Chairman Jeff Miller

Chairman Jeff Miller

Opening Statement, As Prepared for Delivery

House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs

“Assessing the Promise and Progress of the Choice Program”

May 13, 2015

10:00 a.m.

334 Cannon House Office Building

Thank you all for joining us for today’s oversight hearing, “Assessing the Promise and Progress of the Choice Program.”

We have two full witness panels ahead of us so I will keep my opening remarks short in the interest of time. 

The Choice program was created last summer to address an unparalleled access to care crisis at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Six months after it was first implemented, the program has successfully linked thousands of veterans with quality health care in their home communities.

We can all be proud of that and I applaud VA and the two Choice program Third Party Administrators (TPAs) – Health Net Federal Services and TriWest Healthcare Alliance - for their initial efforts to quickly implement the program and their ongoing efforts to make it work well for the veterans who need it.

That said, the implementation and administration of the Choice program has been far from perfect and many veterans are still waiting too long and traveling too far to receive the health care they need.

There are many reasons for this – a lack of outreach to veterans who may be eligible, a lack of training for front-line VA and TPA staff, a lack of urgency on the part of many VA medical facilities who continue to adhere to their old ways of doing business – and I could go on.

During today’s hearing we will discuss how to eliminate impediments to greater veteran and provider participation in the Choice program and how to ensure VA and TPA staff are properly trained and seamlessly coordinated to respond to veteran and non-VA provider questions and ensure the timely delivery of care.

We will also begin discussing where VA goes from here.

The Choice program is just one of many ways VA provides care outside of the Department’s walls.

All too often VA’s numerous purchased care programs and authorities operate in conflict with one another - using different eligibility criteria, different programmatic requirements, and different reimbursement rates to achieve the same goal.

That does not serve VA, American taxpayers, or - most importantly – veterans and their families. 

As was stated many times last year, business-as-usual is not an option.

Congress has consistently met the Administration’s budget requests for the Department of Veterans Affairs and, as a result, VA’s total budget has increased by seventy-three percent [73%] since 2009. 

In comparison, veteran patients have increased by only 32% since 2009.

Yet, VA has not and cannot fully meet the needs of the entirety of their patient population.

This illustrates clearly that VA’s failures are not a matter of money, they are a matter of management.

There is no one way forward, but there can also be no mistaking that, by challenging VA’s failing status quo approach to purchased care, we find ourselves at a crossroads of opportunity that never existed before.

I am encouraged by and in agreement with the numerous testimonies today that emphasize the need to build a coordinated managed care system that incorporates VA care along with needed community options and resources. 

While working to improve the Choice program today, we must all prepare for the Choice program of tomorrow – one that brings the universe of non-VA care together under one umbrella so that the care our veterans receive is more efficient and effective, regardless of where it takes places.

However, I look forward to working with veterans, VA, veteran service organizations,

and all other interested stakeholders on this effort, beginning with your statements this morning.