ambitious prospects in the budget for a medical care collections fund, mccf, are based on premises. the american legion fears that this will now bear fruit in the real world of 2013. setting aside concerns that the oig found in the process while cost cutting for the v.a., over $110 million annually were not collected. v.a.'s new budget proposes to build private insurance at the preferred provider rate. rather than the current medicare rate. this change billing reflects 90% of the proposed increase in this area of the budget. frankly, this has never been authorized before. and even if authorized, the v.a. will be hard pressed to meet these budget targets. when this fails to generate the necessary revenue, v.a. will be forced to find savings in the budget. that means more broken promises to our veterans. finally we're concerned about the overall budget prospect as a whole in these turbulent times. surely this committee's aware of the pessimism of the american people. regarding the ability of congress to come to terms and to pass a complete budget. while we acknowledge that many work t

ambitious prospects for medical care collections fund, mccf, unfortunately are based on premiseses. american legion fears this will not bear fruit in the real world of 2013. setting aside even concerns that the oig fund and ineffective process while cost cutting for the va over $110 million annually in revenue were unable to be collected. that is a great concern with the proposed increases in the billing amounts. va's new budget proposes to bill private insurance at prefered provider rate rather than current medicare rate. this change billing reflects 90% of the proposed increase in this area of the budget. frankly this has never been authorized before and even if authorized, the va will be hard-pressed to meet these overly optimistic budget targets. when this fails to generate the necessary revenue, va will be forced to find savings elsewhere in the budget and of course that means more broken promises to our veterans. finally we're concerned about the overall budget prospect as a whole in these turbulent times and fiscal strife in the government. surely the committee is aware of th