How one Veterans Affairs employee's ingenuity took a big bite out of VA's appeals backlog

Summary: In 2017, Congress created a new system for veterans to appeal their disability claims – replacing a process that sometimes dragged on for years. But even after the new system took effect, there were still hundreds of thousands of claims stuck in the “legacy” appeals system. Our next guest was put in charge of speeding those claims along, and by all accounts, she was wildly successful. Mary Frances Matthews is an operations senior management and program analyst at the Veterans Benefits Administration. And for her work on streamlining that legacy appeals process and cutting the backlog, she’s been named a finalist in the Management Excellence category for this year’s Service to America Medals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices