Senators Want to Codify VA's Telehealth Success, Add More Services

Telehealth advocates have long used the Department of Veterans’ Affairs as an example of how telehealth is working well. A new bill before the US Senate aims to help the VA go even further with connected health.

The Guaranteeing Healthcare Access to Personnel Who Served (GHAPS) Act, introduced this week by Senators Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Jerry Moran (R-KS), aims to, among other things, create a strategic plan for the VA that addresses how telehealth is used and how it can best help rural veterans. It would also open the door to more virtual care services for veterans in need of mental healthcare.

“No matter where they live or what they do for work, our veterans are heroes who deserve the best care this nation can provide,” Cramer said in a press release. “The Guaranteeing Healthcare Access to Personnel Who Served Act would help bridge the gaps in care availability for veterans by evaluating telehealth services, removing bureaucratic barriers, and prioritizing efforts to reach veterans living in rural America.” 

With many of the nation’s 2.6 million veterans living in remote locations, dealing with mobility or transportation issues or simply hesitant to travel to the nearest hospital, the nation’s largest health system has been moving to embrace connected health. The number of veterans accessing healthcare through telehealth jumped 17 percent from 2018 to 2019, while virtual visits made through the VA Video Connect mHealth app jumped 235 percent.

Those numbers jumped even more during the coronavirus pandemic, when the Video Connect mHealth app platform saw a 1,000 percent increase in traffic over its usual 10,000 visits per week.

Many of these advances were tied to the VA Mission Act, landmark legislation signed in June 2018 that greatly expanded the VA’s telemedicine and mHealth capabilities and gave VA-affiliated healthcare providers the authority to treat veterans in any location through telehealth, regardless of state licensing laws.

Since then, the VA has launched a number of partnerships and programs aimed at increasing the agency’s virtual care footprint, including programs to expand telemental health services, improve access to care for rural veterans and their caregivers, and use remote patient monitoring to help veterans with chronic care needs.

With this latest bill, lawmakers want to codify the programs that have worked and address where the gaps in care still exist.

“Living in a small, highly rural community far from a major metropolitan center does not justify a veteran losing or receiving limited access to the health care they have earned and sacrificed for,” Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK), a co-sponsor of the bill, said in the press release. “Community-centered approaches to health care delivery, coupled with advancements in technology and telehealth, can enable the VA to better deliver care to veterans wherever they live, especially those who find themselves in the ‘gaps’ without service.”

Along with Cramer, Moran and Sullivan, the bill is co-sponsored by Senators John Boozman (R-AR), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL).