FORT HARRISON -- Physician Diana Corzine left her private practice almost three years ago to join the medical staff at the Veterans Administration hospital here, and says she's never looked back.

"As a private physician, there's a lot of issues about running a business, dealing with insurance companies or (getting paid).

"That is not something that I was trained for, nor do I have an interest in. I really feel like at the VA, you get to come here and be a doctor. ... And you went to medical school to be a doctor."

Corzine's tale is a familiar one among medical staffers at the Montana VA, which has enjoyed success recruiting physicians and other medical professionals.

Once considered a neglected system that offered less-than-stellar care, the VA nationwide has become a well-regarded network of health facilities that provides a full range of health care for eligible military veterans.

The VA health system is owned, operated and funded by the federal government. Its physicians and other staffers are salaried. They don't get paid based on how many patients they see or how many surgeries they perform.

Staffers say this arrangement allows them to concentrate on what's best for patients, without the pressure of meeting quotas, determining what's covered by insurance or worrying about getting paid.

"It takes a load off my shoulders that I'm not being told that I have to produce certain numbers," says Durand Lindo, a physical therapist who joined the VA at Fort Harrison in 2003 after working for a private hospital.

The Montana VA recruits some people right out of medical school, but often fills positions with professionals who've worked in private practice in Montana or elsewhere.

Mike Evans, one of three general surgeons at Fort Harrison, spent 20 years in private practice in Minnesota before joining the VA here in 1998.

"I can tell you, the last several years I spent in private practice, most physicians were unhappy," he says. "More bureaucracy, more overhead, more meetings about money. It's just sort of discouraging. I've heard many physicians in private practice today say, if they could do something else and make about the same money, they would quit."

VA doctors and other medical professionals also are eligible for federal employee retirement benefits, and don't have to worry about malpractice insurance. They're covered by the Federal Tort Claims Act for all services they perform for the VA.

Corzine says she enjoyed her work in a private practice in Helena, but was in search of a job that allowed her to spend more time with her family and less time on call. She also says the veterans are appreciative patients who are "wonderful to work with."

She says she tells people she knew in college and medical school that the VA is a great place to work, and that two of them have taken her advice, hiring on as physicians with the VA in Boise, Idaho, and Providence, R.I.

Primary-care physicians in the Montana system earn $160,000 to $185,000, commensurate with or more than they could earn in the private sector. General surgeons are paid $185,000 to $250,000 a year.

The VA Montana Health Care director, Joe Underkofler, earns $158,600, which is considerably less than CEOs at the state's major hospitals. He oversees a system with a $147 million budget and 790 full-time-equivalent employees. Yet it's not always easy for the VA to fill all the positions it needs, particularly in some medical specialties.

Surgeons and other specialists often can make much more in private practice, Evans said.

For example, Montana's VA system has only one orthopedic surgeon and has been trying for two years to recruit another.

Still, as private practice gets less appealing for many physicians, the VA and its reputation as a solid health-care system with fewer monetary pressures can look pretty attractive, its staffers say.

"You get to come in, you get to take care of patients," says Alex Brown, a dentist who joined the VA 29 years ago and who now helps coordinate its computerized medical-records system. "You don't have to worry about paying the staff, paying the rent, all that other stuff that comes with private practice. You get to concentrate on patient care."