During a medical emergency, you should immediately seek care at the nearest emergency department (ED). A medical emergency is an injury, illness or symptom so severe that a delay in seeking immediate medical attention would be reasonably expected to be hazardous to life or health. If you believe your life or health is in danger, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department right away.

Inform the emergency care provider to report your emergency treatment to VA’s Centralized Emergency Care Reporting Center as soon as possible after your treatment starts by:

Using the VA Emergency Care Reporting portal, or calling 844-72HRVHA (844-724-7842)

You, or someone acting on your behalf, can also report the emergency treatment to VA. VA should only be notified once and ideally that notification is from the community emergency facility where treatment is being conducted. If you have an urgent or emergent need to coordinate care or transfer to a VAMC, contact the nearest VAMC immediately.

Notifying VA of an emergency event allows covered Veterans to have their emergency treatment authorized by VA. Failure to report emergency care to VA within 72 hours of the start of the emergency treatment may impact your eligibility for VA to cover the cost of treatment. However, even if the notification to VA did not occur timely, the emergency treatment may still be eligible for VA reimbursement.

For more information, visit: Emergency Medical Care - Community Care (va.gov)

To speak with a local representative about the information above, please call our customer service number at 706-733-0188 ext. 33666. Or you may stop by our office locations: Downtown campus: 1D293, Uptown campus, on the ground floor across from our Information Technology (IT) office.