October 15, 2009
Subcommittee Examines Inappropriate Billing Practices by VA
For more information, contact: Brian Lawrence, 202-225-3527
Washington, D.C. – Today, the Subcommittee on Health held an oversight hearing on Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) billing practices to identify why, in certain instances, it is inappropriately billing veterans for health care.
VA is authorized to collect reasonable charges from veterans’ health insurance companies to offset the cost of treatment for non service-connected conditions. However, the Subcommittee has been informed by veterans’ service organizations that VA is billing veterans and their insurers for care provided for conditions directly related to the service-connected disabilities.
Subcommittee Ranking Member Henry Brown, Jr. expressed concern that service-connected veterans are being saddled with inappropriate bills, and sought to find out what steps VA has taken to address the issue and ensure no further occurrences take place.
“It is the solemn mission of VA and the federal government to care for the men and women in uniform who sustain injuries and illnesses as a result of their service to our nation,” Brown said. “Therefore, I find it deeply troubling to hear about veterans being inappropriately billed for copayments for medical care and medications to treat service-connected conditions.”
“A similar issue arose earlier this year when the Obama Administration considered a plan to bill veterans’ private insurance for service-connected care. Fortunately, this ill-conceived proposal never saw the light of day, given the fierce opposition of members from both sides of the aisle and veterans service organizations.”
“As I said then, this flies in the face of our moral obligation as a grateful nation to care for these wounded heroes. I continue to strongly oppose any attempt to allow VA to shirk this obligation and will ensure that we uphold our responsibility to provide resources to protect and honor the service of our highest priority veterans.”
“It is unacceptable for VA not to have and put in force policies and procedures to ensure that veterans are not frustrated and burdened by receiving inappropriate and multiple billing statements.”
For more news from House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Republicans, please go to:
http://republicans.veterans.house.gov/
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