Memo Request for 2900-0770 Project ARCH (Non-Participant survey) Non-substantive change

Department of
Veterans Affairs
Date:

Memorandum

August 29, 2013

From: Stakeholder Relations Manager, Chief Business Office Purchased Care (10NB3)
Subj:

Project Access Received Closer to Home (ARCH) Non-Participating Veterans
Survey

To:

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
1. Project ARCH is a pilot program designed to improve access to care for
Veterans who have to travel a long distance to a VA health care facility by
partnering with local, non-VA medical care providers.
2. Altarum Institute is a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) contractor who
conducts monthly satisfaction surveys of Veterans receiving care through
Project ARCH. As an additional point of data collection, Altarum developed a
survey for eligible Veterans who have not received care through the Project
ARCH program.
3. The Project ARCH pilot sites offer either primary or selected specialty non-VA
medical care services. To determine Veteran eligibility at the specialty nonVA medical care sites, Altarum identified Veterans who had received Project
ARCH-eligible services through VA directly or through other non-VA
purchased care methods.
4. In conducting the first focus group with Veterans from specialty care sites for
the survey, Altarum observed confusion about the Project ARCH program
among those Veterans who lived in specialty non-VA medical care sites.
Altarum found that the Veterans often need prodding to remember what
eligible Project ARCH care they received.
5. The first page of the attached survey currently states, “When answering the
questions, think only about the reasons why you have not participating in
Project ARCH.”
6. To avoid confusion for Veterans at the specialty care sites, VA/Altarum is
proposing to replace the above statement with, “When answering the
questions, think only about the reasons why you had care on [DATE] from
[DOCTOR/HOSPITAL], rather than receiving the medical care through Project
ARCH.”

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Subj: Project Access Received Closer to Home (ARCH) Non-Participating Veterans
Survey

7. Please refer questions to Mr. Douglas Katason, Stakeholder Relations
Manage, at (303) 370-1600 or by e-mail at [email protected].

Douglas Katason