The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) today announced a data-sharing pledge with 13 community health care systems to improve the veteran experience whether veterans receive their care at a VA facility or not.
Through the “Veteran Interoperability Pledge,” the VA said it will securely exchange information with non-VA medical providers about care provided and requested, as well as help to connect veterans with VA benefits.
“This pledge will improve veteran health care by giving us seamless, immediate access to a patient’s medical history, which will help us make timely and accurate treatment decisions,” VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. Shereef Elnahal said in a press release. “It will also empower VA to send helpful information to our partner health systems that they can then offer to veterans in their care – including information about new benefits we are offering under the PACT Act, no-cost emergency suicide care, and more.”
The VA said the pledge will help to save money for veterans by making sure they take advantage of all VA and community resources.
For example, the VA said that this type of information sharing could help inform a non-VA doctor that a veteran in a suicidal crisis can receive emergency care for free, under the VA’s new policy.
Additionally, a non-VA doctor could encourage eligible veterans to apply for benefits under the PACT Act – a new law that expands VA health care and benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances.
The health care systems participating in VA’s interoperability pledge include Emory Healthcare, Inova, Jefferson Health, Sanford Health, University of California Davis Health, Intermountain Health, Mass General Brigham, Rush Health, Tufts Medicine, Marshfield Clinic, Kaiser Permanente Health Plan and Hospitals, University of Pittsburg Medical Center, and Atrium Health.
Under the pledge, the VA – along with the participating health systems – will aim to support three objectives:
- “Accurately identify veterans when they seek care from providers in the community.
- Connect veterans with VA and community resources that promote health and health care – especially VA services that lower veterans’ out-of-pocket expenses.
- Responsibly and reliably coordinate care for shared patients – whether or not they are enrolled in VA health benefits, including exchange of information about care requested and provided.”
The agency encouraged any health system or provider that also supports the pledge’s objectives to participate. The 13 health care systems that signed the pledge begin their work this month, “striving to provide proof-of-concept in early 2024,” according to the VA.
“With commitments to transfer vital information and records electronically between VA and signatory health systems, we also hope that this pledge will make it seamless for our partner health systems to identify veterans at the point of care,” Dr. Elnahal said.
The VA is currently in the process of migrating to a new electronic health record (EHR) system through its Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program.
The new EHRM program aims to provide a seamless experience for veterans as they transition from receiving care from the DoD while on active duty, to receiving care at VA facilities. However, replacing an EHR system that was developed by the VA in the 1980s is not a simple task.
The EHRM program is currently in the middle of a “program reset,” while the VA and contractor Oracle Cerner focus on improvements at the five sites where the EHR system is currently deployed.
