#Middlebury #Veterans #VA #AccessSprints
VETERANS POST
By Freddy Groves
The Department of Veterans Affairs has been going all out to provide expanded access to care to veterans. They’re calling it Access Sprints, and it means they’re scheduling more appointments at night and on weekends, as well as scheduling more veterans into their daily schedule.
The effort seems to be showing progress. Just this year so far the VA has had 25,000 more new patients than they did during the same period last year. Appointments increased by 11%. Per the stats, 12% fewer new patients had to wait over 20 to 28 days to get an appointment, and 14% fewer new patients are having to wait to see community providers because of wait time eligibility. This is on top of the care they provided in 2023 in over 116 million appointments.
Other 2023 stats are equally impressive. The crisis line took over 1 million calls, over 33,000 veterans received emergency care in suicide crises and 5.5 million dental procedures were completed for over 560,000 patients.
Nearly 5 million veterans were screened for toxin exposure, an important step in monitoring their health. (As of March 5, 2024, veterans exposed to toxins and meeting other requirements have become eligible for VA health care, even before enrolling for other VA benefits. This means those who were in the Vietnam War, Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Global War on Terror or any other combat zone since Sept. 11. Any who weren’t deployed but who trained and were exposed here in the U.S. are included in eligibility.)
Even the nonmedical efforts saw success: Ten million veterans have individual pages in the online digital Veterans Legacy Memorial website, with over 5 million of those being created in the last year, and 5.6 million policyholders got life insurance coverage.
The VA was able to hire over 61,000 staffers to provide care to the increased number of veterans seeking health care, bringing the total to over 400,000. Not a bad year for the VA … and veterans.
© 2024 King Features Synd., Inc.
