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Improved health care for veterans and military, Millions in savings for American
taxpayers
WASHINGTON, D.C. - House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Chris Smith (NJ-4)
introduced legislation Wednesday to establish a five-site demonstration project
to speed up the sluggish pace at which the VA and Pentagon share their health
care resources.
"It's been 19 years since Congress called for greater cooperation between these
two huge agencies with combined health care budgets of $35 billion, " Smith said
when introducing his Department of Defense-Department of Veterans Affairs Health
Resources Access Improvement Act of 2001 (H.R. 2667). "There has been some
progress, but the pace needs to be increased if we are to achieve the dual goals
of improving health care for veterans and the military, and saving taxpayers
millions through increased efficiency," he said.
"We're taking a new approach with this bill," Smith said. "Currently, sharing
between the VA and DoD is optional and, unfortunately, neither department has
mtaken full advantage of this option. We need to give both departments new
incentives and tools to insure that they move more expeditiously to achieve the
benefits of sharing their health care resources," he said.
Smith's bill would direct VA Secretary Anthony J. Principi and Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld to agree on five sites where the two agencies have health care
facilities close enough to permit cooperative operations. Such joint operations
would include unified budget systems, staffing, compatible software, and graduate medical education programs. The projects would be designed to
demonstrate the advantages and challenges of integrating the largest health care
systems in the federal government.
The bill would authorize $10 million for each department for fiscal year 2002
and $25 million for each succeeding year of the demonstration project. Both
secretaries would be given authority to waive regulations and policies that
might impede the project. They would be required to submit a joint "prospectus"
within two years for the construction of a new, more accessible and unified
federal health care facility in an area where both agencies need a replacement
facility.
"As Chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, I am committed to insuring that
we knock down every barrier that prevents greater sharing and take advantage of
every opportunity to improve health care for veterans and the military community," Smith said. "This not only fulfills our sacred obligations to care
for those who have, and continue to defend our freedom, it also has the added
benefit of enormous savings to American taxpayer," he said.
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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