Taxpayers Paying Twice for VA, Medicare Advantage Plans
Medicare News Thursday, June 28th, 2012By Nancy Walsh, Staff Writer, MedPage Today, Published: June 26, 2012.
Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco and Dorothy Caputo, MA, BSN, RN, Nurse Planner
The federal government, and by extension the taxpayer, pays “substantial and increasing” duplicate costs for healthcare among adults enrolled in both Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and the Veterans Administration (VA) healthcare program, a retrospective analysis determined.
The estimated costs of federally funded care provided by the VA between 2004 and 2009 for individuals also covered by MA plans was $13 billion, according to Amal N. Trivedi, MD, of Providence VA Medical Center in Providence, R.I., and colleagues. Read more
