VA Health Care: Albuquerque Medical Center Not Recovering Full Costs of Lithotripsy Services

A July 1995 directive clarifies policy and guidance for sharing agreements in which VA provides specialized medical resources to the health care community, and revises the costing methodology used in establishing these sharing agreements to ensure that VA recovers the full cost of providing services. VA is to set its prices to obtain reimbursement that covers the full costs of its resources or service provided, except in circumstances where changes in service workload or local market conditions indicate the establishment of a market price for providing the service. The Albuquerque VAMC will recalculate the price of lithotripsy services in accordance with this policy.

A July 1995 directive requires that the projected total workload for ongoing sharing agreements shall be submitted by the appropriate medical center clinical service and reviewed by the contracting officer on an annual basis. Prices charged to the sharing partner must be adjusted if the workload projection indicates that VA will not be recovering its full cost of providing the service.