dr. abraham: how were you delegating which veteran gets treated in which does not? dr. tuchschmidt: you may be getting a little bit over my head in terms of hepatitis c. we have a severity score based upon whether the veteran has advanced liver disease. dr. abraham: i guess what i would ask is if you could just give me that information of how the determination is made. is it viral loads or autopsy results? if you would just place to do that i would appreciate it, so i can give it to my district. dr. tuchschmidt: i would be happy to give you the information. we have treated over 20,000 veterans with hepatitis see and we continue to treat patients with advanced the vertices and patience who can go out into the community have the choice program as an option to do that. dr. abraham: secretary, you said of the $3 billion you are anticipating, $500 million of that would be designated for hepatitis c treatment? sen. mcdonald: yes, sir. dr. abraham: i yield back. >> thank you mr. chairman. with regard to the medical scribes, elaborate on that pilot program, because these are gr

dr. abraham. mr. abraham: i rise in support of h.r. 675. as chairman of the disability assistance and memorial affairs subcommittee i would like to thank the veterans affairs committee as a well for their role in getting this important bill to the floor. i am proud to have introduced the veterans' compensation cost of living adjustment act of 2015, also known as cola. the bureau does provide a cost of living adjustment increase to the veterans' disability compensations and other veterans' benefits for 2016. the amount of the incress is the same given to social security beneficiaries. we all understand how important it is for the v.a. benefits to keep pace with the rate of inflation and our nation's veterans depend on these veterans be paid for house, food and other necessities. congress' -- congress previously passed similar increases with wide bipartisan support, because both parties see the need in making sure that our american heroes get credit that they are most markedly deserved. i would also like to thank ranking member representative

dr. abraham verghese, author of "cutting for stone." [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> good evening welcome. we're so pleased to welcome our speaker tonight dr. robert back or who will be -- wachter who will be in conversation about his new book, "the digital doctor." his book is available for sale up front and he'll be signing after the reading tonight. and he will be in conversation tonight with author educator and physician dr. abraham verghese. some quick housekeeping items. please silence your cell phones but feel free to take pictures, tweet, facebook instagram whatever it is that you do to make your friends jealous that you're here tonight. also for q&a, please raise your hand, and i'll come over with the microphone. since c-span's booktv is taping tonight, we want to make sure that your question gets recorded. i'm going to briefly introduce abraham, and he will then produce robert. abraham is an internationally-popular author and a prominent voice in medicine with a uniquely humanistic view of the future of h

dr. abraham -- some quick housekeeping items. please silence your cell phones but feel free to take pictures to each leave facebook instagram whatever it is that you do to make your friends jealous that you were here tonight. also for q&a please raise your hand if i will come over with a microphone since c-span booktv is taping tonight. we want to make sure your question gets reported. i'm going to briefly introduce abraham and he will then introduce robert. abraham is an internationally popular author and a prominent voice in medicine with a uniquely humanistic view of the future of health care. his memoirs and novels have sold millions of copies then translated into many languages and topped best-seller lists while his "new york times" articles making the case for greater physician focus on the patient and an air of technology advances in medicine have made waves in the medical community. his novel cutting the first stone was a runaway hits topping "the new york times" bestseller list for over two years and quickly optioned for

dr. abraham verghese, vice chair of stanford's school of medicine, applauds the efficiencies and cost-savingedicine will bring, but he's concerned about preserving the doctor-patient relationship. >> a very important, i would say, ministerial, function of being a physician is to be attentive, to be present, is to listen to that story, is to locate the symptoms on that person of that patient, not on some screen, not some laparoscope, but on them. >> sreenivasan: do you ever feel like you're missing something by not being able to touch the patient? >> no. if i was taking care of heart failure and diabetes and things like that i think i would feel really uncomfortable doing that over video. the more common things that i'm taking care of, i feel good about what i'm doing, and i feel like i actually connect with the patients really well. >> sreenivasan: even though doctor on demand chooses not to allow its home-based doctors to treat serious illnesses, outdated regulations don't necessarily prevent them from doing that. verghese says the industry needs some clear national guidelines. >> i have no

dr. mcpherson: work. abraham lincoln was once asked our young person who wanted to become a lawyer could become a lawyer and he said you have got to study, you have got to work. work is the answer. and i think that is the answer for somebody who wants to become a historian too. it is a great profession teaching is a great profession, research and writing is i think a very rewarding process, but it is also very hard work. and you have to understand and appreciate the degree to which it is going to involve sometimes very lonely work, especially research. peter carmichael: do you have a routine everyday? you get up and you do this and this? dr. mcpherson: i am not very well disciplined and that -- in that. i proceed on an ad hoc basis. as deadlines approach i work harder. [laughter] peter carmichael: you sound just like me. >> in "battle cry of freedom," you wrote that you thought the south had a chance to win independence and you cite four periods of contingency that went against the south. you still have the same

dr. abraham. >> thank you, mr. chairman., you kandelcan can delegate responsibility. if you had come to the board of directors at the 11th hour like ms. brown indicated, they'd be incredulous at the shortfall the lack of vision. we understand that everybody in this room, certainly on this committee, you yourself and everybody in this room has the veterans' best interest at heart. and i do believe that. let me hit it just from the hepatitis c. you and i both know it's a very insidious disease. i was back in my district this weekend and had three vietnam veterans come up to me and say they'd yet to receive anything from the v.a. because i understand that's in the pipeline and i understand the other other hepatitis c drug was only approved in 2013. that gives us a year and three-quarter, two years to formulate plans delegate how this medicine is going to be divvied up and it hasn't been done yet. can you give me some indication as to when our vietnam veterans iraqi and afghanistan veterans can expect some hard data as to if the

dr. abraham, able bodied member of our committee and i yield him two minutes. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. abraham: thank you mr. speaker. thank you, mr. chairman, for bringing up this bill which will be life-saving for some of our nation's heroes. i rise in support of the v.a. accountability act of 2015. i'm a proud original co-sponsor of the bill. i believe the slegs vital in rooting out the pervasive bureaucracy that plagues the federal government that is a direct result of the broken system. we have seen instances where a v.a. employee took a patient to a crack house to get a fix. it took an entire year for that employee to be fired. an entire year. as a direct result of this broken system, we have seen senior employees caught participating in retaliation against whistleblowers, only to remain on the job. as a direct result of this broken system we have seen employees who are caught manipulating vet reens disability claims you know what happened to employees, they were promoted. they received bonuses. this is unacceptable on s

dr. abraham? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for being here, gentlemen. i guess a statement first on just fiscal responsibility. i was reading the nig's report last week. i think he said that the va didn't know they had $43 million in an account. all of a sudden it was just found. after just sitting there for three years. that's somewhat of an astounding thought. then i look at the choice act. i read the act. there are $360 million put aside in the choice act for awards and bonuses and that type of deal. now, you know, being a businessman, i'm totally support a bonus and award whether it's appropriate. but if that's an accurate figure? >> i think what -- no. it's not. >> the initial traunch was $300 million if i was remembering right which is now somewhat higher than that. but it's the money that we wind up paying the third party administrator for basically administering the department. >> i think you brought up the subject of the rate being paid. what i'm seeing in our district in louisiana and you've addressed this in a previous hearing and we'll kind o

dr. abraham. >> thank you, mr. chairman. let me just start by saying the old adage in business, you can delegate authority but never responsibility. i know you were ceo of a major firm before you came aboard. i would think if you had come to the board of directors at the 11th hour like ms. brown indicated, they, too, would be a little incredulous at the shortfall, i guess the lack of vision, so to speak. we don't want to disparage that. we understand everyone in this room, certainly on this committee, you yourself and everybody in the room, has the veterans' best interest at heart, and i do believe that. let me hit it just from the hepatitis c. you and i both know it's a very insidious disease. takes many years to get to a point -- i was back in my district this weekend. i had three vietnam veterans come up to me and said that they had yet to receive anything from the v.a. because i understand that's in the pipeline, and i do understand that the other hepatitis c drug was only approved in 2013. but saying that it still gives

dr. abraham. >> thank you mr. chairman. let me i guess, just start big by saying the old adage in business, you can delegate authority, but never responsibility. mr. secretary i know you were ceo of a major firm before you came aboard. i would think if you had came to the board of drejters at the 11th hour like my brown indicated, they, too, would be a little incredulous at the shortfall, the lack of vision so to speak. and we don't want to disparage that. we understand that everybody in this room certainly on this committee and yourself and in this room has the veterans' best interest at heart and i do believe that. let me hit it just from the hepatitis c. you and i both know it's an insidious disease. i had three vietnam veterans come up to me and say that they had yet to receive anything from the va because i understand that's in the pipeline and i do understand that the help titus drug was only approved in 2013. but still saying that that still gives us about a year and three quarters to formulate plans, delegate how th

dr. gallagher: i think grant got what he wanted. whatever abraham lincoln want ed. they got what they wanted. they got the into the confederate army on terms that they thought would be most conducive to restoring the union, the point of the war in the first place for most of the white north. i would say grant does a superb job in getting what he wants at appomattox. lee isn't renegotiating. if you don't give 25,000 rations to my soldier am going to hold my breath for 20 minutes. grant just says i will give you some rations. they are not negotiating. lee is perfectly ready. he has to be, to sign on the dotted line. he doesn't have an option. if he is unhappy, he cannot say i want to go talk to general long street and we will continue the war. it is over. it is not negotiation in my view. what are the terms, these are the terms. grant says a couple of other things. these kinds of things. it is not really a negotiation. grant got what he wanted at appomattox. >> david rosen from alexandria virginia. at any point toward the end of the war and just afterwards did there c

dr. : hope hype, and harm at the dawn of the digital age. he will will be signing after the reading tonight. he will be in conversation tonight with author educator and physician doctor abraham there hayes. some heise keeping item please silence your cell phone. also for q&a please raise your hand and i will come over with the microphone. c-span book tv is taping and we want to make sure your question gets recorded. i will briefly introduce abraham and he will then introduce robert. >> abraham is an internationally recognized author with a uniquely humanistic view of the future of healthcare. this memoir and and novel on medical themes have sold aliens of copies and translated into many languages and topped the bestseller list. he is making the case for greater physician focus and the focus of technology has made waves in the industry. his book cutting for stone was a runaway hit topping book list for two years. the rumor is he was working on a new book which will be released sometime in the, i think it's safe to say, next five years. please give a warm welcome to doctor abraham there hayes. verghese's. thank you so much for the wonderful introduction. >> can you all hear me