{"id":48330,"date":"2018-01-03T20:49:18","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T20:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/01\/03\/va-promises-faster-action-on-unpaid-bills-from-outside-health-providers\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:56:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:56:45","slug":"va-promises-faster-action-on-unpaid-bills-from-outside-health-providers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/veterans\/2018\/01\/03\/va-promises-faster-action-on-unpaid-bills-from-outside-health-providers\/","title":{"rendered":"VA promises faster action on unpaid bills from outside health providers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 As their stack of unpaid bills continues to grow, Veterans Affairs officials are promising a host of reforms in coming months to more quickly pay community providers for care they deliver to veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new moves, announced Wednesday, include creating new \u201crapid response teams\u201d to settle the largest outstanding bills within 90 days and awarding at least four new contracts this year to provide faster payments in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement, VA Secretary David Shulkin called the reforms \u201cvital to the health of our network of providers\u201d and to veterans\u2019 health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur outside providers are an essential part of our network, and we need to improve our system of payments for their services,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The issue of community provider payments has taken on extra importance in recent months as administration officials have expanded their emphasis on health care options outside the Veterans Health Administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with resolving issues of eligibility and access to medical appointments for those community care programs, lawmakers and VA officials have pushed for streamlining the payment system for those private-sector visits, following complaints from their financial departments about the current process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some offices taking in veterans as patients have seen unpaid bills swell into the tens of thousands of dollars, with no clear payment date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the reforms announced Wednesday, department officials next week will start publicly posting some of the highest debt totals, to make public how much is owed. Those claims will be the first to be settled, they vowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, Health Net Federal Services and TriWest Healthcare work as third-party administrators for those payments. Both have promised to cooperate with the new initiatives, but could see some of their business taken away with the new contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\t