Ad attacks Lunsford firm's care of vets

For background on Valor Healthcare and the many problems with their privatized VA clinics (with backlinks), click here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/n
fMAY08/nf050708-6.htm

Story here... http://www.kentuck
y.com/329/story/537812.html

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Ad attacks Lunsford firm's care of vets

By Ryan Alessi and Jack Brammer
ralessi@herald-leader.com , jbrammer@herald-leader.com



In a new line of attack, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell has begun airing a 60-second ad that accuses a company founded by his Democratic challenger Bruce Lunsford of "mistreating our veterans while Bruce profited."

The commercial quotes veterans, none of whom are Kentucky residents, complaining about care in facilities run by Miami-based Valor Healthcare Inc. Lunsford, according to personal finance documents, is a founding executive of the company and remains on its board of directors, earning $127,500 annually.

Lunsford's campaign had no immediate comment.

This latest twist in Kentucky's U.S. Senate race comes amid a national and global financial crisis that has left incumbent members of Congress vulnerable to the ire of an uneasy and frustrated public.

Congressional leaders, including McConnell, have been debating all week a proposed $700 billion bailout for Wall Street firms.

McConnell's ad, however, attempts to turn the anti-Wall Street sentiment among voters against Lunsford.

"Bruce Lunsford got rich the Wall Street way — taking care of himself, first," the ad's announcer says at the start of the commercial. McConnell also got in front of energy issues by being the first in the race to run an ad about gas prices, putting pressure on Lunsford for his advocacy 28 years ago for a policy that would increase the state's gas tax. So this has become the latest example of McConnell's ability to "take a weakness and turn it into a strength," said Danny Briscoe, a Louisville-based political consultant.

"It's an area of great vulnerability for McConnell because of his connection to the Bush administration and his support for market deregulation," Briscoe said. But he said Lunsford has failed to capitalize on that, as he has not aired aggressive commercials on the subject or hammered McConnell's financial deregulation votes in a statewide tour.

"It's somewhat symbolic of his entire campaign, which has been structure-less and rudderless," Briscoe said.

McConnell's new ad, meanwhile, turns the subject of the race — at least on the airwaves — to Lunsford's business background. Valor Healthcare, which Lunsford helped found as CEO and chairman in September 2005, runs 18 facilities nationwide and has contracts with the Veterans Affairs department in Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas and Washington.

The ad cites a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs review into the quality of care offered at Valor's outpatient clinics in Texas City and Galveston, Texas.

The agency's inquiry began at the request of Texas Democratic U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, who represents the district that includes the two Valor clinics. Lampson's April 30, 2008, letter to VA Secretary James B. Peake said veterans seeking medical tests at the facilities were turned away "due to cost," according to the Galveston Daily News.

In an Aug. 28 response letter to McConnell's Republican Senate colleague Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, Peake wrote that VA hospital managers "looked into the veterans' complaints and found them to be valid," according to documents provided by Hutchison's office.

The ad makes references to financial penalties Valor has had to pay as a result. Those penalties appear to be the result of contractual violations not a fine, according to Peake's letter. The agency "has taken aggressive action to correct the deficiencies" and imposed "financial penalties according to the terms of the contract," Peake's letter said.

McConnell's commercial shows several veterans talking about the level of care. One veteran, Lee Standing Bear Moore of Hot Springs, Ark., described his experience as "not the kind of health care that anyone would will upon another person."

Moore, a 62-year-old Vietnam War veteran who was awarded the Silver Star and a Purple Heart, told the Herald-Leader that he was contacted four months ago by an investigator for a public relations firm working for McConnell's campaign. "I don't care about McConnell's campaign or about any Democrat or Republican. I just care about this clinic here," said Moore, who said he received no compensation for appearing in the ad.

Major problems with the Hot Springs clinic are lack of notification to veterans for appointments, staffing and not enough medical equipment, Moore said.

The ad's approach is similar to a devastating commercial that was run against Lunsford, a millionaire businessman, during the 2003 Democratic gubernatorial primary. In that spot, run by Democrat Ben Chandler's campaign, a woman recounted abuse her mother suffered at a nursing home owned by Lunsford's then-company, Vencor.

McConnell, so far, has stayed away from Vencor. His wife, U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, served on Vencor's board of directors from 1997 until 2001
Ad attacks Lunsford firm's care of vets

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