Department Of Veterans Affairs U S

The California company headed by former Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony J. Principi overcharged the agency some $6 million under a long-term contract to conduct physical evaluations on veterans applying for disability benefits, an audit has found. The report, released Thursday, also questioned a proposal by the Department of Veterans Affairs to amend the contract with the company -- QTC Management Inc., based in Diamond Bar -- to charge higher rates than currently authorized.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs may paint a rosy picture of improving healthcare for veterans, but the agency has systematically denied benefits to sick veterans and delayed claims so long that many of them commit suicide, a lawyer for two advocacy groups argued in federal court Monday. "The court faces an agency that is in denial and a healthcare system and an adjudication system that are broken down and in crisis," said Gordon P.

A federal judge in San Francisco ruled Wednesday that although the Department of Veterans Affairs might have provided inadequate care or benefits to some veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, the department had not done so systematically. Veterans had sought a court order to compel the VA to improve services. U.S.

President-elect Barack Obama has chosen retired Gen. Eric K. Shinseki to be the next Veterans Affairs secretary, turning to a former Army chief of staff once vilified by the Bush administration for questioning its Iraq war strategy. Obama is expected to formally announce today his selection of Shinseki, 66, the first Japanese American to become a four-star Army general. "I think that Gen.

The 1,400 health clinics and hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs are beset by maintenance problems such as mold, leaking roofs and even a colony of bats, an internal review says. The investigation, ordered two weeks ago by VA Secretary Jim Nicholson, is the first major review of the facilities conducted since the disclosure of squalid conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. A copy of the report was provided to the Associated Press.

By the time it passed Congress last week, the $120-billion emergency war spending bill was missing some language that would have cheered Westside residents who fear that the vast West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus is destined for private development.

The Department of Veterans Affairs on Tuesday acknowledged problems in its award of $3.8 million in bonuses to senior officials who put healthcare at risk and said it would consider changes to avoid conflicts of interest and improve oversight. Testifying before a House panel, Veterans Affairs Deputy Secretary Gordon Mansfield insisted the hefty awards were appropriate and necessary to retain hardworking employees.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson has resigned. Nicholson, 69, a former Republican National Committee chairman, was picked by President Bush to head the VA Department in 2005. Nicholson said his resignation would take effect no later than Oct. 1.

In a stinging ruling, a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ripped into the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on Thursday for its continued resistance to paying benefits to veterans suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia because of their exposure to Agent Orange. Thursday's 3-0 decision marked the sixth major ruling against the government by the appeals court or a federal trial judge in a case that started in 1986.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was accused in a major lawsuit Monday of "shameful failures" in providing medical and mental healthcare to injured servicemen and women returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The 73-page suit, filed in federal court here on behalf of hundreds of thousands of veterans, is the first of its kind and seeks to dramatically transform the way the VA operates.