Dedicated to serving them. Thats what va is to veterans and thats why you dont find veterans demanding Community Care as the only choice. The demand for that only choice comes from elsewhere. It doesnt come from veterans. Veterans know better. I have tested this during my time as secretary, when somebody tells me that veterans should only have the choice of the Choice Program, i ask them are you a veteran . And by and large the answer is no. And then i ask to be here in between votes and, mr. Secretary, pleasure that you are here with us as well. I have a specific set of circumstances that ive addressed to you in a letter and want to follow up in this setting today. And i have no doubt but what you and other officials at the va are sympathetic and concerned and want to resolve the circumstances we find ourselves in with a particular employee at a particular va hospital in our state. We have the circumstance just to set the background for my questions, we face one of the worst examples
From Virginia Beach admitted to distributing heroin resulting in that hat says he sold narcotics to Virginia Beach residents including twenty three year old monica poetry she overdosed on heroin and died had knew about boundaries doubt but continue to sell drugs. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison sentencing is set for may not have is just one piece of the heroin problem in Hampton Roads today local state and federal agencies sent a strong unified message about fighting the deadly epidemic thirteen is now was one of the first to shed light on the growing heroin problem here in virginia with our special hooked on heroin when documentary jimmy lee was there for todays News Conference in norfolk and jimmy officials want people to know their plans to combat drug problems are effective in yielding results. Yet today attorney attorney general mark herring sent a very strong message to the public that he will be drug dealers and traffickers like gregory hat he was joined by federal
Appointment wait times is that correct . . I think i said the investigation didnt conclude. Before the investigation was able to conclude they retired from federal service. But this involves fraud and fraud is a criminal issue. How many criminal referrals occurred of people who were involved in this scandal . My understanding, i dont know whether the Inspector General can help us with this. Was we dont have i think h was senator blumenthal ask that the department of justice come in to look at this and they ended up declining on looking at most of these cases. But i know there are referrals from the ig to the criminal division. Could someone comment on that . There are referrals and i know in every case where we suspect something well make the referral. I can tell you and this is not my area of expertise but i think a lot of the money that youre referring to, the bonuses, while inappropriate is not necessarily a high dollar amount and theres not a lot of attraction so fraud is okay if i
His proposal for reforming the federal budget process. The Veterans Affairs undersecretary for health testified at a house hearing today about his departments efforts to improve veterans access to health care and reduce wait times. Congressman jeff miller chairs the committee. Thiss just over two hours. Hearing will come to order. Would you like to welcome everyone to todays hearing entitled, a continued assessment of delays in veterans access to health care. This hearing marks two years since this committee exposed the wait time scandal that has gripped the Department Since 2014. Im proud of the work that we have done in those two years, particularly digging into the actions of bureaucrats who whose selfinterest were put ahead with the veterans they were charged with assisting. The purpose of this hearing is to examine the efforts that va has taken to improve access to care for veterans and to identify where serious issues still exist. Based on the bipartisan work of this committee, g
Especially Health Care Related to the special needs of our veterans. We also hear that in certain areas, v. A. Is at the forefront of health care in this country. We also hear from our veterans that v. A. Care is often fragm t fragmented and that it can be difficult to navigate and arrange nonv. A. Care. We hear of long wait times and limited access. Following the assessment in the Service Transportation and Veterans Health care choice improvement act of 2015, we have mandated a report by the d. A. Regarding a plan for how v. A. Could consolidate all purchase care programs into one new Veterans Choice Program. We received that report last year, and this committee is currently working with the v. A. On the best way to implement the legislative requests. The v. A. Is on track to see, listen to this, 6,277,300 unique patients and 9 million 244 enrollment in fiscal 2015. They completed 56. 7 million appointments. Nearly 2 million more than fiscal 2014. That is rough lly 226 appointmes per