00:00Thank you Mr. Chairman and congratulations to each of you on your
00:05nominations. It was good to see the secretary yesterday afternoon and to
00:11hear from him sounds like he is busy and working and making some positive
00:17changes and we appreciate that. Mr. Bartram I want to come to you. I'm a
00:21little confused over your statement regarding community care and want to
00:27get you to clarify your comments on that. Now the chairman and I are both
00:34working on the community care issue and when I talked to yesterday afternoon with
00:40the secretary I know he is trying to simplify community care but you made a
00:47comment that you need to balance direct care and community care and I want you
00:55to drill down. What would that balance be and why would you not say let's
01:00prioritize what the vet wants and if they want community care let's make that more
01:07simple a more simple process for them to access that care. So ma'am I am saying
01:14that if veterans want community care we need to allow them to have community care.
01:20When I say balance it right now the bureaucracy is stacked against them. The
01:25bureaucracy is stacked against if I get confirmed then I can work to help take
01:29out some of the bureaucracy. As a senior advisor I'm very limited in what I can do.
01:34As a as as the undersecretary if I'm confirmed then I can work to take out the
01:39bureaucracy that's there. But right the best medical interest allows us to take out
01:44part of the bureaucracy. Changing what the contracts are as we do the next
01:48generation of contracts allows us to take out part of the the the bureaucracy.
01:53Building in the infrastructure you know we also need to allow that if a veteran
01:57chooses that they want to use the VA health care system the direct care system
02:01that they have that choice to use that direct health care system. So it's working
02:05with them on where do they want to get their care and making sure that it's not
02:09bureaucracy that's getting in the way it's it's that what they wanted what the
02:15where they want to get their care. And that they can access it in the most
02:18efficient. Yes. In effective way. Okay I appreciate that because talking about
02:25balancing I think made it sound like you were going to do a little bit over here
02:29and a little bit over there but not prioritize the vet in making those
02:35decisions. And talking to most veterans in Tennessee they much prefer having
02:42community care because we've got 63 rural hospitals in our state. We've got 260
02:49rural clinics and they would much prefer going to something in their community
02:56because it enables them to get a neighbor or a friend to drive them and drop
03:02them off and somebody doesn't have to take off work for the day and get them to
03:07Nashville or Memphis. So this is an issue we've got a lot of veterans in Tennessee
03:15and this is an issue that comes up regularly as we meet with the VSOs and as
03:24we meet with veterans groups and what they want is community care. They they
03:32appreciate what the chairman has done. They are crazy about my bill which would get
03:37rid of that bureaucracy and give them the choice put them in the driver's seat and
03:41when you meet with these veterans groups and you hear what they go through and how
03:49long they have to wait it is embarrassing and I know you all inherited a
03:55problem at a very broken VA and the fact that you had people that were working in VA
04:03health care that worked five days out of a 10 day work period in person and VA benefits where they
04:11worked two days out of 10 in person. You can't get your job done if you are not showing up to work so we
04:23appreciate that but I think it is important that you speak with clarity on these issues and that we know you're not going to go soft.
04:32on community care because that is what what the veterans are wanting to see expanded so thank you ma'am and just just to be just to be clear we're working to put veterans first and veterans choice first and so community care is a primary focus and we've got to get all of the bureaucracy out of the way so that the veteran has the choice and as a veteran of 40 years myself and the son of a veteran I'm going to get all of the bureaucracy out of the way so that the veteran has the choice and as a veteran of 40
04:59as a veteran of 40 years myself and the son of a veteran I can tell you that that I will continue to work for veterans and listen to veterans because the why that I chose to take this nomination was those are my brothers and sisters those are the people that I've gone to battle with they're my battle buddies and those are the people that I'm here to serve and so serve them I will. Great. And Mr. Workman I'll send something to you for a QFR
05:29and that transition that is there for from active duty to veterans I'll send it I'm out of town time so I'll send that to you. Thank you Senator. Thank you. Senator Blackburn thank you committee we're going to and we have two senators that are present. At the end of those questioning we're going to try to bring this hearing to a conclusion and make the vote at the very end.
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