Jerry Moran

Thank you for expressing the concern on behalf of those experiencing Health Net problems.

I've said on the Senate floor and in an op-ed piece to Kansans back home that soft power... is necessary to avoid additional military actions.

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

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

What my point is that lack of access points.

Your access point should be something at home.

We have CBOCs in Kansas. I talked about Liberal, Kansas, in which it has been more than 4 years since there has been a physician there.

There is a number out there that says 68 percent of veterans in Mississippi do not access health care through the VA.

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

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?

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…

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…

What does the VA spend on telehealth?

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

We have tried for as long as I have been in the United States Senate to get the VA to hire a physician at a CBOC in Liberal, Kansas.

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

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

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

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

Telehealth at VA is a good news story.

So I will submit my questions in writing, Mr. Chairman.

Hopefully it will lead beyond just a discussion, but really substantive steps forward in terms of how we address these issues.

I think that decision was made before you arrived in your current position.

What is the relationship between--let me do it this way. We are going to spend some money on infrastructure.

When we visited in Europe with you earlier this year, we had been to France and Germany, both concerned about intrusion by Russia into their elections.