Identify the balance and the requested help
Check that the notice concerns VA healthcare copays. VA’s current debt guidance separates these bills from benefit overpayments, such as disability compensation or education payments. Those categories have different submission instructions even when a form name looks familiar.
Keep the bill date, balance and account reference together. The healthcare hardship page urges prompt action to avoid late charges. Ask the billing contact which deadline applies to your request and how to track it; submitting paperwork is not a decision forgiving the debt.
Sources: VA: current options for healthcare copays and other debt; VA healthcare financial-hardship assistance
Prepare Form 5655 for a waiver or compromise request
VA describes a waiver as a request to forgive debt and a compromise as an offer to settle for a smaller one-time payment. Its current healthcare-copay instructions use the Financial Status Report, VA Form 5655, for these requests and provide an online option.
Prepare the household financial details the report asks for, including spouse information if married, income, assets, expenses and other debts. Include the explanation appropriate to the request. The form guidance says bills and receipts do not need to be sent automatically, although VA may ask for more information. For a mailed or in-person healthcare-copay relief request, send the completed Form 5655 and supporting letter to the business office or health administration office at your nearest VA medical center.
Sources: VA: current options for healthcare copays and other debt; VA: preparing the Financial Status Report
Send the repayment form to the account center
For a monthly healthcare-copay repayment plan, use VA Form 10-323. Its dedicated page directs the completed form to the VA Consolidated Patient Account Center, or CPAC, and expressly says not to mail it to the facility where you receive care.
Use VA’s CPAC finder: identify your Veterans Integrated Services Network, then select the corresponding account-center address. Ask your VA facility for help if you cannot identify it. Keep the proposed plan and submission record, and wait for the decision and payment instructions rather than treating a proposal as approved.
Sources: VA Form 10-323: healthcare repayment and CPAC routing; VA: find your Consolidated Patient Account Center; VA: current options for healthcare copays and other debt
Keep a future hardship exemption separate
A request concerning future medical copays uses VA Form 10-10HS and an explanation of the financial hardship. The form asks about projected current-year household income, deductible expenses and the circumstances of the request, with supporting documentation and the Veteran’s signature. Send the completed Form 10-10HS and letter by mail or in person to the business office or health administration office at your nearest VA medical center.
VA completes the determination section. If approved, the exemption applies through the end of the same calendar year under the form’s instructions. The hardship guidance excludes pharmacy-medication copays. Do not treat this request as erasing an older balance or covering every future healthcare charge.
Sources: VA Form 10-10HS: Request for Hardship Determination; VA healthcare financial-hardship assistance
Your next-step checklist
- Identify whether the notice is a healthcare copay bill or another VA debt.
- Choose the request you want VA to review.
- Prepare Form 5655 and the explanation for debt relief.
- Use Form 10-323 and the CPAC address for repayment.
- Use Form 10-10HS for the separate future-hardship request.
- Keep the submission and resulting decision together.
Keep personal, insurance and medical information in the appropriate organization’s approved secure channel.
Common questions
Do all VA financial forms go to the same office?
No. The dedicated healthcare repayment instructions send Form 10-323 to CPAC. Current debt-relief and hardship instructions identify their own online or medical-center submission routes. Check the task and form before sending it.
Sources: VA Form 10-323: healthcare repayment and CPAC routing; VA: current options for healthcare copays and other debt; VA healthcare financial-hardship assistance
Does a hardship exemption remove pharmacy copays?
VA’s hardship page specifically excludes pharmacy-medication copays. Read the actual decision and ask about any balance or charge that remains unclear.
Sources and verification
The sources below support the administrative information in this guide. Follow the responsible organization’s current instructions when requirements, forms or contact routes change.
- VA: current options for healthcare copays and other debt — checked .
- VA healthcare financial-hardship assistance — checked .
- VA: preparing the Financial Status Report — checked .
- VA Form 10-323: healthcare repayment and CPAC routing — checked .
- VA: find your Consolidated Patient Account Center — checked .
- VA Form 10-10HS: Request for Hardship Determination — checked .