mr. minney, you are absolutely spot on. i as one congressman want to help you make sure we can get those blinded veterans, whether they were service connected or not. you are right. i work with the blind at home closely. you are correct. it's much cheaper to do what you're talking about doing than institutionalizing a veteran. my time has expired. senator isakson, you are recognized for five minutes. senator isakson: sergeant major overstreet you may have been last, as a former staff sergeant we all know the n.c.o.'s run the military. we appreciate what you do very much. million reickhoff, i want to associate myself with your testimony. the focus on secretary mcdonald, a lot of the problems at the v.a. were not of his making. solving them have been put in his lap. he's going to need a lot of support. the last conversation i had last night about 11:00, by cell phone was bob mcdonald. we are trying to work through the difficulty to get us through the denver project and get v.a. out of the construction business and back in the

mr. minney, you are absolutely spot on. i as one congressman want to help you make sure we can get those blinded veterans, whether they were service connected or not. you are right. i work with the blind at home closely. you are correct. it's much cheaper to do what you're talking about doing than institutionalizing a veteran. my time has expired. senator isakson, you are recognized for five minutes. senator isakson: sergeant major overstreet, you may have been last, as a former staff sergeant, we all know the n.c.o.s run the military. we appreciate what you do very much. million reickhoff, i want to associate myself with your testimony. the focus on secretary mcdonald, a lot of the problems at the v.a. were not of his making. solving them has been put in his lap. he's going to need a lot of support. the last conversation i had last night about 11:00, by cell phone was bob mcdonald. we are trying to work through the difficulty to get us through the denver project and get v.a. out of the construction business and back in the

mr. minney: it's a fight to get the second and third disease associated. senator boozman: we need to fix that. that's an excellent point. one of the problems that we are having in arkansas, i note throughout the country, there's been a problem with v.a. reimbursing local hospitals for the emergency medical care for veterans. when this happens, the hospital or collection agency hired by the hospital may go after the veteran for the payment if they don't receive it from the v.a. i guess my question to the panel, is that something that you're hearing about? i have a lot of concern about that because not only is it a problem now, again, with the veteran, but also with the hospitals. in you don't pay them, they are not going to participate. the other problem is if we can't do it right now, under this limited program that we have had in the past, what's going to happen is the 40 mile rule develops and hopefully we'll see more and more people utilizing that as they get comfortable with that. if we can't do this program, then we are going to have huge problems wit

mr. minney, you are absolutely spot on. i as one congressman want to help you make sure we can get those blinded veterans, whether they were service connected or not. you are right. i work with the blind at home closely. you are correct. it's much cheaper to do what you're talking about doing than institutionalizing a veteran. my time has expired. senator isakson, you are recognized for five minutes. senator isakson: sergeant major overstreet, you may have been last, as a former staff sergeant, we all know the n.c.o.s run the military. we appreciate what you do very much. million reickhoff, i want to associate myself with your testimony. the focus on secretary mcdonald, a lot of the problems at the v.a. were not of his making. solving them has been put in his lap. he's going to need a lot of support. the last conversation i had last night about 11:00, by cell phone was bob mcdonald. we are trying to work through the difficulty to get us through the denver project and get v.a. out of the construction business and back in the

mr. minney come you mentioned the travel for non-service-connected individuals with vision problems. what is the major disease that they have that is affecting them? do you know what the primary non-service-connected disease that is causing blindness? >> right now it's a tossup between macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. .net across the being associated with diabetes, vietnam community, how they are coming down with diabetes to agent orange. so now that diabetes is calling -- >> diabetes connected to agent orange and then the resulting vision impairment, that's not service-connected? >> it's a fight to get a second and third, secondary disease associated. >> we need to fix that. that's an excellent point. one of the problems that we're having in arkansas, and i note throughout the country, there's been a problem with va reimbursing local hospitals for the emergency medicare for veterans. when this happens the hospital or collection agency hide by the hospital may go after the pattern for the payment if they don't receive it from the va. i guess my question to the panel is

mr. minney, you mentioned the travel for nonservice-connected individuals with vision problems. you k what isno the major disease that they have that is affecting them? do you know what the primary he vietn nonservice-connected disease that is causing blindness? >> right now it is a tossup between macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. the vietnam community, how they're coming down with diabetes due to agent orange, so now that is creating -- nney: >> diabetes connected to agent orange and then the resulting vision impairment that's not service-connected? >> it is ama fight to get the second and third secondary disease associated.robl >> we need to fix that.having i that's an excellent point. one of the problems that we're having in arkansas, i know throughout thethe country there rans. has been a problem with va reimburseing local hospitals for the emergency medical care for veterans. when this the happens, the hospital or collection agency hired by the hospital may go after the veteran for the payment, if they don't receive it from the va. i guess my question to the pa