At the same time, weve had a large increase in care in the community, choice hasnt worked as intended. Here are some things were doing to fix it. On april 24th we changed the measure from Straight Line to driving distance. Using the fastest route. This roughly doubles the number of veterans eligible for the 40mile program under choice. Excuse me. But there is much more to do. A followon mailing to all eligible veterans is about to go out. Weve Just Launched a major change in internal processes to make choice the default option for care in the community. Additional staff training and communication extensive provider communications, improvement to the website and ramped up social networking. New mechanisms together, timely feedback. Directly from both veterans as well as from front line staff. These are all, already in place or about to launch. In the longer term, we must rationalize Community Care into a single channel. The different programs with different rules and reimbursement rates
Message where it needs to be delivered, that the time is critical and i look forward to being part of the solution. Thank you very much, mike, for your comments and your contributions. Ill take it a little bit out of order now and take my law partner and former member of congress, state of georgia, congressman Jack Kingston to give his perspective on some of the things theyre doing down in georgia, particularly in the port project area and hes now with us, with these projects probably had something to do with them back when you were in congress yourself. Jack, why dont you go ahead and tell us about what is happening down there. Thank you very much, senator. I have to take a point of personal privilege that i really came here to lobby jennifer on going ahead and getting a fast lane on 395. I think we all would like to see that happen. And, mike, i want to say my mother actually lives in louisville, colorado, and your toll road is great. Thank you. Ive driven it many times. It is such a
The mayor says, why dont you try a 9 propertytax increase . Youve talked about selling commercial tax liens. There are other ideas out there. If you had to guess what the makeup is come june, whats in there . I think therell be a combination. The reality is, is that the commercial lien is a onetime revenue stream. But were basically dealing with a oneterm issue, because if the governor is successful in some aspects of this budget, theres gonna be significant revenue coming from the state to the philadelphia schools and schools across the sate. Were not sure where thats gonna play out, which is why we have this oneyear scenario. So, we have to figure out a way to segue into next year, but make sure that the School District does have the appropriate revenue to operate in a reasonable way this year. What do you say to council members, to voters who say darrell, every year theres a hole and were looking for money to fill it. When does it end . Well, the good thing is that, for the first ti
Captioning performed by vitac forward to hearing first from sloan gibson. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Chairman isakson Ranking Member blumenthal and the committee, were committed to making the Choice Program work and to providing veterans timely and geographically accessible care, using care in the community whenever necessary. Ill talk shortly about what were doing and the help that we need from congress to make all of that happen. First, i want to talk very briefly about access to care. Most mornings at 9 00 a. M. , for the last year, Senior Leaders from across the department gathered to focus on improving veterans access to care. Weve concentrated on key drivers of access, including increasing Medical Center staffing by 11,000, adding space, boosting care during extended hours and weekends by 10 and increasing staff productivity. The result, 2. 5 million more completed appointments inside va this year than last. Relative value units, a common measure of care delivered that measured car
Public of the need for validity of a broad program. The concept delineating between the number of people affected or how targets are picked, versus the program itself, i think is valuable, and it gets to a question that i would like a from everybody on. There is a trust problem that now exists, for whatever series of reasons. An example of a concern that i at least have was revealed through a usa today piece that came out last month that revealed that the dea had been conducting a Metadata Collection Program ten years before 9 11. One of the concerns and maybe this is pessimism or paranoia depending on who you ask, is that stopping a program like the telephone Metadata Collection Program that is ongoing under authority, how do we know it does not show up under another 30 . It is a sincere question that premuch everybody, because theres no reason to hold the community to such a paranoid standard, but how do we get to that point . I think this question is a real challenge because of the