WASHINGTON - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) announced progress on several key initiatives to improve services and benefits to military members and veterans.
The announcement came Sept. 12 following the third quarterly meeting of the Joint Executive Council made up of key staff members from both federal departments and co-chaired by Dr. Leo S. Mackay, Jr., Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and Dr. David Chu, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.
"We continue to build upon recent accomplishments in inter-department cooperation and are pleased not only with the opportunities we are finding to improve services to our veterans and military personnel, but also with the true sense of partnership that has developed between our two departments," said Dr. Mackay.
A key element is the ability for both departments to have the same information to make management decisions. VA and DoD plan to share information about their respective populations, providing a first-ever opportunity to see the same universe of active duty, separated, retired and reserve members.
By creating a single, reliable data source, VA can provide veterans with faster, more consistent and more efficient access to health care, claims processing and memorial benefits.
This is particularly true in the area of patient records.
"There are hundreds of health information systems across our country operating under a variety of standards. This makes it very difficult for health care organizations to share information effectively and causes significant duplication of effort," said Dr. Chu.
The two departments have been working to develop a common health information infrastructure comprised of standardized data, and uniform policies for communications, security and high performance health information systems.
While many collaborative efforts are focused on long-term issues, VA and DoD are also moving to deliver improved services now.
VA recently began its Benefits Delivery at Discharge program at the Pentagon's DiLorenzo TRICARE clinic, adding to the growing number of sites where active duty military members due to separate or retire can receive one physical for both discharge and VA's disability claim actions. In many cases these new veterans will know if their VA disability claim has been approved before they leave active military duty.
In another shared effort, VA and DoD will begin a test in October that will allow certain TRICARE beneficiaries to receive routine prescription drug refills by mail from VA's regional Consolidated Mail Out Pharmacy facilities.
Using health and benefit-focused working groups, the VA/DoD Joint Executive Council will continue to fine-tune existing agreements, find new areas for partnership and look for more effective methods to deliver benefits and services to our nation's military and veteran populations.
