Senate Special Committee on Aging Ranking Member Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) called for the Department of Veteran Affairs to extend the Access Received Closer to Home pilot program for veterans who live in rural areas on Friday.
Collins coauthored a letter to Department of Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki with Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) that called for an indefinite extension of the pilot program in northern Maine.
“Maine has one of the highest ratios in the nation of veterans to overall population, and in a large, rural state like Maine, it is critically important that the VA goes the extra mile to see that our veterans have access to and receive the treatment they need and deserve,” Collins said.
Collins added that a one-way drive to receive care for veterans who live in rural areas can take up to four hours.
“…Especially for our ailing and elderly veterans, such a trip can be physically taxing, painful or detrimental to their health, and we must do all that we can to improve access to health care they receive through the VA,” Collins said.
The three-year ARCH pilot program is slated to conclude in September 2014. The VA has not yet determined whether or not to extend the program’s range of services or add more locations.