Did Access to Care Improve Since Passage of the Veterans Choice Act?: Differences Between Rural and Urban Veterans.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The 2014 Veterans Choice Program aimed to improve care access for Veterans through expanded availability of community care (CC). Increased access to CC could particularly benefit rural Veterans, who often face obstacles in obtaining medical care at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). However, whether Veterans Choice Program improved timely access to care for this vulnerable population is understudied.

Objectives

To examine wait times among rural and urban Veterans for 5 outpatient specialty care services representing the top requests for CC services among rural Veterans.

Research design

Retrospective study using VHA and CC outpatient consult data from VHA's Corporate Data Warehouse in Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 (October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015) and F

SUBMITTER: Gurewich D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8132901 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature