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House passes bill to improve veterans’ access to care and caregivers’ benefit

Association expresses support for bill

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The U.S. House of Representatives Dec. 16 approved an ADA-supported bill that addresses home care and caregiver programs provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. 

The Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act passed in a 382-12 vote. 

The bill aims to enhance the lives of veterans and their caregivers in various ways, including improved access to dental care. In a letter addressed to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the ADA advocated for veterans’ access to high-quality dental care, including through comprehensive care offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs Dentistry or through the service of private dentists.  

“The ADA also strongly believes that VA Dentistry deserves the necessary support that would better enable it to provide access to oral health care for more veterans,” reads the letter, signed by ADA President Brett Kessler, D.D.S., and Executive Director Raymond Cohlmia, D.D.S. “We believe that this bill would offer increased and improved access to VA dental benefits for veterans and would further increase access through support for VA dentists and the Veterans Community Care Program.”

The letter goes on to call attention to several sections of the bill, such as Section 144, which would create a pilot program for veterans currently ineligible for VA dental benefits to receive VA dental care if they have been diagnosed with ischemic heart disease. The ADA supported this section, stating it “would welcome both the access to oral health care this pilot program would provide, as well as the further study into the oral-systemic health association.”

Section 142 would allow the secretary to lift pay limitations for dentists employed by the VA, offer new incentives for employment and retention, and would require a report indicating which VA facilities implemented market pay increases.

“These are important reforms to VA Health personnel policies that will make employment at the VA more competitive with private practice, thus improving access to care for veterans,” the ADA said. 

The ADA also expressed support for provisions requiring a report that would review, among other things, the impact of current reimbursement rates to dental care providers participating in the Veterans Community Care Program on the availability of dental care for veterans; establishing a pilot program that would hire dentists at VA medical facilities and dental specialists at Veterans Integrated Service Networks to review and approve dental treatment plans; requiring a report that would identify the resources needed to provide dental care to veterans currently eligible for VA dental benefits; and requiring reporting on the implementation and expansion of the VETSmile pilot program, which provides free or reduced-cost dental care to veterans who are ineligible for VA dental benefits. 

The ADA has been involved with the VETSmile program since its authorization.

“Our nation’s dentists thank you for your leadership on veterans’ benefits, and particularly for your attention to the importance of providing dental care to veterans,” the letter concludes. 


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