[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 16475]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           VA EMERGENCY CARE

  Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, on Monday I introduced a bill, S. 1588, 
with Senators Moran, Isakson, and Begich to provide an emergency safety 
net to roughly 144,000 veterans waiting for VA care. I thank my 
colleagues for their support. This bill fixes a catch-22 in current law 
that puts veterans who have recently returned from overseas at 
financial risk if they experience a medical emergency.
  Under current law, a veteran enrolled in the VA system who receives 
emergency care at a non-VA facility can be reimbursed for those costs 
only if the veteran had also received care at a VA facility in the 
preceding 24 months. The intent of this requirement is to encourage 
veterans to seek preventative care, which decreases the need for more 
expensive emergency care. The problem is thousands of veterans have 
recently come home from overseas and they can't meet the 24-month 
requirement through no fault of their own. These veterans have 
scheduled their first new patient examination with VA, but they have 
not yet received their examination because of VA waiting times.
  In other words, they haven't received their first VA appointment 
because of VA waiting times, but if they need to go to a non-VA 
hospital for a medical emergency VA cannot reimburse them because they 
haven't received their first VA appointment.
  VA estimates 144,000 veterans are caught in this catch-22. With the 
war in Afghanistan ending, even more veterans will be affected. This is 
why veteran service organizations such as the lraq and Afghanistan 
Veterans of America are supporting this measure.
  This bill gives VA the flexibility to reimburse veterans who have not 
yet received their new patient examination if the veterans have to go 
to a non-VA hospital for a medical emergency. For Hawaii veterans in 
rural Oahu or the neighbor islands who live far from VA facilities, 
emergency care outside the VA may be their only option. Just last week 
I met a veteran from Waianae who had a medical emergency while waiting 
4 months for his first appointment at VA. Veterans such as he who were 
denied VA reimbursement would get much needed relief under this 
legislation.
  In its FY2014 budget request, VA asked for the statutory authority 
provided by this legislation. The VA has already budgeted for this new 
authority in its FY2014 budget request, and the funding provided in 
H.R. 2216, as reported by the Senate Appropriations Committee on June 
27, 2013, is sufficient to cover any additional costs VA will incur 
using this new authority.
  I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this commonsense legislation. We 
owe it to our brave men and women in uniform who put their lives on the 
line for our country that the VA has the tools it needs to better serve 
new veterans accessing the care they have earned.

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