VA Contracts Go to Ex-Chief's Company

[WhiteTara]

This is how the GOP support our troops...scam them for billions
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-na-contractor23apr23,0,5890330.story?coll=la-home-headlines

WASHINGTON — A Diamond Bar company headed by former Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony J. Principi could get fees exceeding $1 billion from the VA, much of it on contracts approved and amended while he ran the agency, records show.

Principi was president of the medical services company QTC Management Inc. before he joined President Bush's Cabinet in 2001. He ran the VA for four years, then returned to the firm as chairman of the board.

While he was VA secretary, Principi's past and future corporate home collected about $246 million in fees, according to VA records. Congressional Budget Office projections show the contracts could be worth as much as $1.2 billion through 2008.

Principi said he had no role in awarding, amending or administering VA contracts with QTC.
snip
A QTC hearing exam, for instance, averaged $495.55 compared with $89.80 for an in-house VA exam. Even with an adjustment for possible hidden VA costs, the difference exceeded 400%. For a general medical exam, QTC's average fee was $393.52 compared with the VA's $225.58, the consultants found. They recommended further cost-comparison studies, but such an analysis was not done.

:grr:

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. Yah, no role. Nobody knows nothing anymore

Umhunh.

[Rex]

2. Veterans Affairs today, what can be said? Just another sad sign.

On the road to Hell. My grandfather, a WWII vet, died in a VA hospital. The treatment is as good as the funding provides, for whatever that is worth. I will probably end up in the same boat one day. To bad no one gives a dam about former service members. Rummy thinks we should all die before getting any kind of 'benefits'. One billion. Are those good benefits? Blood, sweat and tears? Bone, brain, chunks of flesh. Hope it all adds up to one billion for someone. :(

[Double T]

3. And no one will know something about anything........

all the roads of corruption lead to the WH. The money grab continues on all fronts.

[Rose Siding]

4. They have this down to a science don't they?

[OneBlueSky]

5. breaking the corporate hold on Congress should be at or near . . .

the top of any Democratic platform . . . unfortunately, nearly ALL elected Dems are in bed with corporations just as much as Repugs and won't vote to abolish their gravy trains . . .

the only way to solve this, imo, is to elect a Congress of men and women pledged not to take any corporate contributions . . . we also need a presidential candidate who will take the same pledge . . .

if this isn't fixed, electing a Democratic Congress and president will make little difference in the overall scheme of things . . .

[salin]

6. How many stories does it take for the public to catch on,

that privatization/private contracts to provide services DO NOT automatically = more efficiencies/lower costs?

A QTC hearing exam, for instance, averaged $495.55 compared with $89.80 for an in-house VA exam. Even with an adjustment for possible hidden VA costs, the difference exceeded 400%. For a general medical exam, QTC's average fee was $393.52 compared with the VA's $225.58, the consultants found. They recommended further cost-comparison studies, but such an analysis was not done.

[katinmn]

8. People are in denial. The Bush Admin are criminals down to the

last one.

And Congress looks the other way.

[katinmn]

7. more discussion on this from yesterday

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1004791&mesg_id=1004791