Access to VA Health Chat Surpasses 2.5 Million Veterans, Now Features Integrated Video Chat Capability

CirrusMD today announced expansion of VA Health Chat, allowing more Veterans easy and direct access to VA healthcare staff. VA Health Chat is provided to Veterans by CirrusMD on behalf of the United States Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) and VA subcontractor, Iron Bow Technologies. 

The most recent expansion brings VA Health Chat to Veterans in the Veterans Integrated Services Network (VISN) 10, including Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Northern Kentucky, and the Eastern Colorado portion of VISN 19. With these additions, five VISNs representing over 2.5 million Veterans now provide access to VA Health Chat. 

VA Health Chat is a web and mobile technology service that connects Veterans to a full range of virtual care services, at a time and place selected by the Veteran. When a Veteran needs help with a minor healthcare issue, answers to health-related questions, virtual medical care, or appointment scheduling, they are able to login and initiate a chat without traveling to a VA facility or waiting on a phone line.  Additionally, if the VA provider determines there is a need to migrate to video chat, they can request the Veteran accept a video call seamlessly within the application. This provides a more robust care experience that is easily enabled within the VA Health Chat application.

Services and operating hours vary by location and are staffed by VA healthcare professionals including:

• Schedulers
• Nurses
• Pharmacists
• Nurse Practitioners
• Physicians

With the addition of VISNs 10 and 19, more than 30 percent of U.S. Veterans can utilize VA Health Chat. It is already available in:

• VISN 23: Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North and South Dakota and a portion of Wisconsin
• VISN 8: Florida, southern Georgia and select locations in the U.S. Caribbean
• VISN 4: Delaware, portions of Pennsylvania and West Virginia

Today, Veterans want and expect virtual healthcare. Through VA Health Chat, access to and utilization of the VA Health System is made faster, easier and more convenient. On behalf of the entire team at CirrusMD, we are proud to support the VA Health Chat platform. We look forward to continuing to provide innovative care options that enable easy access for our Veterans and VA healthcare professionals.

Blake McKinney, MD co-founder CirrusMD