OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to explore differences among Veterans and private-patients on health related quality of life (HRQOL), fear of recurrence (FOR), impact of events (IE), illness intrusiveness (IITF) and psychological distress in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) patients and provide direction for further study. METHODS: Cross sectional study design was used.  Participants were drawn from a large private hospital (N=38) and Veterans Affairs hospital (N=29) in the southeast United States. HRQOL was measured with EORTC-QLQ-C30. FOR was measured with 5-item measure used in the Cancer of the Prostate Strategic Research Endeavor study. The IE Scale measures subjective response to stress and consists of two subscales, intrusive thoughts and avoidance.  The IITF measure assesses impact of illness on functioning and consists of three subscales, intimacy, instrumental life and relationship-personal development.  Psychological distress was measured with the Brief Symptom Index (BSI), an 18-item measure.  Differences among Veterans vs. private-patients were assessed with student t-test or chi-square as appropriate.  Analyses were performed using the SAS v9.1.3. RESULTS: Majority of respondents were older (mean age at diagnosis 65.4(±8.8) years), white (91.1%), males (83.6%), married (70.2%) and largest percentage (35.8%) reported getting some college education. Veterans group did not differ from private-patients on age, education, ethnicity, relationship status, number of bladder cancer treatments received or  time since diagnosis (years) (p>0.05), but differed significantly on gender (p=0.0016).  Number of comorbidities were also higher in the Veterans group (p=0.0214).  Veterans indicated significantly higher FOR, psychological distress, illness intrusiveness on intimacy and instrumental life, and lower HRQOL compared to private-patients (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Veterans had higher level of FOR and psychological distress but lower HRQOL, than private-patients.  Interventions to manage patients’ fear of recurrence, psychological distress and help them adapt to altered routine may assist NMIBC patients.