Rural Veteran Transportation Options: Improving Access to Care

Rural residents of the U.S. experience, on average, worse health care outcomes than urban residents. One of the primary drivers of this disparity is that rural residents face significantly more barriers in transporting themselves to health care facilities. This project seeks to enhance rural Veterans health through improved transportation to VA health care facilities and this specific submission describes the baseline assessment performed as the initial component of this project. This assessment will support the planning process for the implementation of a comprehensive Transportation Study for the VA Capitol Health Care Network (VISN 5) and four specific, rural regions within VISN 5 were chosen as focus areas. Qualitative and quantitative analyses for the baseline assessment included a literature review and examination of archival data. Key findings from the assessment include: Some capacity to provide Non Emergency Medical Transport (NEMT) to rural Veterans already exists; local transportation providers are often unaware of each other's existence; and transportation solutions will necessarily be local and customized to meet the needs of rural Veterans. Based on the assessment findings, the project team proposed several recommendations to improve the transportation options available to rural Veterans to include: Assign a rural transportation champion; establish novel payment mechanisms, feeder systems, and concerted transportation outreach programs with public providers; develop efforts specifically aimed at expanding existing Veterans Service Organization transportation programs; and as appropriate, expand VA-owned transportation capacity; and develop performance metrics.