Heidi M Przybyla, USA TODAYPublished 12:14 p.m. ET Aug. 3, 2017 | Updated
12:34 p.m. ET Aug. 3, 2017
WASHINGTON – President
Trump touted a new program to increase veterans' electronic access to medical
care as part of a broader tele-health push at the Department of Veterans
Affairs.
The initiative
connects veterans with health providers via mobile phones or computers, and is
intended to improve medical care especially for those needing mental health and
suicide prevention services, Trump said.
“It will make a
tremendous difference for the veterans in rural locations in particular,” Trump
said in an event at the White House with VA Secretary David Shulkin.
The application allows
veterans to schedule appointments via their smart phones.
Shulkin also previewed
a regulation allowing VA providers to provide tele-health services to veterans
anywhere in the country.
“What we’re announcing
today is a big deal for veterans,” said Shulkin. Veterans can find the digital
application at the VA app store, he said.
Shulkin, who previously
ran large hospitals in New Jersey and New York, is a practicing physician and
still sees patients at the VA in Manhattan. He also sees them virtually via
such tele-health appointments, something he has said he put “on steroids”
during his tenure so more veterans could be seen.
The VA says more than
700,000 veterans made roughly 2 million tele-health appointments last year.
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