Follow-up research on VSI Flash

[mackhowell-nava]

Issue Description

[Notes from 12/17/24 Sprint Planning]

• Follow-up research into applying VSI Flash #TODO Engineer
• Yang – yes it’s valuable. To confirm what the data sources is for VSI are what we actually want to use (might just be asking Alejandro). And based on knowing the data souce – how do we actually get access to that.

[Notes from 01/28/25 Sprint Planning]

• Yang - A little more research to do here, we can discuss in our next eng refinement.
• TLDR from meetings/research last week with Alejandro (see comments below):
  • Leverage the 10207 since it’s a lower LOE than getting a new data source.
• What's left until we can begin engineering?

Background Info

• The VSI data is in DOD (not in VA land) and would be hard to get.
• There is a VA form (10207) for vets to self-attest to having "priority processing"
• Alejando let us know that we CAN rely on the 10207, for an MVP here to apply the VSI Flash.
• So...can we use the 10207? It doesn't have logic of it's own. It's part of the VFF teams team. They create all the forms that don't have special backend logic (a ton of others that should also be digitized, they have a way of easily converting these into a generic webform/backend)
• Is there a place on the backend, to insert our Flash setting logic?
• Note: in vets-api it's all done in the "simple forms API".
• If you file a 526, does it tell you in any way to file a 10207? Not sure.
• Two ways forward:
  • Talk to the VFF team -- is there any precedent for what we're trying to do? Can they point us in the right direction?
  • POC this -- In case the VFF team gives us the go ahead, but doesn't give us pointers, we're still going to figure it out. Should this happen at the same time, or later?
• Another eng step -- figure out in our local VA env -- how to file an actual 10207 -- where does that data land, what does the payload look like? That will give us some good next steps for eng.

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Tasks

• [...Refine more in our eng meeting -- week of 01/28/25, if needed]
• Figure out what happens after we file a 10207 -- where does the data go, what does the payload look like? This should give us some good next steps toward a POC.
• Mack to set up a meeting for VFF team next week.

Acceptance Criteria

• We know what data is created when you file a 10207.
• We've met with the VFF team .

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How to configure this issue

• Attached to an Epic (what body of work is this a part of?)
• Labeled with Practice Area (engineer, data science, design, research , product)
• Labeled with Type (bug, request, discovery, documentation, etc.)

[mackhowell-nava]

Original context here: #3708 (comment)

Open question from @nanotone for our next sync with Alejandro here:

To apply the VSI flash, are either of these options (more) correct and/or preferable?

• Fetching VSI status from DoD
• Watching for VSI to be claimed on a 20-10207 request for priority

[nanotone]

Some learnings from the 1/16 VBA sync:

• VBA has a "data matching" MOU with various agencies, including the DoD, which allows for data sync'ing (on the order of weekly, say) and VSI status would presumably be part of this data.
  • Alejandro has a point of contact who could provide more detail on how this is implemented.
• It should be possible to use the 20-10207 VSI checkbox as a proxy for applying VSI flash -- there are other situations where VBA relies on the Veteran's own layman attestation.
  • For a 10207 with VSI checked, a claims processor is supposed to evaluate the accompanying VSI evidence and can manually fix the flash if needed.
  • Veteran is supposed to submit the 526 and 10207 together, but on VA.gov the 10207 is a VFF and it's unclear how it would be part of the 526 flow. We should talk to the VFF team to learn more.
  • If we do use the 10207 and it is submitted after the 526, we should run it by Josh/NWQ to see if routing would be affected.

[mackhowell-nava]

Note from @nanotone x Mack chat on 01/30/25:

• We're already going to chat with the VFF team(s) about the 4142 + combless form idea/work Talk to VFF team re: combless 4142 #3928
• We might need to talk to them about how we could hook into the 10207 logic to apply the VSI Flash -- since this is a VFF form as well