A study by the RAND Corp. finds most physicians, nurses, and other licensed healthcare providers in New York State aren't familiar with military culture or routinely screening for conditions common among veterans.
Only about 2% of providers in New York State are ready to provide timely healthcare for veterans, RAND Corp. reports.
Scoring the civilian medical workforce across seven measures, a RAND study found that most providers fell short on items such as familiarity with the military culture or routine screenings for conditions common among veterans.
The study comes as federal officials consider whether to encourage veterans to use their benefits to receive care in the community rather than from the Veterans Affairs health system.
"These findings reveal significant gaps and variations in the readiness of community-based health care providers to provide high-quality care to veterans," said study lead author Terri Tanielian, a senior behavioral scientist at RAND.
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"It appears that more work needs to be done to prepare the civilian health care workforce to care for the unique needs of veterans," Tanielian said.
More than 800,000 veterans live in New York State, and half of them are younger than 65 years old. The VA spends about $6.3 billion annually on benefits and services for veterans in the New York State, and nearly half of that is spent on medical services.
"We know from earlier RAND research that about half of New Yorkโs veterans prefer to get care in their own communities, rather than at the VA," said David Sandman, CEO of the New York State Health Foundation, which requested the RAND study.
"Given this demand for community-based care, we wanted to better understand whether providers are prepared to meet veterans' needs. This report offers both a snapshot of where we are today and a roadmap for improvement," Sandman said.
The study surveyed 746 providers from across the state, who were asked about their practice habits and familiarity with the VA health system. The survey included physicians, nurse practitioners, psychologists and other licensed health professionals.
Health providers were asked about seven measures of readiness: whether they were accepting new patients, whether they were prepared to treat conditions common among veterans, whether they used clinical practice guidelines in providing care, whether they screen for conditions common among veterans, whether they accommodate patients with disabilities, whether they were familiar with military culture, and whether they screen patients for military and veteran affiliation.
More than 90% of the providers said they could accommodate new patients, but the proportion of providers prepared to care for veterans falls sharply as researchers applied the other measures across the health workforce.
The researchers also found that it may be difficult for veterans in New York to find providers who accept VA coverage.
Fewer than 5% providers surveyed reported being part of VA Community Care, the network of providers who accept VA benefits. Mental health providers were the least likely to be enrolled in the program.
John Commins is the news editor for HealthLeaders.