The Department of Veterans Affairs will continue focusing on veteran homelessness, claims backlogs and access to care, VA CIO Roger Baker said Tuesday.
GCN reports Baker made the announcement during AFCEA Belvoir Industry Day.
Baker said the VA has prepared projects focusing on streamlining online recordkeeping, telehealth and Web-based applications designed to simplify access to care.
There are at least 75,000 homeless veterans, according to Baker.
He said the VA expects that figure to drop by 60,000 within the year and totally eradicate homelessness within the veteran population by 2015 through using technology.
Baker also said there are currently 827,000 claims waiting adjudication and up to 57 percent of veterans leaving military service now file medical claims.
To meet rising demands, VA aims to turn around the claims in less than 125 days through migration to an electronic process.
Electronic processing will start in July at 15 centers across the country, GCN reports.
With the use of the video-based service Telehealth, patients and doctors can easily connect with each other through the department’s video system from any location in the country.
Baker said this will help minimize travel costs for veterans and present early detection for patients while lowering emergency hospital admission as mental health visits and in-home health assessments are included in the services.
The agency also recently launched two websites dedicated to align military occupational skills with civilian equivalents and to monitor mental and physical well being.
