#Middlebury #Veterans
The use of the Department of Veterans Affairs telehealth services rose 17% in one year, with 900,000 veterans opting to get care that way. That equated to 2.6 million instances of care in one year.
Some of the stats are impressive. The use of the app, VA Video Connect, rose by a whopping 235% in the past year, and more than 99,000 veterans opted to use it from home. Over 200,000 appointments were for mental health telehealth appointments.
We have a lot of choices for how we get our care, with more coming. Whether we want to go in person, talk on the phone or have a video visit, it’s available. By the end of 2020, every mental health and primary care provider will be able to communicate with patients in all these ways.
The VA is trying to consider all circumstances: If you have a poor internet connection at home, it’s opening other locations as tests sites, such as VFW posts and American Legion halls, as well as Walmart stores, using ATLAS (Accessing Telehealth through Local Areas Stations). More will open as time goes on.
It’s all a result of the Anywhere to Anywhere initiative. Before this was enacted, doctors couldn’t legally treat patients with telehealth across state lines. Veterans in rural areas, or near state lines, were having to go long distances for in-person care.
If you want to explore using telehealth on your electronic device, go online to mobile.va.gov/app/va-video-connect. Scroll to the yellow note and use it to test whether your device is compatible with the VA Video Connect app. There’s an FAQ and how-to demo videos. If you run into a snag trying to set up the app or a connection, call 866-651-3180 Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. ET.
To learn more about telehealth, go to telehealth.va.gov.
© 2019 King Features Synd., Inc.
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