Talk:Anthony J. Principi
In 1998, QTC entered into a contract with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide medical exams for determination of benefits to service connected disabled veterans in spite of the fact that the VA medical care system is the largest in the world. See: http://knownet.hhs.gov/acquisition/performDR/PDF/ca1.pdf
Anthony J. Principi served as President of QTC for 18 months prior to his nomination as Secretary of veterans Affairs under President Bush in 2001. See: http://www.publicintegrity.org/report.aspx?aid=190&sid=200
On March 10, 2004, QTC was awarded incentive payments for customer care in examining veterans for the VA. See: http://www.qtcm.com/press_releases/va_incentive.asp . QTC surveys were solicited from examined veterans while they were still awaiting the results of their VA claims for service connected disability. It appears that veterans overwhelmingly endorsed QTC while the veteran's case is in a pending stage of the VA claims process. The issue arises as to whether QTC should solicit surveys from examined veterans after the initial decision when veterans know for the first time what the QTC examiner stated in the VA record.
In Southern California, veteran representatives estimated that the adjudication period for the initial claim took 12 to 18 months. See: http://www.sbcounty.gov/va/PDFs/5-CrisisBacklogFactsheet.pdf . The early examination by QTC for the VA has apparently not decreased the backlog of claims within the VA. See: http://www.va.gov/OCA/testimony/06no01DC_usa.htm .
The QTC understanding of "performance based service" desired by President Bush's administration resulted in praise from government executives. See: http://www.govexec.com/features/0701/0701market.htm . "Performance" was defined as, "Tell the contractor the result you want, not how to do the work, and then be sure you can measure whether that result has been achieved."
The early QTC examination followed by up to 18 months delay before a VA decision on the claim allows questionable communication between VA adjudicators and the QTC examiners without the knowledge of the veteran. See: http://www.hughcox.com/QTC_Guide.htm . This VA email message from N. Green raised disturbing questions about the integrity of medical examinations by QTC medical officials who examined veterans when the QTC examiner changed or altered the medical findings leaving the veteran with no recourse to challenge the findings except through several more years of VA appeals.
