In April 11 testimony on budget proposals before a U.S. House Committee, Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough said he hopes the Electronic Health Records Modernization Program will advance beyond the current “Restart” phase sometime in 2025.
In written testimony submitted to the U.S. House Committee on Veterans Affairs, McDonough noted that the reset, announced in April 2023, deferred work on future implementations of the federal electronic health record (EHR). , separate from the joint VA/DoD deployment at the Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago in March 2024. During the restart, the VA is prioritizing improvements at the six sites and 22 clinics that currently use the EHR federal.
“VA is experiencing incremental, but accelerated, progress as it addresses issues that physicians and other end users are experiencing and optimizes the current state of the EHR system to ensure the enterprise-wide foundation is in place for success.” when deployments resume.” he said. “The $894 million fiscal year 2025 budget supports the restart and maintenance/maintenance of all six sites. “VA recognizes that an updated implementation schedule is critical to demonstrating commitment to providing the Federal EHR to end users across the enterprise and will provide that schedule to the Committee once it has been determined.”
Telemental health visits increase
McDonough also spoke about the increasingly important role that telehealth, especially video-based mental health care, including substance use disorder treatment, plays in improving access to mental health services.
Video mental health care now makes up 33 percent of total mental health care visits, demonstrating the important role of telehealth during and after the pandemic. In fiscal year 2023, more than 1 million veterans benefited from nearly 6 million video telemental health care (TMH) visits, representing a 5 percent increase in veterans and a 1 percent increase in visits compared to fiscal year 2022; 96 percent of these TMH visits occurred in a veteran’s home or at an off-site location, emphasizing the convenience and accessibility of the service.
Because most mental health visits can be done via telehealth, it increases the options available to provide mental health care to all veterans, no matter where they or their providers are located in the U.S. This helps increase equity and access to health care, he said. “Telehealth offers veterans more options and eliminates their individual barriers to care: barriers such as stigma, transportation, distance to facilities, child care, financial limitations, logistical challenges, and lack of access to specialists.” in person who can offer evidence-based interventions. “
Telehealth has become a primary consideration for veterans seeking mental health care, with those living in rural areas using video services at prices comparable to others. With plans to increase telehealth support staff and specialized providers, VA continues to enhance its nationwide telemental health network so even more veterans can access mental health care virtually.
Connected care
The 2025 budget also includes $440 million for the Connected Care program and supports the expansion and continued improvement of telehealth services directly to veterans’ homes (video-to-home services); goals to standardize the availability of digital services for all veterans; expansion of regional telehealth centers, novel access and innovative experiences; and the need to sustain previous expansion efforts funded with support from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act and funding from the American Rescue Plan.
VA provided more than 11.6 million episodes of telehealth care to veterans in the last fiscal year. This includes more than 9.4 million episodes of care for veterans in their home or other locations and more than 2.9 million episodes of telehealth care for rural veterans. Overall, VA provided telehealth services to more than 2.4 million unique veterans, representing about 40 percent of veterans served at VA.
