Clarksville, MD, April 2, 2017 – Only 27% of Veteran are registered to receive some of their health care from Veterans Affairs (VA) annually; thus, over 70% of Veteran are receiving all of their health care services from commercial health care. In fact, over 90% are receiving some commercial health care and close to 100% of their families are in commercial health care.

One of Warrior Centric Health’s main focus areas is to assist hospitals and organizations seeking to better understand the health care needs of the Veterans and their families in their communities as well as collaborate to make measurable improvements in community health and well-being. The private commercial healthcare systems have tangible and quantifiable capability gaps in serving and supporting the nation’s service members, Veterans, and their families. The 10 million professional providers of healthcare and supportive services and the 5,000 hospitals/healthcare systems do not have appropriate access to uniquely designed, evidence-based, and validated industry training and certificate tools that aptly equip them to improve their individual and organizational awareness, knowledge, skill, & performance when servicing the Veteran healthcare market.

VETERANS ARE A VULNERABLE POPULATION.

Historically, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recognized nonprofit hospitals as charitable organizations because they provided care for patients who were unable to pay. The IRS then broadened the guidelines for hospitals to obtain nonprofit status by allowing nonprofit hospitals to provide benefits to the community in lieu of charitable care.

The Community benefit standard established that hospitals’ charitable tax exemption may be supported by diverse hospital activities designed to improve the health of the community as a whole. Veterans and their immediate families comprise of 75M individuals representing an underserved and inefficient $300B commercially insured healthcare marketplace.

A hospital must conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) at least every three years. With Warrior Centric Health, the hospital has the information for the following steps:

DEFINE THE COMMUNITY IT SERVES.

Our Veteran Population Data enables you to locate areas of concern for vulnerable Veteran populations and health disparities in your community based on these example indicators: State, County, Service, Theater/War Era, Age, Gender, Race, and Targeted Disease Prevalence.

ASSESS THE HEALTH NEEDS OF THE COMMUNITY.

Warrior Centric Health addresses social, behavioral, and environmental factors that influence health in the Veteran community. Additionally, Warrior Centric Health identifies and provides resources that address priority health needs.

SOLICIT AND TAKE INTO ACCOUNT INPUT RECEIVED FROM INDIVIDUALS WHO REPRESENT THE BROAD INTERESTS OF THE COMMUNITY

Warrior Centric Health, over 8 years, has listened, learned, and acted with a large and diverse group of individuals, organizations, academic and military experts, and government agencies located in or serving the community and the members of medically under-served, low-income, and minority populations in the Veteran community.

As part of the Warrior Centric Health Recognition Program, Warrior Centric Health provides the hospital a written implementation strategy for meeting the Veteran health needs identified in the CHNA.  For each significant Veteran health need identified in the CHNA, the Warrior Centric Health will describe, for the hospital to submit, what follow-up actions is planned. This includes the resources the hospital intends to commit to address the identified Veteran health needs, as well as any planned collaborations between the hospital and other community organizations.

Here are some additional ways Warrior Centric Health can contribute to a hospital’s CHNA process:

Provide data to inform how the hospital defines its Veteran and Family community. This could include information about the Veteran demographics of the state, county, and the hospital’s immediate surrounding area.

Collect and share data about the significant health needs of the Veteran community that require immediate action to prevent illness. This could include information about chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, etc. Warrior Centric Health can also include information about the distribution of these diseases across different groups of people within the Veteran community.

Collect and share data about the need to ensure adequate health care for everyone in the Veteran community. In addition to data about rates of Veteran-related diseases, this could include information about the accessibility of trained health care providers. For example, hospitals administrators may not be aware of how few trained providers are serving the hospital. Hospitals administrators may not fully appreciate how effectively significant increases of knowledge gain can increase patient satisfaction scores which ties to maximizing care and resources.

Collect and share information about social, behavioral, and environmental factors that influence health in the Veteran community. This could include information about the accessibility of transportation, health awareness seminars, social interactions, etc. available in the Veteran communities and neighborhoods served by the hospital. It could also include information pertaining to the design and decoration of the hospital’s own properties.

Collect and share information about health inequities in the Veteran community. For example, some hospitals might not realize the impact that a lack of knowledge of PTSD, TBI, and Gulf War Lung Disease (via Burn Pits) have on Veteran populations and their families (who often times are their care givers).

Connect hospitals with Veteran community members most impacted by health inequities. Warrior Centric Health uncovers connections for hospitals from relevant Veteran Service Organizations, as well as government health departments, local nonprofits, medical schools, and professional associations.

Help the hospital identify resources that are available to address health needs. Also, Warrior Centric Health can assist the hospital in doing a gap analysis to identify where resources and actions are needed to improve the health of the Veteran community.

Participate in hospital efforts to prioritize the health needs of the Veteran community. In this role, Warrior Centric Health can suggest action steps to address the social, physical, and environmental obstacles that prevent Veteran community members from living full, healthy lives.

Continue to be a resource and partner as the hospital implements its CHNA. By finding ways to collaborate, hospitals and Warrior Centric Health can maximize their collective impact.

To talk to Warrior Centric Health about your Community Benefit program, contact Ronald Steptoe, CMR | CEO, 443-324-1030.

More about Warrior Centric Health, LLC

Warrior Centric Health (WCH) is the first-to-market, vetted, and scalable education company specializing in Veteran Population Health solutions for commercial health care professionals and systems. Named by Forbes as one of the Top 25 Veteran-Founded Start-ups in America, its design equips hospitals, medical personnel and staff with the cultural and clinical skills necessary to improve long-term health outcomes when treating veterans, their families and vulnerable populations. By providing quality education, data science, credentialing, and community outreach, our sustainable and holistic medical neighborhood approach is directly related to successfully meeting plans, goals, and objectives at all levels of a health care facility.