Completing the MISSION: a Blueprint for Helping Veterans Make the Most of New Choices
- PDF / 215,964 Bytes
- 4 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 50 Downloads / 158 Views
VA Center for Clinical Management Research , VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; 2Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; 3Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; 4Salt Lake City VA Informatics Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences (IDEAS) Center for Innovation, Salt Lake City VA Medical Center, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; 5Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
The June 6, 2019, implementation of the VA Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside Networks (MISSION) Act commenced a new era in health care for Veterans in which the more than 9 million Veterans who use VA care can now choose community (i.e., non-VA) clinicians or facilities when certain new criteria are met. This expansion of Veterans’ health care options could give many Veterans more freedom to decide which settings best meet their individual needs and expectations, and could also lead to unintended consequences for Veterans who do not have all of the information they need to make personalized decisions about VA and community care. In this Perspective article, we recommend initial steps that VA leaders and VA clinicians need to take, and community clinicians should be aware of, in order to ensure that Veterans’ expanded health care options translate into improvements in their access and outcomes. J Gen Intern Med DOI: 10.1007/s11606-019-05404-w © Society of General Internal Medicine (This is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply) 2019
6, 2019, the John S. McCain III, Daniel K. Akaka, O nandJuneSamuel R. Johnson VA Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside Networks (MISSION) Act of 20181 commenced a new era in health care for Veterans, in which Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) programs that purchase non-VA health care services have been consolidated into one VA Community Care Program. Under this program, which builds on its predecessor, the Veterans Choice Program, Veterans who use VA care can now choose community (i.e., non-VA) clinicians or facilities when new and expanded criteria are met. These criteria include living a certain distance from a VA facility (e.g., more than a 30minute average drive time for primary care and 60-minute average drive time for specialty care), experiencing extended wait times at a VA facility (e.g., more than a 20-day wait for Received July 11, 2019 Accepted September 20, 2019
primary care and more than a 28-day wait for specialty care), and when the Veteran and their VA clinician agree that using community care would be “in the best medical interest of the Veteran to achieve improved clinical outcomes.”2 This expansion of Veterans’ health care options has the upside of giving many Veterans more freedom to decide which settings best meet their needs and expectations. For example, a Veteran may choose to receive primary care and men
Data Loading...
