October 3, 2025

ICE left detainees without a functioning medical-payment system for ten months after VA ended its claims-processing role

The Department of Veterans Affairs abruptly ended its two-decade role processing ICE's offsite medical-care payments on October 3, 2025, after political pressure and a lawsuit from a conservative advocacy group; ICE itself called the loss an "absolute emergency" that would "delay critical medical care" and risk detainees' "health, welfare, and lives." Ten months later, ICE's replacement contractor, Acentra Health, had received $44.6 million of a $67.5 million no-bid contract but had paid offsite medical providers zero dollars after missing multiple promised start dates, a gap that coincided with a separate Senate investigation documenting dozens of cases of untreated or unmanaged medical conditions in ICE custody.

Part of: 2025–2026 ICE Detainee Death Surge

Jurisdiction: Federal
Location: Washington, D.C.

Abuses documented

Actors

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

For more than two decades, the Department of Veterans Affairs' Financial Services Center processed medical-reimbursement claims for offsite care -- dialysis, prenatal care, oncology, chemotherapy, and other treatment beyond what ICE detention facilities can provide -- for people in ICE custody, a service ICE paid for separately from VA's own veteran-care budget. On October 3, 2025, the VA abruptly ended that arrangement after political pressure and a lawsuit from the Center to Advance Security in America (CASA), a right-wing nonprofit that had criticized the VA's role. ICE was left without a functioning payment mechanism; in a November 2025 government contracting document, the agency described the situation as an "absolute emergency," warning that the lack of claims-processing support would "delay critical medical care" for detainees needing dialysis, prenatal care, oncology, and chemotherapy, and put their "health, welfare, and lives" at risk.

ICE awarded no-bid replacement contracts to Acentra Health (later valued at $67.5 million) and a second contractor, Ardent. Acentra repeatedly missed promised start dates -- first April 30, 2026, then a revised April-through-June 2026 window -- and as of June 4, 2026 had been paid $44.6 million of its contract while paying offsite medical providers zero dollars for care already delivered since October 2025. Providers going unpaid for months at a stretch risked declining to accept further ICE and CBP referrals altogether; ICE issued a fresh solicitation on June 16, 2026 seeking a firm to process roughly 300,000 medical claims a year, suggesting the replacement system still was not functioning. Internal administration data show the VA processed $246 million in ICE detainee medical claims in 2024 but only $157 million in 2025, despite an 82% increase in the detained population over the same period.

The payment collapse compounded an already-documented pattern: Sen. Jon Ossoff's office had separately investigated and documented 85 credible reports of medical neglect at ICE detention facilities between January and August 2025 -- before the payment system failed -- including untreated chest pain leading to heart attacks, unmanaged diabetes, and denial of necessary medications.

Updates

2026-08-13 — American Oversight sued ICE for records on the payment-system disruption [5]

American Oversight filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against ICE seeking records on the administration's handling of the disrupted offsite-medical-care payment system, to determine whether ICE and CBP are meeting their legal obligation to provide adequate medical care to people in their custody.

Why we recorded this

For over two decades the VA processed medical-claim payments so ICE detainees could receive offsite care beyond what detention facilities provide. When that arrangement ended, ICE itself warned the loss would delay critical care and endanger detainees' lives -- yet ten months later it still had not restored a functioning payment system, and offsite providers remained unpaid for care already delivered. This archive records a sustained, self-acknowledged gap in a legally required duty of custodial medical care, not a single missed deadline.

Sources

The Company Processing ICE's Medical Payments Hasn't Paid Out a Dime — NOTUS investigative accessed August 14, 2026
ICE stopped paying for detainee medical care as population surged, Ossoff investigation finds widespread neglect — CBS News Atlanta investigative accessed August 14, 2026
ICE has not paid for detainee medical care for 7 months — Popular Information investigative accessed August 14, 2026
Records Raise Questions About Medical Treatment and Conditions in Immigration Detention Facilities — American Oversight investigative accessed August 14, 2026
American Oversight Sues for Records on Trump Administration's Disruption of Medical Care for People in ICE, CBP Custody — American Oversight primary accessed August 14, 2026