VA UNVEILS PLAN TO WIDEN HOSPITAL ACCESS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 24, 1992                   TAG: 9201240046
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
VA UNVEILS PLAN TO WIDEN HOSPITAL ACCESS
The Bush administration will open two veterans' hospitals, one of them in Salem, Va., to non-veterans as part of a test program unveiled Thursday to improve rural Americans' access to health care.
The project will also allow veterans to use government-funded community health clinics in the two areas of Alabama and Virginia.
Veterans hospitals in Tuskegee, Ala., and Salem will continue to provide health care on a priority basis to veterans with service-related disabilities and to low-income vets, but the facilities will also begin offering medical services to non-veterans.
When details of the program were first announced in December, VA organization leaders in Virginia and in Southwest Virginia held a news conference and called the proposal "misguided." They said they were furious that they had not been asked to comment before the project was submitted.
Roy Spicer, supervisor of the Disabled American Veterans state office in Roanoke, was among the critics.
"If this project goes forth," he said, "I will hold Graninger's feet to the fire on what he told us: that all veterans seeking treatment will get it before any non-veteran is seen." He was referring to the director of the Salem VA hospital, Joel Graninger. - Staff and wire reports

***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on January 25, 1992.
Clark Graninger is the director of the Salem Veterans Administration Hospital. His first name was incorrect in a story Friday about the VA expanding health care to rural areas.
Memo: CORRECTION

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB