National Center for Healthcare Advancement and Partnerships
OCE Partnerships and COVID-19
During the coronavirus pandemic, VHA partnership with health services company supports health care workers
As the coronavirus pandemic has prevented people across the country from going to the gym or spending as much time outdoors in group exercise, it has become more important to find ways to get physical from within the home.
In 2019, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) partnered with Cigna, a leading health services company, to share and create resources for safer prescribing of opioids to Veterans in pain. This partnership was a response to the ongoing opioid crisis in the United States. In the last five years, VHA has worked to provide alternatives to opioids and reduce the risk associated with their use.
Now, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to present challenges across the health care industry, Cigna has helped to establish the Brave of Heart Fund. The Fund provides money to the families of health care workers who have died from COVID-19. This fund has grown to more than $50 million. Health care is the third most common industry in which male Veterans work. Cigna is also making resources available to anyone who is facing challenges related to COVID-19, including:
- Wellness, mental health, and behavioral resources;
- Information on how to access virtual (telehealth) care services during COVID-19;
- An interactive COVID-19 risk assessment tool and the waiving of customer cost-sharing for COVID-19 treatment.
These are just a few of the ways this VHA partner is helping customers inside or outside of VHA care, in addition to how the existing partnership continues to help Veterans. The resources that Cigna is making available for anxiety and stress management right now are particularly important, said Dr. Lisa Jensen, acting chief officer for VHA Specialty Care Services. Many health care workers, she said, see the most complicated and deadly COVID-19 cases, which increases their stress and frustration.
“This group is developing higher levels of anxiety, depression, frustration, and even suicide and substance abuse. Providing early consoling and support to them allows us to identify those with potential risks for and development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD),” she explained.
Through the VHA-Cigna partnership, Ms. Jensen continued, the Veterans Crisis Line at Cigna has expanded, and medical providers at Cigna have received education on screening for Veteran status and mental health and substance use disorders.
“As we provide health care to [approximately 9 million Veterans], millions of other Veterans are under Medicare, or are working and have private insurance,” she said. “Partnerships like this allow VA to reach those Veterans and provide important services and benefits that they are not currently using.”
“VHA’s Office of Community Engagement (OCE), which facilitated this partnership for Specialty Care Services—along with the Center for Compassionate Care Innovation (CCI), a program within OCE—also works on other partnerships and health care innovations that focus on mental wellness and telehealth services. This May, during Mental Health Awareness Month, OCE and CCI highlighted a few partnerships and health care innovations that bolster Veterans’ mental health, such as Pet Partners, Americans for the Arts, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and stellate ganglion block. Regarding telehealth services, CCI’s collaboration with the VA Boston Healthcare System on light-emitting diode treatment for traumatic brain injury, as well as VHA’s partnership with the American College of Emergency Physicians both utilize telehealth services, especially during COVID-19.
“For more information on Specialty Care Services, please visit: va.gov/healthbenefits/access/specialty_care_services.asp.
“For more information on other VHA partnerships supported by OCE or to learn how to develop a partnership, please visit: va.gov/healthpartnerships.
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Posted September 1, 2020
