VA criticized for bonuses to doctors

A newly released Government Accountability Office study says that the Department of Veterans Affairs awarded bonuses to most of the doctors and dentists serving at its medical centers, despite lacking reasonable assurances that the added pay was linked to performance. In 2011, about 80 percent of the Veterans Health Administration's nearly 22,500 providers received about $150 million in performance pay. Every medical provider who was eligible for performance pay at four medical centers the GAO visited received bonuses, including five who had actions taken against them related to their clinical performance, the GAO said.