Cold War Veterans Blog

Secretary Shinseki Announces $215 Million in Projects for Rural Veterans

WASHINGTON (May 21, 2009) - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hasprovided $215 million in competitive funding to improve servicesspecifically designed for Veterans in rural and highly rural areas.

"This funding signals a substantial expansion of services addressing thehealth care needs of our rural Veterans," Secretary of Veterans AffairsEric Shinseki said. "These funds will allow VA to establish newoutpatient clinics, expand collaborations with federal and communitypartners, accelerate the use of telemedicine deployment, exploreinnovative uses of technology, and fund pilot programs."

The selection process was competitive and transparent. VeteransIntegrated Service Networks (VISNs), VA's regional health care networks,and Veterans Health Administration program offices were allowed tosubmit up to eight proposed projects each. These proposals wereprioritized and then sent to the Office of Rural Health (ORH), wherethey were evaluated based on, methodology, feasibility and intendedimpact on rural Veterans.

After careful review, ORH selected 74 programs, many of which wereeither national in scope or affected multiple states. Program officesvalidated these proposals to ensure that projects and programs wereconsistent with the VA mission, strategic direction, program standards,and did not duplicate existing efforts.

The new funding is part of an ambitious VA program to improve access andquality of health care -- both physical and mental -- for Veterans ingeographically rural areas, with an emphasis on the use of the latesttechnologies, recruitment and retention of a well-educated and trainedhealth care workforce, and collaborations with non-VA rural healthcommunity partners.

To address the unique issues facing rural Veterans, the Departmentcreated an Office of Rural Health in February 2007. In the past twoyears, VA formed a 16-member national committee to advise on issuesaffecting rural veterans, opened three Veterans Rural Health ResourceCenters to study rural Veteran issues, rolled out four new mobile healthclinics to serve 24 predominately rural counties, announced 10 new ruraloutreach clinics to be opened in 2009.