City Tries To Up Veterans Benefits

As local hospitals have tightened their budgets in response to recent Massachusetts health reforms, Cambridge’s Department of Veterans’ Services (DVS) is trying to promote a benefits program that help lower costs for veterans receiving medical care.

The state healthcare reform requires hospitals to provide free care to patients without insurance while simultaneously decreasing the amount that the state will reimburse hospitals for such services.

In response to the financial losses due to the act, the Cambridge Health Alliance—a network that provides medical services for residents of Cambridge, Somerville, and parts of Boston—announced in March that it would slash 300 jobs.

DVS Director Robert Stevens met yesterday with representatives of CHA and the City Council Veterans Committee to discuss coordinating health services for local veterans.

The DVS benefits program serves low-income veterans and their surviving spouses by paying costs not covered by state medical insurance. These costs include out-of-pocket medical expenses, insurance premiums, and fees associated with Medicare Parts B and D, which cover many outpatient services and prescription medications.

The program also provides a stipend for living expenses.

Unique to Massachusetts, the DVS veterans’ program is funded by individual cities, which then receive a 75 percent reimbursement from the state, Stevens said.

Although the program is currently handling about 100 active cases, Stevens said few of the estimated 2,000 veterans living in Cambridge know what it offers. He said CHA can make more eligible veterans aware of the program by asking all patients about their veteran status.

“I feel like you’re missing a lot of people,” said Councillor Craig A. Kelley to the CHA representatives in yesterday’s meeting. “If [patients have] got insurance, you’re not asking if they’re a veteran.”

Currently, CHA routinely asks about veteran status only during the intake interviews for outpatient psychiatric services, said Ruth A. Barron, a psychiatrist at CHA.

During yesterday’s meeting, Stevens and the CHA representatives agreed to work toward including a question about veteran status during all of the Alliance’s intake interviews, not only for those in psychiatric care.

Despite CHA’s financial woes, staff members insist that the quality of veterans’ care will not be negatively affected.

“We will maintain the highest standard in terms of the care that is provided to our patients,” said special assistant to the CHA’s chief executive officer Michael L. Buckley.

—Staff writer Sarah J. Howland can be reached at showland@fas.harvard.edu.