4: Flagship Initiative Other Information:
VA Innovation Initiative In August 2009, President Obama challenged employees of VA’s Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA)
to an innovation competition to improve claims processing for Veterans. Over 7,000 VBA employees submitted 3,000 ideas. Each
VBA Regional Office selected the top idea and the final selection panelists received all 57 ideas to evaluate them. Ten finalists’
ideas were selected by a panel comprised of Admiral Patrick W. Dunne, former VA Under Secretary for Benefits; Craig Newmark,
founder of craigslist.org; Dr. Peter Levin, Chief Technology Officer; and Garry Augustine, Deputy National Service Director
for Disabled American Veterans. Ten ideas were chosen, including five that required funding, and all are currently being developed
and implemented. After the success of the VBA innovation competition, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) reached out
to our employees to find innovative ways to improve or create health information technology using the same general process
as in the VBA competition. In February approximately 45,000 VHA employees submitted 6,500 ideas and cast 500,000 votes. The
seventy-five ideas that received the most votes, along with twentyfive ideas dubbed ―gems‖ by the Under Secretary, will be
reviewed by a panel of judges responsible for selecting a pool of 25 winning ideas to be funded. We look forward to announcing
the winners after May 7th. This summer, VA Innovation Initiative (VAi2) will institutionalize these efforts as an ongoing
initiative that seeks to improve VA’s ability to increase Veteran access to its services, reduce or control costs of delivering
those services, enhance the performance of its operations, and improve the quality of service Veterans and their families
receive. Through the VA Innovation Initiative, VA employees, private sector entrepreneurs, and academic leaders will have
the opportunity to participate in creating a 21st century agency by contributing their best ideas and solutions. The VAi2
will identify, prioritize, fund, test, and deploy the most promising solutions to our most important challenges. We will develop
the competition in iterative ―rounds‖, staggered throughout the year. This will allow the participants to focus on specific
topics and provide the most thoughtful and useful ideas. We plan to tackle some of VA’s largest challenges; for example, eliminate
Veteran homelessness, enable 21st century benefits delivery and services, and electronic health record interoperability. .
Agent Orange Fast Track is an excellent example of how we are already soliciting private sector ideas for delivering benefits
faster: SPOTLIGHT ON COLLABORATION: AGENT ORANGE PRESUMPTIVES On October 13, 2009 Secretary Shinseki added B Cell leukemia,
Parkinson’s Disease, and Ischemic Heart Disease to the presumptive list of conditions associated with Agent Orange exposure.
This will expand benefits to service-connected Veterans with these illnesses. The decision will also add an estimated 200,000
net new claims to the current backlog. While this decision presents a challenge, it also presents an opportunity. In a continued
effort to enhance customer service, the VA created a Request for Information (RFI) not only to manage the large volume of
new claims under Agent Orange but also to develop new business processes, technologies, and systems that will reduce the claims
backlog at VBA. The RFI resulted in over 23 responses. This is just one example of how VA can collaborate with the private
sector to battle the claims backlog and improve the agency’s business processes.
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