In recent years, more effort has been put into boosting the care veterans receive when they come back to their life after service, and this assistance comes in many forms. Now, the VA is helping to send more from a private company to assist veterans in the state of Alaska, where care has often been lacking.
TriWest Healthcare Alliance, which is based in Arizona, has received VA funding to send six new employees to help veterans in some of Alaska's biggest cities, according to a report from the Alaska News Dispatch. These workers will assist veterans in scheduling appointments and paying their doctors' bills whenever possible, and will be based throughout the state. Two of the six will be in Anchorage working directly at the VA, while two more will travel to help care providers deal with veterans' claims, and another will work in Fairbanks in a similar capacity. A sixth will be something of an overseer for the rest of the group.
"By having this staff based in Alaska we will demonstrate our commitment to Alaskan providers and gain their trust," Hal Blair, deputy program manager of TriWest Healthcare Alliance, told the newspaper.
The goal here is to assist the VA's other staffers in speeding up the process by which veterans can book doctors' appointments and deal with the claims they need to file on a regular basis, the report said. Lawmakers in the state also hope more funding can be freed up to provide additional support in this regard, with some calling it a "first step" toward a better assistance safety net for state veterans.
The more assistance governmental agencies can provide to veterans in any type of need, the better off those servicemembers are likely to be going forward. And often, even if government support falls short, there will be a private organization that can help as well.