News stories about the snafu over lost, unpaid, and overdue claims for benefits at the Veterans Benefits Administration have been coming fast and furious these past few months. In particular, the professional funnymen over at Comedy Central have devoted entire episodes of The Daily Show to the subject:
Media reports say that the average time needed to process a claim for VA benefits has grown to 272 days. But now, the agency says it's finally going to do something about this. On Tuesday, communications contractor Harris (HRS +0.09%) announced that it has won a four-year, $37 million contract to try to bring the Veterans Benefits Administration's (VBA) Enterprise Data Warehouse, the primary source for veterans' benefits data and information, into the 21st century.
Under this contract, Harris will design, develop, improve, integrate, implement, maintain and support the VBA's data warehouse. Harris Healthcare Solutions President Dr. Vishal Agrawal said in a statement that "Harris is proud to help the VBA to ensure that all of our veterans get the timely support they need."
