After feedback from veterans, advocacy groups, lawmakers, and other stakeholders – 20,000 of whom provided comments via the Federal Register – the VA fully rescinded an interim final rule that may have punished veterans for receiving medical treatment.

VA Secretary Doug Collins announced Feb. 19, two days after the new rule was published, that it would not be enforced. The official recission echoes Collins’ Feb. 19 statement, which said the rule served to clarify existing policy, but notes the department “recognizes that many commenters construed the interim final rule as something that could result in adverse consequences.”

MOAA was among those commenters, noting that the rule “fails to account for treatment burdens, creates harmful incentives, destabilizes access to benefits, and was promulgated without adequate public input.” While the VA’s Feb. 27 move to rescind the rule represents a first step toward rebuilding trust with the veteran community, three other key recommendations from MOAA’s public comment should come next: