Hospitals and groups that help crime victims have reached an agreement on how to temporarily solve the problem of skyrocketing rape exam costs that are bankrupting a victims’ aid fund, the groups announced Tuesday.
In the past year, the cost of rape exams has almost doubled, according to Judy Rex, executive director of the Center for Crime Victim Services. By comparison, the cost of other medical bills the center pays has gone up 50 percent, she said.
As a result, the center is not able to help as many victims because exams are more expensive. Next year, the rape exam fund at the center is expected to end up $53,000 in the red, Rex said.
The center took its concerns to the Senate Judiciary Committee last month. After that hearing, center officials met with the hospital association as well as an anti-domestic violence group to address the problem.
Tuesday, the groups presented an amendment to a victim restitution bill that establishes a one-year fix for the rape exam cost problem. They also presented a game plan for finding a permanent solution.
Next year, the center will reimburse health care facilities for 50 percent of the billed charges for rape exams, instead of the 70 percent they pay now. Health care facilities pick up the rest of the cost.
The center often acts like an insurance company for victims, many of whom have insurance but don’t want to use it for fear of a bill finding its way into the wrong hands.
Other victims have insurance but have high deductibles they haven’t met, so the center pays the full cost of medical services, Rex said.
By paying 50 percent instead of 70 percent, Rex said the center will save about $44,000 on rape exams plus another $28,000 on other compensation program medical payments.
To find a permanent solution, the Center for Crime Victim Services, the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, private insurance companies Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont and MVP, and the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Services plan to prepare a report on ways to encourage more victims to use their insurance while still protecting privacy.
“We’re just going to put everything on the table and see what we come up with,” Rex said.
Ideas could include asking insurance companies to waive deductibles for rape exams or creating a way to send bills to the Center for Crime Victim Services instead of the victim.
Another issue is that various hospitals charge a wide range of prices for the same services, the fund has found. Rex said that is not something she and the hospitals and insurance companies plan to discuss.
Language about this compromise will be included in H.735, a broad bill designed to plug a budget gap originally estimated at $1.3 million for the Center for Crime Victim Services next year.
The center has plugged that gap with three measures. This bill will save the center $376,000, Rex said. In addition, the House appropriated $630,000 from the state’s General Fund to the center and the center made $300,000 in cuts.
The budget gap is in part due to a decline in traffic ticket revenue, which helps fuel the three funds the center administers.
The committee plans to discuss this bill again Thursday morning.
A report issued in December highlighted the rape kit issue as part of the larger budget gap problem.
The bill also includes a new section about people who are exonerated from crimes.
Vermont law only permits people exonerated as a result of DNA evidence to be eligible for compensation.
The change would allow people exonerated for other reasons, including that the conviction was reversed or vacated, an indictment was dismissed or the defendant was acquitted after a second or subsequent trial, to also be eligible for compensation.
A national policy group, the Innocence Project, proposed this amendment.
It also applies to people pardoned or found “actually innocent,” a term defined in the bill as someone who “did not engage in any illegal conduct alleged in the charging documents for which he or she was charged, convicted and imprisoned.”
It applies only to people convicted of felonies who have served at least six months in a correctional facility.
