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1992.01.23 :  Pilot Programs -- Rural Access to Health-Care Services
 
Contact: HHS Press Office   (202) 245-6343 
         VA Press Office    (202) 535-8300
January 23, 1992
    
     The heads of two Cabinet departments today announced the
start-up of a federal pilot program that will seek to improve
public access to health-care services in rural and underserved
areas.
     HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., and Secretary of
Veterans Affairs Edward J. Derwinski both described the
initiative as a creative partnership that will test our ability
to alleviate unique local and regional medical problems.
     Under the pilot program, two VA medical centers -- Tuskegee,
Ala., and Salem, Va. -- will begin offering medical services to
non-veterans, including Medicare beneficiaries.  These two
hospitals would continue to provide health care to service-
disabled and low- income veterans on a priority basis.  Further,
in the Salem project, veterans living in remote areas will have
access to convenient rural community health center services under
a sharing agreement with VA.
     Emphasizing that the program was designed to give the
concept a thorough test, Derwinski reiterated his pledge that
access by veterans to the two hospitals would not be reduced. 
"In fact," he said, "there can be a very positive outcome here in
the sense that these medical centers may improve and enlarge
their total capability."

     Sullivan said that VA will be fully reimbursed for care
delivered to non-veterans.  "We in government share a
responsibility to ensure that our resources are spent effectively
and efficiently.  We must be innovative in seeking better ways to
bring medical services to poor rural areas," Sullivan said.

     The test program, to be conducted over a three-year period,
involves two of VA's 172 hospitals.  Medical services to non-
veterans would be provided up to each facility's capacity or with
supplementary services.

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