House Approves Veterans' COLA
House Approves Veterans' COLA
Congressman Mike Bilirakis, Vice-Chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, today announced that the House of Representatives unanimously approved H.R. 1220, a bill to enhance compensation/benefits programs and provide a cost-of-living adjustment for veterans. The bill, as amended, includes language from Congressman Bilirakis' bill, H.R. 2988, the Veterans Medical Care Revenue Enhancement Act of 2005.
H.R. 1220 would provide, effective December 1, 2005, a cost-of-living adjustment to the rates of disability compensation for veterans with service-connected disabilities and the rates of dependency and indemnity compensation paid to certain spouses and dependent children of service-disabled veterans. The bill would also codify the 2005 dollar amounts for disability compensation and dependency and indemnity compensation.
H.R. 1220 includes provisions derived from two bills below:
H.R. 2988, the Veterans Medical Care Revenue Enhancement Act of 2005, which would authorize a two year demonstration project to improve business practices within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) relating to third-party billing collections.
H.R. 2959, which would provide for the establishment of Parkinson's Disease Research Education and Clinical Centers in the Veterans Health Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The following text is Congressman Bilirakis' remarks on H.R. 1220:
I rise in strong support of H.R. 1220, the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act, which will increase, effective December 1, 2005, the rates of disability compensation for veterans with service-connected disabilities and the rates of dependency and indemnity compensation for survivors of certain disabled veterans. As in previous years, these deserving men and women will receive the same cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) that Social Security recipients are scheduled to receive, and as a cosponsor of H.R. 1220, I am pleased that we are acting to provide disabled veterans and their survivors with an annual COLA.
In the 108th Congress, we created an additional Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) payment of $250 a month provided for the first two years of DIC eligibility to surviving spouses with minor children. This new benefit is aimed at easing the transition following the death of the servicemember or veteran. H.R. 1220, as amended, would also increase the amount of this additional assistance by the same COLA.
I am pleased that the amended bill also includes the provisions from H.R. 2988, the Veterans Medical Care Revenue Enhancement Act of 2005. This is a bill that I introduced which authorizes a two-year demonstration project to improve business practices within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) relating to third-party billing collections.
When Congress gave the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) the authority to collect payment from insurance companies for the treatment of non-service connected conditions, the funds collected were returned to the U.S. Treasury. At one point, the VA acknowledged that it did a poor job of collecting payments from insurance companies because it had no real incentive to do so. As a result, in 1997 Congress gave VA the authority to retain any third party collections recovered.
Despite improvements in VA's third-party collections, there continue to be weaknesses in the billings and collections processes that impair the VA's ability to maximize the amount of dollars paid by third-party insurance companies. In June, the VA briefed the staff of the Veterans' Affairs Committee that the Department has about $600 million in outstanding payments that have been billed but not collected from third-party insurers. Collecting these funds would be a significant revenue source for the Department which could improve its ability to provide health care services to our Nation's veterans.
H.R. 1220 creates a modest $10 million demonstration project to improve the VA's business practices at two sites that have low collections rates. It is our hope that this demonstration project will lead to improved collection practices by the VA.
Finally, H.R. 1220 would permanently authorize six Parkinson's Disease Research Education and Clinical Centers within the VA.
I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1220.
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/fl09_bilirakis/prl_vet_cola.html