Rounds: Today's VA Announcement will Save Countless Veterans from Incurring Improper Health Care Costs

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, today praised the announcement that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has taken steps to comply with the Emergency Care Fairness Act (ECFA) and begin covering the emergency care costs of veterans with third-party health insurance when that insurance doesn’t cover the full amount of non-VA emergency care. Since the ECFA has been enacted, an estimated 370,000 claims have been in limbo, forcing these veterans to cover the cost of emergency care services despite the VA’s legal obligation to do so.

During Rounds’ questioning at a Senate Veterans’ Affairs hearing today, VA Secretary David Shulkin announced that the agency is planning to drop its appeal of a recent federal court decision requiring the VA to write regulations to comply with the ECFA. Additionally, Shulkin told Rounds that the agency has formally submitted proposed regulations to begin reimbursing emergency care costs to veterans.  The new proposed regulations will now go through the formal rulemaking process.

“Today’s announcement is a victory for the countless veterans who have been waiting – some literally for years – for the VA to follow through with their legal obligation to cover their emergency care costs. Those most affected by the VA’s non-compliance are our elderly veterans, many of whom are living on fixed incomes and have limited resources to pay medical bills. They can now breathe a sigh of relief as we are one step closer to rectifying this issue once and for all. Our veterans have sacrificed so much for our freedoms; we have a moral obligation – and in this case a legal one – to take proper care of them during and after their service to our country.”

The Emergency Care Fairness Act was enacted in February 2010 and is intended to make certain that veterans with third-party health insurance are covered by the VA if their outside insurance does not cover the full amount of non-VA emergency care. Despite its unanimous support and clear congressional intent, the VA has continued its previous policy of denying veterans’ eligible emergency care claims for the past seven years.

Last year, Rounds and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) led a bipartisan letter, signed by 22 Senators, to then-VA Secretary Robert McDonald urging him to comply with the ECFA.

Rounds also spoke on the Senate floor last year in support of the ECFA. During his remarks, he urged the VA to drop its appeal of the court’s ruling and begin writing new regulations that comply with the law, both of which Shulkin announced was happening today.