The Department of Veterans Affairs is taking new steps to use technology to improve access to health care for veterans across the country, including in rural areas.
"We're removing regulations that have prevented us from doing this", VA Secretary David Shulkin said during a August 3 White House announcement.
A medical doctor, Shulkin wore his white coat to the White House announcement, during which he demonstrated the technologies for Trump.
Shulkin also announced the national rollout of the Veterans Appointment Request, a mobile app that veterans can use to book primary care and mental health appointments.
The agency already offers VA Video Connect, the technology program that enables its providers to use mobile devices to connect with veterans on their devices and home computers, which is now used by more than 300 agency clinicians at 67 facilities across the country. U.S. Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI), both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called for the expansion of telehealth services for veterans by introducing the VETS Act in 201, and then reintroducing it this past April.
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The Obama administration used its rule-making authority to set direct payments to insurers to help offset these costs. His tweets came after the failure of health care legislation on a razor-thin margin of 51-49 on Friday.
Working with the Office of American Innovation and the Department of Justice, the VA has announced that it intends to issue a regulation allowing the department's clinicians to provide telehealth services from anywhere in the country to veterans nationwide regardless of location-including at home-thereby waiving state provider licensing requirements that limit access to care.
The VA treated more 700,000 patients via telehealth previous year, but Shulkin said the move "dramatically expands our current capabilities". As the largest telehealth program in the USA, the VA has always been a steward of innovative health delivery and financing models involving telehealth which support accessible, available, and affordable healthcare services to veterans.
Shulkin said the technology would be helpful particularly in rural areas. Currently, about 300 VA providers use it at 67 hospitals and clinics.
Shulkin, a physician who formerly led the Veterans Health Administration and who still sees patients, donned a white lab coat and gave the president and reporters a live demonstration of a typical telehealth appointment, connecting by video feed to a patient in Grants Pass, Ore.
"The same technology that the president of the United States has access to we're bringing to our veterans", said Shulkin. It will be rolled out to VA providers and Veterans across the country over the next year. Now, the plan is to roll out these capabilities nationally. "It is critical that we continue to create opportunities for veterans to receive the best care out there, including potentially life-saving mental healthcare".
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