Top 10 News For Veterans from Around the Country 08-01-08

1.  GAO: Project Management Plan Needed For VA’s HealtheVet Program.
2.  VHA Accounting System Said To Be Ripe For Fraud.  
3.  HUD Secretary Says President Wants To Double Spending On Homeless Vets.  
4.  VA Planning To Build New Clinic In Indiana.  
5.  Dedication Ceremony Held For New VA Facility In Ohio.  
6.  VA To Take Over Management Of Clinic In North Carolina.  
7.  VA Clinic In South Carolina Moving To Larger Site.  
8.  Sacramento VAMC No Longer Referring Patients To Sierra Vista Facility.  
9.  Rural Nevada Vets Benefiting From New VA Program.  
10. VA To Open Contracting And Acquisitions Facility In Maryland.

     1.      GAO: Project Management Plan Needed For VA’s HealtheVet Program.   Federal Computer Week (7/31, Mosquera) reported, "The Veterans Affairs Department needs a project management plan and a governance structure to implement its HealtheVet program successfully to modernize its medical information system, the Government Accountability Office…reported" Wednesday. Although the VA "has made progress in this area, it has also experienced significant delays, and none of the associated development projects has been completed, GAO said in a report released July 30." The GAO "recommended that VA’s chief information officer develop a project management plan for HealtheVet, cost estimates, permanently fill program and enterprise development positions, and develop a schedule for and conduct project milestone reviews." FCW noted that in response to the GAO report, Gordon Mansfield, VA’s deputy secretary, said the VA is validating and reviewing a project management plan.

2.      VHA Accounting System Said To Be Ripe For Fraud.   The Navy Times (8/1, Hernandez) reports, "The accounting system used by the Veterans Health Administration is ripe for fraud because of an outdated method for recording miscellaneous expenses, a congressional watchdog agency warned July 31." A yearlong review by the Government Accountability Office "did not turn up any fraud, just a 60-year-old bookkeeping method that often provides too little information to know if the purchases were proper and actually arrived." Edward Murray, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ deputy chief financial officer, "acknowledged the problem and said the agency is committed to fixing it, including issuing guidelines requiring more details about expenses."

3.      HUD Secretary Says President Wants To Double Spending On Homeless Vets.   The Philadelphia Inquirer (7/31, Lin) reported the US Department Of Housing and Urban Development’s annual report to Congress on homelessness "estimated that 154,000 veterans were homeless" in 2007. This year, HUD and the Department of Veterans Affairs "will spend $75 million to reach out to 10,000 homeless veterans." HUD Secretary Steve Preston "said President Bush was seeking to double that next year."
      VA Awards Housing Assistance Grant To Arizona Nonprofit.   The Tucson (AZ) Citizen (7/31) reported, "The Tucson-based nonprofit Comin’ Home Inc. will get an estimated $240,000 in federal fiscal year 2009 to provide homeless veterans with temporary housing." The "money will help up to 20 veterans for up to a year, with a maximum daily subsidy of $33 for temporary housing." Jim Benson, spokesman for the federal Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, DC, "said Wednesday that Comin’ Home is among 55 community-based efforts throughout the nation to get a per-diem award to help homeless veterans in this round of grants."
      Homeless Vets In Atlanta Could Benefit From Additional Funding.   The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (8/1, Pagliery) reports homeless veterans in metro Atlanta "may soon receive much-needed help through the expansion of a federal housing program." On Thursday, HUD "awarded the DeKalb County Housing Authority $2.96 million to be used on 350 rental assistance vouchers for homeless veterans in Atlanta. The funding is part of $75 million awarded through the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program, known as VASH." The Journal-Constitution adds, "Some of the funding will also go to social work done by the Atlanta VA center."

4.      VA Planning To Build New Clinic In Indiana.   The Evansville (IN) Courier & Press (7/31, Shaw) reported, "In as few as three years, veterans likely will have to go to Evansville’s East Side for medical care," because the Department of Veterans Affairs "has obtained a $1.8 million option to buy 11 acres at the northwest corner of Burkhardt Road and Columbia Street." The VA "plans to build an outpatient clinic there that, by 2011, would replace the one that stands at 500 Walnut St." The VA’s choice of location "goes against the recommendations of many community leaders" who lobbied the VA for a downtown clinic.
      VA Decides Not To Locate Facility In Downtown Area.   The AP (7/31) reported Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel "wanted the new clinic downtown on the former campus of Welborn Baptist Hospital to make it more accessible to older veterans, but the government in February told Evansville leaders that site did not meet necessary criteria for building a new state-of-the-art facility."
      On its website, WEHT-TV Evansville, IN (7/31, Cornell), which also noted Weinzapfel’s desire for a downtown location, noted that Weinzapfel wrote US Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-IN), asking Congress to "consider renovating existing facilities when analyzing future projects." In his letter, Weinzapfel went so far as to say, "I believe Congress should mandate that the VA pay attention to the desires of local residents and at least consider renovating existing facilities and building in highly distressed areas when they analyze future projects."

5.      Dedication Ceremony Held For New VA Facility In Ohio.   On its website, WCPO-TV Cincinnati, OH (7/31, McKee) reported, "It’s one-stop shopping now for veterans seeking primary care services" at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Corryville, Ohio. Dedication ceremonies "were held Thursday for the new Primary Care Center on Vine Street. It’s triple the space of the former primary care facility, which required visitors to traverse several floors of the building."

6.      VA To Take Over Management Of Clinic In North Carolina.   The Wilmington (NC) Star-News (7/31, Ware) reported the US Department of Veterans Affairs "will not renew a contract with Sterling Medical to provide services at its outpatient clinic in Wilmington after Nov. 29, a VA spokesman said Wednesday." The decision "not to renew the clinic contract was announced a week after a clinic employee took her concerns about patient care public." The Star-News added, "The VA Medical Center in Fayetteville, parent facility for the Community-Based Outpatient Clinic in Wilmington, will staff and manage the clinic, VA communications officer David L. Raney said in a faxed statement."

7.      VA Clinic In South Carolina Moving To Larger Site.   The Florence (SC) Morning News (7/31) reported, "Veterans in the Pee Dee soon will have a new, larger outpatient clinic, according to a press release from the Veterans’ Affairs Office" in Columbia, South Carolina. Priscilla Creamer, public affairs officer for the William Jennings Brian Dorn Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, "said her office is the parent company for the Florence Outpatient Clinic. She said the people running the Florence clinic are in the midst of moving" to a new facility located at 1822 Sally Hill Farm Road. Creamer "said the new clinic will be open for most of the day as the moving schedule permits until Friday, when it opens full-time." The "new, much larger clinic will be able to accommodate the nearly 27,000 veterans living in the Pee Dee."

8.      Sacramento VAMC No Longer Referring Patients To Sierra Vista Facility.   The Sacramento (CA) Bee (8/1, Milbourn) reports officials at the Sacramento Veterans Affairs Medical Center "are so troubled by conditions at a local psychiatric facility they no longer send patients there." The facility "referred 43 patients to Sierra Vista Hospital in 2007 for mental health treatment. But referrals have been halted since November, The Bee learned this week, when a veteran reportedly received shoddy care at the facility." VA spokeswoman Robin Jackson "would not elaborate on what happened in that case, but she said the lapses were serious enough to suspend a long-standing relationship. ‘We’re waiting for assurances our veterans will receive high quality care,’ Jackson said." Until that time, the VA "sends patients needing inpatient mental health services to Sacramento’s Heritage Oaks or a similar facility in El Dorado County."

9.      Rural Nevada Vets Benefiting From New VA Program.   The Ely (NV) Daily Times (7/31) reported, "Rural Nevada veterans now have easier access to federal benefits information and assistance through an innovative Remote Benefits Delivery Program using video conferencing technology." In partnership with the Nevada Office of Veterans Services (NOVS) in Elko, the Veterans Affairs Regional Office in Reno "will be providing this additional service to an estimated 7,671 veterans who reside in Elko, Humboldt, Lander, Eureka and White Pine counties." The "first Remote Benefits Delivery Program was implemented in rural Montana in March 2008." The following month, US Sen. Reid (D-NV) requested that the VA consider expanding the program to rural Nevada. That request "was approved in May."

10.    VA To Open Contracting And Acquisitions Facility In Maryland.   Maryland’s Gazette (7/31, McClay) reported the US Department of Veterans Affairs "plans to open a branch of its new Center for Acquisition Innovation" program in the Frederick Corporate Park this fall. The VA program, which "will also operate in Austin, Texas, and at the VA main office" in Washington, DC, "is charged with overseeing and streamlining" the agency’s "contracting and acquisitions procedures." The VA "recently signed a 10-year lease with the Artery Group through McShea & Co. for the 40,500-square-foot space on New Technology Way, which will be in a portion of the space recently vacated by Wells Fargo Home Mortgage." The Gazette noted that the Center for Acquisition Innovation program "will be the first VA location in Frederick County."
      Colorado Firm Completes Sale, Leaseback Deal With VA.   The Denver Business Journal (7/31) reported, "University Physicians Inc. (UPI) has completed a $37 million sale and leaseback deal with the Veterans Administration for the group’s office building near the Anschutz Medical Campus" in Aurora, Colorado. UPI "is leasing the building and parking lot back from the VA until UPI completes a new building on a nearby site it has under contract from the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority. The new building is expected to be completed in mid-2010."