We’re expanding care for vets, from urgent to routine

Each day of the year, and especially on November 11, our nation honors its veterans who have served. Our nation must live up to its promises to provide them with the high-quality health care they have earned and deserve.

We at TriWest Healthcare Alliance are privileged to partner with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to help honor that promise by seeing to it that health care is delivered to veterans in the community when and where they need it.

Nothing can better exemplify this public-private partnership than the story of Major Toni Grimes here in Arizona.

Grimes, an Arizona Army veteran who proudly served for nearly 20 years, shared that she suffered from a myraid conditions which VA services helped treat, from speech therapy and polytrauma to kidney and rheumatoid issues. “The VA saved my life ... the team of providers in the VA and in the community are doing the best to keep me as healthy as I possibly can be,” she said.

In June 2019, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs successfully launched the VA MISSION Act which brought about much needed reforms of the VA health-care system and strengthened its public-private partnership with the medical care community.

As part of the private health care community, TriWest has established a network of over 700,000 community health care professionals in the last seven years who have provided more than 32 million appointments for veterans, closer to their home.

In Arizona, over 19,000 community health care professionals have provided over 600,000 appointments for health care services in the community since 2014. These professionals are helping to ensure that Arizona’s veterans have ready access to the health care services they need in the community.

In the next generation of VA community care – the Community Care Network – TriWest is committed to ensuring that both physical and behavioral health needs of veterans are met.

Returning warriors often struggle with adjusting to civilian life, and tragically, the large number of veteran suicides is alarming with 20 occurring each day.

Ensuring that veterans have ready access to care when needed, either at a VA facility or in the community, is critical, and it is our honor to work together with VA to make this a reality. Anything less would be a disservice to this country’s defenders.

Most recently, the VA MISSION Act provides for an urgent care benefit, giving veterans the option to visit an urgent care clinic within VA’s contracted network for covered services. Arizona veterans have made over 25,000 visits to an urgent care facility for nonemergency yet time-sensitive health care needs, ranging from colds, strep throat and sprained muscles to skin and ear infections.

TriWest has supported the military and veteran communities for almost 25 years, and it intends to continue doing whatever it takes to serve our nation’s heroes.

We thank the VA and Congress for helping make enhanced access to care for Veterans a reality.

And to the health care professionals who have signed up to serve veterans under the Community Care Network, we salute you!

By serving those who have put their life on the line for our country, you are making a difference.