VA is increasingly looking to AI to enhance claims processing

The Department of Veterans Affairs has already been using some artificial intelligence tools to better process benefits claims, with the agency planning to further leverage these capabilities to expedite its turnaround times.

Veterans earn healthcare, education, pension, disability and other benefits from their military service, with VA personnel processing these claims as they are submitted to the department — a task that can take weeks or months to complete.

VA’s latest AI strategy, which was released in October, said additional uses of the technologies would enhance claims processing because “AI will be capable of further automating tasks such as document intake, classification, and preliminary adjudication, making it more feasible than ever for VA to deliver benefits in ‘minutes not months.’”

The department has already been adopting and piloting uses of AI across its operations, including using high-powered algorithms to help clinicians identify veterans at high risk of self-harm and rolling ...