VA health care gets good marks, but disparities exist
By Janette Rodrigues, reporter, AAPA News
A new “health care report card” has given the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system good marks overall for delivering high quality care to patients, but it suggested that gender and racial disparities exist in the care delivered to female and minority veterans. The internal report, released in June by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), was compiled after public outcry about long delays in disability payments to veterans, gaps in care offered female veterans, and substandard conditions at military health facilities.
The VA has made some recent strides in providing health care to female veterans, such as creating women's health clinics at major facilities and offering breast and cervical cancer screening services, but the report acknowledged the system is nevertheless continuing to face challenges. The number of women veterans receiving care has reached a historic high level of 5% of the VA's population of about 23.5 million veterans. VHA treated more than 255,000 women veterans last year. VHA expects the percentage of female veterans who receive care from VA facilities to double by 2013.
While the report found that VHA facilities often outscore private-sector health plans in standards commonly accepted by the health care industry, it also showed that female veterans lag behind their male counterparts in some quality measures. And minority veterans are generally less satisfied with their inpatient and outpatient care than are whites. The report included information about waiting times, staffing levels, infection rates, surgical volumes, quality measures, patient satisfaction, service availability and complexity, accreditation status, and patient safety.
“The huge number of women who have responded to the call of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan has created new challenges that the VA must step up to meet,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) earlier this year when she and a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill to improve care for women veterans. About 180,000 female soldiers have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. Women make up 14% of the active duty, guard, and reserves. The Women Veterans Health Care Improvement Act of 2008 is aimed at equipping the VA for the long-term needs associated with serving a greater women veteran population, according to Murray's Senate Web site.
Grants available for child health-related expenses
The UnitedHealthcare Children's Foundation (UHCCF) has announced that new grants are available to help children who need critical health care treatment, services, or equipment not covered or not fully covered by their parents' health benefit plans. The foundation aims to fill the gap between what a child needs and what his commercial health benefit plan will pay for. Parents and legal guardians may apply for grants of up to $5,000 for each child for medical services and equipment by completing an online application on the UHCCF Web site. To be eligible, children must be aged 16 years or younger. Families must meet economic guidelines, be US residents, and be covered by a commercial health benefit plan. The family's health care provider must submit a letter to the foundation that defines the child's medical condition and supports what the family is requesting. The family, however, must apply for the grant themselves. To learn more and to apply, go to www.uhccf.org.
It's the final countdown to HFA inhaler transition
By Doug Scott, reporter, AAPA News
By December 31, 2008, 40 million asthmatic patients must switch from using chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) propellant inhalers to hydrofluoroalkane (HFA) propellant inhalers. Because zero federal dollars have been allocated to help in this effort, the tasks of explaining to your asthmatic patients why the federal government has switched from CFC to HFA, training them to use the new HFA inhalers, and helping them maneuver through the different cost and insurance co-pay options for the different HFA inhalers is left to clinicians on the front lines. Easily downloadable HFA coupons that you can give your patients to defray the cost of the new inhalers can be found by going through the RxAssist Patient Assistance Program Center at www.rxassist.org or the Partnership for Prescription Assistance at www.pparx.org. For more information on how to help your patients make the transition from CFCs to HFAs, please visit www.breatherville.org/pharmacy/ph_mdi_transition.htm.
INFORMATION ON UPCOMING CME EVENTS For the most up-to-date list of CME opportunities, visit the AAPA Web site at www.aapa.org/cme/approvedcat1.htm