Rep. Keith Self Questions VA Official on Examiner Feedback and Vendor Trends

Examiner Feedback Challenges

• 🎯 Examiners reportedly no longer elevate challenges to their vendors because the vendors do not listen to them.
• ❓ This raises questions about how trends can be established if examiner feedback is not being received or acted upon by vendors.
• ⚠️ The situation is described as potentially a "paperwork drill" rather than actual feedback from the field.

VA's Observation and Examiner Perspective

• 💡 The VA's observation is that processes are in place to identify errors through review processes.
• 🗣️ However, a missing perspective is that of the examiners, who felt they were not being listened to by contractors.
• 🧐 Examiners felt they sometimes knew more than the contractor's quality assurance staff and desired to provide this feedback to the VA.

Establishing Trends and New Systems

• 📉 The testimony is considered "damning" regarding the VA's ability to establish trends without examiner feedback.
• 🛠️ Following a GAO recommendation, the VA developed an examiner portal which went live at the end of September.
• 📝 This portal includes an open text box for examiners to provide any feedback they deem necessary for the VA to know.
• 📊 The portal has been collecting data for approximately two months.