Look into the duplicate EP130 issue and how it overlaps with our EP merge work

[mackhowell-nava]

See this ticket for more context: https://github.com/department-of-veterans-affairs/digital-experience-products/issues/973

Acceptance Criteria

1. Based on the above ticket, what questions do we have?
2. Maybe: what additional info would we need in order to refine/scope this work?
3. Maybe: document the problem with a product brief or tech spec?

[dfitchett]

BLUF: This does not fall under the same purview as the EP Merge App.

Details

The issue that they are investigating deals with duplicate EP130s being established after filing dependency claims whereas the EP Merge app specifically deals with submission of the 526 EZ form for disability compensation.

Currently when a 686c and/or 674 are submitted from va.gov, each one of those forms is creating a separate EP130, resulting in tiered incremented 130s (130,131,132,133)

Some more details about those forms and their end products:

Form 686c

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Form 686c, officially known as "Declaration of Status of Dependents," is used by veterans to report any changes in the status of their dependents. This form is essential for updating the VA on matters such as:

1. Adding or removing a spouse.
2. Adding or removing children.
3. Reporting the death of a dependent.
4. Reporting the divorce from a spouse.
5. Updating the status of a dependent child (e.g., a child turning 18 or getting married).

By keeping the VA informed of these changes, veterans ensure that their benefits are adjusted accurately according to their current dependency status. This can affect the amount of compensation or pension benefits they receive.

Form 674

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Form 674, known as the "Request for Approval of School Attendance," is used by veterans or their dependents to request approval for educational benefits for a child between the ages of 18 and 23 who is attending school. This form helps the VA determine the eligibility of the dependent for continued benefits based on their school attendance.

Key uses of VA Form 674 include:

1. Reporting that a dependent child is attending school full-time.
2. Providing details about the educational institution and the course of study.
3. Confirming that the dependent child is not receiving educational benefits from other sources.

Filing this form ensures that the dependent child continues to receive benefits during their educational period, as long as they meet the VA's requirements for school attendance.

EP130

An End Product (EP) 130 in the Department of Veterans Affairs system is typically associated with actions related to dependency claims. Here are the forms that might generate an EP130:

1. VA Form 21-686c: Declaration of Status of Dependents

   • Used to add or remove dependents (e.g., spouse, children) or update dependency status.

2. VA Form 21-674: Request for Approval of School Attendance

   • Used to request approval for educational benefits for a dependent child between the ages of 18 and 23 who is attending school.

3. VA Form 21-674b: School Attendance Report

   • Used to verify continued school attendance of a dependent child.

4. VA Form 21-509: Statement of Dependency of Parent(s)

   • Used to claim a parent as a dependent based on financial dependency.

These forms are utilized to update the VA on the status of a veteran's dependents, which can affect the benefits they receive. Submitting any of these forms typically results in the generation of an EP130 to process the changes or requests.

[dfitchett]

These are the two potential paths forward:

1. if we establish a single 130, the system could append the contentions to the existing EP (preferred, optimal for field user experience)
2. If not, create the subsequent claim as an EP400 series as opposed to an incremented 130.

We could potentially leverage our existing application/infrastructure to perform the merging of successive EP130s when there is already an existing pending EP. We would need to verify several things first:

• is there a place in vets-api where we could hook into the submission of 686c?
• is there an API we can use to:
  • get existing pending EPs of prior submitted 686c
  • get the info of the submitted 686c?
• what other criteria would we need to determine eligibility for merging?
• is there an API we can use to submit the merged data?

[jenniferbertsch]

@dfitchett - Have you reached out to Daniel Bennett to see the research cited in the other ticket to understand the errors he is referring to?

Nevermind!! I've got it and will share with you via your va.gov email account.

[mackhowell-nava]

Open questions:

• Is it making a duplicate claim the first time they file? If so, it would be harder when to send a job to EP merge.
• EP130s are established when updating dependent information (e.g., adding and removing children and their education). Let's say I file a claim to add a dependent -- is that a contention? Because in the 526 world, contentions are disabilities.
• HMW reorganize the context of what we do with EP to apply here? For, can we use the BIP claims API -- but instead of disabilities, the contentions are adding/removing dependents? If so, we can do this, but it would still be a good amount of work.
• What kind of eligibility criteria do we need?