Today, Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) held a press conference at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia where he detailed a new bill that would address the backlog of veteran disability claims in Pennsylvania and across the country.

Casey reported that the average wait time for veterans after filing disability claims is 288 days. Pennsylvania's average is 300 days.

The "21st Century Veterans Benefits Delivery Act" (S. 2091) detailed by Casey aims to reduce the backlog and wait times for veterans who file disabilities claims by addressing three areas—access to information and services so that veterans can file correctly the first time, the actual process of filing and VA funding so the department can add employees as needed.

"This can be a very complicated process," Casey said.

Navy veteran Joe Eastman knows first hand how complicated filing for a disability claim can be. While he has been fortunate enough to never have filed one for himself, Eastman has worked with the Veterans Group, a 7-year-old Philadelphia organization that shelters and assists veterans in need.

"The process is too hard," Eastman said. "I wonder how the younger people who don't know how to work the system deal with that."

However, as Casey pointed out, several government agencies are involved in providing evidence of disabilities and processing claims for veterans in addition to the VA.

"There are people that do great things within the system, but there are parts of it that make it much harder than it should be," Eastman said.

The average wait time for disabled veterans is higher than the wait time for disabled civilians who file with the Social Security Administration. Despite a backlog of more than 600,000 claims, the average processing time for civilian claims was 107 days.

VA corruption in Phoenix

Casey held his Philadelphia press conference the same day that the Department of Veterans Affair released a report that confirmed allegations of falsified health records at a Phoenix, Ariz., VA hospital. According to the report, 1,700 veterans were wait-listed for treatment, in many cases for months, while the hospital tried to cover up the problem.

The report said that corrupt scheduling practices are "systemic throughout" the VA, but gave no specifics outside of Phoenix as to where the issue is occurring or exactly how widespread it is.

Congressman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) called for VA Secretary Eric Shinseki's resignation as well as a criminal investigation by the attorney general.

Assumed corruption in Pennsylvania

Yesterday, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said that at least one of the VA facilities under investigation for delaying care is in Pennsylvania, but did not cite his source of information.

"I'm not certain which one it is," Toomey said to the Allentown Morning Call. "But my understanding is there's at least one."

Although there are no specific reports of VA facilities in Pennsylvania that echo the corruption and fraud found in Phoenix, Casey said that he would assume corruption is part of a "system-wide failure" that could affect Pennsylvania, if it hasn't already.  

"Based upon the reporting that's been done nationally, I have to assume—we should assume this to be safe—that if you have problems like they had in Phoenix and in other places, if they're not here in Pennsylvania now, they're going to be here," Casey explained.

There is currently no evidence that veterans in Pennsylvania wait longer for care at VA hospitals than civilians do.