The VA maintains
an electronic data base of all veterans---including
activated National Guardsmen and
Reservists---who have ever been issued a DD214 (or predecessor
discharge paper) since the Civil War. I
t is called the Benefits
Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS)
and is located in Austin, Texas.
By law, data files
submitted only by other federal agencies
(but not directly by states or other entities)
can be run for data matches and “hits” against this
system---if the VA determines the other
federal agency
has an “appropriate” purpose (like helping those clients who may be
qualified veterans learn of and access
their health care rights, which is what state agencies requesting
computer matches should tell the VA is their
purpose---which it is).
There are some
formatting constraints which need to be followed up on. (it may be
necessary to have states
e-format, or have HRSA re-format, some ADAP files).
Identifiers used by BIRLS are:
-
Names
-
VA claim numbers
(the same as SSNs, but only since sometime in the late
1960s; there was a separate numbering system before then).
-
Dates of birth
-
Social Security
Numbers---almost universally captured since late 1960s, but
scattershot for discharges before that
-
Addresses to
which discharged and address from which enlisted (and thus not of
current value)
-
Character of
discharge---almost, but not quite, universally captured (only
honorable and general
discharges are eligible for VA health care)
-
Length of active
duty service—almost always captured (only those who served over 6
months,
for pre-8/80 enlistees, and 2 years, for post-8/80 enlistees are
eligible for VA health care)
-
Use by veterans
of benefits (health care, pensions, compensation, education,
mortgages, etc.)
-
One can get
output only for those with “hits” who meet the above parameters.
-
Some drawbacks
possible from using the VA’s BIRLS data base:
-
Where there is no
SSN in the BIRLS file, there may well be duplicate hits for those
with same
name---and even for some with same name and DOB.
There may be, for
some files, an inability to determine character of discharge or
length of service
-
Female veterans
who’ve later changed their names upon marriage won’t necessarily
be captured.
-
It is possible
that the VA may charge the requesting agency money to do this
-
The VA may have
formatting, file length or frequency-of-runs constraints
-
Requesting
agencies that only have paper files---or non-centralized files of
any kind that c
annot be easily merged and formatted uniformly---may be unable to
access this system
Where requesting
agencies have not captured the SSN in their own files---or
even worse, haven’t
captured the DOB—file comparisons are not likely to output useful
data.
Because of
the VA law, HRSA or another federal office must re-transmit states'
client files to VA.
ADAPs can seek assistance from
JoAnne Spearmon,
Health Resources and Services Administration,
Telephone |301) 443-6396
Email:
Jspearmon@hrsa.gov
)
for assistance in approaching the VA.
In addition, they and
other state medical and drug aid programs can seek
help from their own state’s
Members of Congress who serve on House or Senate Veterans’
Committees, or House or Senate
Veterans’ Appropriations Subcommittees, whose members are listed and
accessible through
www.thomas.gov.
Only
with facilitation through another federal or Congressional office,
then contact::
Ken Tibbets
Veterans’ Benefits Administration
Department of Veterans Affairs
811 Vermont Avenue, NW
Washington, DC20420
(202) 273-7280
Email:
CAPKTibb@vba.va.gov
For further information, contact Thomas P.
McCormack (202) 479-2543
tomxix@ix.netcom.com.
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