The VA doesn’t always pay for ambulances. Missouri congressman’s bill would change that
Rep. Mark Alford, a Missouri Republican, introduced a bill Friday that would allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to reimburse veterans when they need emergency transportation to treatment facilities outside of the VA network.
Alford said that under current law, the VA is only guaranteed to cover emergency travel to hospitals within their network, which would mean expensive ambulance bills when a veteran is transported to a facility outside of the network for treatment.
“This is absolutely unacceptable,” Alford said in a written statement. “What are these men and women supposed to do if they require emergency transportation or treatment outside of the existing network?”
Alford serves on the House Committee on Armed Services, like his predecessor former Republican Rep. Vicky Hartzler, and represents two of Missouri’s largest military bases — Whiteman Air Force Base in Johnson County and the U.S. Army’s Fort Leonard Wood in the Ozarks.
Representatives from Missouri’s 4th Congressional District have long served on Armed Services. Former Rep. Ike Skeleton, a Democrat who represented the district for 34 years, rose to become chairman of the powerful committee.
The bill was sponsored by Hartzler twice — both in 2019 and 2021 — but failed to make past committee when the House was under Democratic control. The Congressional Budget Office, which provides cost assessments for bills, has not yet scored Alford’s bill and did not provide an estimate for either of Hartzler’s bills.
Alford introduced the bill with six co-sponsors — four Republicans and two Democrats.
Under the current program, the VA will only pay for treatment at non-VA hospitals if the care can’t be provided by a VA facility or if a VA facility is geographically unavailable. They will cover transportation to non-VA hospitals only if the treatment is authorized by the VA. A 2015 audit of the program found that the Department of Veterans Affairs spent $67 million in 2013 and $65 million in 2014 on non-VA transportation services.
