Year after year, America's farmers and ranchers overcome drought, disease, floods, fires, freezes, tornadoes, embargoes, and even their own Government to produce the safest, most abundant, affordable food and fiber supply the world has…

I am very proud to welcome my partner, Senator and former Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow.

So your experience in Mississippi, what is the differentiation? What is the difference between what a veteran could receive in telehealth services through the VA versus what a patient with Medicare, Medicaid, or private pay could receive…

What my point is that lack of access points.

It seems to me that in one of my visits to a hospital in Kansas the CEO of that hospital indicated that one of their providers, and I think it was psychiatric services, actually found a psychiatrist who lives in Arizona willing to provide…

Telehealth at VA is a good news story.

The impediment is finding the physician, finding the provider. It is not acquiring the equipment.

I would guess there is no connection between telehealth at the VA and the Choice Program at the VA.

Which is to tell me where we are today? Who in Kansas makes the determination as to what telemedicine services are currently available?

we have too many locations in Kansas in which we cannot recruit a medical provider.

So it is a fair statement to say that it would--if you want to use telehealth services you are less likely to be able to access those if you are veteran than if you are not?

I think your number was 68 percent, 68 percent of veterans in Mississippi do not access health care through the VA.

The final thing I would indicate and then I will turn it to Senator Schatz...

the VA is not there yet, but that is the vision.

What does the VA spend on telehealth?

Your access point should be something at home.

I come to the floor this evening to talk about winter storms that hit Kansas and surrounding States over the weekend, destroying crops and killing livestock. We face many challenges, and the Senator from Utah just described a serious…

Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. Thank you for joining us.