[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 59 (Friday, April 11, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E755]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF H.R. 1715, TO ENHANCE VA'S AUTHORITY TO RECOVER COSTS 
                            OF MEDICAL CARE

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 10, 2003

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, along with Mr. Evans of 
Illinois, the Committee's Ranking Member, I am introducing a bill to 
strengthen the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA's) rights under law 
to recover the costs of providing medical care to veterans and other 
persons from certain third parties. A number of public health plans 
either refuse to reimburse VA, or are prohibited from doing so by 
current law. This bill would correct this problem by eliminating 
barriers to reimbursement for VA care. It is identical to a bill I 
introduced in the 107th Congress, H.R. 5530. That bill was referred 
exclusively to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
  H.R. 1715 is based upon the simple principle that acknowledges when 
VA provides medical care to an insured or Medicare-eligible veteran, VA 
should receive payment for the services it provides. This principle is 
not new. Since 1986, VA has had statutory authority to collect from 
traditional insurers such as Blue Cross-Blue Shield, Aetna, Mutual of 
Omaha and many others. These funds are used by VA to supplement 
appropriated funds to maintain high quality health care. VA also 
collects from so called ``Medi-gap policies'' that are an important 
adjunct to the Medicare program.
  But VA is unable to collect from the massive managed care sector, 
accounting now for over two-thirds of all health plans in the United 
States, including the managed care plans within Federal Employee Health 
Benefits Plan. Nor can VA collect from the Medicare program. RAND 
Corporation has estimated that over 2 million Medicare-eligible 
veterans were enrolled in VA health care in fiscal year 2000, with that 
number increasing each fiscal year since then.
  My legislation would require these federal programs to pay VA for 
care it provides to covered beneficiaries. This would increase the 
amount of money VA could collect by hundreds of millions of dollars 
each year--providing funds that are desperately needed to reduce these 
intolerable waiting lists and promote better use of all available 
health care resources.
  This legislation will not limit the choices available to veterans in 
Medicare or any other federal health care plan, and I do believe it 
will create a modest incentive for veterans to remain enrolled in the 
VA rather than move back and forth between systems as they do now. This 
bill will also provide an important supplement to the VA health care 
system for the services it renders in caring for many of our nation's 
heroes.
  I urge my colleagues to support this common-sense approach to 
improving veterans' health care, reducing waiting times for VA health 
care, and helping Medicare-eligible and other federally insured 
veterans gain better health care coverage from the Department of 
Veterans Affairs.

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