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Background:

The 2014 Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act was intended to improve Veterans’ access to timely health care by expanding their options to receive community care (CC) paid for by the Veterans Health Administration (VA). Although CC could particularly benefit rural Veterans, we know little about rural Veterans’ experiences with CC.

Objective:

The objective of this study was to compare rural Veterans’ experiences with CC and VA outpatient health care services to those of urban Veterans and examine changes over time.

Research Design:

Retrospective, cross-sectional study using data from the Survey of Healthcare Experiences of Patients (SHEP) and VA Corporate Data Warehouse. Subjects: All Veterans who responded to the SHEP survey in Fiscal Year (FY) 16 or FY19.

Measures:

Outcomes were 4 measures of care experience (Access, Communication, Coordination, and Provider Rating …