Report: Reprimanded doctors still get VA bonuses

The Department of Veterans Affairs awards performance-pay bonuses to doctors without a clear policy on merits for the payments that average $8,000 a year and that go, in some cases, to physicians disciplined or reprimanded, says a governmental review. According to a Government Accountability Office report recently issued, investigators found that during the 2010 and 2011 fiscal years: • A $7,663 performance-pay bonus went to a VA doctor who was reprimanded for practicing medicine with an expired license for three months.