GAO Studies VHA's Telehealth Services

The Veterans Health Administration's (VHA) telehealth services have expanded significantly in recent years including during COVID-19. These services include helping veterans who may lack broadband or internet connected devices which is very important for veterans living rural areas who may need access to video telehealth visits with VHA providers.

GAO has issued the report "Veterans Health Care" (GAO-24-106743) discussing VHA's actions to help veterans address the barriers to accessing VHA video telehealth and to help assess the quality of their telehealth services.

VHA has several programs that address how veterans may face barriers when accessing telehealth. On of the programs includes the "Accessing Telehealth at Local Area Stations" (ATLAS) Pilot Program.

Through ATLAS, VHA partners with non-VA organizations and veterans service organizations to provide private locations that have the technology available for veterans to enable veterans to conduct video visits with VHA providers.

However, GAO found that 14 of 24 ATLAS sites have had no veteran visits in fiscal years 2022 and 2023. For the sites that did have visits, VA medical center officials report that they helped veterans who lacked broadband access to telehealth which helped veterans avoid traveling long distances to VA medical centers.

VHA officials are making changes to the ATLAS program, including transitioning it from a pilot program to a grant program. However, VHA has not been able to measure the ATLAS Program's effectiveness on an ongoing basis due to a lack of performance goals and related measures in order to help the VHA determine whether it should make changes to the program.

VHA has established processes to monitor elements of the quality of their broader telehealth services, such as safety and timeliness on a regular basis. VHA also has efforts underway to develop measures to assess Veterans' health outcomes via telehealth as compared to in-person care.

Summing up, GAO has made two recommendations 1) Develop performance goals and related measures for the ATLAS program that reflect leading practices, and 2) Use these goals and measures to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the ATLAS program on an ongoing basis. The VA has concurred with both recommendations and has plans to address them.

Go to https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-106743 for the full report. For more information, email Alyssa M. Hundrup at [email protected] .