The Veterans Health Administration's 2016 budget focuses on mental health and female veteran services and expands funds for improving online access and telehealth technology.
The budget totals $56 billion for spending and $63.3 billion in advance funds in case of a government shutdown, according to theMilitary Times. The total funding has increased by nearly 73 percent since 2009, according to the VA's budget documents.
A large sector of the VA's budget, approximately 2.4 percent, is devoted to IT — more than $4.1 billion, a $230 million increase from the 2015 budget. This includes a $30 million initiative for interoperability as well as $183 million for VistA Evolution and $20 million for the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record system, which all go toward improving the military's EMR system, according to the budget document.
The budget also provides $1.2 billion to improving telehealth efforts to better serve veterans in remote or rural areas that have limited access to care. This is a $126 million increase from the 2015 budget.