Nonvets must pay for emergency VA care

[unhappycamper]

Nonvets must pay for emergency VA care
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Monday May 12, 2008 17:56:28 EDT

Veterans hospitals may be open to nonveterans after a natural disaster or emergency, but private citizens who are neither veterans nor disaster workers will be billed for the cost of their treatment, Veterans Affairs Department officials announced Monday.

A Monday notice in the Federal Register implements a 2002 law authorizing VA hospitals and clinics to provide disaster relief care. The federal government will pay for the cost of treating federal workers, including service members, and other disaster workers will be reimbursed under sharing arrangements.

Other people will have to pay for care unless they are veterans, according to the new rule, which takes effect immediately.

Treatment would not be automatic under the new policy. VA facilities could be open to the public in a major disaster or emergency declared by the president, or in a disaster or emergency in which the Health and Human Services Department orders the National Disaster Medical System to be activated, according to the notice.

The VA Emergency Preparedness Act of 2002 allows VA to provide hospital care and medical services during and immediately following disasters and national emergencies to people who are not otherwise eligible. The law sets rules for how VA would be reimbursed by other government agencies, but left open whether private citizens receiving emergency care would have to pay for it.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/military_vacare_privatecitizens_051208w/