On Friday, officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Leavenworth County, the City of Leavenworth and the Leavenworth County Port Authority announced that a new Consolidated Patient Account Center is coming to the Dwight D. Eisenhower VA Medical Center. The new CPAC project will bring with it 400 jobs and a $20 million per year payroll. The jobs are expected to pay on average $65,000 per year, officials said.

Leavenworth is the ideal place for this center, said U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan. Not only will the center find a great home on this historic campus, it brings good-paying jobs and helps to support the local economy during these tough times.

The VA Consolidated Patient Account Center for the central Plains region will handle billing, insurance verification, accounts receivable and cash management. According to the VA Web site, this can be directly used to expand and improve services for our nations veterans.

Heather Morgan, Leavenworth County administrator, said the new CPAC facility will take advantage of a historic and vacant 60,000 sq. ft. building on the medical center campus.

Earlier this month, the city of Leavenworth approved an agreement with developers to structure a package for the patient account center in several vacant historic buildings on the VA property.

Leavenworth County, Leavenworth County Port Authority and city of Leavenworth have agreed to provide about $1.5 million total in financial incentives for the project.

Renovation construction for the new project is expected to begin next summer and operations are set to begin by the middle of 2011.

Leavenworth County is ecstatic about the creation of a new CPAC project here in Leavenworth, Morgan, said Friday. Four hundred jobs will be a tremendous benefit to all of Leavenworth County and we hope many of the employees will choose to reside in the county and make it home.

U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Topeka, whose district includes Fort Leavenworth, said, The work done at this new center will be vital for our veterans and a great economic asset for this community.

The new CPAC will provide billing and collection activity for the central region. Other CPAC locations include: Asheville, N.C., for the Mid-Atlantic; Murfreesboro, Tenn., for the Mid-South; Madison, Wis., for the North Central; Lebanon, Pa., for the North East; Orlando, Fla., for Florida; Las Vegas, for the West.