Table IV-3. PROGRAM PERFORMANCE BENEFITS FROM MAJOR 67 Reduces errors, the number of temporary employees needed, and publication costs. 203 Provides timely, reliable, standardized, and secure communications worldwide and in the field. 172 Provides efficient and accurate servicing and record keeping for direct student loans. 32 Identifies institutions with high default rates for corrective action or elimination from student loan programs. Prevents students with previously defaulted student loans from receiving additional aid. 11 Distributes grant funds to institutions and supports sound financial management. 20 Makes payments and maintains records for transactions between the Education Department, guaranty agencies, and banks, as well as improving debt collection of student loans. 52 Assists institutions and students by providing a standardized way to determine financial aid eligibility. 4 Lowers operating and maintenance costs and improves sharing of information by promoting interoperability of telecommunications systems. 89 Simplifies and streamlines claims processing, eligibility, and managed care information systems while improving service to Medicare customers. 30 Will help locate non-custodial parents who flee their home state to avoid making child support payments. 66 Provides better internal controls and oversight of Federal grants, verification of the eligibility of recipients, timely and accurate payment of funds, and oversight and servicing of FHA mortgages. 33 Improves the quality of, and access to, land, resources, and title information for public land managers and the public. 17 Ensures that trust income is collected, invested, and distributed accurately. 84 Allows the FBI to process routine identification requests in 24 hours and urgent requests in two hours. Provides the criminal justice community Nation-wide with immediate access to documented information on criminals and criminal activity. 3 Increases the speed, accuracy, and integrity of information that three agencies use to safeguard private pensions. 191 Improve delivery and management of information required by diplomatic and consular officers overseas to support the Nation's foreign policy goals and ensure U.S. border security. (Includes user fees and budget authority.) Table IV-3. PROGRAM PERFORMANCE BENEFITS FROM MAJOR Program Performance Benefits 1,306 Maintains and improves capability to promote the safe, 500 Provides advanced funding for reengineering and redesign 15 Supports business process redesign, systems architecture, 7 Ensures that benefits are delivered timely and establishes a modern information technology infrastructure. 456 Allows clinicians at VA hospitals and clinics easy access to complete medical records. 8 Helps to improve the environment by maintaining data related to the release of certain toxic chemical uses. The data is available to EPA staff, State and local governments, educational institutions, industry, environmental and public interest groups, and the general public. 245 Archives, manages, and distributes earth science data from NASA missions and provides spacecraft control and science data processing for the earth-observing mission systems. 200 Funds national implementation of a new computing network of intelligent workstations for SSA and the State Disability Determination Services and related technological enhancements, including electronic sharing of information. 31 Beginning in 1998, will offer the Federal Government lowcost, state-of-the-art, integrated voice, data, video, and long-distance telecommunications. (Cost numbers are not budget authority, but agency contributions to the Information Technology Fund for expenses associated with the FTS 2000 Program.) 2 Implements workprocess improvement review and increases staff efficiency through improved information access and elimination of redundant data entry. Reduces maintenance costs by replacing aging legacy hardware and minimizing custom software. Improves product accuracy, customer service, and staff efficiency by reengineering current paper-laden Federal employee retirement processes. Reduces employers' tax and wage reporting burden. 6 Reduces burden on exports and imports, speeds up shipments, and improves the quality of trade statistics. -56 Saves money by requiring all Federal agencies to consolidate or co-locate their data processing centers to fewer larger, more efficient, and cost effective locations, either within the Government or with a private sector provider. Note: This report is required by the Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996, 40 USC 1412(c)). 1. STRENGTHENING HEALTH CARE We can, and we must, work together to reform Medicare and Medicaid so they continue to meet the promise to our parents and our children and continue to expand health care step by step to children in working families who don't have it. We can do that and balance the budget, and take advantage of the fact that new models are clearly making it possible to lower the rate of medical inflation in a way that advances the quality of health care as well as the quality of our long-term objectives in balancing the budget and investing in the future of America. I know it can be done, and I am determined to get it done President Clir ton December 11, 1996 Americans have good reason to be optimistic about the Nation's health care as we approach the new millennium. Medicare ensures that older Americans receive high quality health care and can look forward to a longer life expectancy. Medicaid provides vital health services to low-income pregnant women and children, people with disabilities, and elderly Americans. Together, Medicare and Medicaid serve over 71 million Americans. Meanwhile, the Federal Government is investing more in biomedical research and technology, furthering our knowledge about the prevention and treatment of diseases and providing new insights into the genetic basis of diseases such as breast cancer as well as threats from food-borne illnesses newly emerging infectious diseases. And just in the past year, we have witnessed the rapid development of new prescription drugs to help people with AIDS and other debilitating diseases. These new developments hold the potential for a vastly increased life expectancy for these Americans. Our private health system, already the world's most dynamic, is undergoing a dramatic transformation-much of it positive. The best private sector innovations have helped make our delivery system more efficient, and have improved quality by increasing consumer choice, stressing accountability, and focusing on medical outcomes. In his first term, the President and Congress took important steps to improve our Nation's health care system. One of the most significant was last year's passage of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), also known as the KassebaumKennedy bill. Now, as many as 25 million Americans have health benefit portability they did not have before; no longer will people who have been sick have to fear that they will lose their access to health insurance if they lose their job or change jobs. Nor can they be denied coverage because they have a preexisting medical condition. Moreover, the law requires insurance companies to sell coverage to small employer groups and to individuals who lose group coverage without regard to their health status. It also made it easier and cheaper for selfemployed people to get health insurance, simplified health care paperwork, strengthened Medicare's fraud and abuse efforts, and helped make long-term care insurance more affordable. Other significant health care initiatives enacted in the last four years include laws requiring health plans to allow new mothers and their babies to remain in the hospital at least 48 hours following most deliveries, and prohibiting health plans from establishing separate lifetime and annual limits for mental health coverage. With this budget, the President takes the next critical steps toward a better health care future: |