Department of Veterans Affairs November 5, 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) proposes to amend its regulations concerning beneficiary travel. The revisions would amend the Veterans Health Administration's (VHA) beneficiary travel regulations to establish a new payment methodology for special modes of transportation. The new payment methodology would apply in the absence of a contract between VA and a vendor of the special mode of transportation. For transport by ambulance, VA proposes to pay the lesser of the actual charge or the amount determined by the Medicare Part B Ambulance Fee Schedule (AFS) established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). For travel by modes other than ambulance, VA proposes to establish a payment methodology based on states' posted rates or the actual charge. VA would replace this payment methodology for travel by modes other than ambulance at some time in the future, once VA has collected enough data to develop a new methodology.