Health Systems Help Veterans Access Housing, Food, and Healthcare Benefits Through Epic’s Interoperability With VA

Thousands of Veterans have learned they’re eligible for healthcare, food and housing benefits through enhanced interoperability between VA software and Epic. Caregivers using Epic’s software can automatically screen every patient to determine Veteran status and help those who are Veterans access the benefits they’ve earned. The connection between Epic and the VA went live earlier this year and has already helped screen millions of patients and identify almost 100,000 eligible Veterans.

“I’ve seen firsthand how critical access to care can be, having lost friends who struggled to find support after returning home from deployment,” said Anthony Corso, a combat Veteran and leader of Epic’s interoperability efforts with the VA. “Veterans have earned excellent hands-on care from their communities, and this is one way to help ensure that they receive it.”

Tufts Medicine and Sanford Health were the first organizations to go live with the Epic-VA connection. Together, the organizations have connected thousands of Veterans to benefits under the new Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act—which provides additional benefits for Veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances.

“Partnering with the VA and Epic on this initiative to securely share data and medical records will help us improve Veterans’ experience regardless of where they receive their care. Connecting Veterans to important community resources is important in providing more timely clinical care and guidance including preventive screenings,” said Roxana Lupu, M.D., chief medical information officer at Sanford Health, the largest rural health system in the U.S. “One-third of our nation’s Veterans live in rural areas. At Sanford Health, we are proud of our longstanding commitment to serving Veterans in communities across the rural Midwest.”

“Our work with Epic and the VA has enabled Tufts Medicine to make significant strides in how we support our Veteran patients,” said Dr. Shafiq Rab, CIO of Tufts Medicine. “Since going live in January, we’ve retained the Veteran status field within our patient access system, allowing us to use both self-reported and VA-verified status. This ensures our clinicians can acknowledge and respond to a patient’s Veteran status right from the start, enabling them to determine the best clinical services for each individual. This initiative has allowed us to focus on the unique needs of Veterans and offer them the respectful care they deserve.”

The VA connection is the latest in Epic’s years-long effort to expand interoperability so that people’s medical data is available wherever they receive care. Epic built the first Electronic Health Record-based interoperability network and has partnered with others to create nationwide exchange frameworks such as Carequality and TEFCA. Today, 100% of health systems that use Epic are interoperable, helping improve care coordination and clinical outcomes for millions of people.