Department of Veterans Affairs May 24, 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), is announcing an opportunity for public comment on the proposed collection of certain information by the agency. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, Federal agencies are required to publish notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information, including each proposed extension of a currently approved collection, and allow 60 days for public comment in response to the notice.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, this notice announces that the Loan Guaranty Service, Department of Veterans Affairs, will submit the collection of information abstracted below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and comment. The PRA submission describes the nature of the information collection and its expected cost and burden and it includes the actual data collection instrument.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is removing the regulatory provisions regarding the veteran's net worth as a factor in determining the veteran's eligibility for VA health care. Prior to January 1, 2015, VA considered a veteran's net worth and annual income when determining a veteran's assignment to an enrollment priority group for VA health care. Reporting net worth information imposed a significant burden on veterans and VA dedicated substantial administrative resources to verify the reported information. VA changed its policy regarding net worth reporting in order to improve access to VA health care to lower-income veterans and to remove the reporting burden from veterans by discontinuing collection of net worth information. As VA no longer considers net worth in making eligibility determinations, this final rule amends the regulation to remove reference to VA's discretionary statutory authority to consider a veteran's net worth as a factor in determining eligibility for VA health care. Because of the net worth reporting requirement, certain veterans who would have been eligible to receive VA health care based on their annual income were ineligible for such care, or they were placed in a lower priority category, because their net worth was too high.