Currently, veterans in the CNMI have no direct access to health care services without leaving for Guam or Hawaii.
As a result of this award, Veterans Affairs will be able to contract with a local health clinic to provide primary care services for veterans.
This will allow veterans to receive care consistent with VA national access standards.
The grant will also allow health care providers to come from Guam to the CNMI periodically to care for veterans.
The award is part of an initiative begun in 2007 to extend services to vets in rural areas.
Congressman Gregorio C. Sablan, D-MP, met with VA Medical Center Director James E. Hastings, M.D., in Honolulu in March to talk about the clinic and to encourage VA to reach out to veterans in the Northern Marianas.
Sablan is very grateful to Hastings for his work on this and, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki for understanding the plight of veterans in the Northern Marianas, who unlike their counterparts in any other area of the U.S., can’t get into their car and drive to a VA hospital for help.
Sablan also believes that this is just the beginning of an effort by the VA to ramp up its activities in the Northern Marianas and he will be using his position in Congress to help make that happen.
He also recognizes that veterans on Rota and Tinian have to be taken care of, too. It’s not enough to have a clinic on Saipan, he said.
Veterans Affairs officially lists 926 veterans in the CNMI, but believes there are more than that who have not made themselves known.
“Veterans need to enroll,” Sablan said. “This is a system that works on head count. The more vets who are signed up, the more money is allocated to the Northern Marianas.”
Enrollment can be done online. https://www.1010ez.med.va.gov/sec/vha/1010ez/
In addition to the outreach clinic on Saipan, VA will now provide mental health services, compensation and pension examinations on-island, and telemedicine capabilities to connect with other VA sites in Guam, Hawaii, and around the nation. This is a big deal for veterans. Plus it’s more money into the local economy.
