VA Hangout: Know Your Healthcare Options noon-12:30 p.m. ET

The Department of Veterans Affairs is committed to providing Veterans with quality healthcare, and while 9 million enrollees in the Veterans Health Administration can currently count on VA for their medical needs, VA also believes Veterans and their families deserve to know all the healthcare choices available to them, and how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) applies to them.
 
In collaboration with HHS and our community partners, VA is hosting a Google+ Hangout to provide uninsured Veterans, their family members, caregivers and advocates with the information they need about healthcare options and the ACA.

Hangout Guests:

Lynne Harbin
Deputy Chief Business Officer, Member Services Chief Business Office
 
The Chief Business Office provides executive program support to the Under Secretary for Health (USH) on a wide range of health benefit administration programs, activities, development of administrative processes, policy, regulations, and directives associated with the delivery of VA health benefit programs. Lynne is the executive providing oversight and leadership to the Member Services business line, which provides health care enrollment, customer care, access and other administrative services both through partnerships with medical centers and directly to Veterans and family members. 

Catherine R. Oakar
Director of Public Health Policy in the Office of Health Reform at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Catherine has primary oversight responsibility for the coordinated and timely implementation of the public health, prevention, and health care workforce policy provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Previously, Catherine served as a Senior Policy Advisor, assisting with press, congressional and outreach efforts related to the law. Prior to joining the Office of Health Reform, she served as a Policy Communications Advisor for the HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs.  She began her work in Washington, D. C. as a David A. Winston Health Policy Fellow in the HHS Office of Health Reform. She has also been a Fellow in the Reproductive Health and Research Department at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland and has conducted community-based research with low-income cancer survivors and safety net clinics. Catherine completed her graduate education at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and her undergraduate education at the University of Notre Dame.