Abstract. We present a fully perturbative calculation of the quartet-channel protondeuteron scattering length ( 4 a p-d ) up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in pionless effective field theory. In particular, we use a framework that consistently extracts the Coulomb-modified effective range function for a screened Coulomb potential in momentum space. We find a natural convergence pattern as we go to higher orders in the EFT expansion. Our NNLO result of (10.9 ± 0.4) fm agrees with older experimental determinations but deviates from more recent calculations, which find values around 14 fm. To resolve this discrepancy, we discuss the scheme dependence of Coulomb subtractions in a three-body system.