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raquelromano-gov/rr-2017-10-disability-claims.md

Last active October 19, 2017 18:21
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Raquel disability claims technical discovery notes
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rr-2017-10-disability-claims.md

Raquel notes on disability claims technical discovery

526ez claim submission

  • ultimately, we will need the 526ez submit API and it's easy to do for traditional claims
    • only caveat DRC introduces is that it needs either or both
      • the right EP so it's routed to the right stage of the NWQ
      • the DRC cover sheet: do not know where this is submitted and how it is connected to the 526ez if it just sits in VBMS (currently via Direct Upload)

526ez view previous claim

  • refer to Laura's eBen usability baseline study to see what is already available
    • structured data
    • open question: is any evidence that was submitted with that claim viewable by the applicant?
  • need to know if this is already what claim status shows (for a closed claim that received a rating)
    • if so, backend work is done
  • need some design on how we will display the claim information if it will be different from what's in claim status

ITF (21-0966)

  • in all cases, need to check whether it's there and if not, submit it
    • EVSS already has this in PINT for testing
    • we need a UI to test it with

Upload evidence

  • this feature already exists in claim status tool
  • need design/research on whether we just replicate this within the claim increase tool, or somehow integrate with claim status document upload
  • backend work is done, with caveat that we may need to tag evidence
    • need product discovery on what tags exist for evidence uploaded to VBMS (e.g., medical records, DBQ, other evidence of service-connection, etc.)
      • CSRA may have done some of this discovery already
  • document upload workflow built by Mark Olson is very generic and easily repurposed
  • DRC cover sheet is required for this evidence to be properly tagged

Download evidence

  • product discovery needed on what evidence is already available via Blue Button / health records download or vets.gov claim status
  • process/policy discussions around allowing Veteran to view greater set of their VBMS documents; the uncertainty surrounding could mean it's out of scope
  • any documents uploaded via vets.gov claims tool should be viewable by the Veteran
  • open product question: if a Veteran has uploaded files to eBenefits' in-flight data store, will they be viewable from vets.gov tool

Contract exam request

  • applicant asks to request an exam; currently this should just trigger the modernization vendor to look at the conditions and evidence uploaded and approve/deny
  • VSOs can submit a VA Form 4138 (though there is a new VA form is pending OMB approval) for this
    • discovery needed: can a Veteran also submit this form?
  • if approved, the modernization vendor orders the contract exam, so no work to do on vets.gov since this is VA process

Contract exam scheduling

  • need product discussions (possibly with Chris Johnston and DSVA scheduling team) on whether any existing VA scheduling products also allow contract exam scheduling
  • building an exam scheduler is likely out of scope since that's a product in and of itself

DBQs

  • falls into same bucket as document upload above (need to know tags, need to use DRC cover sheet)
  • currently VSO can look in VBMS to see if the DBQs match the exam requests to know whether all exams are complete
    • discovery needed: will Veteran be given viewing permissions for those documents as well to do the same verification?

Notifications

  • product/design: need to work with vets.gov notifications team about how they are implementing notifications that a form has been submitted, so that we can provide a consistent experience
  • likely we can resuse the notification sending mechanism
  • discovery needed: what systems are pollable to know when something with the application has changed, and a notification is in order?
    • may be able to task CSRA for a walk-through of current claim status tool, although that will not cover DRC-path status changes

Validation

  • before we allow the applicant to submit, we should do some sort of validation that the claim + evidence package is on-track/likely to be accepted into the DRC path
  • product discovery: need to list all of the criteria needed to determine if DRC will work
  • technical discovery: need to figure out which of those criteria can be automatically determined

Off-ramp

  • if at any point it becomes clear to the Veteran that DRC is not the way forward, need a way to allow them to reuse all this work when going over to eBen or going to a VSO
  • possibly export in-progress app + evidence into a zip file

Related Resources

Appeals Team Research

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