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Because of an alarming report of deaths during or after surgeries at one VA hospital in Illinois, the Veterans Affairs Department is limiting the types of surgeries performed at some of its hospitals.

The VA has now given each hospital a "surgical complexity" level. Because of that, hospitals in at least five states will now perform only less-complicated surgeries. The hospitals are in Alexandria, Louisiana; Beckley, West Virginia; Fayetteville, North Carolina; Danville, Illinois; and Spokane, Washington.

The Veterans Affairs Department says it will pay for any surgeries that have to be performed at private hospitals because of this new ruling.

Last year, the VA performed more than 357,000 inpatient surgeries. Under the new system, about 250 of those surgeries would have been performed outside the VA.

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