STATEMENT BY THE
HONORABLE HERSHEL W. GOBER DEPUTY
SECRETARY DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS BEFORE
THE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’
AFFAIRS U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES October
28, 1999 Introduction It
is my pleasure to testify on behalf of the Department of Veterans
Affairs (VA) on the status of our readiness for the Year 2000. I am accompanied today by Harold Gracey, VA’s Acting Chief
Information Officer (CIO), and other key staff from VA’s Office of
Information and Technology, the Veterans Benefits Administration
(VBA), the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), and the National
Cemetery Administration (NCA) who have been involved in Year 2000
full-time for the last several years.
We
have worked very hard in VA to ensure that we will be ready for the
Year 2000. We have
program delivery people and information technology people working
hand-in-hand across VA to ensure that we provide uninterrupted support
of benefits delivery and health care services. I
appear before you today to say I remain confident that benefit
payments will be made without interruption, and our health care
facilities will be operational on January 1, 2000.
Veterans will continue to receive their benefits on time, as
well as the highest quality of health care in the Year 2000 and
beyond. Since
the last hearing VA has conducted a number of post-implementation
tests to provide added assurance that our systems will operate
properly in the Year 2000. VA
has utilized Year 2000 simulated date environments, complete with
third-party compliant software and hardware, to simulate system
activity during the century transition and in the Year 2000 and
beyond. One
major accomplishment was the successful completion of a business process simulation (BPS), conducted from July 3 - 6, 1999.
During these tests, VA systems internal date settings
were advanced to January 2000, including veteran data, software applications,
communications and computer platforms.
Benefits and health care transactions were processed in order
to simulate normal business activities in the Year 2000.
Over $3.5 billion dollars in benefit payments were
successfully processed in the simulated January 2000 payment cycles.
Over 125 VA personnel participated in this test.
No
Year 2000 problems were encountered
during the simulation VA
has also conducted additional post-implementation tests.
Previously, in April 1999, VA’s Office of Financial
Management performed a series of tests to verify that the various
systems involved in issuing payments to vendors and employees will
work together properly in the Year 2000.
In addition, in August 1999, VHA’s VISTA
integrated suite of applications was tested in a simulated
forward-dated hospital environment to simulate normal medical center
activity in the Year 2000. VISTA is the name given to the standardized set of national software
applications that form the automated systems environment supporting
integrated health care delivery at local VA health care facilities.
Business
Continuity and Contingency Plans Although
VA has made its systems Year 2000 compliant, there remains a
dependency upon products and services provided by third parties (such
as water and electricity companies).
VA has developed Business Continuity and Contingency Plans (BCCPs)
to minimize Year 2000 impacts on its core business functions.
In
the event of any problems external to the Department, VA has
classified its core business functions into two critical areas: health
care (VHA) and benefits delivery (VBA).
The BCCP for benefits delivery, including benefit payments, was
completed in January 1999. The
Patient-Focused Year 2000
Contingency Planning Guidebook, VHA’s BCCP, was completed in March
1999. VA’s
regional offices and health care facilities were provided these plans
and templates so that they could customize their individual plans
according to their local needs. The
customized extensions for VA’s three data processing centers, 58
regional offices, and 172 health care facilities were completed in May
1999. VA health care facilities include hospitals, outpatient
clinics, domiciliaries, and nursing homes, all of which have been
included in local level BCCPs. These
BCCPs will greatly mitigate the potential impacts on the delivery of
benefits and health care by entities outside VA’s control. Day
One Planning Our
focus in the remaining days until the actual date rollover is making
pre-rollover, rollover and post-rollover plans, commonly referred to
as Day One Plans. VA has
developed Day One Plans that identify comprehensive sets of actions to
be executed during the last days of 1999 and the first days of 2000.
The Day One Plans are designed to minimize any adverse impact
on operations and key business processes, help protect data,
applications and equipment, and improve the ability to recover should
Year 2000 related problems be encountered.
In addition, the Day One Plans are a mechanism for monitoring
and reporting VA’s Year 2000 experience to VA executive management,
the President’s Council on Year 2000 Information Coordination Center
(ICC), veterans and their families.
VA
has developed a Day One Strategy Overview that provides a high level summary of VA’s strategy to manage and mitigate the
risks of potential Year 2000 related disruptions to agency operations.
I would be happy to provide a copy for the record.
Because
VA’s work supporting health care and benefits delivery is normally
conducted at the local level nationwide, the authority to solve
rollover problems has been delegated locally to the health care
facilities, and to the regional offices.
Local facilities and regional offices have the authority to
execute appropriate contingencies, if they determine that a situation
exists that requires the execution of the BCCP. VA’s
recent focus has been the review and validation of our BCCPs at our
local facilities. VHA has
been performing a series of BCCP site visits to ensure the quality of
BCCPs and preparations for Day One.
Similarly, VBA has reviewed regional office BCCPs and Day One
Plans. In addition to
internal reviews, GAO, using on-site visits and document reviews, has
reviewed many of VA’s health care facilities and regional office
BCCPs. VA’s Office of
the Inspector General has also completed a written survey of all VA
facilities, and has performed selected site reviews at VA health care
facilities and regional offices As
described in my April 15, 1999, testimony, it is important to point
out two mitigation and preparatory activities that VA has completed or
plans in order to help minimize potential Year 2000 disruptions to
benefits and health care delivery – the date of benefit payments and
the performance of emergency power drills. Date of Benefit Payments Most
of the regular, recurring benefit payments, including Compensation and
Pension, Education Chapters 32, 35, 1606, Vocational Rehabilitation,
REPS, and spina bifida will be posted, as they normally would have
been, to the beneficiaries’ accounts and will be available on the
morning of December 30, 1999. This
will greatly mitigate possible Year 2000 interruptions of benefit
payments. Conduct of Emergency Power
Drills Each
VHA facility has performed an emergency power drill to prepare for
various power disruption scenarios.
Each facility, under controlled conditions to prevent any harm
to patients, supplied facility electrical power using the emergency
generator system after disconnecting from the local electrical power
supply for up to eight hours. This
drill demonstrated that health care facilities could operate under
emergency power, if necessary. Drills
were completed by August 1999. Department
of Treasury Testing and Payment Contingencies
In
May 1999, VBA conducted extensive Year 2000 testing that culminated
with the transfer of payment files to the Department of the Treasury.
During this testing, over 35 payment files representing over
$3.5 billion dollars were transmitted to the Treasury.
The Treasury informed us that these payments were processed
correctly. The Treasury
then tested the Compensation and Pension (C&P) files with the
Federal Reserve and 40 million C&P Electronic Fund Transfer
payments were successfully processed.
In addition, Treasury successfully tested its ability to
process and issue paper checks currently made to beneficiaries. In addition, we have several contingencies in place with
Treasury in the unlikely event of a problem.
In fact, an entire subset of our BCCP for benefits delivery
deals with Treasury issues to ensure that beneficiaries will receive
their benefit payments on time and correctly when the new century
begins. These plans
include a worst case scenario in which the private banking electronic
systems fail or have problems. If
this occurs, Treasury can revert to the use of paper checks to deliver
veterans payments after recertification of those payments by VA.
In addition, if the VA systems cannot process payments in
January 2000, we will provide a contingency payment file for
Treasury's use so that they can generate veterans' payments.
We feel these are unlikely events, but we are ready with
contingencies in case they are needed. Based on
the fact that both VA and FMS and the Federal Reserve System are
already Year 2000 ready, and that we have thoroughly conducted
post-implementation testing, I am confident that all benefit payments
will be made without interruption in the Year 2000 and beyond.
Medical
Devices The
potential Year 2000 impact on medical devices is a national issue,
affecting both private sector and Federal health care communities.
VA, like any other health care provider, buys these devices
from private industry. The
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates these products.
Medical
Device Status Approximately
two years ago, VHA identified about 1600 vendors from which the
medical facilities have procured medical devices.
This number was reduced to 1379 through research, discussion
with medical engineers at VAMCs, and contact with
vendors/distributors. Distributors
and manufacturers that do not produce biomedical devices were removed
from the database. To
date, we have received responses from more than 99% of the
manufacturers. VHA
estimates that over 96% of the devices provided by these manufacturers
that we use are compliant, about 3% are conditionally compliant
(meaning a fix or upgrade will be provided by the manufacturer) and
less than 1% are non-compliant. Consolidated
Mail Outpatient Pharmacy (CMOP) The
Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy (CMOP) is a regional system
composed of seven facilities that is used to expedite the processing
and distribution of mail-out prescriptions to veterans.
More than 50% of VHA prescriptions are filled by the CMOPs.
As
of September 30, 1999, VHA had completed the Year 2000 repairs and
testing of the seven CMOPs. The
renovation strategy consisted of the repair of non-compliant systems
as well as the implementation of new systems.
Two of the seven CMOPs are now running new non-proprietary,
state-of-the-art software that operates on a more user-friendly, fully
compliant platform and thus are capable of filling a higher volume of
prescriptions. All the CMOPs renovation work was performed without
compromising the filling and distribution of prescriptions to
veterans. As
part of the VHA Year 2000 project, the CMOPs have developed Year 2000
contingency plans to supplement their existing National Disaster and
Recovery plans. The CMOPs
have also tested all the hardware, software interfaces, and
contingency plans with the medical facilities.
The contingency plans address the pharmaceutical supply chain,
and the readiness of pharmaceutical manufacturers, utility companies,
and other suppliers the CMOPs depend on for their operation. The
CMOPs are fully Year 2000 compliant and we are confident there will be
no interruption in filling prescriptions for veterans into the next
century. Moratorium VA
has established a nationwide moratorium on the implementation of new
systems, changes to existing systems or third-party upgrades between
October 15, 1999 and March 31, 2000.
Our goal is to ensure that we do not introduce Year 2000
vulnerabilities or defects into our Year 2000 certified systems.
The only exclusions to the moratorium are changes to correct
Year 2000 related problems, repairs for other production problems,
cost-of-living adjustments, and changes required by legislative
mandates. This nationwide
moratorium ensures that our information technology environment will
remain stable during the rollover to the next millennium and beyond.
It is necessary to ensure that VA will continue to provide
uninterrupted services to veterans and the communities that we serve. Summary VA
has made its systems supporting health care and benefits delivery Year
2000 compliant. VA has
completed successfully the necessary testing for both the veterans’
benefits and high impact health care programs, and we feel confident
that these programs are ready for the Year 2000 and beyond.
VA also has completed BCCPs to provide for uninterrupted health
care and benefits delivery. VA
is making preparations for the
upcoming Year 2000 date rollover to ensure benefit payments will be
made without interruption and that VA health care facilities will be
operational on January 1, 2000 and beyond.
Our Nation's veterans and their families will continue to
receive their benefits on time, as well as the highest quality of
health care. I
thank you for this opportunity to present our progress in preparing
for the Year 2000. I
would be happy to answer any questions you have. Back to Witness List |
