# Care coordination and outcomes in the VA Expanded Choice Program

> **NIH VA I01** · PORTLAND VA MEDICAL CENTER · 2020 · —

## Abstract

With the enactment of the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 (Public Law 113-146)
(“Veterans Choice Act” or “Choice”), aimed to improve access to timely, high-quality health care for Veterans,
implementation of the new community care networks was rapid with limited time for transitions and
development of best care coordination practices. With the further expansion of Choice to include all VA
community care, that is Choice plus the traditional “fee-basis care”, and in 98 community care markets in 2018,
the Office of Community Care (OCC) has a daunting responsibility. With an expanded implementation comes
increased need for enhanced care coordination with community networks and providers to improve the Veteran
experience, access, and timeliness of care. Attention to local and national organizational level needs during the
expansion are important for successful deployment and management of practice variation. Identifying specific
needs to inform resource planning and to evaluate implementation of the program is vital to know if the goals of
the expanded Community Care program are being met.
 Building on our planning grant partnership with OCC, we will continue our partnership to support program
evaluation. Focused on the RFA Care Coordination track, we will address the following Aims:
 1. Assess and summarize approaches used for regional and local VA facility implementation of quality,
 safety and value governance and monitoring under the Community Care program, including patient and
 provider perspectives.
 2. Identify and evaluate organizational and health information exchange needs to support clinical care
 coordination and quality monitoring in the expanded Community Care program.
 3. Develop and apply methods to evaluate and compare process and outcomes-based quality measures
 for primary care and specialty care among select high volume and high cost procedures under the
 Community Care program with those veterans receiving care exclusively in the VA.
 4. Develop and apply methods to evaluate and compare the extent of overuse and/or duplication of
 services for veterans authorized for Community Care for primary care and specialty care among select
 high volume and high cost procedures with those veterans receiving care exclusively in the VA.
 We will use a mixed methods approach, with emphasis on primary care and specialty care across
domains of care (e.g., inpatient, outpatient, and pharmacy). Assessing the new processes being put in place
for quality governance, integrated care management, and health information exchange will enable greater
understanding of areas that work well and that could be employed at other facilities (Aims 1&2). Planning a
quasi-experimental design with a concurrent control group will enable examination of the effects of the
expanded Community Care program on access to care, quality of care, and duplication of services provided
compared to services provided at VA facilities (Aims 3&4). With a three...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9840399
- **Project number:** 5I01HX002655-03
- **Recipient organization:** PORTLAND VA MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Denise M. Hynes
- **Activity code:** I01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-10-01 → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9840399

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9840399, Care coordination and outcomes in the VA Expanded Choice Program (5I01HX002655-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9840399. Licensed CC0.

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