LEWISTON — Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, has joined a growing list of local veterans searching for answers from the Veterans Administration regarding its soon-to-open local clinic.

The congressman has sent a letter to the head of the VA in New England, Dr. Michael F. Mayo-Smith, asking for an explanation why some services — particularly hearing and vision care — have been erased from the Lewiston clinic’s plans.

“Local veterans who will be served by the Lewiston community-based outreach clinic have expressed concerns with the reduced services, and I share their frustrations,” Michaud wrote in the letter, dated April 19. “The lack of official information about the decision process has deepened the confusion, and I hope your answers to these questions will clarify the situation.”

His letter asked why the plans for the clinic weren’t decided before the public groundbreaking last April, when “a commitment to specialty service” was made. He also wanted to know if some offerings might be made on a part-time basis.

On Friday, the letter hadn’t arrived, VA spokeswoman Kathleen Cosgrove Makela said. A copy of Michaud’s letter was forwarded to Makela from the Sun Journal.

“We will be happy to respond to the congressman once we receive the letter,” she said. “Access is a top priority for the secretary and the entire Department of Veterans Affairs, and we are very pleased that the new Lewiston-Auburn clinic will bring services closer to the veterans who need them.”

On Tuesday, Ryan Lilly, Togus’s associate medical director, said that hearing and vision services will instead be offered in Bangor’s VA clinic, where they can reach more people who must drive even further than veterans in Lewiston-Auburn. It will be the closest VA center for those services for people in both Calais and Caribou.

Veterans have worked for about seven years to bring the clinic to Lewiston.

The Department of Veterans Affairs originally intended the facility to be built in the Brunswick area, but veterans lobbied the VA and Maine’s congressional delegation to bring it to the Twin Cities, instead. They argued that more veterans would be helped by placing the clinic in Lewiston. Michaud picked up the argument and lobbied the VA.

In February 2010, the VA committed $20 million for a long-term lease on the specially built clinic. Construction began last fall.

The clinic is located at 15 Challenger Drive, just off Alfred Plourde Parkway and a short distance from exit 80 of the Maine Turnpike. The property is owned by Maine Veterans Homes, which plans to build an adult day care center beside the clinic.

The new 29,000-square-foot clinic in Lewiston won’t be seeing large numbers of patients for about another two months, Lilly said.

“Teamlets” of health care workers — consisting of a physician, a nurse, a clerk and a health technician — are getting ready for the move to Lewiston, he said. But preparations need to be made for the patients they are leaving and the ones they are taking on. Appointments need to be made and the infrastructure in Lewiston needs to be solid.

Jerry DeWitt, one of the veterans who worked to bring the clinic to Lewiston, said Friday he was pleased by Michaud’s action, particularly in response to the reduction in services.

“They were trying to slip it by us without telling anybody,” DeWitt said of the VA.

[email protected]

April 19, 2012

Dr. Michael F. Mayo-Smith, M.D., M.P.H.

Director

VA New England Healthcare System (VISN 1)

200 Springs Road, Building No. 61

Bedford, MA 01730

Dear Dr. Mayo-Smith:

I am writing to inquire about the reduction in promised specialty care services at the Lewiston Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC). Specifically, my understanding is that a new process is being used to determine what services are made available at VA locations.

At the groundbreaking for the Lewiston CBOC in April 2011, my staff and the public were informed that this new clinic will be offering a wide variety of health care services, including a number of specialty services. My staff has since been informed that some specialty services, such as those for hearing and vision, will no longer be offered and that the Lewiston CBOC would be dedicated to the following services: primary care, mental health, radiology, home-based primary care and pharmacy services.

While all these services are extremely valuable and needed, I request that you provide me with detailed information on the new justification process that is used to determine availability of services at VA locations. In addition, I’d specifically like to know:

What are the criteria used in this new process and the justifications used in the specific case of the Lewiston CBOC? Why were these criteria applied to the Lewiston CBOC after construction had begun and a commitment to specialty service had been made? Is this new process applied to all CBOCs throughout the country or just VISN 1? Will efforts be made to offer these previously promised specialty services at the Lewiston CBOC, perhaps on a weekly or monthly basis, as has been done in other areas?

Local veterans who will be served by the Lewiston CBOC have expressed concerns with the reduced services, and I share their frustrations. The lack of official information about the decision process has deepened the confusion, and I hope your answers to these questions will clarify the situation.

Thank you for your consideration of my request. I appreciate your assistance on this matter, and please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.

Sincerely,

Michael H. Michaud

Member of Congress