MORAN BILL TO PROVIDE SERVICE DOGS TO DISABLED VETERANS
Sand-man
Bill Also Expands Veterans' Health Care Access and Eligibility
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Disabled veterans would receive service dogs, eligibility
to
VA health care would be expanded, and the VA would explore improved
coordination
of ambulatory and community hospital care for veterans who live too far from
major VA facilities if H.R. 2792, introduced in the House Thursday night
before
the August break, is signed into law.
The Disabled Veterans Service Dog and Health Care Improvement Act of 2001,
introduced by VA Subcommittee on Health Chairman Jerry Moran (KS-01) would
authorize service dogs for veterans enrolled in VA health care. These
service
dogs would assist those with disabilities or diseases that impair their
mobility, hearing, or other activities of daily living. In addition,
eligible
veterans would receive travel reimbursement for the costs involved in
training
or adjusting to the dog.
Moran said he hopes to repeat with this bill the success of a similar effort
as
a freshman Senator in the State Senate of Kansas.
"At the time, the Senate rules did not allow an employee to bring her
service
dog on to the floor," Moran said. "Her work required her to be on the floor,
but
due to her disability, the assistance of her service dog was a necessity."
"It should be no different for our veterans," Moran continued. "For many
disabled veterans, a service dog can mean the difference between living
independently and requiring full-time care."
The bill would also modify VA's "ability to pay" means test for health care
by
applying the "Low Income Index" the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) uses for housing assistance. The VA income standard would
be
retained as an income floor for health care eligibility, but the HUD
standard,
which adjusts for differing economic conditions in 61 metropolitan centers,
would set the income ceiling.
Moran said he believes this new approach would be a better measure of a
veteran'
s true ability to pay.
"The one-size-fits-all standard doesn't reflect local costs of living and
either
denies some veterans a full range of health care or forces them to make
co-payments they wouldn't have to make if they lived somewhere else," Moran
said. "The current VA income floor of $23,688 can mean two very different
things, depending on where a veteran lives and their economic situation."
The third key provision authorizes $50 million a year for a four-year,
four-site
pilot project in which an enrolled veteran who lives too far from an urban
VA
hospital could be referred on a volunteer basis to a local hospital for
short-stay general medical-surgical inpatient care. Under this provision:
· Care would be managed by selected VA outpatient clinics where 70 percent
of
the veterans served live at least two hours driving distance from a
supervising
VA hospital;
· VA could make co-payments required by the participating veterans' health
plans
or third-party insurers, including Medicare, and ;
· VA would manage and coordinate admissions to local hospitals and take
steps to
return the veterans to VA follow-up care as soon as practicable.
Other provisions of the bill would:
· Require each regional Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) to
maintain a
proportional share of capacity in specialized medical programs. Included are
programs for veterans with serious mental illnesses (such as substance and
post
traumatic stress disorders), and those needing care for spinal cord
injuries,
amputations, and blindness;
· Establish a four-year pilot program of applied managed care through an
outside
contractor under VA's $500 million fee-basis and contract care programs. The
programs are generally available to service-disabled veterans in serious
medical
emergencies, those who live too far from a VA health facility, or whose VA
facility lacks the resources to treat them.
"This bill addresses many of the needs that veterans' have brought to my
attention during recent hearings," Moran concluded. "America owes it to our
veterans to take the steps necessary to ensure their health and well-being.
It
is in our national interest to take good care of those who defend our
freedom."
____________________________________________________________________________
___
Please visit http://veterans.house.gov, the House Committee on Veterans'
Affairs web site, named 'One of the Best Web Sites in Congress' by the
Congressional Management Foundation, May 3, 1999.
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