Medicare Part B - 21% Cut in Physician Fees TEMPORARILY Stopped

Well done NCOA Members and Friends

NCOA grassroots letters and email solicited by Association Legislative Action Alerts contributed to the delayed implementation of a 21% cut in Medicate Part B Physician fees scheduled to take place on March 1, 2010.  The House and Senate Conference report to increase the National Debt Ceiling also included a one month delay in implementation of the physician fee increase from March 1, 2010 to April 1, 2010.  The House and Senate are working a further extension to eliminate the reduction for the remained of FY2010.

Senate Veterans Affairs Committee

Oversight Hearing on Veteran Suicide and Mental Health Issues

U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii), Chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, held an oversight hearing on March 3, 2010 on veteran suicide and mental health issues.  Chairman Akaka has sponsored a number of veterans’ mental health and suicide-prevention bills which are now law sought to hear from veterans and VA leadership on the implementation of these measures. He stated:

“Just as we must provide our troops with the equipment and tools they need when they are sent to battle, we must do more to help veterans battle the enemy of mental illness,” said Akaka.  “VA has made important improvements in recent years, but we must continue to work until what now seems impossible becomes a reality: that no veteran who returns from service is lost to suicide.”

Akaka is the author of the Veterans’ Mental Health and Other Care Improvements Act (Public Law 110-387), a sweeping veterans’ mental health bill passed in 2008 to address the dual issues of substance abuse and PTSD among veterans.  This legislation paid tribute to Justin Bailey, a veteran who died of a drug overdose while receiving treatment from VA for PTSD and substance abuse.  Akaka also cosponsored the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act, passed in 2007 to improve VA’s suicide prevention efforts and establish a counseling hotline that has led to over a thousand rescues. 

The hearing witnesses drew from firsthand knowledge to discuss the challenges faced by veterans with invisible wounds, which sometimes produce tragic consequences.  Mr. Daniel Hanson, an Iraq war veteran, discussed his difficult road from attempted suicide to recovery, to which he largely credited a year-plus residential recovery program outside of VA.  A witness from VA’s suicide prevention hotline described the successful rescue of a veteran who had attempted to take his own life. 

VA to Improve Tracking of Military Sexual Trauma Care

An Inspector General investigation requested by Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) found that the Department of Veterans Affairs is unable to sufficiently monitor whether veterans are being wrongly charged for care related to military sexual trauma.  Last year, Akaka requested an investigation after being contacted by a veteran who was being inappropriately charged for care at a VA facility in Texas.

Under existing law, veterans are entitled to free VA treatment for conditions related to military sexual trauma.  In response to the investigation, VA leadership committed to changing monitoring across the VA health care system so potential billing errors can be corrected.  Akaka stated:  “I am concerned that some veterans may still be charged for care they should receive for free, unnecessarily adding complications to the recovery process.   However, I am pleased that VA’s leadership is ordering changes system-wide as the Inspector General recommended.  I will continue to monitor this issue.

Senator Akaka also thanked the veteran who initially contacted him to share evidence of this problem last year.  “If she had not stood up for her fellow veterans, these national changes would not be in the works.  Once again, this veteran has served her country well.”