Committee to Hold Field Hearing in NJ to Examine
National Health Care Funding Formula for Veterans
Chairman Chris Smith Calls for Inclusion of ALL Veterans in Adjustments to VERA Formula,
Cites GAO & IG Reports
WHEN: Tuesday, April 30, 2002 at
10:00 AM
WHERE: The War Memorial
Building, Trenton, New Jersey
WHO: House Veterans' Affairs
Committee, Chairman Chris Smith (NJ-4)
WHAT: Public Hearing on Health
Care Funding Formula for Veterans
(Washington, DC) - Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-4), Chairman of the House Committee on
Veterans' Affairs today announced that he would hold a public hearing on Tuesday, April
30, 2002 in Trenton, NJ to examine the VA's health care funding formula that determines
where federal health care dollars for veterans are spent.
The public field hearing will examine the Veterans Equitable Resource Allocation (VERA)
formula that apportions federal funding for veterans' health care to each of the 21
Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISN), and will focus on recent General Accounting
Office (GAO) and VA Inspector General reports calling for changes to the VERA formula.
First developed in 1996, the VERA formula was implemented in April 1997 to better align
VA's limited health care resources with the workload at VA facilities across the country,
especially to account for population shifts. Recent reports by GAO and the VA Inspector
General both recommended that all enrolled veterans be included in VERA's calculation of
workload. Currently, veterans in priority category 7 (those without
service-connected disabilities and whose incomes are above defined poverty levels) are not
included in VERA.
Chairman Smith has long argued that all veterans - including category 7 veterans - deserve
access to timely and comprehensive VA health care.
Witnesses scheduled to testify at the Trenton field hearing include the Department of
Veterans Affairs Under Secretary for Health, Dr. Robert H. Roswell, M.D., authors of the
GAO and VA Inspector General reports, and representatives of veterans service
organizations from New Jersey.
________________________________________________________________________
Please visit http://veterans.house.gov, the House
Committee on Veterans' Affairs web site, named 'One of the Best Web Sites in Congress' by
the Congressional Management Foundation, May 3, 1999.
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