Health Benefits
Transportation Program Increases Rural Veterans’ Access to Health Care
September 23, 2016
To access health care services, Veterans who reside in rural communities face several challenges such as lack of providers, geographic barriers, longer travel distances, and lack of supplemental transportation. To help rural Veterans access care, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is expanding it Veterans Transportation Services to more than 80 rural communities nationwide. The expanded transportation program features mobility managers at VA medical centers who coordinate free transportation to and from VA-authorized medical care.
Rural Veteran Ralph Stetson stated, "From my home it’s 98 miles to the White River hospital. It wasn’t that much of an issue until I was told I needed to stay in a wheel chair. But since I’ve been placed in a wheel chair my life has been made a lot easier getting to the VA with the VA transportation service."
To learn more about the program, watch the new rural Veteran transportation video below:
Veterans who need a ride should contact the Veterans Transportation Mobility Manager at their local VA medical center. Veterans or caregivers can go to the Veterans Transportation Service website at http://www.va.gov/healthbenefits/vtp/map.asp and click on the appropriate state or scroll down the page for the contact information at participating VA medical centers.
"There are some Veterans who have friends or neighbors or just somebody they know who can get them in here, but they're few and far between. We have a very old population in this part of the country and we have folks who live out in the middle of nowhere. We provide transportation for those rural Vets and honestly, if we didn’t provide that these folks would not get care," explained White River Junction VA Medical Center Mobility Manager Carol Hitchcock.
The Office of Rural Health (ORH) partnership with VA’s Veterans Transportation Program is one of more than 40 ORH enterprise-wide initiatives. These initiatives help increase access to care for the 3 million Veterans living in rural communities who rely on VA for health care. To learn more, visit www.ruralhealth.va.gov or email rural.health.inquiry@va.gov.
If you have any questions or would like additional information about ORH, contact ORH Communications.
As VA’s lead advocate for rural Veterans, ORH works to see that America’s Veterans thrive in rural communities. To accomplish this, ORH leverages its resources to study, innovate and spread enterprise-wide initiatives through partnerships. Learn more at www.ruralhealth.va.gov.
