He was in a battle of the bulge but I'll be talking to a number of others a little bit later today as well and this is a day that we don't have boats in Washington as a number of my colleagues in fact went to celebrate the 70 fifth anniversary of the so They didn't go came back last night but this is an important day for all of our veterans on a very strong bipartisan basis We passed what is now called the Mission Act to expand the to help our veterans no matter where they live to be able to have access to the services that they deserve to try and make it easier for them men and women to have access to services even if they don't live within 30 minutes or so of a facility anywhere in the United States Last 347 to 70 overwhelmingly bipartisan legislation Of course I was a yes vote We passed a year ago, the President signed a year ago It's not being implemented today I was able to have a round table discussion with these folks behind me which means I think they're all going to be If you're a bathroom to be able to get services couple things that I wanna point out that this bill does veteran needs a service that's not available in the medical facility August and now they have access to one that maybe in their home community if they residence in the state particularly if they have a residence in the state without a full service medical facility Michigan, we have there's new access standards We have the best medical interests in mind for all of our vets that have served and for me in my own office Chad Dillon who is here veteran himself served in a rack and his Prime responsibility for me is to try to take care of our veterans who have some questions as it relates to the services that they deserve So if you have an individual concern and I know I talked to one individual who's here today or we can help because Privacy laws will be glad to step in and make sure the services that you deserve and we can cut through some of the Red tape or abstain to make sure that that happens with me now and we'll take questions from the press that when we're done but I wanna introduce Mike Wilson, Mike Lawson's been a leader in the across the state for for us he's a good friend and he's gonna walk through some of the benefits as a little speaking order and then we'll take The answer against Mike Wilson. I'm the regional coordinator for the Southwest Michigan Veteran Community Action Team. I worked through the Michigan Veteran Affairs agency better community action team operates on four pillars and so we're in your community. We're out here doing stuff every day but the four pillars are employment, education health care and quality of life and so be cat better doing extra team stands for just that we're out here doing action in the community for example our our health care Has a Mobile enrollment program to help veterans that can't necessarily get the enroll or or they don't feel they're eligible We're out at you'll see events and functions with this Mobile enrollment vehicle to help veterans get enrolled in a healthcare into better understand being health care they'll be at the we have a veteran and family expo in August at the Fairgrounds on Veterans Day August tenth. come on out and see us out there. We'll be doing enrollment off there as well as other things play other services our employment Committee is working to help employers better understand what it means to hire a veteran. What it means to employ better. What kind of benefits you get from having a veteran in your And then our education subcommittee is developing a program to help our managers and other people who better understand what the education benefit is for the veterans who employ a veteran and they have education benefits hop. We help get done those education benefits, so the veteran community action team is busy in the community doing things for veterans I say all that to say the VA is right alongside of us Every one of those subcommittees have remember from the on it and we work closely with the the A's in the community. They're all helping us create programs, create actions to support veterans out to the community So I'm really Admission has has had these types of changes in benefits offered so that we can help veterans even more I'd like to recognize Pete Green is here. He's the chairman of our veteran community action team That's Marines in the back, Jennifer Clinton now is employment specialist for Michigan. Worksheet chairs are subcommittee for Hat out benefits administration for education chair Committee Steve Garage with the medical Center manages are healthcare subject and so we're The Community Development program, we're trying to drag veterans into the better health care services about just not know medical health, others, lots of great services and opportunity So if you haven't enrolled in healthcare or check out your local TV and you're a veteran, I suggest you do that With that I will turn it over to Good morning everyone My name is Tim I'm the deputy director of the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency and your state agency charged with assisting veterans get connected with their VA benefits and benefits at the state and local level as well It's important to know that Michigan has just under 600000 veterans in our state and that makes us the eleventh largest population of veterans across the nation So this is a big monumental task and something that I think is very worthy making sure we're getting the word out through this press conference It's also important to know that 53 percent of those veterans are age 65 and older So this is the year. This is the group of folks that should be most looking for those health care benefits and with 39 percent of our veterans are currently enrolled in VA health care but that's not good enough so we need to through this fresh conference through the folks sitting in this room get that word out so that we can make sure that all of our veterans that are eligible are connected to the veteran health care the VA as charged by the state of Michigan with connecting veterans to those benefits We applaud the efforts of the Congress and the for listening to and responding to the voices of our veterans that needed better care This mission act goes a long way in making sure that those promises to our veterans are kept one thing. I wanna make sure everybody is aware of and that is the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency runs a 18 hundred mish vet phone number This is a number of any of our veterans or anybody has concerns or questions about their benefits can call 24 hours a day seven days a week and during the normal duty days we're gonna answer that question directly and we're gonna get you connected to those folks that can answer the question If were an evening it's picked up by another service but we answer the calls in the morning when it comes back to us The key here is 18 hundred mish vet If you've got any questions about anything with your benefits across the state of Michigan and with that I will be followed by Doctor Shaw who's the chief of staff for the Battle Creek Medical Facility Good morning everybody and I've been missing for more than 30 years now about I would like to talk to you about what country create and preparing for implementation of the mission Act and how is it going to The staff at the do provide an excellent House to serve in sisters. Records Reference experience is a core our facilities approach to implement in other vehicle mission Act without an This lost Brendan's, our ability to deliver timely and quality care to our services that we provide at the as well as through the community providers in concert with the modernization plan the Mission Act represents an unprecedented opportunity to put the viewership to lead the US healthcare on behalf of America The staff of have been working diligently for past several months in preparation or implementation of the Mission Act This is an Priority nearly exciting times for as well as for there are number of aspects ah set for the information that strengthen जो vs ability to enhance care provided to the welcome this की areas of focus affirmation are it improves we has ability to crude and retain highly qualified best of the best generations that we have shortage of nation why we are able to be proved that bring lines and i am powers weapons with the new improve communication It also authorizes anywhere to anywhere connection or the veterans to get care through telehealth We can have our friends connected two to care teams outside of the state line and as well as within their home by it establishes the new urgent care benefit for illegal weapons so they don't have a child all the way from the nearest clinic if they cannot reach the tiny It also focuses on improvement of the infrastructure so there are several benefits to the area as well as locally this enhancement for providing additional resources that directly benefit the topic we and from mister we are able to recruit sir cat for us we have ah we can see some more ten so i correction but i card with but we are able to recruit them with the benefits that we received from mission and ah we are able to provide them education and production ah program some of treatment bonus states and we location one us so that we can attract the highly qualified step to an Music fans we have invested in our community care staffing We are increase several staff in our community care office, several care managers to administrative staff so that we can better provide highly qualified care cardinal which is most important We will be coordinating to careful records to go to the community so we pro also this initiative keeps the centers and we according listen to provide the best care possible that told that deserve with infrastructure improvements we are going to be able to ah Phoenix in Benton Harbor area as well as inventing area also with the infrastructure improvement will be able to replace the aging or electronic medical health records into new system that will be able to link with the Department of Defense as well as the community provider to provide the continuum of care that our servicemen and veterans how he does it benefit to me and how he benefited by twenty presently returns have to get authorize lesson if there is emergency care need or it to travel all the way to another from harvard directly from skin for specially care if they need eligibility criteria we will be able to connect your here to Is a great day for us as Americans and and we'll be able to provide you care when you needed venue and the highest quality i am standing has to them and better and what services coordinator for status half my fans and may may i want you all to know about the benefits that we have seen a as a result of commissioner for my new ready provider stand clients we have a great fortune working with the battle of ai to his pant extremely productive in the rolling out of this they pant providing our education to community providers not only respected how client who is a nation choice provided but all the healthcare providers who are better choice of leaders in the community so that we have and i Idea of understanding how to coordinate care with the VA when we receive a veteran for our services but then also provide a lot of education to us on how to meet the specific needs of veterans VA is wonderful and providing for those specific veteran needs but it's important for community providers to be aware of that as well so that we can provide that support to our veterans when either they may not qualify for benefits or when they you know choose to see community care so it's been a wonderful Opportunity for us to be able to work into Battle Creek a and have that partnership and we look forward to continuing to talk about the elective surgery Sure so you know prior with the Veterans Choice program we had the ability you know if you need emergency care, you're not going to dry to a facility. You're gonna drive to the closest hospital and those services were allowed under your veteran health benefits but moving forward things like elective surgeries you know if providing those services are receiving them locally is closer for you and better for you The VA is working with community providers to be able to make that happen. So it really opens the door for veterans to be able to choose where to receive their health care Based on what their needs are especially related to transportation and travel time pretty Okay so it just you know again all the starts today I'm very I'm very pleased that our our facility is really taken this year since the President signed the bill to reach out to our community providers and tell them we're prepared and ready to go really day one or maybe so some wrinkles here but again this was something that the Congress saw as we as we heard from our vets and being responsive to their needs to really Health care better and I which is listen of the overwhelmingly bipartisan vote in the last Congress to get this thing done. So I look forward to work with all of our veterans to make sure that they have that quality care We have to make some changes or refinements or improvements count me in as as we listen and I appreciate the time that they expect this morning we'll be glad to take some questions from the press if they have any at this point and begin any individual Has a particular question or Cleary I will be glad to deal with that afterwards and be able to keep that concern private as as we should protect their own on privacy so with that I don't know if anybody has any questions or tweet answered all your questions. No wait, don't we just hear from the press for any questions Talk to you Okay. Alright. Great now so afterwards. Okay so all these are available to talk to the depressing individual to get. I want to thank everybody for coming and really appreciate this facility or a place that I've been to a lot of times They're Come on shift with with their veterans who we serve Thank you I make a statement before everybody