New VA Initiative Helps Veterans Travel to Medical Appointments
VA Research News Briefs

Photo: ©iStock/andresr
(04/17/2025)
The VHA–Uber Health Connect (VUHC) Initiative, a collaboration to provide ridesharing for Veterans’ facing transportation barriers, has proven quite successful. VA researchers showed the initiative facilitated 263,294 rides, covering a total distance of nearly 4 million miles, from January 2022 to March 2024. The most common uses were travel to specialty care, dialysis, and primary care appointments. The VUHC program began because a previous analysis found almost 2 million VA medical appointments were missed yearly due to lack of transportation, at an estimated cost of nearly $4.4 billion per year. For the approximately 30% of Veterans living in rural areas, transportation barriers are more significant due to social isolation, multiple chronic conditions, and a greater need for frequent medical visits. The VUHC Initiative aims to continue reducing missed appointments, improving the Veteran experience, and enabling cost savings. (NEJM Catalyst, Apr. 16, 2025)