The Department of Veterans Affairs officials say they are developing a tool to scan documents veterans submit to prove that they qualify for disability compensation for “telltale signs” of fraud.
The system, which is not yet active but may be rolled out sometime in 2026, will review Disability Benefits Questionnaires, or DBQs, and comes amid a broader effort to crack down on a booming industry of private companies that some advocates call “claim sharks.” The companies pitch themselves to veterans as experts in filing paperwork and scheduling medical exams that bolster disability claims. In the past decade, the VA has sent close to 40 cease and desist letters to companies offering similar services, according to reporting by NPR and The War Horse.
Andrew Tangen, president of the National Association of County Veterans Service Officers, said he supports the VA using automation to comb through DBQs.
“Do I think it’s a bad idea? No. And quite honestly, I think it might show the prevalence of the issues with that DBQ fraud,” he said. “What claim sharks will do is they will spend a lot of money on social media advertisements to screw up Google’s algorithm so that when a veteran types in ‘I need a veteran advocate,’ they’ll be the first ones that pop up.”
DBQs are filled out by VA Compensation and Pension, or C&P examiners with a veteran’s diagnosis, medication history, medical tests, and day-to-day functioning related to their condition. The completed form is used to determine a veteran’s disability rating from 0 to 100%, which dictates monthly VA disability compensation.
The VA employs experts to help veterans work through the DBQ process for no charge, but many for-profit consultants offer similar help. In 2023, the VA Inspector General warned that veterans should be wary of “unaccredited ‘claims consultants’ or representatives” who charge veterans for help with benefit claims.
The VA’s focus on DBQs was first made public by James Smith II, a Veterans Benefits Administration official who told Congress about it last month at a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee hearing. It was first reported by Stars & Stripes and gained a lot of attention across social media with veterans bashing the proposal as the VA “treating disabled veterans like criminals,” and an effort to reduce disability benefits.
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VA spokesperson Peter Kasperowicz said in a statement to Task & Purpose that the new system is “not an AI tool,” and it will “identify patterns that may help VA identify when organized fraud rings are posing as legitimate medical providers and preying on veterans (for example, by excessively charging them),” adding that it will not change how the VA decides claims.
“No veteran’s claim or benefit will be reduced or denied because of this effort,” Kasperowicz said.
Tangen noted that it is already illegal under federal law for unaccredited companies to charge veterans for filing disability claims. But in 2006, Congress removed criminal penalties for the law, which advocates have said allowed private companies to “proliferate.”
Recent proposals by Congress have directed VA to clamp down on claim fraud, while some states are attempting to pass legislation to take down the companies.
Smith said the VA has been proactive about the issue by training claims processors on how to identify and report fraud.
The tool comes amid a larger conversation about cuts to veteran benefits and media attention on systemic abuse. An October Washington Post piece on VA fraud and fake disability cases struck a nerve across the veteran community, with advocates slamming the outlet for portraying VA health care and compensation as rife with abuse despite a “small number of outrageous frauds committed by a relative handful of individuals.”
“Fraud exists in every large system that handles public funds, including the Department of Veterans Affairs,” Carol Whitmore, commander-in-chief for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, told Congress earlier this month. “It is not the identity of America’s veterans.”
‘Telltale signs’ of fraud
Smith told lawmakers that the VA has determined “telltale signs” which indicate if a DBQ is potentially fraudulent or has been altered, like required information in the signature block is missing or the examiner’s address is over 100 miles from where the veteran lives.
But Tangen said the tool flagging for distance could be problematic.
“With a bunch of the dire understaffing that we have in mental health providers, a lot of mental health companies do telehealth appointments,” Tangen said. “You have a veteran who has post-traumatic stress who decides, ‘I want to use an outside provider, I found a great company that can help me,’ and they start using this provider that might be in, let’s say, San Antonio, Texas, and they live in St Paul, Minnesota.”
Smith told Congress that the VA’s “Power BI tool” would be ready for use this year and “will be able to analyze a little over a million public-facing DBQs that have been scanned going all the way back to 2010.”
However, a statement from Kasperowicz claimed that the tool is “forward-looking only” and will not be used “to revisit previously finalized and processed DBQs.”
Minority Veterans of America’s Executive Director Lindsay Church said any automated review of veterans’ information could pose security implications for veterans who served in sensitive positions, and run the risk of misinterpreting personal information, adding delays or denying benefits. Veterans, Church said, should be given an “opt-out” of such a system.
“These risks undermine almost all efficiency gains and have the potential to create additional administrative burdens for both veterans and VA staff,” Church said. “VA must take full responsibility for the accuracy of any and all information and disbursements.”
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