§ 1728 — Reimbursement Of Certain Medical Expenses

(a) The Secretary shall, under such regulations as the Secretary prescribes, reimburse veterans eligible for hospital care or medical services under this chapter for the customary and usual charges of emergency treatment (including travel and incidental expenses under the terms and conditions set forth in section 111 of this title) for which such veterans have made payment, from sources other than the Department, where such emergency treatment was rendered to such veterans in need thereof for any of the following: (1) An adjudicated service-connected disability. (2) A non-service-connected disability associated with and held to be aggravating a service-connected disability. (3) Any disability of a veteran if the veteran has a total disability permanent in nature from a service-connected disability. (4) Any illness, injury, or dental condition of a veteran who— (A) is a participant in a vocational rehabilitation program (as defined in section 3101 of this title); and (B) is medically determined to have been in need of care or treatment to make possible the veteran’s entrance into a course of training, or prevent interruption of a course of training, or hasten the return to a course of training which was interrupted because of such illness, injury, or dental condition. (b) In any case where reimbursement would be in order under subsection (a) of this section, the Secretary may, in lieu of reimbursing such veteran, make payment of the reasonable value of emergency treatment directly— (1) to the hospital or other health facility furnishing the emergency treatment; or (2) to the person or organization making such expenditure on behalf of such veteran. (c) No veteran described in subsection (a) may be held liable for payment for emergency treatment described in such subsection if— (1) a claim for direct payment was submitted by an individual or entity under subsection (b)(2); and (2) such claim was submitted after a deadline established by the Secretary for purposes of this section due to— (A) an administrative error made by the individual or entity, such as submission of the claim to the wrong Federal agency or submission of the claim after the deadline; or (B) an administrative error made by the Department, such as misplacement of a paper claim or deletion of an electronic claim. (d) In this section, the term “emergency treatment” has the meaning given such term in section 1725(h)(1) of this title.