Q&A
Under pressure to show progress in improving veteran access and service, the VHA will begin rolling out a new consolidated website, according to Tom Allin, VA chief veterans experience officer. The website change comes after last month’s announcement that the U.S. Government Accountability Office placed the VHA on its “High Risk List” and the VA Inspector General’s comments on continued veteran access issues at an April U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs hearing.
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Mr. Allin was hired in January 2015 as VA’s first chief veterans experience officer. In an interview with Federal Times, Mr. Allin noted that a single, consolidated customer service website would launch to a small beta testing group of 50 veterans around May 20 and roll out to all veterans by the end of 2015. The plan for the website, veterans.gov, is to provide veterans a single place to access all their VA benefits, make doctor appointments, and determine their eligibility for programs they may otherwise have been unaware of or simply had not been using.
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“The two biggest initiatives that I am focused on right now is to try to make everything we do more consistent and number 2, make it easier,” Mr. Allin said in the interview.
Interim Under Secretary for Health Carolyn M. Clancy, MD, spoke with Federal Practitioner earlier this year regarding initiatives that would bring VHA closer in practice to its strategic goals of improving access, creating an “exceptional veteran experience,” and inspiring health care providers to deliver high-quality care.
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Among the initiatives discussed, Dr. Clancy announced, “Our laserlike focus for this coming year is access and exceptional veteran experience.” She continued, “We are making a very, very strong commitment, not just to improving, but to being able to show people the results.”
