VA "Announces $22 Million for Rural Veterans" without knowing what rural is

Take a look at where the funding is going. How are they "rural" areas?

This is Beford VA

About VAMC Bedford
The Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital (Bedford VA) consists of a 500+ bed facility located in Bedford, MA. It includes a Veterans Community Care Center, Vietnam Veterans Outreach Center in Lowell, MA, and Veterans Day Activity Center in Winchendon, MA. Bedford VA also has four Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs) located in Lynn, Haverhill, Gloucester and Fitchburg, MA.

Bedford is just a few miles away from Route 128, one of the major highways in the Boston area. The other outpatient clinics are in majory cities.

The rest on the list are not rural either. The veterans in rural areas, real rural areas of the country are the ones that really need the help and need help yesterday.

Recent VA News Releases

To view and download VA news releases, please visit the following
Internet address: http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel



VA Announces $22 Million for Rural Veterans

Peake: Down Payment on Expansion of Services

WASHINGTON (January 9, 2009) -- The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
has provided $21.7 million to its regional health care systems to
improve services specifically designed for veterans in rural areas.
"This special allocation is the latest down payment on VA's
commitment to meet the needs of veterans living in rural areas," said
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake. "VA will take to our
rural veterans the health care services they have earned."
Within the last year, VA has launched a major rural health
initiative. The Department has already created a 13-member committee to
advise the VA secretary on issues affecting rural veterans, opened three
rural health resource centers to better understand rural health issues,
rolled out four new mobile health clinics to serve 24 predominately
rural counties, announced the opening of 10 new rural outreach clinics
in 2009 and launched a fleet of 50 new mobile counseling centers.

The extra funding is part of a two-year VA program to improve the
access and quality of health care for veterans in geographically
isolated areas. The program focuses on several areas, including access
to health care, providing world-class care, the use of the latest
technology, recruiting and retaining a highly educated workforce and
collaborating with other organizations.

More specifically, the new funds will be used to increase the
number of mobile clinics, establish new outpatient clinics, expand
fee-based care, explore collaborations with federal and community
partners, accelerate the use of telemedicine deployment, and fund
innovative pilot programs.

The new funds will be distributed according to the proportion of
veterans living in rural areas within each VA regional health care
system, called VISNs, for "Veterans Integrated Service Networks."
VISNs with less than 3 percent of their patients in rural areas
will receive $250,000. Those with population of rural veterans between
3 percent and 6 percent will receive $1 million each. And VISNs with
more than 6 percent of their veterans population in rural areas will
receive $1.5 million.

Special VA Funding for Rural Health
(By VISN number and VISN Headquarters)

#1. Bedford, Mass., $1 million
#2. Rochester, N.Y., $1 million
#3. New York, N.Y., $250,000
#4. Wilmington, Del., $1 million
#5. Baltimore, Md., $250,000
#6. Durham, N.C., $1.5 million
#7. Atlanta, Ga., $1.5 million
#8. Bay Pines, Fla., $1 million
#9. Nashville, Tenn., $1.5 million
#10. Cincinnati, Ohio, $1 million
#11. Ann Arbor, Mich., $1 million
#12. Chicago, Ill., $1 million
#15. Kansas City, Mo., $1.5 million
#16. Jackson, Miss., $1.5 million
#17. Arlington, Texas, $1 million
#18. Mesa, Ariz., $1 million
#19. Denver, Colo., $1 million
#20. Vancouver, Wash., $1 million
#21. Palo Alto, Calif., $1 million
#22. Long Beach, Calif., $250,000
#23. Lincoln, Neb., $1.5 million