contingency Plan and the
National Response Plan, to include the National
Disaster Medical System (NDMS). This
collaboration includes coordinating individual
agency response plans and supporting local,
state, regional, and national incident
management systems. VA and DoD will also
collaborate in the training and education of health
care responders and identify opportunities to
provide medical readiness training and platforms
for first responders and military medical
personnel.
VA will carry out its Comprehensive Emergency
Management Program (CEM) to include continuity
of operations that will require: (1) annual testing,
training, and exercises, (2) preparing alternate
operating capability, (3) identifying designated
emergency planners within VA, (4) tracking
emergency pharmaceutical caches, and (5) tracking
decontamination equipment and personal
protective equipment.
The CEM will be designed to enable VA to
respond to a wide range of potential emergencies
including:
• an attack on the United States;
• natural, environmental, and technological
disasters;
• civil disorders; and
• terrorism.
VA will be prepared to respond to disasters and
national emergencies. VA will partner with other
Federal, state, and community agencies to
develop a national emergency preparedness plan
that clearly articulates VA’s role and capabilities
to respond to emergencies. VA will conduct
training and emergency preparedness drills
using standardized scenarios consistent with
VA’s Emergency Management Program
Guidebook.
External Factors:
The necessity for VA to achieve this objective was
made clear with the events of September 11, 2001.
External factors that will affect VA’s achievement
of this objective will include the level of funding
and support of Congress and the development
of new technology, equipment, and medical
interventions.

Objective 4.2:  Medical Research and Development

Advance VA medical research and development programs that address veterans’ needs, with an emphasis on service-connected injuries and illnesses, and contribute to the Nation’s knowledge of disease and disability.

Purpose and Outcomes:
The purpose of this objective is to advance
medical research and development programs in
ways that support veterans’ needs and contribute
to the Nation’s medical and scientific knowledge
base as a public good. VA will pursue medical
research areas that most directly address the
diseases and conditions that affect veterans. VA
research will also serve as a public good by
providing benefits to the Nation as a whole in
improving medical knowledge of disease and
disability.
Strategies and Processes:
VA will increase provider and veterans’
knowledge of the impact of military service on
health care. VA will intensify efforts to
implement the Veterans’ Health Initiative (VHI).
Veterans’ military history and potential
consequences of service will be fully incorporated
into the Computerized Patient Record System
(CPRS). VA will develop, distribute, and promote
orientation videos for incoming medical staff and
other health care trainees.
VA will conduct medical research that leads to
demonstrable improvements in veterans’ health.
Full research compliance and standardized
protection of human subjects will be maintained.
VA will increase the proportion of research
funding directed to projects addressing veteranrelated
issues, cooperative studies, and
translational research. Support for ‘translational
research” such as Quality Enhancement Research
Initiative (QUERI) will be strengthened.
Crosscutting Activities
All research conducted in VA facilities is subject
to the regulations of other Federal agencies as
well as to VA’s own regulations. VA will work
closely with the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) and HHS on joint studies funded by NIH.
Similarly, VA will work closely with the Food and
Drug Administration on human studies funded
by pharmaceutical companies in support of new
pharmaceutical or device applications. Sharing
research and development will be aggressively
supported and encouraged between VA and
DoD. VA and DoD will explore military and
veteran-related health research to include
deployment health issues. In addition, VA and
DoD will establish a forum for the sharing of best
practices in health research and develop a
mechanism to ensure that research outcomes are
shared throughout the Departments.
External Factors:
Among the external influences that may affect
the future direction of the Research and
Development Program are the Congress and
advisory committees. In recent years, Congress
has consistently demonstrated its support for
adequate VA research funding and has taken
specific actions to substantially augment VA’s
appropriations for research. We expect Congress
to maintain a high degree of interest in VA
research by devoting more oversight on VA‘s
spending of research dollars.

Objective 4.3:  Academic Community Partnerships

Sustain partnerships with the academic community that enhance the quality of care to veterans and provide
high quality educational experiences for health care trainees.

Purpose and Outcomes:
VA will form partnerships with the Nation’s
academic community to provide training and
education to medical residents and other health
care trainees. The quality of health care provided
to veterans is enhanced as a result of these
partnerships. VA has affiliations with 107
medical schools and over 1,200 educational
institutions. In FY 2002, clinical training at VA
facilities was provided to over 81,000 residents,
fellows and students including approximately
28,000 physician residents and fellows; 17,000
medical students; 16,000 nursing students; and
18,000 allied health residents and students.
Strategies and Processes:
VA will promote excellence and innovation in
the education of future health care professionals.
VA will work with the academic community to
improve the training and awareness in military
health related issues. We will provide
appropriate support for training, education, and
resident supervision.
External Factors:
Changes in VA’s academic training programs
may be affected by VA’s ability to remain a
desirable academic training partner. The future
of medicine in VA is shaped by scientific, social,
and economic trends that occur in society, often
out of the control of the VA health care system.

Objective 4.4:  Veteran's Benefits, Veteran-Owned Businesses, and Community Initiatives

Enhance the socioeconomic well-being of veterans, and thereby the Nation and local communities, through veteran’s benefits; assistance programs for small, disadvantaged, and veteran-owned businesses; and other community initiatives.

Purpose and Outcomes:
The purpose of this objective is to fully utilize
veterans’ benefits and other business assistance
programs to enhance the socioeconomic wellbeing
of the Nation and its veterans.
The array of benefits and services provided by
VA has a direct impact on the lives of veterans
and beneficiaries. Each benefit program has
specific outcomes used to assess program results.
However, VA benefit programs also contribute
to the socioeconomic well being of the Nation.
For example, a disabled veteran completing the
Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment
Program or a veteran who uses Montgomery GI
education benefits can be expected to achieve a
higher lifetime income than those who do not
participate in the program. Moreover, it is
imperative that veterans with disabilities who
can work are supported in maximizing their full
employment potential. The Veterans
Employment Initiative focuses on educating
selecting officials on hiring flexibilities that can
be used to hire veterans with disabilities. It also
assists veterans, including veterans with
disabilities, in using veteran preference status
when applying for jobs. VA has also linked its
job website to military transition centers around
the country to assist veterans in obtaining
employment.
The Loan Guaranty Program enables veterans to
purchase housing that has a positive impact on
the national economy. The delivery of health care
benefits and services has a positive effect on the
overall well-being of the Nation and can facilitate
longer, more productive lives for veterans.
Strategies and Processes:
The strategies identified in the objectives under
Strategic Goals 1 through 3 also support this
objective of contributing to the socioeconomic
well-being of the Nation through contributions
to Gross Domestic Product, social and economic
status of veterans and their families, and health
care of veterans and the Nation.
VA’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business
Utilization (OSDBU) will ensure compliance with
the Small Business Act, as amended, requiring
each Department to establish with the Small
Business Administration (SBA) annual
procurement goals for prime contract and
subcontract awards to small businesses, small
disadvantaged businesses, small women-owned
businesses, 8(a) concerns, HUBZone concerns,
and especially service-disabled, veteran-owned
small businesses. Goals will be established in a
timely manner at a level that meets or exceeds
statutory minimums.
Public Laws 105-135 and 106-50 require VA to
cooperate and support SBA and Department of
Labor efforts to develop programs to assist
veterans, with a focus on service-disabled
veterans, to establish and maintain small
businesses. VA’s Center for Veterans Enterprise
(CVE) and OSDBU will serve as liaison with SBA
and DOL to implement these laws. VA plans to
develop an expanded business assistance
program for veteran-owned small businesses.
VA will also continue to provide accurate and
timely information to the small businesses
community on how, what, when, and where VA
purchases goods and services. This will be done
through print and electronic formats. VA will
also participate in procurement conferences and
sessions to train small businesses on VA’s
acquisition process and systems. VA will
continue to make VA personnel aware of the
Department’s responsibilities to support small
business through VA’s acquisition program.
External Factors:
VA’s small business goals are affected by
government-wide acquisition reform efforts and
are dependent upon effective interagency
communication and collaboration.

Objective 4.5:  National Cemetaries

Ensure that national cemeteries are maintained as shrines dedicated to preserving our Nation’s history, nurturing patriotism, and honoring the service and sacrifice veterans have made.

Purpose and Outcomes:
The purpose of this objective is to preserve our
Nation’s history, nurture patriotism, and honor
the service and sacrifice of our Nation’s veterans
by maintaining our national cemeteries as
national shrines. Each national cemetery exists
as a national shrine and as such, serves as an
expression of the appreciation and respect of a
grateful Nation for the service and sacrifice of
veterans. Each national shrine provides an
enduring memorial to this service, as well as a
dignified and respectful setting for a final resting
place.
National cemeteries also carry expectations of
appearance that set them apart from private
cemeteries. Our Nation is committed to create
and maintain these sites as national shrines,
transcending the provision of benefits to an
individual. As national shrines, VA’s cemeteries
serve a purpose that continues long after burials
have ceased and visits of families and loved ones
have ended.
A national shrine is a place of honor and memory
that declares to the visitor or family member who
views it that within its majestic setting each and
every veteran may find a sense of serenity, of
historic sacrifice, and nobility of purpose. Each
visitor should depart feeling that the grounds,
the gravesites, and the environs of the national
cemetery are a beautiful and awe-inspiring
tribute to those who gave much to preserve our
Nation’s freedom and way of life.
Strategies and Processes:
To achieve this objective, VA must maintain
occupied graves and developed grounds in a
manner befitting national shrines.
Improvements in the appearance of burial
grounds and historic structures are also required
for VA to fulfill its national shrine commitment.
Extensive renovation of grounds, gravesites, and
grave markers will be undertaken at cemeteries
where long-standing deferred maintenance
needs exist.
The Veterans Millennium Health Care and
Benefits Act, Public Law 106-117, directed VA
to contract for an independent study to review
various issues related to the National Shrine
Commitment and its focus on cemetery
appearance. Volume 3 of the study, Cemetery
Standards of Appearance, was published in March
2002. Using the recommendations in the Volume
3 report and building on previous efforts, VA
has established standards and measures by
which the National Cemetery Administration
can determine the effectiveness and efficiency
of its operations. These standards and measures
identify performance expectations in key
operational processes such as interments,
grounds maintenance, and headstones and
markers.
Volume 2, National Shrine Commitment, which
was published in August 2002, identified the
one-time repairs needed to ensure a dignified
and respectful setting appropriate for each
national cemetery as well as recommendations
to address deferred maintenance issues or
preventive steps to minimize future
maintenance costs. VA will use the information
in this report for addressing repair and
maintenance needs at its national cemeteries.
VA will continue its partnerships with various
civic organizations that allow volunteers to
participate in maintaining the appearance of
national cemeteries.
Under a joint venture with VA health care
facilities, national cemeteries will continue to
provide therapeutic work opportunities to
veterans receiving treatment in the
Compensated Work Therapy/Veterans
Industries (CWT/VI) program.
VA will continue to obtain feedback to ascertain
how our customers and stakeholders perceive
the appearance of national cemeteries. Since
2001, the annual nationwide mail survey Survey
of Satisfaction with National Cemeteries, has been
VA’s primary source of customer satisfaction
data regarding national cemeteries. The survey
collects data annually from family members and
funeral directors who have recently received
services from a national cemetery. The
information gathered is used in the strategic
planning process to develop additional
strategies for improvement. VA will continue
to conduct focus groups to collect data on
stakeholder expectations and their level of
satisfaction with the appearance of national
cemeteries.
All national cemeteries are important sites for
patriotic and commemorative events. VA will
continue to host ceremonies and memorial
services at national cemeteries to honor those
who made the supreme sacrifice. To preserve
our Nation’s history, VA will continue to
conduct educational tours and programs for
schools and civic groups. VA will develop
videos and other outreach products that will be
used as educational tools at national cemeteries.
These outreach products, which will be available
for viewing by the general public, will provide
a history of the National Cemetery
Administration and of VA cemeteries from their
inception during the Civil War to the present.
VA will also enhance its partnerships with
various civic organizations to promote
patriotism and broaden public understanding
and appreciation for the contributions of
veterans in our Nation’s history. New
opportunities will be identified to educate the
general public on veterans’ history and the role
of national cemeteries.
Since national cemeteries were established in
1862, they have become the sites of memorials
erected to recall distinctive heroics, group
burials, and related commemorations. These
memorials range from modest blocks of stone,
sundials, and tablets affixed to boulders to more
sophisticated obelisks and single soldiers on
granite pedestals. In 2002, VA initiated its first
comprehensive inventory of memorials located
in more than 100 national cemetery properties
across the country. To complete this inventory,
VA is partnering with Save Outdoor Sculpture!
(SOS!), a non-profit organization with more than
10 years of experience using volunteers to survey
public outdoor sculpture nationwide. In
addition to gathering historical information
about memorials, volunteers will document
materials, dimensions, appearance, evidence of
damage, and setting. The inventory will help
VA prioritize conservation needs as well as
develop a maintenance plan for all its memorials.
When the project is complete, the inventory data
will reside at VA as well as being publicly
accessible online through another SOS! partner,
the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
External Factors:
Maintaining the grounds, graves, and grave
markers of national cemeteries as national
shrines is influenced by many different factors.
As time goes by, cemeteries experience a variety
of environmental changes that may require
extensive maintenance. Extremes in weather,
such as excessive groundwater, rain, or drought,
can result in or exacerbate sunken graves, sunken
markers, soiled markers, inferior turf cover, and
weathering of columbaria.

Deliver world-class service to veterans and their families by applying sound business principles that result in effective management of people, communications, technology, and governance.

VA’s enabling goal is different from the four strategic goals. The enabling goal and its
corresponding objectives represent crosscutting activities that enable all organizational units of
the VA to carry out the Department’s mission. VA’s functions and activities focus on enhancing
the workforce assets and internal processes, improving communications, and furthering a
crosscutting approach to providing seamless service to veterans and their families through an
improved governance structure that applies sound business principles. As such, many of these
functions and activities are transparent to veterans and their families. However, they are critcal
to our stakeholders and VA employees who implement our programs. VA will operate as an
integrated veteran-centric organization. We will achieve this goal while ensuring full compliance
with applicable laws, regulations, financial commitments, and sound business principles.
* Note: Items highlighted with an asterisk (*) throughout the four objectives indicate areas that are directly related to implementing the President’s Management Agenda.

Objective E-1:  Workforce

Recruit, develop, and retain a competent, committed, and diverse workforce that provides high quality service to veterans and their families.

Purpose and Outcomes:
Employees are the foundation of the Department
of Veterans Affairs and the key to its success. The
purpose of this objective is to ensure that VA has
the workforce it needs to serve veterans and their
families, today and in the future. The 21st
Century presents VA with an unprecedented set
of human capital challenges — an aging
workforce, a shifting and expanding mission, a
tight and competitive labor market, and the
emergence of profound new technologies that
present both risks and opportunities. VA’s
ability to capitalize on these challenges will
determine the extent to which the goals and
strategies laid out in this strategic plan are
achieved. Each of the major themes incorporated
in this plan — enhanced health care delivery,
expedited claims processing, expansion of
memorial and burial programs, partnerships,
accountability — can come to life only through
the efforts of a workforce with the capabilities,
competencies, commitment, and compassion to
make it happen. Investing in, cultivating, and
valuing employees is one of VA’s highest
priorities.
Strategies and Processes:
VA will recruit, support, and retain a
knowledgeable, diverse, engaged, and
continuously learning workforce. We will
develop a comprehensive and coherent
workforce development plan that incorporates
the High Performance Development Model
(HPDM), succession planning, diversity
training, and Alternative Dispute Resolution
(ADR) orientation.
*Human Capital Planning
VA is institutionalizing a national workforce
planning system to facilitate the strategic
management of its human resources. VA’s
workforce planning strategies include:
• Implementation of Departmental policy
prescribing objectives, roles, and the
process for the development of
workforce and succession plans for each
VA organizational component, inclusion
of diversity and leadership analyses, and
alignment of the workforce planning
system with other key management
processes;
• Development of a Strategic VA Human
Management Capital Plan;
• Implementation of measures to assess
progress on program goals identified in
organizational workforce plans;
• Integration of workforce planning
accountability measures in performance
plans of VA senior executives and
managers; and
• Enhancement and/or establishment of
management information systems to
support the workforce planning
function.
Diversity
VA will address issues of under-representation
and promote efforts to ensure that its workforce
reflects the diversity of the customers we serve.
Diversity is essential to building a creative and
innovative environment to address the needs of
the veterans and their families. To foster this type
of environment, VA will:
• Establish a One VA diversity business
model based on effective workforce and
succession planning, comparisons to the
Relevant Civilian Labor Force (RCLF),
targeted recruitment, and management
tracking of progress;
• Establish a VA Diversity Advisory
Council to examine and monitor VA’s
Employee Diversity Profile;
• Establish and communicate a diversity
scorecard and competencies to VA
leaders; and
• Reward VA leaders for crosscutting
diversity accomplishments.
Professional Development
To foster world-class service to veterans and their
families, VA must maintain a workforce with the
needed capabilities, competencies, and
commitment. VA has a wealth of valuable
leadership and development programs, from elearning
to Senior Executive Development. To
further advance learning and performance
throughout the Department, VA will adopt the
High Performance Development Model (HPDM)
as its framework for employee development. The
model guides the employee development activity
by directing management practices and policies
to ensure:
• Core competency development;
• Continuous learning;
• Continuous assessment;
• Coaching/mentoring;
• Linkage with performance management;
and
• Performance-based hiring.
Further, VA will evaluate the relevance, impact,
and capacity of leadership development
programs to ensure that they are aligned with
mission requirements and establish Career Intern
Programs to meet future workforce needs.
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)
VA will continue to develop an effective way for
measuring the success of the Alternative Dispute
Resolution (ADR) Program. VA recently
developed an ADR web-based tracking system
to collect data that will be annually analyzed so
that benchmarks can be identified and
accomplishments measured.
VA will conduct ADR/Mediation Awareness
Training sessions for all employees to ensure that
employees are aware of the ADR and mediation
tools that can be used to effectively resolve
workplace conflicts and disputes. By employees
being aware of and using these tools, VA
anticipates that this will effectively help reduce
EEO complaints activity and workplace
disputes, which is costly to VA. VA also expects
to derive intangible benefits such as improved
morale and productivity, reduction in future
disputes, repaired relationships, improved
customer service, and employee trust.
Recruitment and Marketing
VA must remain competitive with the private
and non-profit sectors in recruiting qualified
candidates if it is to achieve our strategic goals.
VA is a key employer in the Federal Government,
has one of the most distinguished and unique
missions, has nationwide job opportunities, can
provide numerous opportunities for growth, and
offers many appealing benefits and work-life
programs. VA will fully capitalize on these
assets to market career opportunities. Having a
presence in the job market, whether or not
currently hiring, is essential to cultivating and
maintaining relationships that benefit VA now
and in the future. VA will:
• Develop a recruitment and marketing
plan that includes provisions for an
assessment of current efforts throughout
the Department and maximizes use of
student intern and Presidential
Management Intern programs;
• Enhance outreach efforts to colleges,
universities, military discharge centers,
and other potential recruitment sources
with a strong emphasis on targeted
recruitment aimed at minority
populations underrepresented in the
Department;
• Explore the use of automated application
and staffing tools to simplify and
streamline the hiring process;
• Develop an automated entrance interview
for newly appointed employees to
determine why they chose VA and use
such information to drive VA’s
recruitment and marketing business
decisions;
• Develop an automated and consistently
used exit interview process to help
identify why employees leave the
Department, and use the information
gathered to address and rectify retention
issues;
• Support government-wide efforts to
streamline and simplify the Federal hiring
process; and
• Work with DoD to develop methods to
facilitate recruitment, retention, and
potential sharing of personnel in positions
critical to the Departments’
complementary missions.
Performance Culture
Employee performance is integral to VA’s ability
to accomplish its mission. To ensure that VA
has a results-oriented and high-performing
workforce, that it differentiates between high
and low performance, and that individual and
team performance are linked to organizational
goals, VA will implement a Department-wide,
multi-tiered performance appraisal system and
institute a performance awards program. VA
will also enhance its current Senior Executive
Performance Review Board process to ensure
that Executives are held accountable for
achievement of strategic goals and workforce
management.
External Factors:
In conjunction with the economy (job-market/
competitive salary issues) and labor force
growth rates, VA recognizes that funding to
implement HR strategies will be the key to
recruiting and retaining a highly skilled
workforce.

Objective E-2:  Communications

Improve communications with veterans, employees, and stakeholders about the Department’s mission, goals, and current performance as well as benefits and services VA provides.

Purpose and Outcomes:
The purpose of this objective is to improve
communications with veterans, stakeholders,
and employees about VA programs. In particular,
Objective E-2 recognizes the importance of
increasing knowledge and awareness among
veterans and their families about benefits and
services and clearly communicating VA’s vision,
mission, goals, and objectives throughout the
organization and among its stakeholders. This
objective is also aimed at increasing the
awareness and understanding of veterans,
stakeholders, and the public of the results of VA
programs.
Strategies and Processes:
To build public awareness and support for the
Department’s mission and programs, VA
maintains a communications strategy to provide
the framework within which VA personnel, at
all levels, can effectively communicate key
messages as an essential part of their mission.
Communication with Veterans
To increase awareness of benefits and services
provided, VA conducts outreach and education
activities for the veteran community and the
general public through news releases, articles
appearing in veterans service organization
publications, public service announcements, and
presentations to schools and community
organizations.
The National Veterans Golden Age Games is
multi-event competition for veterans’ age 55 and
older. Athletes compete against each other in
several events including swimming, bicycling
and bowling. The National Veterans Creative
Arts Festival is the celebration and stage and art
show. More than 100 veterans exhibit their
artwork or perform musical, dance or drama
selections in a gala variety show. All veterans
invited to participate are selected winners of
year-long, national fine arts talent competitions.
VA will respond to requests from local and
national media, veterans and their families, and
the public for information on VA benefits,
services, and policy. To ensure timely response
to veteran inquiries and complaints, VA will
maintain an Internet access page that allows
direct e-mail contact with veterans.
VA will continue to produce a variety of
comprehensive, easy-to-use, informational
materials regarding VA benefits, eligibility
criteria and services, as well as VA activities, and
disseminate them to the widest possible
audiences. Such publications include benefit
booklets, news releases, and speeches.
At the state level, VA facilities within specific
geographic areas will provide comprehensive
directories for veterans and employees that
include names and telephone numbers of VA
employees, community care providers, and other
Federal government service providers. Many
facilities also develop credit card size pocket
cards that include their important local telephone
numbers and/or national 800 numbers. This
allows quick response to requests for information
by veterans and their families. VA will continue
to host local outreach events to share information
with veterans on available benefits.
VA will also continue to be recognized as the
government leader in plain language letter
writing. VA sends out approximately 30 million
pieces of correspondence to veterans and their
families, and VA has rewritten hundreds of form
letters sent out in response to inquiries. This
lends greater clarity and focus to VA’s written
communications.
In addition, VA will convene a National Minority
Veterans Conference to identify issues facing
minority and women veterans and to ensure that
a comprehensive and effective process is
initiated to respond to these issues
and concerns for the 21st Century.
The Secretary will also receive
periodic counsel from the
Advisory Committees on
Minority and Women Veterans.
VA will conduct town meetings
and community-based forums to
discuss VA programs and benefits
for women veterans at different
locations across the country and
work with field personnel to
ensure outreach activities are
incorporated into the performance
plans of Women Veteran
Coordinators.
Special Events for Veterans
VA will continue to work with a
number of our partners to sponsor special events
for veterans, such as the National Disabled
Veterans Winter Sports Clinic, The National
Veterans Wheelchair Games, the National
Veterans Golden Age Games and the National
Veterans Creative Arts Festival. Veterans who
wish to compete in any of these events athletes
must be current patients in VA medical facilities.
The National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports
Clinic is an annual rehabilitation program that
is open to all U.S. military veterans with spinal
cord injury or disease, certain neurological
conditions, orthopedic amputations, visual
impairments or other disabilities. At the Clinic,
disabled veterans learn adaptive Alpine and
Nordic skiing, and are introduced to a variety of
other adaptive activities and sports. Each year,
more than 500 disabled veterans compete in the
largest annual wheelchair sports event in the
world, the National Veterans Wheelchair Games.
Wheelchair athletes compete in many Summer
Olympic events including track and field,
swimming and basketball and weightlifting.
Communication with Employees
The Department developed a VA Strategic Plan
for Employees as a companion document to the
VA Strategic Plan. This document communicates
the Department’s strategic framework to all
employees. It will assist VA staff at all levels to
identify how its work contributes to achieving
VA’s overall mission and goals, thereby
improving its line-of-sight
connection with the strategic
direction of the Department. VA will
use other communication vehicles
including the VAnguard magazine,
Internet, and videos to communicate
the VA strategic direction to
employees.
The Office of Public Affairs has
implemented an approved VA
Communications Plan for the
Department of Veterans Affairs.
With a focus on strategic
communications – communications
that help achieve VA’s strategic goals
– the plan provides a coordinated
approach to ensure that clear and
consistent information is provided to both
employees and the public on VA concerns and
issues. These communications goals will then be
supported throughout VA, with managers
shaping their communications goals
accordingly.
The Office of Public Affairs will produce a
weekly internal information video, VA News, for
broadcast over the VA digital satellite network
to all VA facilities. The office will also continue
to produce the quarterly VA Report internal
information video extending its length and
expanding it into a video news magazine format.
All video products will be made available to VA
employees and stakeholder groups via the World
Wide Web through Internet streaming
technology by 2004.
The Office of Public Affairs, in coordination with
Employee Information Service, will produce a
regular internal video production focused on
developing management skills among VA leaders
at all levels. The program will feature interviews
of management experts, both within VA and
elsewhere in the world of management and
academia, and will be available by satellite
broadcast and ultimately on-demand at the
employee’s desktop.
Communication with Stakeholders and the Public
VA will provide timely and accurate delivery of
service and information to all stakeholders
including Members of Congress and their staffs
regarding the results of VA programs, as well as
veterans’ concerns, including constituent
casework. VA will provide more frequent
briefings to Members and their staff on VA
benefits and services and initiate new Member
orientations and casework conferences. In
addition, as part of its outreach efforts with
stakeholders, VA will ensure that VISN Directors
will meet at least twice a year with their respective
delegations to inform them of progress made in
key areas, issues, and veterans concerns pending
within their area of jurisdiction.
The Office of Intergovernmental Affairs will
establish and maintain effective partnerships and
strong lines of communications with all state and
local elected and appointed public officials.
VA will work with DoD to develop a joint
communications plan. This communications
plan will promote VA/DoD collaborative
initiatives within each Department, educate
internal and external stakeholders about joint
VA/DoD initiatives, and provide periodic
updates on accomplishments, new initiatives,
and other activities.
VA will use its strategic planning process to
increase internal and external understanding of
its strategic direction and priorities. Public
service announcements supporting specific VA
outreach priority goals (covering homeless
veterans, women veterans, newly separated
veterans, Gulf War veterans, and minority
veterans) will also be produced for broadcast
across the country to help increase public
awareness of VA’s activities and their results.
VA will also develop a Veterans Benefits
Learning Map that will be made available to VSO
facilities and state VA offices to help veterans
better understand the benefits and services they
are eligible to receive.
External Factors:
• Extent to which cooperative crosscutting
partnerships with other Federal, state
and local governments, and private
organizations can be developed.
• Extent to which veterans have Internet
access.

Objective E-3:  One VA IT Framework

Implement a One VA information technology framework that supports the integration of information across business lines and that provides a source of consistent, reliable, accurate, and secure information to veterans and their families, employees, and stakeholders.

Purpose and Outcomes:
To meet VA’s commitments delivering the
highest quality health care, timely payment of
benefits, and memorialization in death, VA will
have a world-class information technology
program. Through business process
reengineering and technology integration, VA
will speed-up delivery of benefit payments,
improve the quality of health care provided in
our medical centers, and administer a wide
variety of programs more efficiently.
Strategies and Processes:
Information Technology (IT) Strategic Plan
The IT Strategic Plan incorporates three major
broad objectives under the umbrella of achieving
VA’s strategic vision for the future: (1) improve
our mission performance; (2) tell our story to our
customers, stakeholders, and partners; and (3)
develop and educate the VA IT workforce to meet
the IT challenges of the future. This plan is
veteran-centric and supports the strategic goals
of the Department. The plan is the foundation
upon which IT will be applied to support the
Department’s business operations, the Secretary’s
priorities, and goals and objectives of each
administration.
Enterprise Architecture
Enterprise Architecture (EA) represents the
guiding principles for streamlining and
modernizing VA’s IT. The “enterprise” is VA and
the “architecture” is the complex framework of
processes, systems, and programs by which VA
provides health care and benefits to veterans and
their families. An essential element of the IT
Strategic Plan is an EA based on the Zachman
framework to define the EA. The One VA EA
itself is continuing to evolve since VA is
implementing EA as a continuous improvement
process, with version 1.0 approved by the
Secretary in September 2002 serving as the initial
baseline. Finally, version 2.0 will continue the
theme established in version 1.0 of coupling EA
to key Departmental processes, namely planning
and budgeting, project execution, and project
management oversight.
The One VA EA model addresses specific
objectives and timetables for implementation. It
identifies several key elements of infrastructure
as follows:
• Telecommunications Infrastructure
(Telecommunications Modernization
Project (TMP));
• Cyber Security Infrastructure (Enterprise
Cyber Security Modernization Project
(ECSIP) and Authentication and
Authorization Infrastructure (AAI)
Project); and
• Corporate and Regional Data Processing
with Continuity Of Operations (COOP)
(Corporate Data Center Integration
(CDCI) Project).
Each of these infrastructure elements has one or
more key projects associated with it to implement
the corresponding element of the One VA
Enterprise Architecture.
The One VA EA also identifies several key
projects that support the EA’s distributed
applications and data environment model. These
are:
• One VA Registration and Eligibility
Project;
• One VA Contact Management Project;
• VistA HealtheVet Health Data Repository
(HDR) Project; and
• Core Financial and Logistic System
(CoreFLS) Project.
Information Security
The Office of Cyber Security (OCS) will provide
services to veterans that protect the
confidentiality, integrity, and availability of their
private information; enable the timely,
uninterrupted, and trusted nature of services VA
provides; and provide assurance that costeffective
cyber security controls are in place to
protect automated information systems from
financial fraud, waste, and abuse. Its objective is
to become a model cyber security program within
the Federal Government. The OCS will:
• Bring VA into compliance with the
Government Information Security Reform
Act of 2000, Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA),
and Office of Management and Budget
requirements;
• Establish a level of security for all
information systems that is
commensurate with the risk and
magnitude of harm resulting from the
loss, misuse, unauthorized access to, or
modification of the information stored or
flowing through these systems;
• Integrate security into the One VA EA;
• Establish an effective, real-time, and
operational command and control
process for operating the cyber security
infrastructure; and
• Review, develop, and test cyber security
contingency plans VA-wide.
The IT Integrated Management Process and IT Project
Management Structure
Streamlining business practices and optimizing
performance through the effective use of
technology, the Office of IT has adopted an
integrated process to manage the IT information
technology portfolio. Starting with concept
development and continuing through system
production, deployment and total life cycle, this
process will provide continuous oversight and
evaluation through sound project management
and disciplined milestone reviews.
A One VA Telecommunications Network
The Telecommunications Modernization Project
(TMP) is intended to evolve from VA’s current
state of over 30 loosely federated independent
networks to a single, high performance wide area
data network capable of supporting enterprise
wide applications and support Service Level
Agreements (SLAs) for performance and
reliability at every service delivery node on the
network. The TMP was initiated in FY 2002 as a
re-baseline of multiple pre-existing network
efforts across the Department and it will:
• Optimize the core of the One VA Wide
Area Network (WAN) to support regional
service delivery to all VA facilities, and
to support Service Level Agreements for
every service delivery point;
• Establish a 24-hour Network Coordination
Center (NCC) to continuously monitor the
health of the network and resolve service
delivery problems; and
• Extend service delivery from the
optimized core to all VA facilities to
complete the project.
*E-Government
There are now over 4,294 internal and public use
forms and 9 major business lines within VA.
Almost 98 percent of VA staff is assigned to
provide direct services to veterans and their
families in VA field operations. Veteran services
are delivered at 162 VA hospitals, more than 850
community and facility-based outpatient clinics,
57 regional offices, and 120 national cemeteries.
VA expects the use of the Internet, as a primary
means for conducting business with VA
customers, will increase significantly, and will
facilitate improved information access. A study
has been initiated to find a web-enabled
commercial product to support the delivery and
management of on-line electronic forms via the
Internet and VA’s Intranet.
The strategy to implement the Government
Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA)
requirements include:
• Identifying applicable business
transactions;
• Analyzing internal business processes
that use the information contained in
these business transactions;
• Ensuring that business process
enhancements that become practicable (or
feasible) transactions are converted from
paper to an electronic medium;
• Investigating the benefits, costs and risks
associated with conducting these
business processes electronically; and
• Planning and implementing changes
based on the results of previous activities.
The principal GPEA implementation goal is to
transform VA paper-based information
collections into electronic information collections.
In setting our priorities, VA’s focus is on
information collections that directly affect
veteran care, those that have the greatest impact
on veterans (in terms of greatest service to
veterans), and those information collections
affecting important organizational or
institutional constituencies such as VSOs and
educational institutions.
Information Technology
VA will use an integrated framework to continue
aligning VA’s IT investments with its business
lines:
• The IT Strategic Plan will be revised
annually to provide the overarching
strategy and priorities to guide the
capital, budget, operation, and tactical
planning for IT;
• The Enterprise Information Board
reviews IT capital investment proposals
and the IT investment portfolio package,
ensuring IT investments are made from
a corporate perspective.
Collaboration with DoD
VA and DoD will develop an interoperable
information technology framework and
architecture that will enable the efficient,
effective, and secure interchange of records and
information to support the delivery of benefits
and services. The emphasis will be on working
together to reduce redundant applications and
procedures and make access to services and
benefits easier and faster.
Other Strategies
In FY 2003, The Office of Information and
Technology (OIT) will:
• Establish metrics to measure IT
performance to ensure that IT assets and
investments improve program
performance and facilitate strategic goals;
• Support VA’s senior leadership in
performing their duties and responsibilities
during normal operations and emergency
situations;
• Provide command and control of VA IT
assets during emergency situations to
ensure continuation of mission-critical
and mission-essential operations;
• Ensure that OIT can provide its missioncritical
and mission-essential
responsibilities during and after an
emergency situation. The Corporate Data
Center Integration (CDCI) Project will
significantly improve recovery time from
a systems outage; and
• Reduce potential loss of data for mission-critical
and essential systems by
providing electronic data vaulting and
applications restart capability across the
three locations. The current 72 hours will
be shortened to 12 hours or less for
mission-critical systems.

Objective E-4:  Governance and Performance

Improve the overall governance and performance of VA by applying sound business principles, ensuring
accountability, and enhancing our management of resources through improved capital asset management; acquisition and competitive sourcing; and linking strategic planning, budgeting, and performance
planning.

Purpose and Outcomes:
The purpose of this objective is to enhance the
overall governance and performance of VA by
applying sound business principles and
improving the integration of its programs and
major management functions to better serve our
Nation’s veterans and their families.
Strategies and Processes:
VA will promote cooperation and collaboration
throughout VA to provide seamless service to
veterans. VA will continue expansion of the
Compensation and Pension Record Interchange
(CAPRI) and continue the Compensation and
Pension Examination Project (CPEP) initiative.
CPEP is intended to provide more seamless
service between the medical exam and the actual
rating that the veteran receives. Collaboration
will be increased between VA and DoD during
the military discharge process (to increase the
quality of discharge exams so that they can be
used more frequently for rating).
VA will optimize the availability and efficient use
of resources and services. We will deploy an
initiative to increase competitive sourcing. IT
packages that support inventory, procurement,
and business needs will be pursued. VA will
fully implement the Procurement Reform Task
Force (PRTF) recommendations.
VA will increase revenue and efficiency through
private sector partnerships, technology, and
improved business practices. The feasibility of
Federal imaging, laboratory, and prescription
centers will be assessed. We will take full
advantage of research-related intellectual
property opportunities.
VA will develop innovative approaches to the
design and evaluation of health care delivery
systems. We will reengineer health care
processes to incorporate technologic advances
and to address shortages of health care
professionals.
*Expanding Federal, State, Local, and Private
Partnerships
VA will expand Federal, state, local, and private
partnerships to foster improvements in the
coordination and delivery of health care and
other services. VA will develop and implement
a VA + Choice plan. Sharing and collaboration
with DoD, Indian Health Service, and state
veterans’ organizations will be expanded.
Consistent with the President’s Management
Agenda, VA and DoD executive leadership have
been meeting for several years to improve and
expand sharing. In February of 2002, the VA/
DoD Joint Executive Council (JEC) was
established to further enhance joint sharing and
other collaborative initiatives. The JEC is cochaired
by the Deputy Secretary of Veterans
Affairs and the Under Secretary of Defense for
Personnel and Readiness. To date the JEC has
reached agreement on the following major
issues:
• Establishment of a Federal Health
Information Exchange, including a joint
strategy for interoperable electronic
records (HealthePeople);
• Establishment of a new standardized
national reimbursement rate structure
for VA/DoD medical sharing
agreements;
• Implementation of a Consolidated Mail
Order Pharmacy pilot (CMOP);
• Establishment of a joint physical
examination pilot; and
• Establishment of a joint strategic
planning initiative to develop a common
vision and set of objectives for future
sharing and collaboration.
VA and DoD will examine the
coordinated use of capital assets
such as coordinating services in
cities where VA and DoD
maintain and operate separate
medical facilities. Currently,
almost all VA medical facilities
have at least one sharing
agreement with DoD medical
facilities and reserve units. VA
and DoD will encourage
continued development of
sharing agreements that make the
most efficient use of Federal
resources. VA and DoD are
working to increase utilization of
the same pharmaceutical and
medical products, resulting in
increased leverage during
Federal Supply Schedule or other
joint contract negotiations.
In addition, a VA/DoD Benefits Executive
Council (BEC), modeled after the successful
Health Executive Council, was established.
Chaired by the VA Under Secretary for Benefits
and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force
Management, the BEC will explore
opportunities to facilitate the transition of
separating servicemembers from DoD
beneficiary to VA beneficiary. These joint
initiatives are designed to improve processes for
establishing eligibility, facilitating enrollment in
the VA health care system, expediting claims for
service-connected disability ratings/
compensation, and enhancing the medical
examination process. VA and DoD will establish
a leadership framework to provide the necessary
support for a successful partnership, help to
institutionalize change, protect efforts from a loss
of momentum, and sustain collaboration into the
future.
*Strengthening Financial and Procurement Oversight
and Accountability
The Secretary recently approved a proposal to
restructure the Department’s
finance, procurement, and asset
management activities to
improve accountability and
consistency in performance
throughout the organization.
This reorganization will
combine the finance,
acquisition, and capital asset
functions throughout VA into
regional business offices with
much clearer delegations of
authority and accountability to
the Department’s Chief
Financial Officer /Senior
Procurement Executive (CFO/
SPE). This level of oversight
along with the establishment of
performance metrics will help
provide VA operations
conformity in execution and
enforce corporate discipline.
Current finance and procurement staff
performing oversight functions across the
Department will be consolidated into a single
Office of Business Oversight. The Office of
Business Oversight, reporting to the CFO/SPE,
will establish clear lines of authority and
establish separation of responsibility between the
development of policies and procedures and the
oversight of compliance with those policies and
procedures.
VA Business Oversight Board
In July 2002, the Secretary established the VA
Business Oversight Board. The board serves as
the Department’s senior management forum on
business activities and is chaired by the Secretary
of Veterans Affairs. Its mission is to review and
oversee the performance, efficiency, and
effectiveness of Departmental business processes.
The business processes include, but are not
limited to, procurement, collections, capital
portfolio management, and business revolving
funds. Activities currently being reviewed by the
board include:
• Procurement Reform In June 2001, the Secretary
established a Procurement Reform Task Force
(PRTF) to review VA’s procurement programs,
address concerns about acquisition practices, and
develop recommendations for improvement. The
PRTF recommended over 60 specific reforms to
achieve the following goals: leverage VA’s
purchasing power; standardize commodities
within VA; obtain and improve comprehensive
procurement information; improve procurement
organizational effectiveness; and ensure a
sufficient and talented acquisition workforce. In
June 2002, the Secretary directed the
implementation of the reforms recommended by
the PRTF. A project tracking system has been
established to monitor the status/progress of the
PRTF recommendations. Each recommendation
has been assigned to a lead agent who is
responsible for implementing an action plan.
• Medical Care Collections Fund (MCCF) The
Medical Care Collections Fund’s mission is to
maximize the recovery of funds due VA for the
provision of health care services. The Department
has collected $3.8 billion since 1997 from first and
third party payers, mostly from insurance
companies, for treatment of medical problems
that were not service-connected. Collections are
at record levels, exceeding $1.1 billion in FY 2002.
The board will monitor performance through
metrics that measure gross days revenue
outstanding, days to bill, and accounts receivable
greater than 90 days. In a review of MCCF
accounts receivable, the board set a target for the
end of the fiscal year for reducing the number of
accounts greater than 90 days old from 84 percent
to 45 percent.
• Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy (CMOP)
The board will monitor issues such as capacity,
expansion, error rates, and patient satisfaction.
It is anticipated that VA CMOPs will process
over $2 billion in prescriptions for FY 2003. The
estimated growth rate for FY 2003 is 16 percent.
More than 70 million prescriptions valued at $1.8
billion were filled by CMOPs during the last
fiscal year. Mail-out pharmacies saved VA more
than $70 million last year through bulk purchases
and automation. The board considered how this
successful program could be optimized in the
future and concluded that CMOP’s could benefit
from a more structured business overview to
help maintain high standards while capacity
increases.
• Capital Asset Management Capital asset
management is a business strategy that seeks to
maximize the functional and financial value of
capital assets through well thought-out
acquisitions, allocations, operations, and
dispositions. VA’s capital investment process
was created in June 1997 to foster a Departmental
approach for the use of capital funds and to
ensure all major capital investment proposals,
including high-risk and/or mission-critical
projects, are based upon sound economic
principles and are fully linked to strategic
planning, budget, and performance measures
and targets. VA is the first civilian agency to
develop an agency-wide capital planning
process that allows for trade-offs, both among
and between categories of assets, such as medical
and non-medical equipment, information
technology, infrastructure, and leases.
VA will continue to be a leader in the Federal
capital asset arena and is working to further
improve the management of its nationwide
portfolio of capital assets by:
• Developing capital asset standards and/
or benchmarks such as level of
investment, and cost of asset ownership.
Management of VA’s portfolio will
include guidance on gap analysis,
performance management, and asset
disposal;
• Establishing an automated performance
management system to oversee VA’s
capital asset portfolio that ties into the
Department’s financial system. Using a
digital dashboard, VA will track and
monitor key milestones such as cost,
schedule, and performance of newly
acquired assets; and
• Identifying opportunities to initiate
enhanced-use leases. By leveraging its
assets, VA is able to acquire facilities or
obtain goods and services that might
otherwise be unavailable or unaffordable,
or conversely, convert underutilized
property into an asset that generates
revenue, achieves consolidation, or
reduces costs.
CARES -- As a part of VA’s overall capital asset
management activities, we have initiated an
important process called CARES. This process
will identify the infrastructure VA needs to
provide high-quality health care to the 21st
century veterans. The CARES process provides
a data-driven assessment of veterans’ health care
needs within each VISN, the condition of the
infrastructure, and the strategic realignment of
capital assets and related resources to better serve
the needs of veterans. Through CARES, each
VISN will base their plan for enhanced services
on objective criteria and analysis, as well as cost
effectiveness, and in some cases, capital asset
restructuring. These plans will take into account
future directions in health care delivery including
changes in technology, demographic projections,
physical plant capacity, community health care
capacity and workforce requirements. A
structured decision methodoloy will guide
review and evaluation of VISN capital asset
realignment proposals, and these will be
integrated into a National CARES Plan that will
provide input into the overall VA Capital Asset
Management Process. All savings generated
through implementation of CARES will be
reinvested to meet veterans’ health care needs.
*Improved Financial Performance
VA is committed to improving its underlying
financial systems, and systematically producing
timely, useful, and reliable financial statements.
VA will continue to strive to achieve an
unqualified (“clean”) opinion on our annual
consolidated financial statements and Franchise
Fund financial statements. Progress continues
in correcting material weakness. VA has
developed and implemented remediation plans
to address these material weaknesses. The plans
have specific tasks and dates, and are updated
monthly. Although certain material weaknesses
involved corrective actions that could be
completed within 1 year, other material
weaknesses are long-term and corrective actions
are expected to take several years.
CoreFLS -- To support VA business processes,
work continues on the development of the Core
Financial and Logistics System (CoreFLS). By
utilizing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)
software and employing best practices, VA will
implement a fully integrated system to provide
timely and easily accessible financial and logistics
information. VA will provide better data
management, automate data reconciliation,
automate consolidated financial statements, and
comply with the Federal Financial Management
Improvement Act and other regulatory
requirements. VA will establish a foundation of
business processes for its Enterprise
Architecture, reduce the number of stovepipe
legacy systems, and align with E-government
initiatives. This Department-wide enterprise
solution will be used by every financial and
logistics office within VA and will provide the
following major functions: accounting, payments
processing, receivables processing, debt
management, asset management, billing, costing,
financial analysis, budgeting, purchasing,
contract management, and inventory
management. VA will integrate financial and
logistics activities, thereby reducing the number
of independent, disparate systems resulting in a
reduction of operating maintenance and life cycle
costs. VA expects full implementation of
CoreFLS to be completed by the end of FY 2006.
*Budget and Performance Integration
VA has made substantial progress in
implementing performance-based management,
particularly with regard to better linking of
resources with results. The centerpiece of VA’s
budget and performance integration activities is
the development of a new budget account
structure. VA’s FY 2004 budget uses a new
account structure that focuses on nine major
programs -- medical care (including education),
medical research, compensation, pension,
education, housing, vocational rehabilitation and
employment, insurance, and burial and memorial
affairs.
This new account structure is the culmination of
a multi-year project. VA and OMB jointly
developed and implemented the new set of
budget accounts, and will continue to work
closely together on a variety of related budget
formulation and budget execution activities. VA
officials conducted numerous briefings and
meetings with appropriations and authorizing
committees prior to implementing the new
account structure.
*Competitive Sourcing
VA continued to identify opportunities for
competitive sourcing to provide veterans and
taxpayers with the best value possible. In April
2002, OMB authorized VA to utilize its 3-tier
approach to competitive sourcing with emphasis
on market-based cost-benefit analysis. VA has
steadily increased its contractual services over
each of the past 5 years. During this period, VA
has increased the amount of services contracted
out to over $2.6 billion -- an increase of over 32
percent. VA’s total contract service expenditures
equate to approximately 43,000 full-time
equivalents (FTE). VA is currently completing a
comprehensive A-76 study of the property
management function for VBA. VA is tracking
current competitive sourcing activities and will
use this information as a management tool to
continuously evaluate its performance
information. Over the next 5 years, VA plans to
complete competitive sourcing studies of 55,000
FTE of our commercial ancillary support
functions with an anticipated savings of $1.3
billion.
Benchmarking Best Practices, Organizational
Assessment, and Improvement
VA will ensure that it uses best practices to foster
high performance by individuals and teams. VA
will establish communities of practice to share
their best practices and determine how to expand
their use throughout the Department. VA will
also look at external best practices that can be
imported to augment our business processes.
This effort will enhance individual, team, and
organizational accountability and help align
training, development, and incentives with
organizational goals and objectives.
VA will also promote increased understanding
and use of organizational assessment tools to
improve its operational performance and increase
levels of customer satisfaction. VA will work
throughout the Administrations and staff offices
to increase the use of the entire range of
organizational assessment and other tools
including Baldridge assessment, the Carey
Quality Award Program, benchmarking,
customer and employee surveys, application of
a balanced set of measures, program reviews,
data assessments, and audits.
Strategic Management
VA’s Strategic Plan will be fully integrated with
each of VA’s major process owners, including
human capital planning, IT planning, legislative
development, and capital asset planning as well
as budget formulation, performance
management, data collection and analysis, and
program evaluation. The strategic direction of
VA will be communicated clearly and concisely
through the VA Strategic Plan, the Secretary’s
Annual Statement, a VA Strategic Plan for
Employees, the VA Budget and Performance
Plan, the VA Annual Performance and
Accountability Report, and other publications
and resources.
Each Administration will develop a fully-aligned
strategic plan to provide a greater level of detail
regarding the strategies and initiatives that the
Administration will implement to support
achievement of the broad goals and objectives
present in the VA Strategic Plan.
VA will consult extensively with strategic
partners and stakeholders to improve
coordination of all VA activities. VA will meet
with stakeholders, including veterans service
organizations, OMB and GAO, and key
congressional committees. VA will also meet
with other external organizations, such as the
American Medical Association, American
Hospital Association, American Association of
Medical Colleges, and other organizations to gain
their perspective of VA’s strategic direction.
Significant changes have been made in the way
VA is managed. To provide a more integrated
governance and decision-making process, VA
established the VA Executive Board (VAEB), the
Strategic Management Council (SMC), and six
strategic management process groups that
oversee the planning, operations, and
performance of VA’s major crosscutting
activities. These include (1) strategic planning;
(2) budget; (3) capital investment; (4) human
capital planning; (5) IT planning; and (6)
legislative development and planning. Each is
composed of VA’s senior leaders, who lead the
Department in achieving its strategic goals.
Data Collection and Analysis
VA is developing a substantially enhanced
veteran population model as well as actuarial
models for projecting benefit costs and workload
in VA programs. The enhancements to the
veteran population model will enable estimates
and projections of population at the national,
state, and county levels and will provide data
on over 20 variables or characteristics of the
population. By establishing effective data
exchanges with the Defense Manpower Data
Center, Office of DoD Actuary, Bureau of Census,
the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Office of
Personnel Management, VA will be able to draw
on these relevant and reliable sources to
contribute data to the veteran population model.
Survey research, data collection, and analyses
provide information utilized for planning
purposes and to keep track of the characteristics
of the veterans’ population. This information is
particularly useful because it not only provides
information on veterans using VA services, but
also provides insight on veterans not utilizing
veteran benefits and reasons why they do not.
Data collection for the fifth in a series of National
Surveys of Veterans has been completed.
Preliminary discussions are also underway to
choose a subgroup of the veteran population as
the focus of a new survey. Input will be sought
from various stakeholders before a final decision
is reached.
Inspector General Oversight
VA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) will
continue to focus its efforts in the areas that affect
service delivery to veterans and protect scarce
VA resources. As its mission statement says:
“The OIG is dedicated to helping VA and
Congress ensure that veterans and their families
receive the care, support, and recognition they
have earned through service to their country, and
to do so in an environment that is efficient,
effective, and free from criminal activity.”
Major issues defined by the OIG in its strategic
plan include access to high quality and safe
health care; timeliness and accuracy of benefits
claims processing; reliability of financial
management systems; efficient and economical
procurement practices; and effective and secure
information technology. In addition, nationwide
audits, health care inspections, and proactive
criminal investigations will be used to address
systemic concerns. The OIG continues to
perform mandated work, including CFO
financial statement audits and objective
verification and validation of data used to
support key performance measures. The OIG has
completed performance audits on six key
measures to date, and plans to conduct audits
on other key measures during the next 5 years.
External Factors:
External factors that will affect this objective
include the pace of IT and access to it throughout
society, the development of E-government
initiatives, and other future congressional
directives. Success in achieving this objective is
dependent upon third party payment of billings
and continued interest by DoD to enter into
sharing agreements.