Va Facing New Congressional Crackdown After $1 Billion Colorado Hospital Boondoggle

[Notorious Kelly]

Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman maintains, "It's not isolated to Aurora, Colorado. Every major construction project that the [VA] has right now is hundreds of millions of dollars over-budget and years behind schedule.....VA construction managers couldn't lead starving troops to a chow hall,"

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/12/30/rep-moves-to-crack-down-on-va-projects-after-colorado-hospital-boondoggle/?intcmp=latestnews

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[Navy04]

Great Info Bud, thanks

[john999]

I don't want the VA to build any new hospitals. I want them to free me from a system that is bound to fail. If the VA reimbursed medical providers at a decent rate there would be no need of VA hospitals. There are four hospitals within 5 miles of my house. If I want to use the VA system I have to drive 20 miles and go from building to building. New construction for the VA is just an excuse to funnel graft to congressional buddies at tax payer expense. I don't want the current Fee Base system either because their reimbursement rates are so low that few providers will touch them in my area. We don't need a VA health care hospital/doctor system. Maybe for the terminally ill or for hospice, but there are plenty of hospitals in most urban areas. If you live in the boondocks then you have to drive for hours anyway. I think in the State of Florida maybe there are 6 or 7 VA hospitals. There are a couple of 3-4 million vets at least. There are about 100 for profit/Big City hospitals and all take Medicare and medical insurance like ChampVA, Tricare or Blue Cross. When I do go to the VA I always meet older vets who have driven 100 miles because this is the closest facility that has the MRI machine or some other special service. Florida is bigger in population than New York and yet vets have to drive for miles to get care. A lot of these older vets from Korea or even WWII are in their 80's and 90's driving on the interstate to get to a VA hospital for tests. The roads here are like "Death Race 2000" anyway.

Back in I think if was 1969-70 the VA built a VA hospital in North Tampa. They could have bought square miles of land to use to expand for the future, but they didn't plan for that. They built for the demand of 1965 maybe with not a care, or concern in the world that the population of vets in Florida was going to grow greatly in the next few decades. Everyone else in the USA knew Florida was in a population boom except the planners at the VA. Now the VA has to pay top dollar to expand ever farther away from Tampa. The VA hospital is scattered all over hell and back. The pharmacy is here and mental health is miles down the road. My new PCP is at the new annex which is 5 miles east of the VA hospital. There are days when I am supposed to visit four different buildings miles apart. The VA needs to and stop the construction of more bricks and concrete . There is a system in place already. Of course, poor people can't use it anyway unless they are dying or have Medicade. Florida voted against expansion of Medicade. A lot of vets do use the VA hospitals to die on clean sheets. I guess they want to relieve their relatives of the cost of final expense. VA is the elephant graveyard for old and/or vet sick vets. I wonder what the rate for staff infections is for VA hospitals?

[Vync]

In Birmingham, the VAMC was built in either the 40's or 50's, and just like the facilities in Tampa, they ran out of room. Now they are building a new primary care outpatient facility just about 2 miles down the road. I wonder it it will be over budget and late like this one...

[K9MAL]

The recently built VA hospital here in Las Vegas is the furthest thing north of the city, literally. It's a huge pain in the ass to get to.