Connecting Care: VA’s use of interoperability, information exchange, and community intent to successfully build bridges to beneficiaries.

The Veteran population in the United States receives care all across the healthcare landscape, often not involving VA whatsoever.  When Veteran patients are seen in the community, they may not identify as such, resulting in missed opportunities related to care coordination, data sharing, patient education, and utilization of Veteran-oriented programs and services that may be available.  This panel discussion will explore these topics, from the use of formal Health Information Exchanges to VA’s mandate to work with the Department of Health and Human Services to advance national health IT standards in support of Veteran care.   It will also discuss the Veteran Interoperability Pledge and how community and regional healthcare systems are advancing their awareness of Veterans in collaboration with VA to improve experiences of care and coordination for this vulnerable population.