{"id":7580,"date":"2024-02-23T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7580"},"modified":"2024-02-23T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T17:00:00","slug":"va-and-dod-partner-to-increase-primary-and-specialty-health-care-access-for-tennessee-and-kentucky-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7580","title":{"rendered":"VA and DOD partner to increase primary and specialty health care access for Tennessee and Kentucky Veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tni-source-date\"><strong>Originally published:<\/strong> 2024-02-23T17:00:00+00:00. Historical source article: benefits, rules, amounts and deadlines may have changed. Check the official source for current information.<\/p>\n<p><strong>WASHINGTON<\/strong> \u2014 Today, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced a new partnership with the Department of Defense to increase VA health care for Veterans in Tennessee and Kentucky. The forthcoming agreements allow Veterans to receive care at the Fort Campbell VA Clinic inside of the Blanchfield Army Community Hospital located on Fort Campbell Army Installation.<\/p>\n<p>Ensuring that Veterans have timely access to world-class health care is a top priority for VA, and this VA-DOD partnership enables Veterans in Clarksville, Tennessee and the Fort Campbell region to receive primary and mental health care from VA clinicians. As part of the partnership, VA and DOD will also collaborate to expand specialty access for Veterans at Fort Campbell Army Installation, adding dental care, women\u2019s health care, intensive care, and pain management.<\/p>\n<p>The partnership, which is the first of its kind in Kentucky and second in Tennessee, is a key part of VA\u2019s comprehensive strategy to modernize the VA health care system nationwide \u2013 including through nationwide partnerships with DOD. This partnership is one of hundreds across the country with DOD, including 14 near- and long-term projects to expand access to care for Veterans. Earlier this year, VA and DOD <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-partners-dod-increase-surgery-access-gulf-coast-veterans\/\">created a similar partnership<\/a> in Pensacola, Florida to increase access to world-class surgical care for approximately 37,000 Gulf Coast-area Veterans. Through this work, VA is aggressively working to expand the amount of available space to meet Veteran demand for VA health care services and address challenges associated with aging facilities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis partnership will help VA provide more access to care, more quickly to Tennessee and Kentucky Veterans,\u201d said <strong>VA Under Secretary for Health Shereef Elnahal, M.D<\/strong>. \u201cWe are proud to work with DOD and the Blanchfield Army Community Hospital to deliver for our nation\u2019s heroes \u2014 and meet their health care needs close to home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are thrilled with the announcement of this new partnership with the VA,\u201d said <strong>Assistant Secretary, Defense for Health Affairs Lester Martinez-Lopez, M.D<\/strong>. \u201cNot only does it provide increased opportunities to care for those who have sacrificed so much for this country, but it helps our medical professionals maintain their readiness skills. It is a win-win for all those involved. Plus, we are able to do this without impacting the quality and access to care for our traditional beneficiaries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Fort Campbell and Clarksville areas have the largest and most rapidly growing Veteran population in Tennessee. Currently, Montgomery County has more than 21,000 Veterans enrolled in VA health care and another 29,100 Veterans are untethered and eligible for VA care. Women Veterans account for 19% of Veterans currently enrolled. Through the PACT Act, VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System will establish three new outpatient clinics by fiscal year 2027 to further address the needs of nearly 94,000 Veterans in Clarksville, Cookeville, and Nashville areas, who are eligible for PACT Act benefits and care.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to expanding partnerships with DOD, VA has recently reached agreements with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2023\/06\/30\/va-plans-new-cancer-research-center-with-stanford-medical-experts\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Stanford University to build a cutting-edge cancer and research center<\/a> and with Penn Medicine to expand health care access in Southeastern Pennsylvania. These public-private partnerships were made possible under the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/resources\/the-pact-act-and-your-va-benefits\/\" rel=\"noopener\">PACT Act<\/a>, the largest expansion of VA health care and benefits in generations.<\/p>\n<p>VA is aggressively working to bring new Veterans to VA, because VA is proven to be the best, most affordable health care in America for Veterans. In 2023 alone, peer-reviewed studies <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/studies-va-health-care-better-equal-non-va\/\">showed<\/a> that VA health care is better than or equal to non-VA health care; nearly 70% of VA hospitals received 4 or 5 stars in the annual <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-outperform-non-va-facilities-cms-ratings\/\">CMS Hospital ratings<\/a>, compared to just 41% of non-VA hospitals; VA hospitals outperformed non-VA hospitals in all 10 patient satisfaction metrics in <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-and-dod-partner-to-increase-primary-and-specialty-health-care-access-for-tennessee-and-kentucky-veterans\/\">Medicare\u2019s latest survey of patients<\/a>; and <a href=\"https:\/\/department.va.gov\/pactdata\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2024\/01\/VA-PACT-Act-Dashboard-Issue-25-011924_final-508.pdf\" rel=\"noopener\">more than 91%<\/a> of Veterans trust VA with their care. Since the PACT Act was signed into law, more than 500,000 Veterans have enrolled in VA care.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on VA health care for Veterans in Kentucky and Tennessee, visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/tennessee-valley-health-care\/\" rel=\"noopener\">VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"tni-attribution\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/press-room\/va-and-dod-partner-to-increase-primary-and-specialty-health-care-access-for-tennessee-and-kentucky-veterans\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/a>. Its Veterans is an independent publication and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new VA-DOD partnership enables Veterans in Clarksville, Tennessee and the Fort Campbell region to receive primary and specialty care from VA clinicians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-veterans-health-care","category-telehealth-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>VA and DOD partner to increase primary and specialty health care access for Tennessee and Kentucky Veterans - Its Veterans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A new VA-DOD partnership enables Veterans in Clarksville, Tennessee and the Fort Campbell region to receive primary and specialty care from VA clinicians.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7580\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VA and DOD partner to increase primary and specialty health care access for Tennessee and Kentucky Veterans - 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