• Board Appeals (Notice of Disagreement) VA Form 10182 can be pre-docketed and the workflow is contained in the Pre-Docket Queues. Both Higher-Level Review VA Form 20-0996 and Supplemental Claims VA Form 20-0995 go through the decision review process in the Decision Review Queue. An appeal is pre-docketed for an action to be created and assigned for document assessment. This allows the business line user to review and assess documents associated with the appeal and corresponding issues to determine if the appeal is ready to be docketed.

• Requires feature toggle edu_predocket_appeals to be enabled.

• An appeal is in the Pre-Docket queue if it has at least one request issue that is marked as needing pre-docket.

• Pre-docketing is indicated by the column is_predocket_needed on request_issues.

image:Compontent Name: NonratingRequestIssueModal.jsx

• Request Issues need a benefit type of Education or Veterans Health Administration in order to be marked as needing pre-docket. code reference

def predocket_needed?
    !!is_predocket_needed
  end

  def education_predocket?
    user = RequestStore.store[:current_user]

    benefit_type == "education" &&
      FeatureToggle.enabled?(:edu_predocket_appeals, user: user) &&
      predocket_needed?
  end

  def vha_predocket?
    benefit_type == "vha" && predocket_needed?
  end

• If an appeal is pre-docketed with an ‘Education’ Benefit Type it will be placed on the Executive Management Office queue with the option to be assigned to a Regional Processing Office queue.
  • An EducationAssessDocumentationTask will be created and assigned to the EducationRpo type organization that was selected.
• If an appeal is pre-docketed with a ‘Veterans Health Administration’ Benefit Type and ‘Caregiver’ issue, it will be placed on the VHA Caregiver Support queue.

image caption: tree diagram for the PreDocket task that has been assigned to caregiversupport.

• If an appeal is pre-docketed with a ‘Veterans Health Administration’ Benefit Type and ‘non-Caregiver’ issue, it will be placed on the VHA CAMO queue with the option to be assigned to a Program Office queue and subsequently a VISN queue.

image caption: tree diagram for the PreDocket Task that has been assigned to camo.

code reference

  def create_tasks_on_intake_success!
    if vha_predocket_needed?
      PreDocketTasksFactory.new(self).call_vha
    elsif edu_predocket_needed?
      PreDocketTasksFactory.new(self).call_edu
    else
      InitialTasksFactory.new(self).create_root_and_sub_tasks!
    end
    create_business_line_tasks!
  end

developer note:More detail on Predocket workflow code can be found here

• As the appeal is navigated through the workflow and various queues, the Task Action ‘Documents ready for review’ will request the end user to specify the location of the documentation for review. The locations are: VBMS, Centralized Mail Portal, or Other (with an additional required text entry prompt to include the source). Each location has an optional text entry prompt to detail the file structure or file path of the documentation at the selected location. image caption: Ready for review Modal. This utilizes CompleteTaskModal.jsx and location types are defined here

const locationTypeOpts = [
  { displayText: 'VBMS', value: 'vbms' },
  { displayText: 'Centralized Mail Portal', value: 'centralized mail portal' },
  { displayText: 'Other', value: 'other' }
];

image caption: Organization Structure.

• BVA Intake Organization Model
  • Education BusinessLine Model
    • Executive Management Office EducationEMO
      • Regional Processing Office EducationRPO

• Veterans Health Administration BusinessLine Model
  • Caregiver Support VhaCaregiverSupport
  • CAMO VhaCamo
    • Program Office VhaProgramOffice List of Program office
      • VISN VhaRegionalOffice List of VISN offices

[Refer to the Task Actions table to review which Task Actions are available on each respective queue and tab.]

Once a Board Appeal (Notice of Disagreement) VA Form 10182 is created with either an ‘Education’ or ‘Veterans Health Administration’ Benefit Type and one or more issues is created with the selection that pre-docketing is needed, the appeal will display on the corresponding business line’s queue. Users who can intake a 10182 have a role of Mail Intake or Admin Intake and are in the BVA Intake organization.

before_action:verify_access, except: [:attorneys]

def verify_access
    if !current_user.can_intake_decision_reviews?
      redirect_to "/unauthorized"
    else
      verify_authorized_roles("Mail Intake", "Admin Intake")
    end
  end
def index_props
    {
      userDisplayName: current_user.display_name,
      userCanIntakeAppeals: current_user.can_intake_appeals?,
      serverIntake: intake_ui_hash,
      dropdownUrls: dropdown_urls,
      page: "Intake",
      feedbackUrl: feedback_url,
      buildDate: build_date,
      featureToggles: feature_toggle_ui_hash,
      userInformation: **user_information_ui_hash**
    }
  rescue StandardError => error
    Rails.logger.error "#{error.message}\n#{error.backtrace.join("\n")}"
    Raven.capture_exception(error)
    # cancel intake so user doesn't get stuck
    intake_in_progress&.cancel!(reason: "system_error")
    flash[:error] = error.message + ". Intake has been cancelled, please retry."
    raise
  end
def user_information_ui_hash
    {
      userIsVhaEmployee: current_user.vha_employee?,
      userCanIntakeAppeals: **current_user.can_intake_appeals?**,
      userDisplayName: current_user.display_name,
      unreadMessages: unread_messages?
    }
  end

def can_intake_appeals?
    BvaIntake.singleton.users.include?(self)
  end

Link to: before_action index_props user_information_ui_hash can_intake_appeals?

note: verify_access in IntakesController is used to verify if the user has appropriate roles to access Intake first, then can_intake_appeals? method is used to verify if current user is a part of BVAIntake Organization which is passed as a props for displaying validation error message

Once an appeal is created with a ‘Veterans Health Administration’ Benefit Type and ‘Caregiver’ issue, the appeal is routed to the VHA Caregiver Support Program team cases queue. The queue has three tabs: Unassigned, In Progress, and Completed. The appeal will move through the tabs as a result of task actions being selected in the workflow.

Once an appeal is created with a ‘Veterans Health Administration’ Benefit Type and ‘non-Caregiver’ issue, the appeal is routed to the VHA CAMO team cases queue. The queue has three tabs: Assigned, In Progress, and Completed. The appeal will move through the tabs as a result of task actions being selected in the workflow. VHA CAMO will determine if the appeal needs to be further assigned to a Program Office queue or if it can be reviewed at the VHA CAMO level. The CAMO user can assign the task to one of five Program Office queues: Community Care – Payment Operations Management, Community Care – Veteran and Family Members Program, Member Services – Health Eligibility Center, Member Services – Beneficiary Travel, or Prosthetics.

If the appeal is not to be assigned to a Program Office, the VHA CAMO team will review the documentation and determine if the appeal will be returned to BVA Intake for further prerequisite review or if the documents are ready for review and can be sent to BVA Intake.

If an appeal is assigned to a Program Office queue, that Program Office will determine if the appeal needs to be further assigned to a VISN queue or if it can be reviewed at the Program Office level. After the documentation has been reviewed, the appeal will be returned to the VHA CAMO queue for further prerequisite review or if the documents are ready for review and can be sent to VHA CAMO.

If the appeal is further assigned to a VISN queue, the ‘Assign to VISN’ task action will allow the Program Office user to select a VA Medical Center (automatically aligned to appropriate VISN) or directly the VISN itself. Each option will place the appeal on the correct queue, but the two options allow the Program Office user to select at a more granular level (VA Medical Center) or general (VISN).

If an appeal is assigned to a VISN queue, that VISN will review the documentation available and determine if the appeal needs to be returned to the originating Program Office queue for further prerequisite review or if the documents are ready for review and can be sent to the originating Program Office.