Official: Consider Vets Home

Fayetteville Site Can Open 17 Beds Immediately

— The state should look at available space in the Fayetteville Veterans Home before going to the expense of building an all-new facility in central Arkansas, lawmakers were told Friday.

The state set up a study group to come up with a proposal for a new veterans’ home to replace one recently closed in Little Rock. The home there closed after a state investigation discovered neglect of maintenance and other problems left the Little Rock facility in a condition that would have required millions of dollars in repair.

The state veterans home in Fayetteville could open 17 more beds immediately and could quickly open another 25 in space that has already been renovated, said Dr. Peter Kohler, vice chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Northwest. Fayetteville-area lawmakers were taking questions at a forum hosted by the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce at chamber headquarters. Another such forum is set for 4 p.m. Feb. 8 with more scheduled every two weeks during the legislative session.

The medical school leases space to the state home in Fayetteville. Both the school and the home are housed in the former Washington Regional Medical Center building at the northwest corner of North Street and College Avenue.

The central Arkansas delegation took the lead on the project for a new home and wants a facility for veterans with family members in that part of the state, replied Sen. Uvalde Lindsey, D-Fayetteville. That’s understandable, Kohler replied, but the state ought to at least look at an expansion in Fayetteville, which could reduce the size and expense of a new facility elsewhere.

In other issues, the question of whether the state will form a partnership with federal authorities to set up health insurance exchanges or let the federal government administer such exchanges directly is not decided, lawmakers said.

Federal health care reform law requires states have exchanges where people and businesses can find an array of options for health care insurance. The law requires people to either have health care coverage in 2014 or pay federal income tax penalties.

“If I had to put money down on what we’d do today, I’d say that we’ll end up with a federally run exchange,” said Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville. Collins said after the meeting lawmakers have many unanswered questions about how these exchanges would work and what liabilities they would entail. The program is new and the answers to at least some of the questions apparently aren’t known, he said. A majority of lawmakers aren’t ready to accept a deal with so many unknowns, he said.

Lindsey favors a state-federal partnership in principle to give some measure of local control and accountability to the state, he said. Without that, Arkansans could find themselves having to go to regional offices of federal agencies to get answers to their health coverage questions and issues.

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