From Texas Standard:
In this installment of our "Spotlight on Health" series, we're looking at access to health care – something that can be a problem for many military veterans.
Robert Wilkie, secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, says wait times at VA clinics have shown "marked improvement" since 2014 when the agency was embroiled in controversy. In one example from that time, a Phoenix VA facility was criticized for having extremely long wait times.
Wilkie says the challenge now is to find veterans who are entitled to receive VA health care but who don't take advantage of services.
"I think the biggest challenges that we have are the challenges nobody speaks to – reaching those veterans that are not part of our VA," Wilkie says.
Veterans at risk of suicide are one population Wilkie says his agency is focused on right now. They're the agency's "No. 1 clinical priority," he says. That's, in part, because 14 of 20 veterans who take their lives aren't receiving VA care.
One way Wilkie says the agency is trying to find these hidden populations is by traveling to rural areas and Native American lands, asking locals to help the VA find at-risk veterans.
A growing Texas has also meant an increase in the number of veterans living in the state. Wilkie says that by 2025, Texas will have the largest number of veterans of any state and the largest number of active-duty military personnel.
"For our hospitals in Houston and San Antonio and Dallas, and across the state, we need to shift more resources," Wilkie says, "and also beef up our clinics out in the rural areas, particularly in West Texas."
Wilkie says another way his agency is supporting veterans' health care is through the VA Mission Act, which allows veterans to obtain health care in the private sector if it's unavailable through the VA.
"If we can't provide her that service, then what we will give that veteran is the option to go into the private sector to get that service," Wilkie says.
But Wilkie says this doesn't amount to privatization of VA services.
Written by Shelly Brisbin.
