Noteboom The Law Firm

VA Improves Health Benefits Application Process

January 21, 2011 - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been working to improve the application process for VA health care benefits. The VA strives to utilize the best possible technology to ensure every veteran receives all the benefits they are entitled to while making access to those benefits easier. The VA recently enhanced the application process by streamlining its Application for Health Benefits; Form 10-10EZ, as well as making help with the form more accessible.

The VA also bumped up their online application process by adding a chat function. Through the chat function, veterans will be able to communicate with a live help desk as needed while they fill out the application form. At the same time, many of the questions regarding military service in Southeast Asia, the Gulf, and Vietnam have been simplified and made less confusing. Finally, smaller tweaks were put in place to make the overall application process smoother.     

Since the 10-10EZ form was made available online in November of 2000, almost 400,000 veterans have used it to apply for their VA health care benefits. The 10-10EZ form itself is broken into 6 sections:

• Personal information;
• Insurance information;
• Employment history;
• Military service; and
• A financial evaluation.

This is not the end of the VA's planned improvements for the application process. They also plan on putting sections of the benefits renewal form online, as well as creating a form exclusively used to demobilize active duty service members.