With time of the essence, U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-ME) urged Congress to promptly pass a bill that would ensure uninterrupted healthcare services continue for the nation’s military veterans living in rural parts of the country, including in his home-state’s 2nd congressional district.
The bipartisan, bicameral VA MISSION Act, short for VA Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside Networks Act of 2018, H.R. 5674, would significantly reform the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and would prevent any disruption in healthcare services for rural veterans through the Veterans Choice Program (VCP), which will run out of funding by May 31 without congressional action.
The U.S. House Veterans’ Affairs Committee on May 8 voted 20-2 to send H.R. 5674 to the full House for a vote. Poliquin has worked to advance the bill along with U.S. Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN), chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), ranking member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
“Thousands of Maine veterans who live long distances from Togus and other VA facilities have used the Veterans Choice Program to help them receive health care services closer to home,” said Rep. Poliquin, a member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
“Getting our veterans the care they deserve is one of my top priorities and I’m pleased that our committee … acted in moving this bipartisan, bicameral legislation forward so that we can ensure our veterans don’t see any disruption in their health care services,” said the congressman, who is co-chairman of the Bipartisan Rural Hospitals Caucus in Congress.
In a summary provided by the committee, H.R. 5674 is detailed as including three pieces of legislation that have been considered by either the House or Senate Committees on Veterans’ Affairs. The bill includes funding for the VCP that would last until a new program authorized under the VA MISSION Act is implemented. The bill also would streamline the VA’s community care programs into one cohesive program; create a non-partisan process for reviewing VA’s assets to ensure veterans can access the care they have earned; and expand the VA’s Post-9/11 Caregiver Program to all eras, according to the summary.
H.R. 5674 also includes a provision Rep. Poliquin fought to add, according to his staff, that would make reforms to the VCP’s claims and payments processes so that rural hospitals that supplement VA services through the VCP are promptly reimbursed.
“Getting Maine’s hospitals their overdue payments from the federal government will not only help our veterans get access to care, but will pour needed, important revenue directly into Maine’s local and rural hospitals so all citizens of those areas can continue to receive care from their local hospitals,” said Rep. Poliquin.
He noted that Maine’s rural hospitals are owed tens of millions of dollars and H.R. 5674 would enable the federal government to more quickly pay back that money.
Prior to the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s May 8 vote on H.R. 5674, Poliquin told members that some hospitals aren’t getting paid “sometimes for one or two years.”
“It’s critical that our small, local hospitals get paid,” he said during the hearing. “Not only for our veterans, but it keeps our small, rural hospitals open, so that benefits everyone else in the community.”