[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 10126]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


                    VETERANS HEALTH CARE--H.R. 3230

  Mr. BURR. Mr. President, last week the Senate passed H.R. 3230, 
Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and 
Transparency Act. Today, I rise to address some concerns my colleagues 
raised about whether veterans will be able to choose their own 
providers. Some may read section 301 of this bill to mean that VA is 
still in the driver seat. Specifically, that VA will be able to pick 
and choose which provider to contract with under this section and not 
offer veterans a true choice of where and from whom they receive their 
care. However, that is not our intent.
  Our intent is to give veterans the choice of where and from whom they 
receive their care without interference from VA. Beyond that, H.R. 3230 
provides that if a doctor or hospital approaches VA and states they 
want to help alleviate the current access problems, VA would be 
directed to contract with that doctor provided they participate in 
Medicare. Because this legislation requires VA to pay these providers 
at the Medicare rate, VA would be able to implement a standard contract 
for the care and services veterans receive and would allow VA to 
expeditiously implement a contract with that doctor and get veterans 
the care they need as soon as possible.

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