V.A. Offers Free Care to Patients it Exposed to HIV

A Department of Veterans Affairs letter pledges only free medical care and treatment for former patients who have tested positive for HIV or hepatitis since being exposed to endoscopic cleaning mistakes at three V.A. hospitals in the Southeast.

Veterans' advocate Richard Cohen said the VA pledge in a letter received Wednesday by a Tennessee congressman is not providing anything "that the V.A. wouldn't do if these veterans were not subjected to unsanitary devices."

The chief of staff to V.A. Secretary Eric Shineski said in the letter to Democratic U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon that the V.A. hospitals in Murfreesboro, Miami and Augusta, Ga., will provide appropriate plans of care and subsequent treatment at no cost to the veterans.