WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) today announced the Veterans Health Administration has received the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) 2020 Champion Award for bringing health care access to Veterans when and where they need it.
The recognition is given to industry leaders for the advancement of telehealth services and comes just weeks after VA reported all-time-high usage of video telehealth appointments between Veterans and their VA health care providers.
“ATA recognizes VA’s success transforming how Veterans access high-quality care through our Connected Care programs including My HealtheVet, VA Mobile and VA Telehealth Services,” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie. “Video appointments are just one of the ways we are providing a seamless health care experience for Veterans.”
Achieving this milestone is possible with the ongoing support and commitment from VA partnerships with Apple, Philips, T-Mobile, SafeLink by TracFone, Sprint, now part of T-Mobile, Verizon and Walmart. VA’s Secretary’s Center for Strategic Partnerships facilitated these partnerships.
VA announced earlier this month that the use of VA Video Connect has supported a more than 1000% increase in video visits directly to Veterans homes or other place of choice during the COVID-19 pandemic. VA Video Connect is an app allowing Veterans and their caregivers to meet virtually with their VA care teams on any computer, tablet or mobile device with an internet connection. Between February and May, video visits to Veterans homes increased from 10,000 to over 127,000 per week during the last week in May.
My HealtheVet, VA’s award-winning personal health record, has also noted record usage this year. There are currently more than 3.3 million authenticated patients using the telehealth platform to play a more active role in their health care. From January to May:
- VA processed nearly 9.4 million online prescription refill requests.
- Veterans and care teams have exchanged over 9.5 million secure messages.
For more information about VA telehealth, visit connectedcare.va.gov.
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Reporters and media outlets with questions or comments should contact the Office of Media Relations at vapublicaffairs@va.gov
Veterans with questions about their health care and benefits (including GI Bill). Questions, updates and documents can be submitted online.
Veterans can also use our chatbot to get information about VA benefits and services. The chatbot won’t connect you with a person, but it can show you where to go on VA.gov to find answers to some common questions.
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