Taxpayers Pay For Veterans’ Health Care – TWICE

The Department of Veterans Affairs spent an estimated $13 billion to care for veterans whose health coverage was already paid for by Medicare — a case of the taxpayer paying twice, according to research published Tuesday.

They pay once to Medicare Advantage plan to deliver all Medicare-covered service and they pay again to the VA to deliver comprehensive care to the same veterans,” said Amal Trivedi, a doctor with the VA and on the faculty with Brown University in Providence.

But Medicare says the $13 billion projection identified in the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is far too high.

Spokesman Brian Cook said Medicare attempts to reduce managed-care payments to private insurance companies if veterans enrolled in those programs use them less frequently, for example, because they seek treatment from the VA.

How do you think the VA can streamline the process so that veterans receive the benefits they’ve earned in fiscally efficient manner?

Source:  USAToday.com

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