About 5,500 veterans live on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, and roughly 1,300 are receiving health care through the Hampton VA Medical Center.
Keeping an appointment with a primary care doctor means driving from Accomack or Northampton counties, paying $13 to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and traveling through Norfolk into Hampton, hoping for no surprises at that other bridge tunnel.
Until now.
Through a new federal program, eligible Eastern Shore veterans can seek primary care at one of five community health centers from Cheriton to Chincoteague Island. The program is called Veterans Choice, and it is part of a national effort to reach veterans who live too far from a VA medical center or who have been waiting too long for a doctor.
The five Eastern Shore locations are among 22 sites statewide that are now authorized see veterans. Many are in small towns, extending VA’s reach into rural areas. Virginia is the first state in the nation with agreements between the Department of Veterans Affairs and federally qualified health centers.
Four such centers have signed on: Eastern Shore Rural Health, Central Virginia Health Services, Southern Dominion Health System and Tri-Area Community Health System.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe trumpeted the milestone last week. Although the agreements are between the health centers and the VA, McAuliffe credited the state with bringing together the interested parties. After the Veterans Choice Act became law, he hosted a first-ever summit on expanding health care access for Virginia’s veterans.
“Now, less than three months later, there are 22 new access points for veterans across the commonwealth,” he said.
In the case of Hampton, the Eastern Shore centers will provide a needed option, but they do not appear to be a cure-all for a larger challenge reducing wait times for primary care patients across Hampton’s entire service area.
Last month, Hampton earned the unwanted distinction of having the nation’s longest wait times in the nation for primary care. The Eastern Shore centers will serve a potential population of 1,300. The medical center as a whole serves 48,000 veterans in the greater Hampton Roads region.
Mike Dunfee, medical center director, said the key to lower wait times will be adding more doctors and expanding facilities, and the hospital is making progress on both fronts. Next month, Hampton will mark the opening of a renovated primary care clinic, and it is hiring more primary care doctors, he said in a statement emailed to the Daily Press.
“In the interim, Veteran’s Choice continues to be a good option for veterans that we can’t get in during a reasonable time frame or who live more than 40 miles from our facilities,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hampton recently received three-year accreditations from both The Joint Commission and the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitative Services. The Joint Commission is a nonprofit accreditation organization that sets standards of care and operations for more than 20,000 health care organizations in the U.S.
The Eastern Shore centers are spread strategically through the region, will be a welcome sight for veterans who otherwise would have to travel to Hampton to see a VA doctor, said Nancy Stern, CEO of Eastern Shore Rural Health.
“I think it’s going to help a lot,” she said. “Making it more accessible has been the challenge. I think they’ve really gotten great care” at the Hampton VA.
The Eastern Shore centers will handle primary care. To see a specialist, patients will still travel to Hampton. Patient records will be faxed to Hampton so each facility has the same patient information, she said.
Lessig can be reached by phone at 757-247-7821.
What is the Veterans Choice Act?
This federal program sets aside $10 billion throughout three years for veterans who live more than 40 miles from a VA facility or who find themselves waiting more than 30 days for an appointment. The program allows them to be seen at a participating community health center.
In Virginia, 22 such centers are now authorized under the Veterans Choice Act.
Beginning in November, the VA began mailing Veterans Choice cards to veterans who were potentially eligible. Veterans must call the number on the card to verify their eligibility and take further steps before they can be seen at one of the 22 centers.
For more information, go online to va.gov/opa/choiceact or call 866-606-8198.
