Digital Debt Dispute (VBA)

[denisecoveyduc]

Digital Debt Dispute - (VBA) Benefit Overpayment

High Level User Story/ies As a Veteran, I want a way to dispute a benefit overpayment debt electronically.

Objective: Establish an online process for Veterans to dispute VBA Benefit Overpayment debts.

Problem Statement If a Veteran has a benefit overpayment that they would like to dispute there is currently no formalized process for them to follow. Disputes can currently be submitted in a variety of formats (verbal, written, etc.) and the information required is not clearly defined. This experience can be confusing for Veterans and inefficient as additional information may need to be collected from the Veteran for the VA to process the dispute effectively.

What are the user goals? To dispute either the existence or amount of a benefit overpayment debt.

Definition of done What must be true in order for you to consider this epic complete?

• [ ] Veteran experience is live in production which formalizes the process and allows a Veteran to submit a digital dispute for benefit overpayment debts
• [ ] An email notification has been established that sends them confirmation of their online submission
• [ ] Debt Management Center (DMC) is receiving and processing debt disputes.
• [ ] Error handling has been established to ensure that all submissions are received by the Debt Management Center (DMC) correctly. Any failures are highlighted to both the engineering team and the Veterans for action.

In Scope

• Electronic process for submitting dispute for benefit overpayment debts to DMC
• Establishing submission notification to be sent to Veteran via email
• Error Handling

Out of Scope

• Electronic dispute for Medical Copays to be processed by VHA

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) OCTO Objective 1: Our digital experiences are the best way to access VA health care and benefit; Key Result: CSAT for our web products have increased by 5 points

What are the known risks?

• Required collaboration and dedicated resources from Debt Management Center (DMC)
• Ensuring Debt Management Center is able to clearly define the required information that needs to be collected from the Veteran.
• Effective production testing could be challenging for this initiative; will require "test" forms to be submitted and deleted from DMC processing pipeline.

Contacts + Stakeholders VA OCTO Product Owner: Denise Coveyduc VA Business Stakeholder: Robert Vitt - Debt Management Center (DMC) Implementation Team: Debt Resolution/ Veteran Online Debt Access (VODA)

Reference links: Product Outline/ Initiative Brief: Link User flow: Figma link QA Test Plan: Link TBD Release Plan: Link TBD Prototype Link

Monthly Initiative Updates:	Month	Update/Status notes
October 2024	Collab Cycle kickoff, PO sync and design intent have been scheduled.
November 2024	The Debt Management team is working through some contracting challenges and are unable to meet the requirements to set up a new API to receive these disputes. It will likely be a few weeks before we are able to reengage with this team which will likely push the launch into late January/Early February.

**Collaboration Cycle Tracking	CC Event	Information
✔ Kickoff	#95575
✔ PO Sync	Nov 5, 2024 @ 11am EST
✔ Design Intent	Nov 7, 2024@1:30pm EST
✔ Architecture Intent	Nov 18, 2024@4:30pm EST
CMS Request
Research Review
✔ Midpoint Review (Artifacts due Nov 14)	Nov 19, 2024@11:30am EST
Analytics Request
Contact Center Review
Staging Review (Artifacts due Nov 25)	Dec 3, 2024@11:30am EST
Privacy and Security Review

*Release Tracking - [Release Plan*](https://github.com/department-of-veterans-affairs/va.gov-team/blob/master/platform/product-management/release-plan-template.md)	Event	Information
Launch 5%	Dec 9, 2024
Launch 25%	Dec 10, 2024
Launch 50%	Dec 11, 2024
Launch 100%	Dec 12, 2024

Tasks (to be updated as needed)

• [ ] TBD

[denisecoveyduc]

@mgleo @josephrlee @charlottecesana @Tom-Davis @dhill802 Providing information related to the questions that came up during our discussion.

Question 1: Does VA take any "additional" actions when they receive a dispute request to prevent future overpayment debts from occurring?
Finding: Investigations have commenced to understand the details but initial understanding is that what caused the notification of debt will have stopped the additional benefits from being sent.

Question 2: Since there is no VA form for a dispute and therefore no OMB# are there any legal considerations we need to think about? (i.e. representation we should connect with etc.) Finding: This is not a concern as the online version will be another means of communication to accept disputes. The VA previously accepted disputes over email (now discontinued due to AVA) and thru AVA.

Question 3: Does the online experience need to collect both reasons for disputing a debt? 1) The existence of the debt 2) The amount of the debt? Finding: Yes, it is necessary to collect the reason they are disputing the debt. Additionally adding a space for a narrative from the Veteran will provide the context needed for the VA to process the dispute. Note, when a Veteran disputes a debt for either of those reasons the VA will stop ‘collection action’ while the dispute is being adjudicated.

Question 4: Is the DMC Development team ready and able to coordinate efforts for this initiative. Finding: Tentatively yes. I am coordinating our new timeline with this team to ensure they are able to accommodate. In previous discussions, they stated that this won’t be a big lift on their end and they will be able to accommodate.