Noteboom The Law Firm

The VA Using Technology to Cut Spending

April 30, 2010 - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been using technology to cut tens of thousands of dollars they currently spend on patient care and cut hospital admissions. If a network could be established on a national level, this same technology could drastically reduce spending on U.S. health care.

Through their Care Coordination Home Telehealth Program, the VA has been using remote systems to allow their clinicians to treat patients while the patients are still at home. This program has eliminated the amount of hospital admissions by 19%. This amounts to 32,000 of the patients enrolled in the program. Over the next 25 years the U.S. could possibly save over $200 billion by using telehealth systems.

The VA's in-home monitoring system saves thousands of dollars every year. The comparisons of annual costs do not lie:

• Home visits for veterans cost $1,600 per patient;
• Home based primary care services cost $13,121 per patient;
• Nursing home care cost $77,745 per patient.

 The telehealth applications are limited in use, of course, but those are very wide limits. Videoconferencing systems can be used to observe conditions and provide ongoing care in thousands of VA patients. The system can be used to examine the operation of medical equipment like ventilators but can also be used to remove the burden of travel for many veterans.

As part of ongoing care the VA supplies diabetic veterans with at home blood sugar testing devices. While the blood sugar tests are hardly revolutionary, the tests are connected to VA equipment which documents the veterans' weight and blood pressure. This information is then electronically sent to the VA and entered into the veteran's file.

The success of the program is very apparent. The VA's requested 2011 telehealth budget was $175 million. Republicans on the House VA Committee, however, recommended a 23% increase to the budget to $215 million. The more money the better for these types of systems as they make life easier for thousands of veterans.