eric shinseki

The ex-Mount St. Mary's president resorts to a familiar dodge.

The Baltimore office of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, once the slowest in the country and the one that made the most errors, has reduced its backlog of disability claims by nearly 60 percent and drastically improved its rating accuracy, officials said Tuesday.

A report from the inspector general for the Veterans Administration found shortcomings at the VA's health clinics in Maryland.

VA wait times Glen Burnie VA Outpatient Clinic, veteran's health care, Steve Schuh

The new director of the Baltimore VA office took over in the middle of a crisis, but the career bureaucrat said he is optimistic that the office will meet its goals in 2015

The new head of the VA described the broad outlines Monday of an overhaul of the agency, which has been battered by scandals over lengthy delays setting up doctor's visits and attempts to cover up the backlogs.

Carolynn Baker, the newest commander of the American Legion Department of Maryland, who hails from Harford County, is making better access to health care for veterans and growing the membership of the American Legion, her top priorities as the leader of 63,000 American Legion members throughout the state.

WASHINGTON — The Maryland Veterans Affairs Health Care System is seeking help from private physicians in the Baltimore region to address a primary care backlog that has become one of the worst in the nation, federal officials said Monday.

The mishandling of thousands of documents at the Baltimore office of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs delayed payments in excess of $25,000 for some veterans, according to new details about the incident made public Monday by the department's inspector general.

Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs Sloan Gibson pledged to Maryland veterans in a visit Tuesday to Baltimore the addition of more primary care physicians and $500,000 to help pay for veterans waiting for appointments to see outside doctors.

Veterans in Maryland scheduling a primary care appointment through the Department of Veterans Affairs for the first time wait an average of 80 days to see a doctor, making the state's system fourth-worst in the nation out of 141 systems reviewed, according to government data.

It takes something as big as the VA scandal to prompt compromise in the gridlocked Congress; too bad more things aren't considered a national embarrassment.

Obama's firing of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki follows a long history of presidential dismissals.

The Social Security Administration office that reviews disability claims for Central Maryland has the third-longest processing delay in the nation, prompting a member of the state's congressional delegation on Monday to call for action to address its expanding backlog.

The Social Security Administration office that reviews claims for Maryland has the third-longest delay in the nation, prompting Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger on Monday to call for the agency to craft a plan to address the problem.

Calls for the resignation of Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki over ridiculously excessive wait times for VA medical appointments and, moreover, for the falsification of data that would have illuminated these and related problems, while understandable, are reactionary — and will do little to address the VA's more deeply rooted problems. These problems are systemic in nature. Their solution will require a long term, strategic approach in addition to some strong-handed

It was almost like old times last week watching CNN¿s wall-to-wall coverage of the Veterans Affairs scandal story.

Backlog of VA disability claims and the resulting hardships facing veterans are truly outrageous — but not surprising in the least

In Iraq, Lauren Augustine operated unmanned aircraft on surveillance and reconnaissance missions for the Army's storied 1st Infantry Division. In Washington last week, Augustine and her fellow veterans stormed Capitol Hill for comrades they say are being left behind.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Baltimore gave $64,000 in bonuses to its employees since 2010, even as the percentage of backlogged disability claims for Maryland veterans outpaced the national average by double digits.

In a letter sent Monday to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Maryland's senior senator calls on the VA's Baltimore office to develop an action plan within 10 days to improve its "lackluster" approach to an initiative designed to speed up the time it takes to process disability claims.

The beleaguered Veterans Affairs office in Baltimore excluded Maryland servicemen and servicewomen from a program designed to fast-track their disability claims, according to a senior American Legion official.

The Senate Appropriations Committee will consider a 10-point plan this week to address the claims backlog at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Chairwoman Barbara A. Mikulski said Tuesday.

As officials at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs look internally for solutions to a claims backlog that is drawing increasing fire from Capitol Hill, they are also reaching for outside help from some of the nation's best-known veterans groups.

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough visited the Baltimore regional office of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on Friday to discuss efforts to address the agency's persistent backlog of veterans disability claims.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers pressed the Obama administration on Wednesday to reduce the backlog of disability claims at the Department of Veterans Affairs by improving cooperation between the agencies that have a role in the process.

Maryland's U.S. House delegation met Wednesday with Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki to keep pressure on the agency to fix problems at the troubled Baltimore office and follow up on promises for improvement.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced Friday a plan to fast-track disability claims at least a year old, a move that advocates expect will bring relief to Maryland servicemen and women who face one of the largest backlogs in the country.