VA Health Care: Third-Party Collections Rising as VA Continues to Address Problems in Its Collections Operations
GAO-03-145
Published: Jan 31, 2003. Publicly Released: Mar 03, 2003.
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Highlights
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) collects health insurance payments, known as third-party collections, for veterans' health care conditions it treats that are not a result of injuries or illnesses incurred or aggravated during military service. In September 1999, VA adopted a new fee schedule, called "reasonable charges," that it anticipated would increase revenues from third-party collections. In 2001, GAO testified that problems in VA's collections operations diminished VA's collections. For this report, GAO was asked to examine VA's third-party collections and problems in collections operations for fiscal year 2002 as well as its initiatives to improve collections.
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Collection proceduresDebt collectionHealth insuranceVeterans benefitsVeterans' medical careVeteransAccounts receivableOutpatient carePatient careVeterans affairs