Season 4 Episode 18 - VA Uber Pilot Expands to More Hospitals

Transportation is the biggest barrier to health care in the veteran community. Getting more veterans to their appointments reliably is the goal of an expanded partnership the Department of Veterans Affairs has  with Uber. Launched last year at an initial 10 sites, the VHA-Uber Health Connect Initiative is now serving 60 VA medical centers in its second phase. VHA Chief of Innovation Indra Sandal and Veterans Transportation Program Director Ben Williams return to HealthCast to brief us on the progress the program has made, plus a look at new digital tools that are helping streamline this program even more. Sandal and Williams say the program not only is helping to reduce costs, but also is supporting overall federal priorities in improving the customer experience. They also tease a new feature coming out this month and hope to roll out the overall program enterprise-wide by May 2024.