dr. mccoy? >> thank you. i'm betsy mccoy, former lieutenant governor -- >> if you could check the -- >> and chairman of the committee to reduce infection deaths. i spent a good deal of my career in infection prevention in hospitals. i admire many achievements from the va in that area. but i'm here today to express my concern that this bill passed in the senate yesterday, the mccain/sanders bill, will not save the lives of vets stuck on the wait lists. this bill as currently written is designed to protect union jobs, not ailing vets. in fact, the va is run largely by unions and for unions, and one of the culprits is this 316-page union contract full of mind-numbing rules that prevent assigning an employee to a new task, a new work shift, a new building, or reprimanding someone on the staff for misdeeds, or just poor performance. nine months ago, the va rolled out a $9.3 billion initiative to allow vets who are stuck on wait lists to access civilian care. but the unions fought it as hard as they could. the ameri

thank you. >> dr. mccoy. >> thank you. m betsy mccoy, former lieutenant governor -- and chairman of the committee to reduce infectious deaths. i've spent a good deal of my career in prevention of infection in hospitales and i admire many of the achievements in the va in that area. but i'm here today to express my concern that this bill passed in the senate yesterday, the mccain standards bill, will not save the lives of vets stuck on the wait list. this bill, as currently written, is designed to protect union jobs, not ailing vets. in fact, the va is run largely by unions and for unions. and one of the culprits is this 316 page unit contract full of mind numbing rules that prevent assigning an employee to a new task, a new work shift, a new building or reprimanding someone on the staff for misdeeds or just poor performance. nine months ago, the va rolled out a $9.3 billion initiative to allow vets who were stuck on wait lists to access civilian care. but the unions fought it as hard as they could. the american federation of

my question is, you heard earlier dr. mccoy, and for the record, i mean, dr. mccoy is not a medical doctor. raised a number of concerns with the choice card provision in the sanders/mccain bill. do you see any bills with va's ability to provide veterans with eligibility, verification, such as choice cards, to see non-va doctors? >> you know, i don't know explicitly, but we've been doing this -- there are several different methodologies for non-purchase, non-va care, the term seems to be used all encompassing. when we give someone a fee card, it is the authorization for you to go out and get your care. and there are some limits around that. it's not a preauthorization, but there are bounds about what care can be provided. if it has to exceed that, they get authorization. i believe that's the way it works. it should not be an inhibiting factor. and i think you heard from fill lip makulsky the other night that if that were the type of case, it would not be a call to a random number somewhere. we would have the health resource centers run by the business office man

dr. betty mccoy, chairman of the committee to reduce infectious deaths. we appreciate all of you being here with us today. with that, mr. mcclain, you are recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for holding today's hearing to examine bureaucratic barriers to health care for veterans. i will focus my remarks on the very complex of organizational impediments in the veteran's health administration not conducive to the delivery of good health care to veterans. in my written statement that i ask be made part of the record -- >> without objection, all your statements will be entered into the record. i make four specific recommendations to improve organizational alignment in vha. but in this oral statement, i want to address just one and it's probably the one that is most disturbing to veterans in congress. and that's a failure of ethics. there is a pervasive va culture that puts personal gain and the system over the needs of the veteran. and hthis is wrong. and i want to make two points to the committee. let's not have congress and va