Thousands of Emergency-Care Claims Were Denied; Court Rules VA Must Reimburse

The US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims recently ruled that the VA must reimburse veterans for emergency medical care at non-VA facilities—potentially between $1.8 billion and $6.5 billion in reimbursements for veterans who have filed or will file claims between 2016 and 2025. The court also struck down an internal VA regulation that blocked such payments. In 2015, the court had struck down a previous version of the internal regulation that refused coverage for an emergency claim when another form of insurance covered even a small part of the bill. The court said that regulation violated a 2010 federal law. In last month’s ruling, the court found the department had violated the same federal law with its revision of the reimbursement regulation, issued in 2018. The new rule, the panel said, created a new obstacle for veterans.