A recently announced expansion of the Department of Veterans Affairs Closer to Me cancer care program will bring new diagnosis, treatment and surveillance services to an additional 9,000 veterans and 30 locations by the end of October 2025.
As part of the program, VA clinicians travel to provide veterans with the full continuum of cancer care at nearby community-based outpatient clinics, often in rural locations. According to a VA release, that reduces the need for veterans to travel to medical centers for cancer care, affording them and their caregivers more time to go about their daily lives and focus on healing.
Since the program began in 2021, nearly 500 veterans have had cancer treatments closer to home in over 20 community-based outpatient clinic locations, reducing their travel by more than 200,000 miles.
“We want veterans to have easy access to the care they need, where they need it,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough in a statement. “We also know that VA provides the best care possible for veterans. This expansion will provide veterans with a VA care option that delivers truly personalized, high-quality, integrated cancer care closer to where they live.”
During McDonough’s monthly press conference on April 25, Andrea Stone, associate chief nurse for Specialty Care with the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, told the story of a decorated Army veteran who was undergoing stem cell treatment for his multiple myeloma. He was able to reduce his travel time for treatments from two days to one due to the Close to Me program bringing the second day of treatment to a clinic in his town.
According to VA, Close to Me cancer care has had zero reported medical emergencies during treatment to date, has high patient satisfaction among veterans and has a 99% treatment adherence rate.
The program is part of President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot and has saved more than $1.9 million in medication costs by leveraging VA’s statutory access to reduced drug costs compared with costs if these veterans had been referred to the community, according to the release.
Learn more about VA cancer care by visiting here.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.