Sponsor
Robert P. Bresnahan
Representative · R-PA
Representative · R-PA
The bill improves coordination to reduce improper payments and streamline claims for veterans, providers, and taxpayers, but increases data sharing that raises privacy, security, and administrative risks that could shift costs or harm beneficiaries.
Veterans and taxpayers: VA–CMS/HHS data sharing should reduce duplicate or improper Medicare/Medicaid payments and billing disputes, lowering veterans' out-of-pocket costs and cutting wasteful federal spending.
Hospitals, payers, and providers: Exchanging enrollment and service data will streamline claims adjudication and reduce administrative burden for VA, CMS, and health systems handling dual-covered care.
Veterans: Reciprocal lists of concurrently enrolled veterans and coordinated information-sharing will help ensure veterans get the correct coverage and faster coordination of benefits.
Veterans: Transmitting billing, diagnostic, and enrollment data raises the risk that sensitive health information will be shared more widely, threatening privacy and potentially causing stigma or other harms.
VA, HHS, patients, and providers: Expanded exchanges create new security, compliance, and breach risks that could expose data and impose costs or liabilities on agencies and health systems.
Medicare/Medicaid beneficiaries (including veterans): Data-sharing could trigger aggressive recoupment or billing corrections, causing claim delays, coverage disputes, and possible unexpected out-of-pocket charges.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires VA to pursue a two‑year MOU with HHS/CMS for reciprocal data sharing to reduce duplicate or improper billings for veterans enrolled in VA and Federal health programs.
Official title: To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to seek to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Secretary of Health and Human Services to avoid duplicative, improper, or erroneous billings or payments for hospital care and medical services furnished under the laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Introduced June 29, 2026 by Robert P. Bresnahan · Last progress June 29, 2026
Requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to obtain a two‑year memorandum of understanding with HHS within one year of enactment to allow reciprocal data access between the VA health enrollment system and CMS programs (Medicare, Medicaid, and Medicare Advantage). The MOU must specify what enrollment and care data are shared, may include billing or diagnostic codes, and must enable exchange of identified veteran lists and related information. The VA must report to the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees within one year after the MOU is executed and then every two years while the MOU is in effect, summarizing activities and assessing whether data sharing reduced duplicate, improper, or erroneous billings/payments for VA hospital care and medical services.