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Help Us Prevent Suicide
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Formulary Advisor:
Bookmark new webpage
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2023 VA Fee Schedule
Access now
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New Adobe forms Veterans should download
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VA increases Veterans' access to toxic exposure screenings
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Preventing Veteran suicide is VA’s top clinical priority, and you can help. Please view this important video message from Dr. Miguel H. LaPuz about how you can register for a free training to help you identify the most common lethal means of suicide among Veterans and how to get help for Veterans in crisis.
We are making progress in the fight to prevent Veteran suicide. You can help us win this fight. We encourage you to share this video message with your staff and provider colleagues who treat Veterans.
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VA’s Formulary Advisor search tool has a new home on VA.gov located at the following URL: https://www.va.gov/formularyadvisor. In addition, the tool now has more filtering options, access to criteria for use and clinical guidance documents, urgent/emergent formulary status and options to view potential alternatives for non-formulary items.
Created by three pharmacists at the Asheville VA medical center, Formulary Advisor is an independent website to help community providers look up VA national formulary information. Since going live in April 2019, VA Formulary Advisor has recorded over 1.2 million search results.
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The 2023 Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Fee Schedule (VAFS) is now published with a new yearly cycle adjustment.
Beginning in 2023, the VAFS cycle will run February 1 to January 31. VA adjusted the yearly fee schedule cycle to ensure rate settings take into account comprehensive data from other industry sources.
To accommodate the adjustment in timing, the Calendar Year 2022 VA Fee Schedule-All Payers will run through Jan. 31, 2023, service dates. The 2023 VAFS will cover services beginning Feb 1, 2023.
VA reimburses medical services, hospital care and extended care services up to the maximum allowable rate. The maximum allowable reimbursement rate is generally the applicable Medicare rate published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). When there is no Medicare rate available, VA reimburses the lesser of VAFS or billed charges.
VA continues to modernize the reimbursement methodology to ensure maximum allowable VAFS rates are consistent with industry reimbursement benchmarks and ensure that most services have maximum allowable rates. The goal of VAFS is to ensure fair reimbursement for all providers when Medicare maximum allowable rates are not available.
Reimbursement rates are subject to change.
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PACT Act Toxic Exposure Screening (TES) will expand to more than VA primary care visits beginning Jan. 17. This will increase access to much-needed benefits and care for Veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxic substances during military service.
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Screeners will include physicians (MDs), osteopathic doctors (DOs), advanced practicing nurses (APRNs) and physician assistants (PAs) with clinical privileges.
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All screening elements will be completed during the encounter.
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Once screenings drop below 250,000 per month for 22 months, TES outreach will expand to those Veterans enrolled in VA but not receiving care. The expansion will consider the addition of staff and various screening modalities.
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Offers enrolled Veterans an initial toxic exposure screening and a follow-up screening at least every five years.
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Solidifies VA’s process for establishing presumptions of service connection to toxic exposure-related conditions.
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Makes generations of Veterans eligible for VA health care while increasing access to care.
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Increases funding for VA research on Veteran toxic exposure.
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Gives VA tools to hire and retain employees and modernize facilities.
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Please remind your Veteran patients to download PDF forms directly from VA.gov when applying for benefits or conducting other business with VA, instead of using older versions they may have saved on their computer.
Starting January 7, 2023, Veterans who use an outdated form will receive an error message and not be able to access certain features.
Veterans can bookmark the public-facing VA Forms website and download a fresh form whenever they need to fill one out. Since many Veterans use copies saved to their own computers, please let them know about this!
This applies to all fillable VA forms, including:
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Supplemental Claim, Decision Review Request VA Form 20-0995: A Veteran can use this form if they disagree with a VA decision and want to provide new evidence to support their claim.
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Higher-Level Review, Decision Review Request VA Form 20-0996: This form requests a higher-level review of the decision a Veteran received by VA based on the evidence of record at the time.
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Disability Compensation and Related Compensation Benefits Application VA Form 21-526EZ: Veterans submit this form to apply for VA disability compensation (pay) and related benefits.
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E D U C A T I O N & T R A I N I N G
Legalized Cannabis and PTSD Treatment
This recorded webinar discusses the prevalence of cannabis use and the types of cannabis products available, the relationship between PTSD and cannabis use, and strategies for addressing cannabis use among patients with PTSD in clinical practice.
Location: VHA TRAIN
ID#: 1107315
Credit/hours: one (1)
Accreditations: ACCME, ANCC, NBCC, JA IPCE
Preventing Suicide through Safety Planning & Lethal Means
This recorded, virtual training provides health care teams with key data and research updates on the national problem of Veteran suicide. This training provides clinical resources and tools providers can use to implement lethal means safety counseling and suicide prevention safety plans when working with Veterans along with identifying the most common lethal means of suicide within the Veteran population. The training identifies three VA resources providers can access for consultation.
Long COVID Webinar Series: February Preview
February’s VA Long COVID Webinar series will focus on STIMULATE-ICP - Symptoms, Trajectory, Inequalities and Management: Understanding Long-COVID to Address and Transform Existing Integrated Care Pathways. The presenter will be Amitava Banerjee, MD, Ph.D., Professor of Clinical Data Science at University College, London.
Dr. Banerjee says the thread running through his research so far is the application of routine data to improve knowledge and care of non-communicable diseases through epidemiology, informatics and global health approaches. “The work I have been leading in COVID-19 throughout the pandemic encompasses epidemiology, clinical medicine and informatics to tackle pressing issues of how best to predict and communicate mortality risk,” he said.
This presentation includes a question-and-answer session.
The Long COVID lecture series highlights research on post-acute and long-term outcomes of COVID-19. The series began in summer 2022 within the St. Louis VA Health Care System and was conceived and developed by Uly Labilles, Ph.D, research-health science specialist, Office of Research and Development, and Ziyad A-Aly, MD, research and development service chief.
Tech into Care Lecture Series
The Tech into Care CE Lecture Series features a different speaker and technology-related topic each month. Lectures are on the second Wednesday of the month, at Noon – 1 pm ET. The live webinars are open to all VA and non-VA health care staff, researchers, and anyone interested in the use of technology (e.g., mobile apps, online interventions, and telehealth) to support treatment for Veterans with PTSD and related concerns (e.g., anger, substance use, and insomnia). Those who pre-register and participate in the live lectures can earn one hour of free continuing education credit. CE/CMEs available: ACCME, ACCME-NP, ANCC, APA, ASWB, NBCC, NYSED.
TIME / DATE: Noon-1 pm ET; February 8
LOCATION: VHA TRAIN - VA Employees: Register here, Non-VA, Register in TRAIN
Trainings available through Optum and TriWest
Numerous live and on-demand webinars and trainings are offered by Optum and TriWest to fit your schedule. Check them out!
Questions?
If you require assistance, please contact the VHA TRAIN Help Desk by email at vhatrain@va.gov.
How to obtain your credit completion certificate:
Once you complete a credited training, you can obtain your credential certificate(s) in four easy steps:
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Log in to VHA Train - https://vha.train.org/vha/login
- Go to “Your Learning”
- Go to “Your Certificates”
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Download your certificate
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V E T E R A N S P O T L I G H T
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Loretta Ford, co-founder of the nurse practitioner career field and World War II U.S. Army Air Force nurse.
Loretta closed a gap in patient care by helping to develop the nurse practitioner field. Today, more than 7,000 nurse practitioners work in VA, making VA the largest NP workforce in the nation.
We invite you to view this inspiring video about Loretta, who is now 101 years young!
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Lee Trevino, U.S. Marine Corps Veteran and professional golfer.
Lee Trevino was introduced to golf as a teenager and immediately fell in love with the sport. At 17, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served as a machine gunner in the 3rd Marine Division.
Trevino’s professional golfing career includes 92 wins, 29 PGA Tour wins and three national titles: the British Open, the U.S. Open and the Canadian Open. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1981.
You can read more about Lee Trevino’s military service and career here.
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We honor their service.
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I N O T H E R N E W S
This year, VA will begin the largest clinical trial in history to determine the most effective screening technique for liver cancer. The study will determine whether detecting liver cancer earlier with abbreviated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can impact patients’ risk of death.
Known as PREMIUM — PREventing Liver Cancer Mortality through Imaging with Ultrasound vs. MRI — the trial’s objective is to determine whether screening with abbreviated MRI is better than ultrasound, the current standard of care in reducing liver cancer deaths in Veterans. The PREMIUM trial will recruit 4,700 Veterans with cirrhosis from 47 VA medical centers.
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