VA Eastern Colorado hosts VetFest, celebrates medical center’s fifth anniversary

The VetFest’s purpose is to provide Veterans with access to expanded health care services, such as toxic exposure screenings, an explanation of benefits, and enrollment in the VA health care system if they were eligible. This is part of implementing the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act (PACT) Act.

President Joe Biden signed the PACT Act into law on Aug. 10, 2022. It is one of the largest expansions of Veteran care and benefits in U.S. history, expanding access to Veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxins. Survivors are also included in this expansion.

Navigating VA health care benefits can be challenging for some Veterans who have limited digital literacy, particularly in rural areas. By having specialists at the medical center to help Veterans navigate those challenges and apply for any PACT Act benefits they’ve earned, Veterans got face-to-face help, circumventing that specific challenge.

“We need to really understand what exact services our Veterans need, so we can build to that, while also being that main referral hub to support all of Colorado and our sister facilities in Wyoming,” said Michael Kilmer, VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System director. “We need to engage this facility as a regional medical center. And that is what we are moving forward on now.”

The Rocky Mountain Regional VetFest is one of more than 50-plus outreach events across all 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, put in place to help Veterans understand the new PACT Act benefits and apply for them if they qualify.

Since its inception, more than 700,000 Veterans and survivors have completed a PACT Act-related claim and 300,000 Veterans enrolled in VA health care, according to the PACT Act Performance dashboard July 21. Some 4 million Veterans have received a toxic exposure screening, roughly 50,000 by VA ECHCS providers and nurses. Additionally, 109 toxic exposure screenings were conducted during the medical center’s VetFest.

For Veterans to receive exposure-centered care, quality facilities must be readily available to treat a wide range of issues affecting Veterans. This is why Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center’s 5-year anniversary is so significant.

Before its opening, the previous medical center lacked several specialty departments that many Veterans and their families needed, such as expanded operating rooms, new patient rooms, and specialty services such as a spinal cord-injury unit. Additionally, the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center is not only double the size of the previous medical center, at 1.2 million square feet according to Kilmer, but it is a medical center dedicated to Veterans. It increased the space available for services that Veterans previously would not have had access to.

“That feeling of spaciousness really is a healing thing in itself,” said Ralph Bozella, American Legion Post 32 commander in Longmont, Colo. “You don’t feel so pressured all the time, with people always around you. The environment here is a healing environment. I’m a patient here, been a patient since 2006. It’s the best health care I’ve ever had. Whenever you have great staff and you have caring and open environment and an environment that is pleasing, you feel better. You feel like you’re going to be healed.”

The medical center is continually growing and finding new ways to improve and provide better, more efficient care to Veterans in not just the surrounding Denver area, but southeast Colorado and parts of western Kansas.

“We’re looking forward to increasing our footprint down in Colorado Springs and our southern market,” said Kilmer. “Because right now, Colorado Springs is projected to have a larger Veteran population in the next six to 10 years than what we have here in the Denver metro area. So, we’re really looking forward to expanding our specialty services and expanding on the complexity of the care we’re providing here.”

Veterans may apply for PACT Act-related benefits—or submit an intent to file—during the PACT Act Claims Clinics on Aug. 7-9, in Colorado Springs, in partnership with El Paso County. And any Veterans who apply for PACT Act-related benefits before Aug. 10 may get benefits backdated to Aug. 10, 2022—the day the bill was signed.