ABILITY OF VETERANS TO PAY FOR HOSPITALIZATION INVOLVING NON- (PART II) 62425 APRIL 9, 1956 Printed for the use of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1956 COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS W. J. BRYAN DORN, South Carolina EDITH NOURSE ROGERS, Massachusetts 暴露 GEORGE A. SHUFORD, North Carolina JAMES A. HALEY, Florida E. ROSS ADAIR, Indiana George Meader 5-3-56 369 FOREWORD .A 5 1956 One of the great programs of the Veterans' Administration is its hospital and medical program. Medical services for the care of eligible veterans are provided through the facilities of 173 hospitals and 70 outpatient clinics. As of January 31, 1956, there were 121,163 hospital beds in operation. The average daily patient load in Veterans' Administration hospitals during January 1956 was 112,450. During the 8-month period from July 1954 to February 1955, 69,956 private doctors and dentists participated in the outpatient program. During the month of February 1955 421,365 veterans received care of treatment from a home town physician or dentist. This report is concerned with problems encountered in the administration of the veterans' hospital, medical and outpatient program and is presented in two parts. Part I deals with abuses found in the outpatient program on the part of participating dentists and physicians. These abuses varied from minor administrative failures to serious false claims, some of which were referred to the Justice Department for prosecution. Certainly these abuses do not provide the basis for the generalization that there is substantial dishonesty among the medical profession. They do show, however, that in any large program, involving many thousands of individuals, a certain amount of carelessness, misunderstanding and, in a few cases, outright dishonesty, will creep in. Part II of the report deals with abuses of the Veterans' Administration hospitalization program for veterans with non-service-connected disabilities. This report shows that, while the vast majority of veterans are not abusing the privilege of obtaining free hospital and medical care for a non-service-connected disability on the basis of their inability to pay for such treatment, there is a small percentage of veterans who are abusing the privilege and obtaining free medical care when, in fact, they are able to pay for their medical care elsewhere. It is hoped that this report will isolate and identify the relatively small number of individuals who take advantage of the program to the end that such abuse may be minimized, if not eliminated. |