Free Republic

DURHAM, N.C. — A group of Duke University physicians has threatened to stop treating military veterans referred by the Veterans Affairs Medical Center because the VA won’t pay enough. Executives of Duke’s Private Diagnostic Clinic physicians’ group voted to stop treating the veterans Jan. 15 because the VA system wouldn’t agree to pay them more than 100 percent of current Medicare reimbursement rates. PDC Executive Director Paul Newman wrote in a Jan. 7 memo that the group wouldn’t treat VA patients. The new rule was to take effect Jan. 15, according to the memo, but apparently hasn’t. “As far as...

Dallas VA hospital is nation's worst Officials say they've eliminated most problems in federal report 07:00 AM CST on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 By DOUG J. SWANSON / The Dallas Morning News The Dallas veterans hospital is so dirty, dangerous and poorly managed, federal investigators have found, that it ranks as the worst such medical center in the country. Investigators' report says the Dallas veterans hospital 'did not maintain a consistently clean and safe environment.' An inspector general's report for the Department of Veterans Affairs said the scores for the North Texas Health Care System place it last among all...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Maggots were born in the noses of two comatose patients four years ago at a city Veteran's Administration hospital infested by mice and flies, according to a medical journal report released Monday. The story in the Archives of Internal Medicine details the 1998 infestation. It said mice would sometimes dash over the feet of employees in the hospital director's suite. Hospital officials said the hospital no longer has any cleanliness problems. Barbara Shatto, the hospital's quality manager, said the hospital scored 99 out of 100 when it was inspected by the Joint Commission on Accreditation...