Nonva Care For Emergency Situations For Veterans

[Capt.]

I was noticing some past discussions on Emergency situations for Veterans that have to use a Non VA facility. I also believe that sometimes we Veterans forget this and for the benefits of those new members maybe it needs to be brought up again.

At anytime , pretty much anywhere , when an emergency arises the VA will approve the care of Non VA heathcare or hospitals until the Veteran can be transfered to the closet VA facility.

I would also like to point out that most of my visits for heart , lung or colon are now sent outside VA to private physicians which usually requires the fee basis paperwork. I have not had any problems with this and it has worked fairly well.

I would also like to point out that some of our members have had some problems with emergency medical personnel or ambulances to those non VA hospitals and VA for some reason has had a history of not wanting to pay for this part of the Non VA emergency treatment.

The link below is from the VA website on this subject. Hopefully we will have some others put forth their input.

NEVER GIVE UP. God Bless, C.C. HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS

www.nonvacare.va.gov

Edited May 28, 2012 by Capt.Contaminate

[RonP]

Please be aware, the above statement does not apply to the Philippines

[carlie]

I just want to add that for ambulance bills, (va refers to this as special mode

of transportation) the invoice gets submitted to beneficiary travel and MUST BE SUBMITTED

WITHIN 30 DAYS.

IT DOES NOT GET SUBMITTED TO OR GO THROUGH FEE BASIS.

[Capt.]

Yes Carlie....its another part of the system that VA wants to save money on and it puts it back on the Veterans back with many Veterans not understanding the loophole and getting caught having to pay the charges because of this timeline. Thank you for bringing that up.

I wish I could comment on our Philipine Veterans and the lack of VA care outside the system. NEVER GIVE UP. God Bless, C.C.

[Notorious Kelly]

One never knows when they might need the ER.

Thanks for that valuable info!

[Chuck75]

The problem I see with "non VA" care is that the VA does not pay promptly, and the VA bureaucratic process ends up consuming (according to medical providers) more administrative time than it's worth. Besides that the VA often uses "not pre-approved" to evade payment, even when the VA was contacted per the regs.

An example of this might be that the person that answered the call was "not authorized", to make the decision. (And, there was no one there that was)

Or, (And very important), The regs call for payment first by anyone else, such as Medicare or private insurance. The last time I actually read the regs, there was a clause that (summarized) basically said that if anyone else paid anything, the VA would not pay, even when the payments did not satisfy full payment, or the veteran owed any differences.

Getting ambulance costs paid has also been a real problem.

In other-words, the VA can be expected to evade payment when it thinks it can get away with it, again leaving the veteran to deal with the aftermath.

Edited May 30, 2012 by Chuck75