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December 6, 2009

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VA overhaul of health plan delayed

Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2003 | 10:59 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

WASHINGTON -- A plan to overhaul the veterans health-care system, which is expected to include a new veterans hospital and nursing home in Las Vegas, has been delayed.

The recommendation of a 15-member commission was to be delivered to Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi on Thursday but now will wait until the new year. A new deadline has not been set.

In August the VA proposed a new 120-bed nursing home and 81-bed hospital, and an outpatient clinic for Las Vegas as part of its $4.6 billion Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services, or CARES.

Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla., are set to get new hospitals through the plan, but seven hospitals in New York, Texas, Ohio, California, Mississippi, Kentucky and Pennsylvania are scheduled to be closed through the program.

VA estimates show that by 2012, the number of hospital beds needed to serve the Las Vegas region's veterans will increase by 56 percent, while clinic visits are expected to grow by 65 percent, to about 684,000 a year.

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