Senator Tammy Baldwin's office issued this press release Friday:
For Immediate Release
Friday, December 9, 2016
Contact:
press@baldwin.senate.gov
(202) 224 - 6225
U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin Joins Bipartisan Effort Urging the VA to Comply with Law that Protects Veterans from Exorbitant ER
Bills
WASHINGTON, D.C.—
U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) joined a bipartisan group of 22
senators, led by Senators Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN),
in writing to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary
Robert McDonald,
urging him to comply with the Emergency Care Fairness Act (ECFA).
The ECFA was enacted in 2010 and directs the VA to cover veterans
non-VA emergency care bills when their private health insurance doesn’t
cover the full amount of care. Yet since 2010,
the VA has not complied with the law, denying hundreds of thousands of
veterans’ reimbursement claims for emergency care.
Earlier this year, a federal court ordered the VA to write regulations that comply with the ECFA.
In addition to urging the VA to
comply with the law, the Senators also requested that the agency fix its
mistake and re-open all previously-denied claims.
“Congress’s
clear intent in passing the ECFA was to expand veteran eligibility for
reimbursement for emergency treatment furnished to veterans in
non-department facilities,”
wrote the senators. “Specifically, congressional intent was to
require the VA to act as a secondary payer for emergency treatment costs
not covered by the veteran’s third-party insurance. It is evident that
the VA has ignored congressional intent. Most
troubling is the fact that those who are most affected by the VA’s
non-compliance with the ECFA are our elderly veterans, many of whom are
living on fixed incomes and have limited resources to pay medical
bills.”
In
addition to Baldwin, Rounds and Klobuchar, the letter was signed by
Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Mark Kirk
(R-IL), Jon Tester (D-MT), John
Boozman (R-AK), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Steve Daines (R-MT), Patty Murray
(D-WA), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Elizabeth
Warren (D-MA), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Joni Ernst
(R-IA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH),
Al Franken (D-MN), John Cornyn (R-TX) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR).
The
bipartisan effort is supported by The American Legion, Veterans of
Foreign Wars (VFW), Disabled American Veterans (DAV) and the Paralyzed
Veterans of America (PVA).
A copy of the letter is available
here.
An online version of this release is available
here.
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