Archive for October 2008

VA hires Navy to build claims processing system

October 30, 2008 by admin.

VA hires Navy to build claims processing system
By Bob Brewin, bbrewin@govexec.com   10/29/08
The Veterans Affairs Department has asked the Navy to develop a computer system to process the complex claims for educational benefits that veterans will file under the new GI bill President Bush signed into law in June.

In an Oct. 17 letter sent to the House and Senate VA committees, and obtained by Nextgov, VA Secretary James Peake wrote that the agency has hired the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) in Charleston, S.C., to build a system to process educational benefits for veteran as outlined in the 2008 GI bill. The bill, called the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act, was part of the 2008 Supplemental Appropriations Act that provided veterans with expanded educational benefits. For example, the bill hikes payments for tuition from $1,300 a month to a payment that is pegged at the highest tuition at a public university in a veteran’s state of residence, which for Massachusetts would be $10,232. The bill includes monthly living expenses of $1,100 to $1,200.

In July, VA planned to develop a procurement for the new system through the Office of Personnel Management’s Training and Management Assistance contract, said Keith Pedigo, assistant deputy undersecretary at the Office of Policy and Program Management at the Veterans Benefits Administration. He testified at a hearing of the House VA committee on Sept. 24.

Pedigo told the panel that the general counsel at the Office of Personnel Management had “serious concerns” about OPM’s authority to conduct the acquisition, and VA decided to run the procurement itself, and issued a request for proposals on Aug. 29.

But the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ National Legislative Service objected to the contracting plan for the new system. Dennis Cullinan, director of legislative policy at the group, said at the hearing that the contract would allow a vendor to own the software and system source code, which would give the contractor the ability to sell a license to VA to operate the system. When the license expired, the contractor could set any pricing term for a follow-on contract, which could lead to VA being “held hostage” by the vendor, he said. To avoid that, Cullinan said VA must own the software and system source code.

The America Federation of Government Employees filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office on Aug 5, claiming VA violated an Office of Management and Budget requirement to conduct a public-private competition before contracting out work done by federal employees. In the protest, Alma Lee, head of the AFGE National VA Council, argued that hiring a vendor to develop the claims processing system would reduce the number of employees processing education benefit claims from 480 to 50.

VA made an interagency agreement with SPAWAR on Oct. 10 to build the new system. In his letter to the VA committees, Peake did not directly address AFGE’s protest or the concerns the veterans group raised. Instead, he told the committees that VA chose the command because “many private contractors were apparently reluctant to offer proposals because of the external misconceptions as to the scope of work involved,” and he described SPAWAR as the “premier system engineering command for the Department of the Navy.”

More than 30 vendors expressed interest in bidding on the contract to build the claims processing system, and VA identified a bid from a team that included IBM, CGI Consulting Group Inc. and SRA International for the contract, a congressional staffer said.

SPAWAR has expertise with the technologies VA needs for the new system, including rules-based engines, service-oriented architecture and Extensible Markup Language coding to share data over Internet-based systems, said Stephan Warren, VA principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Information and Technology.

VA’s legacy systems that process veterans’ benefits under older versions of GI bills cannot accommodate the more complicated educational benefits provided under the latest GI bill, said Keith Wilson, director of VA’s education service. The educational benefits under older versions of the GI bill are “a flat rate regardless of where a veteran went to school,” he said. The new GI bill calculates tuition benefits based on length of service and the highest tuition charged by a public college in a veteran’s home state. Separate housing allowances are based on cost of living allowances computed by the Defense Department for 300 ZIP codes.

Rules-based claims processing is common in the insurance industry and automatically computes myriad parameters and claims without the need for manual intervention.

VBA’s processing systems, which are decades old and run on outdated COBOL programming language, could not calculate the benefits based on so many variables, Wilson said. Robert McFarland, VA’s chief information officer from January 2004 to April 2006, said VBA systems run on mainframes produced in the 1990s and some code is based on assembly language written to run on the antiquated mainframes.

The new system will cost $75 million to develop and initially will be funded by $35 million that VA will transfer from its 2009 general operating budget, Peake wrote in his letter. VA also will direct $20 million in IT funding included in its 2008 supplemental appropriation to consolidate educational benefit data, ensure the accuracy of that data and build a gateway to manage it.

Top VA officials, including Wilson and Warren, told Hill staffers at a meeting on Oct. 23 that they had yet to develop requirements for the new system. This called into question the estimates and timeline Peake cited, because it would be difficult to gauge the cost and how long it will take to build a project without first defining requirements, the staffer said.

VA officials acknowledged at the Oct. 23 meeting that the total costs of the system would be $130 million, not the $95 million Peake implied in his letter.

McFarland saidif VA estimated the SPAWAR-developed system would cost $130 million, then “you can bet it will come it at $250 million. I don’t know why SPAWAR is so uniquely qualified for this job.”

SPAWAR did not reply to numerous queries asking for comment.

Until the system is up and running, Peake said benefit payments will require “significant manual processing,” but Wilson said that will not hold up processing for veterans enrolled in college under the new GI bill. He said VA will have to hire additional claims processors to handle the workload, but the agency has yet to determine how many will be needed.

VBA currently processes educational benefit claims for 500,000 veterans, and VA may have to double the number of claims processors to manage the manual workload in addition to overseeing the benefits for veterans attending school under older versions of the GI bill, according to Eric Hilleman, deputy director of VFW’s legislative affairs office. He said VA might not meet the August 2009 deadline required by law to process claims submitted under the new GI bill.

VA should start paying claims under the new GI bill by the August deadline, with VBA completing the processing of a claim within 19 days after it was submitted, officials said. VA will make payments to some veterans covered by the new GI bill, but might not issue payments to all veterans who have filed claims, a Hill staffer said. He added that VA wasted more than three months after the GI bill passed Congress to create a plan to execute the payments. “They’ve been just fiddling around,” he said.

Besides educational benefits, VBA also handles disability compensation claims and its operations closely resemble commercial insurance companies, which have used rules-based systems to process complex claims for years, McFarland said. He suggested that the next presidential administration recruit executives from the commercial insurance industry to reform VBA and improve claims processing systems.

“VBA needs to be completely disassembled and redone, or we will continue to see fiascoes,” McFarland said.

Posted in Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

VA suspends prostate cancer treatment programs at four hospitals

October 16, 2008 by admin.

  1. VA suspends prostate cancer treatment programs at four hospitals
    By Katherine McIntire PetersAfter a months-long inquiry into why dozens of prostate cancer treatment patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia received lower-than-prescribed radiation doses, VA has suspended similar treatment programs at three other hospitals.

    The three additional VA hospitals to suspend brachytherapy programs, in which radioactive seeds are implanted into the prostate, are in Cincinnati; Jackson, Miss.; and Washington. Those hospitals were found to have similar problems as those in Philadelphia, where the treatment program was suspended this summer.

    News of the suspensions came from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has launched a special inspection of VA’s radiation treatment program. VA spokeswoman Laurie Tranter said she could not say when the programs were suspended, how patients were notified, or why the problems might have occurred.

    Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=41201&dcn=e_ndw


  2. Bush signs defense authorization bill
    From CongressDailyPresident Bush Tuesday signed into law a $531.4 billion defense authorization bill for fiscal 2009 that authorizes a 3.9 percent military pay raise and also includes $68.6 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The final defense bill, which passed both chambers in late September, had wide bipartisan support in Congress and was named for retiring House Armed Services ranking member Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who served as chairman of the committee from 2003 through 2005.

    Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=41187&dcn=e_ndw


  3. Senator urges suspension of Iraq publicity contracts 
    From CongressDailySen. Jim Webb, D-Va., on Thursday sent a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates asking him to suspend $300 million in contracts for civilians to produce pro-American news stories, entertainment programs and public service ads in Iraq until the Senate Armed Services Committee and the next administration review the contracts.

    Webb’s letter follows a Washington Post story detailing the Pentagon’s decision to award four firms a combined $300 million for public information campaigns in Iraq.

    “At a time when this country is facing such a grave economic crisis, and at a time when the government of Iraq now shows at least a $79 billion surplus from recent oil revenues, in my view it makes little sense for the U.S. Department of Defense to be spending hundreds of millions of dollars to propagandize the Iraqi people,” Webb wrote.

    Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=41170&dcn=e_ndw


  4. From Nextgov.com: Lockheed hires former DISA director
    By Bob BrewinLockheed Martin Corp. has hired retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles Croom, former director of the Defense Information Systems Agency.

    Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=41191&dcn=e_ndw


  5. Top officer says military should wean itself off supplementals
    By Otto Kreisher, CongressDailyThe nation’s top military officer on Thursday acknowledged the deepening economic crisis will put great pressure on future defense budgets. And he said the Pentagon leadership understands the emergency supplemental spending bills that pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and support the growth of the Army and Marine Corps could come to an end.

    “By and large, we need to get off the supplementals,” said Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “My strategic approach is to start to implant things that are in the supplementals, that we think we have to have in the long term, into the mainline budget. We need to start doing that.”

    Mullen also said the trends in Afghanistan “are not going in the right direction,” with violence increasing for three years. He predicted the fighting there “will be tougher next year.” The growing problems in Afghanistan, particularly the ability of insurgents to cross the border from Pakistan’s largely ungoverned tribal areas, “raise my level of concern,” Mullen said.

    Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=41167&dcn=e_ndw


  6. From Nextgov.com: Air Force to place cyber operations under Space Command
    By Bob BrewinThe Air Force says it will back off its ambitious plan to set up a separate command for cyber space and has opted to place those operations within an existing organization.

    Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=41163&dcn=e_ndw


Posted in Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

Pick of the Day:

October 16, 2008 by admin.

Pick of the Day:
Legislation10-14-08: President expected to sign FY2009 defense authorization act today. President George W. Bush is expected to sign the fiscal year (FY) 2009 national defense authorization act into law today, reports Federal News Radio. The legislation (S. 3001) includes a number of government-wide contract reform provisions, including language that would ensure the proper use of cost-reimbursement contracts (section 864), improve the management of interagency acquisitions (section 865), and require the linking of award and incentive fees to acquisition outcomes (section 867) (see What’s New in Acquisition, September 24, 2008). The measure also provides a 3.9 percent pay raise for military personnel. hID-13728 

Bush to sign DoD authorization bill (Federal News Radio, October 10, 2008 ) newsID-18855

Department of Defense10-14-08: Contractors concerned defense spending will see cutbacks. Defense contractors are worried that the Department of Defense (DoD) budget could begin leveling off after the next administration takes office, due to both the recent economic downturn and $700 billion bailout package and both presidential candidates’ talk of bringing U.S. troops home. Faced with a possible contraction in DoD sales, including major weapon programs, some firms are diversifying. Bethesda, MD-based Lockheed Martin, for example, is pursuing information technology services and support to peacekeepers to offset any slowdown. “Our strategy is to leverage our core capabilities in adjacent markets,” said Tom Jurkowsky, a Lockheed spokesman. Major weapon programs such as Boeing’s Future Combat Systems and a future Navy destroyer program designed by Northrop Grumman could see cutbacks. “The Pentagon has gotten anything it wanted mainly because of the wars,” remarked Representative John Murtha (D-PA), chairman of the Defense Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. “We’re going to be to the point where they’re going to have to come to some real justifications of what’s needed. You can’t have everything and you’re not going to get everything,” he commented.[Please note that first-time viewers of the Washington Post may be asked to register (it’s free) before viewing this article.] hID-13727 

Balancing Defense and the Budget (Washington Post, October 13, 2008 ) newsID-18853 Defense contractors brace for slowdown (Washington Technology, October 13, 2008 ) newsID-18854

Department of the Navy10-14-08: RFP for NGEN expected by spring 2009, say Navy officials. Speaking at an industry luncheon in Arlington, VA, on Friday, top Navy information technology officials said the department expects to issue requests for proposals (RFPs) by spring 2009 for the Next Generation Enterprise Networks (NGEN) program (see What’s New in Acquisition, September 26, 2008), a follow-on from the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet. The Navy currently is examining 43 white papers on NGEN submitted by contractors, and it appears the RFP could be divided into several functional areas, such as hardware and software services and wide area and local communications. Additional industry days are planned for December and early next year. The service is creating a special program office that includes both Navy and Marine Corps personnel to provide governance and oversight for the contract; it should be finalized in the next few weeks. hID-13726 

Navy plans to ask for NGEN proposals by spring (NextGov, October 10, 2008 ) newsID-18851 Navy may break Intranet contract into four pieces(Federal News Radio, October 13, 2008 ) newsID-18852

Department of the Army10-14-08: Army investigates defense contractor for possible overcharges. The Army Criminal Investigation Command is leading an inquiry into whether a defense contractor providing services in support of U.S. troops in Iraq overcharged the government, according to an Associated Press article on Federal News Radio. Combat Support Associates (CSA) of Orange, CA, which provides vehicle maintenance, computer repairs, and security work at defense facilities in Kuwait, has indicated it is cooperating with investigators. “CSA has acted in accordance with its contract and no allegations have been conveyed by investigators,” noted a company spokesman. In 1999, the company won a ten-year cost-plus contract initially estimated at $547 million, but its value has risen to some $2.2 billion because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. hID-13721 

Gov’t probes US defense contractor over payments (Federal News Radio, October 10, 2008 ) newsID-18845

Posted in Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

Senator urges suspension of Iraq publicity contracts

October 16, 2008 by admin.

  1. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., on Thursday sent a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates asking him to suspend $300 million in contracts for civilians to produce pro-American news stories, entertainment programs and public service ads in Iraq until the Senate Armed Services Committee and the next administration review the contracts.

    Webb’s letter follows a Washington Post story detailing the Pentagon’s decision to award four firms a combined $300 million for public information campaigns in Iraq.

    “At a time when this country is facing such a grave economic crisis, and at a time when the government of Iraq now shows at least a $79 billion surplus from recent oil revenues, in my view it makes little sense for the U.S. Department of Defense to be spending hundreds of millions of dollars to propagandize the Iraqi people,” Webb wrote.

    Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=41170&dcn=e_gvet


  3. Set-asides still offer billions in contracting prospects
    By Elizabeth Newell    Growth in prime contracts awarded to small businesses is leveling off, but the top opportunities still offer more than $8.5 billion in potential value, according to a new report from the research firm INPUT.

    While spending is moving toward multiple award, task order-based contracts, federal agencies still are committed to meeting small business goals, the report noted. In fiscal 2000, the government awarded prime contracts valued at $208.8 billion to small businesses, INPUT said. That number had more than doubled to $436.4 billion by fiscal 2007, according to the report.

    The value continues to increase, according to INPUT’s report, though it is not rising as fast since agencies are nearing the congressionally mandated goal of awarding 23 percent of contracting dollars to small businesses annually.

    Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=41168&dcn=e_gvet


Top officer says military should wean itself off supplementals
By Otto Kreisher, CongressDaily

  1. The nation’s top military officer on Thursday acknowledged the deepening economic crisis will put great pressure on future defense budgets. And he said the Pentagon leadership understands the emergency supplemental spending bills that pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and support the growth of the Army and Marine Corps could come to an end.

    “By and large, we need to get off the supplementals,” said Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “My strategic approach is to start to implant things that are in the supplementals, that we think we have to have in the long term, into the mainline budget. We need to start doing that.”

    Mullen also said the trends in Afghanistan “are not going in the right direction,” with violence increasing for three years. He predicted the fighting there “will be tougher next year.” The growing problems in Afghanistan, particularly the ability of insurgents to cross the border from Pakistan’s largely ungoverned tribal areas, “raise my level of concern,” Mullen said.

    Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=41167&dcn=e_gvet

  2. Fedblog: A Spike in Federal Job Searches
    By Tom Shoop    Outside the bureaucracy, looking in.

    Thursday, October 9, 3:43 p.m. ET:

    Is the widening economic crisis a boon to federal hiring? Computerworld reports that daily visits to the government’s job portal, USAjobs.gov, have increased by 45 percent over the past six months. The Office of Personnel Management won’t speculate on the reasons for the spike, but others figure it might have something to do with job losses across the U.S. economy. If there’s any kind of silver lining to this crisis in the federal sector it has two facets: As the stock market tanks, those on the verge of retirement may decide to stick around for awhile, and as agencies face the need to replenish the talent pool, they’ll apparently have a lot of candidates to choose from.

    Full column: http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/


  3. Tech Insider: Federal Jobs — Lookin’ Mighty Attractive Now
    Allan Holmes

    What’s happening and what’s being discussed in the federal IT community.

    Thursday, October 9, 4:58 p.m. ET: ComputerWorld reported on Thursday that traffic to USAjobs, the federal government’s jobs Web site, has increased 45 percent during the past six months, 500,000 visits per day. The reason is most likely the worsening economy and increased unemployment; federal jobs are seen as being much more stable. The Treasury Department […]

    Full column: http://techinsider.nextgov.com/


Posted in Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

The Week Ahead

October 16, 2008 by admin.

Meeting of the Veterans’ Advisory Committee on Rehabilitation to consider updated briefings on various VA programs designed to enhance the rehabilitative potential of recently-discharged veterans. Members will also begin consideration of potential recommendations to be included in the Committee’s next annual report, October 15-16.
Location: Paralyzed Veterans of American, 801 18th St., NW, Washington, D.C.. 8 a.m. (October 15, 2008)
Contact: Joseph Tucker, 202-461-9637 

Women Service Members Issues Defense Department (DOD); Office of the Secretary of Defense (F.R. Page 56805)
Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Women in the Services to review the 2008 installation visits, review the Wounded Warrior installation visits, review and vote on recommendations for Wounded Warrior families, and also review and edit the draft of the 2008 Report, October 14-15.
Location: Double Tree Hotel Crystal City National Airport, 300 Army Navy Drive, Arlington, Va.. 8:30 a.m. (October 15, 2008)
Contact: Robert Bowling, 703-697-2122, Robert.bowling@osd.mil

Posted in Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

NYC Veterans Day 2008 “Beyond Tribute” Campaign

October 16, 2008 by admin.

NYC Veterans Day 2008 “Beyond Tribute” Campaign 


Support our Veterans and Attract More Customers!
This is Your Opportunity to Benefit - and Help Vets - in a Big Way - November 11, 2008 NY Supports Vets

  The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce is proud to announce our involvement with the Beyond Tribute Program - a special Veterans Day partnership with Freedom Is Not Free - a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides
exceptional help and services to soldiers returning from war and their
families.  It is the hope of MCC that by partnering with Freedom Is Not Free* we change Veterans Day in New York into a business and citizen involvement program that actually helps our heroes and drives business to NYC!

 

It has been a great American business tradition to recognize Veterans Day with tribute parades and commercial sales events. But today, tens of thousands of wounded veterans from all wars including Vietnam, Desert Storm, Afghanistan and Iraq, are suffering from a well-publicized lack of essential support. It is now time for us to go Beyond Tribute, and step up to the plate and actually help our heroes!


This year, with your support, and support from people like Walter
Cronkite; actor Kim Cattrall; HBO’s Chairman/CEO, Bill Nelson;  military analyst
for MSNBC and Medal of Honor recipient Col. Jack Jacobs, USA (ret.), NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, NY State Senator Bill Larkin and hundreds of business owners across New York City, we can truly make Veterans Day a meaningful holiday - a holiday that goes beyond simple tribute, and truly helps those who have sacrificed so much for their country.

By joining our campaign and donating to Beyond Tribute, or pledging a percentage of your Veterans Day sales, you can make a difference in the life of a soldier who’s returning home from Afghanistan with a traumatic brain injury - or in the life of a family that can no longer meet their  financial obligations because mom has returned from Iraq an amputee.

Our goal is to create a huge groundswell of support among businesses in
the Big Apple - and we need your help.

How can you participate? 
Visit www.BeyondTribute.org and learn all about the NYC “Beyond Tribute” Veterans Day Program and register, agreeing to donate 10% of your proceeds from the day to support NYC Vets! (or pick a donation level or promotion period leading to Vets Day that works for your business)


Your business will benefit by:
·Being listed on the website which will be promoted throughout the city
·Gaining more publicity from our website and media partners and veterans groups - all sending out the message to patronize Your Business. 
·Usage of official NYC Beyond Tribute Program promotional materials to help you tell your customers to “shop here today and you’ll be helping our wounded veterans in need”
·Tips how to promote the program so your business grows
·An offer of a one year membership in the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce to further promote your business at a discounted rate

(or complementary membership depending upon donation level)
 
So visit www.BeyondTribute.org to register and promote this worthy cause and promote your business as a caring community partner!!

 


*FINF is a 501c(3) nonprofit dedicated to aiding wounded service members, their families and the families of the fatally wounded

Posted in Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

|