[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 38, Volume 1]
[Revised as of July 1, 2002]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 38CFR17.44]

[Page 594-595]
 
            TITLE 38--PENSIONS, BONUSES, AND VETERANS' RELIEF
 
                CHAPTER I--DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
 
PART 17--MEDICAL--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 17.44  Hospital care for certain retirees with chronic disability (Executive Orders 10122, 10400 and 11733).

    Hospital care may be furnished when beds are available to members or 
former members of the uniformed services (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine 
Corps, Coast Guard, Coast and Geodetic Survey, now National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration hereinafter referred to as NOAA, and Public 
Health Service) temporarily or permanently retired for physical 
disability or receiving disability retirement pay who require hospital 
care for chronic diseases and who have no eligibility for hospital care 
under laws governing the Department of Veterans Affairs, or who having 
eligibility do not elect hospitalization as Department of Veterans 
Affairs beneficiaries. Care under this section is subject to the 
following conditions:
    (a) Persons defined in this section who are members or former 
members of the active military, naval, or air service must agree to pay 
the subsistence rate set by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, except 
that no subsistence charge will be made for those persons who are 
members or former members of the Public Health Service, Coast Guard, 
Coast and Geodetic Survey now NOAA, and enlisted personnel of the Army, 
Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force.
    (b) Under this section, the term chronic diseases shall include 
chronic arthritis, malignancy, psychiatric disorders, poliomyelitis with 
residuals, neurological disabilities, diseases of the nervous system, 
severe injuries to the nervous system, including quadriplegia, 
hemiplegia and paraplegia, tuberculosis, blindness and deafness 
requiring definitive rehabilitation, disability from major amputation, 
and other diseases as may be agreed upon

[[Page 595]]

from time to time by the Under Secretary for Health and designated 
officials of the Department of Defense and Department of Health and 
Human Services. For the purpose of this section, blindness is defined as 
corrected visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye, or 
corrected central visual acuity of more than 20/200 if there is a field 
defect in which the peripheral field has contracted to such an extent 
that its widest diameter subtends the widest diameter of the field of 
the better eye at an angle no greater than 20 deg..
    (c) In the case of persons who are former members of the Coast and 
Geodetic Survey, care may be furnished under this section even though 
their retirement for disability was from the Environmental Science 
Services Administration or NOAA.

[34 FR 9340, June 13, 1969, as amended at 39 FR 1841, Jan. 15, 1974; 47 
FR 58247, Dec. 30, 1982. Redesignated at 61 FR 21965, May 13, 1996, as 
amended at 62 FR 17072, Apr. 9, 1997]