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Strategic Objective

Enhance VA’s Partnership with DoD

Strategic Objective

Themes:

Veterans Benefits and Services National Defense

VA.gov

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Overview
Progress Update

Overview

Summary:

Progress Update

Final Assessment: VA, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget, highlighted this objective as a focus area for improvement.

Achievements: The Veterans health and benefits portal, eBenefits, added 1,021,538 million individual accounts in FY 2015 and now has a total of 5,160,568 million enrolled, reaching the established FY 2015 target nearly 2 months ahead of schedule. Also, VA provides support to the DoD for IDES with responsibility for completing 4 Core Process Steps within a goal of 100 days. As of September 30, 2015, VA was at 91 days and meeting the 100 day goal.

In FY 2015, VA completed 77,862 Separation Health Assessment (SHA) exams, which included exams in support of IDES and those within one year of military separation. Additionally, VA has worked with DoD to create 2 research consortia for traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, at a combined investment of $107 million over 5 years.^{^[1]}

Furthermore, VA started collaborating with DoD Health Affairs to plan for the implementation of section 402 of VACAA. Section 402^{^[2]} authorized VA to provide Military Sexual

Trauma-related health care services to active duty Servicemembers without a referral from TRICARE or a military treatment facility.

Also, DoD announced their electronic health record selection to replace the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application system.

Challenges: Continued process improvements are needed in order to meet and sustain the joint VA/DoD IDES performance goal for processing 80 percent of all claims within 295 days. Also, it is a challenge to develop joint metrics for how the Departments will achieve the legal requirement for DoD and VA to deploy modernized electronic health record software supporting clinicians of the Departments by no later than December 31, 2016, while ensuring continued support and compatibility with the interoperability platform and full standards-based interoperability.

Another challenge is developing a tracking tool by DoD to verify that all Servicemembers who are not filing a VA disability claim prior to separation receive a SHA.

[1] http://www.research.va.gov/topics/tbi.cfm

[2] http://www.va.gov/opa/choiceact/documents/Choice-Act-Summary.pdf

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Strategic Goals

Strategic Goal:

Enhance and Develop Trusted Partnerships

Statement:

Enhance and Develop Trusted Partnerships

Strategic Objectives

Enhance VA’s Partnership with DoD

Statement:

Enhance VA’s Partnership with DoD

Description:

Summary:

Strategies:

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Enhance VA’s Partnerships with Federal, State, Private Sector, Academic Affiliates, Veteran Service Organizations and Non-Profit Organizations

Statement:

Enhance VA’s Partnerships with Federal, State, Private Sector, Academic Affiliates, Veteran Service Organizations and Non-Profit Organizations

Description:

Summary:

While VA is not the sole provider of benefits, services, and resources to Veterans and eligible beneficiaries, we hold ourselves accountable for each Veteran’s success, no matter who provides assistance. To provide Veterans and eligible beneficiaries an integrated, coordinated, personalized portfolio of benefits and services efficiently and effectively, we must improve our communication, coordination, and relationships with our partners in other Federal agencies; state, tribal, and local governments; VSOs; MSOs; academic affiliates; unions; nonprofits; and private industry. We must develop a partnership culture that entails trust, transparency, mutual benefit, responsibility, productivity, and accountability. Increased public-private partnership opportunities empower staff with effective tools and resources for collaborations, and allow for building open innovation platforms.

Strategies:

VA will leverage responsible and productive partnership opportunities that can supplement VA services and help fill urgent or emerging gaps in services. We will pursue opportunities for partnering with organizations that can best provide what we cannot or should not.

VA will establish a partnership award program to acknowledge and recognize successful partnerships in various organizational and service categories.

VA will foster stronger collaboration and information exchange with across the spectrum of care, benefits and services providers.

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FY 14-15 Priority Goal: End Veteran Homelessness

Statement:

In partnership, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and VA aim to reduce the number of Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).

Indicators:

Reduction in homeless Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
The “Number of Homeless Veterans” on a single night is determined by the PIT Count, which is conducted annually the last week of January each year “The PIT Count reflects the results of the work performed and the fiscal obligation/budget made in the prior fiscal year.”
Reduction in total homeless Veterans temporarily living in shelters or transitional housing to 12,500 (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).

Description:

VA has taken decisive action toward its goal of ending homelessness among Veterans. The End Veteran Homelessness initiative is intended to prevent Veterans and their families from entering homelessness and to assist those who are homeless in exiting as safely and quickly as possible. VA’s “no wrong door” philosophy will ensure that homeless and at risk for homeless Veterans have timely access to appropriate housing and services. Any door a Veteran comes to - at a medical center, a regional office, or a community organization - will lead to the tools to offer Veteran assistance. Ending homelessness among Veterans will advance the mission of VA by ensuring that all Veterans and their families achieve housing stability.
On a single night in January 2014 during the Point in Time (PIT) Count ^[1], there were 49,933 homeless Veterans in the US. Effectively ending homelessness among Veterans requires rapid access to permanent housing, health care, employment, benefits, and other supportive services. VA works closely with community partners to meet current and new demands for any Veteran who is experiencing or is at imminent risk of homelessness. Housing First and Rapid Re-housing are two of the many evidence-based approaches VA uses to end homelessness. The Housing First model follows the philosophy of providing permanent housing as quickly as possible to Veterans/individuals experiencing homelessness and then wrapping health care and other supportive services as needed around the Veteran to sustain housing and improve their quality of life. Rapid Re-housing is a set of strategies to help families quickly move out of homelessness and into permanent housing. It typically involves: housing search and landlord mediation assistance, short-term or flexible rental assistance, and transitional case management services. Rapid Re-housing provides crisis intervention services to quickly place an individual or family who is currently homeless into a permanent, sustainable housing situation.

[1] The annual PIT estimates are a snapshot of homelessness. They are submitted to HUD each year by communities and account for homeless Veterans in emergency shelters or transitional housing on the night of the PIT count (i.e., sheltered) as well as homeless Veterans who are in places not meant for human habitation such as the streets, abandoned buildings, cars, or encampments (i.e., unsheltered). Communities typically conduct their PIT count during the last week in January when a large share of the homeless population is expected to seek shelter rather than stay outside. Because counting people in shelters is more precise than conducting street counts, the timing of the PIT count is intended to improve the accuracy of the estimates. (Source: Veteran Homelessness: A Supplemental Report to the FY 2010 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress).

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Amplify Awareness of Services and Benefits Available to Veterans through Improved Communications and Outreach

Statement:

Amplify Awareness of Services and Benefits Available to Veterans through Improved Communications and Outreach

Description:

Summary:

The benefits, services, and resources available to our current and future clients, and the means and mechanisms for delivering them, must be widely-known and well understood. We will expand the ways in which we connect to our clients to amplify awareness of the services and benefits available to Veterans and eligible beneficiaries. We will connect with Veterans and eligible beneficiaries, our partners, and the Nation through clear, aligned, and proactive interactions.

Strategies:

VA will establish a robust, authoritative communications capability that provides and aligns a clear, concise, positive, and compelling message. We will establish standardized corporate communications policies and procedures to coordinate efforts across the Department.

VA will establish internal standardized enterprise outreach policies and procedures to coordinate efforts across the Department.

VA will develop outreach plans and strategies in collaboration with our partners to ensure Veterans and eligible beneficiaries and their families are aware of all of the programs for which they are eligible; not only those provided by VA and not solely programs designed to serve a Veteran-only population. We will pursue joint outreach campaigns to enable sharing of communications channels and audiences to reach more Veterans and eligible beneficiaries.

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Agency Priority Goals

FY 14-15: End Veteran Homelessness

Statement:

Indicators:

Reduction in homeless Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
The “Number of Homeless Veterans” on a single night is determined by the PIT Count, which is conducted annually the last week of January each year “The PIT Count reflects the results of the work performed and the fiscal obligation/budget made in the prior fiscal year.”
Reduction in total homeless Veterans temporarily living in shelters or transitional housing to 12,500 (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).

Description:

Learn More

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