House Engrossed |
State of Arizona House of Representatives Fifty-second Legislature First Regular Session 2015
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HOUSE RESOLUTION 2001 |
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A RESOLUTION
supporting the Arizona Department of the American Legion in its mission to improve the technology INFRASTRUCTURE of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.
(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)
Whereas, Arizona continues to be recognized as ground zero for the systemic veteran health care crisis; and
Whereas, the existing state of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs is inhibiting Congress and veterans service organizations from arriving at an effective remedy for the national systemic veteran health care and benefits crisis; and
Whereas, during the 95th National Convention of the American Legion, the American Legion approved Resolution Number 75: Automatic Enrollment, which urged Congress to address the national systemic veteran health care and benefits crisis by enacting legislation that provides for the automatic enrollment of military service members who are discharged under other than dishonorable conditions into the United States Department of Veterans Affairs patient and benefits enrollment system under 38 United States Code section 1705; and
Whereas, under the American Legion's proposal, on discharge, the United States Department of Defense provides the United States Department of Veterans Affairs with the contact information of transitioning veterans, at which time the veterans are deemed preenrolled in the patient and benefits enrollment system. The veterans maintain their preenrollment status until they contact the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to activate the enrollment in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs patient and benefits enrollment system; and
Whereas, under the American Legion's proposal, if a service member does not desire to enroll in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs patient and benefits enrollment system, the service member may opt out of enrollment by furnishing the Secretary of Veterans Affairs with a notice of the service member's decision to decline enrollment; and
Whereas, Resolution Number 75: Automatic Enrollment was never executed following the 95th National Convention of the American Legion; and
Whereas, processes and procedures need to be employed within the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to allow for the automatic addition of service members' information to the patient and benefits enrollment system and the implementation of an electronic workflow to ensure that medical records are scanned into the system; and
Whereas, the creation of an automatic enrollment system and the implementation of an electronic workflow would result in streamlined and audited service request process, which would greatly help to remedy the national systemic veteran health care and benefits crisis; and
Whereas, the use of new and existing hardware would allow for the integration of intelligent capture software into new or existing document management systems.
Therefore
Be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of Arizona:
1. That the Members of the House of Representatives support the mission of the Arizona Department of the American Legion to form an ad hoc committee composed of veterans service organization experts and independent document management and software experts to study and assess the United States Department of Veterans Affairs Phoenix hospital and benefits facilities to find inefficiencies in the technology infrastructure and processes utilized to care for veterans.
2. That the Members of the Arizona House of Representatives support the mission of the Arizona Department of the American Legion to advance to the American Legion National headquarters to create a process that automatically enrolls service members in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs patient and benefits enrollment system at the point of separation.
UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED BY THE HOUSE MARCH 9, 2015.
FILED IN THE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE MARCH 10, 2015.