The short answer
VA coordinates Community Care through its facility Community Care offices: they confirm eligibility, authorize care, and help with scheduling. VA sends your community provider the records they need, often through HealthShare Referral Manager or health information exchange. The provider sends treatment records back to VA. You may need to bring imaging like CT scans or MRIs if the provider asks.
How does VA coordinate Community Care?
Through the Community Care office at your VA medical center. VA's care coordination page describes five steps:
- Receive the request. A referral, a hospital notice, an emergency visit, or a new appointment. Staff confirm eligibility and authorize services. Referrals and authorizations are managed in HealthShare Referral Manager (HSRM).
- Assess your needs. Staff decide how much coordination you need.
- Make a plan with the community provider, covering communication, follow-up, scheduling, and support for you.
- Carry out the plan, with VA, you, and the community provider working together.
- Follow up and close the episode. VA checks that you got the care, completes the handoff, and closes the consult.
What records does VA send my community provider?
VA's referral page says VA shares your medical records with the community provider. Usually that's sent with the referral in HSRM, including a clinical summary of what the provider needs.
What you may need to do:
- Bring imaging like CT scans or MRIs if the provider asks. VA says to bring copies.
- Bring a medication list and any recent records you have, especially from other outside providers.
- Tell the provider about your VA care so they know who else is treating you.
What records does the community provider send back?
The provider sends VA the medical records from your care, like visit notes, test results, and treatment plans. That's separate from their claim for payment. Coordination records go to your VA facility, while claims go to the network administrator or VA's claims office.
VA's provider guidance asks community urgent care clinics, for example, to send medical documentation to your home VA within 30 calendar days.
Why it matters to you: your VA team uses those records to manage follow-up, prescriptions, and future referrals. If records don't come back, your VA team may not know what happened.
What is health information exchange?
A way for VA and community providers to share records electronically. VA's care coordination tools page says the Veterans Health Information Exchange lets VA and community providers securely share medications, allergies, lab results, clinical notes, and more, in both directions. Many health systems connect through national exchange networks, so records can flow without faxing.
Not every provider is connected, and not every record moves automatically. If something important is missing, ask.
How can I help coordination go smoothly?
- After each visit, ask the provider whether they've sent the notes to VA.
- Tell your VA team about new diagnoses, medication changes, or tests from the community provider.
- Use My HealtheVet or VA.gov to check what's in your VA record.
- If your VA and community providers give conflicting advice, tell both.
What happens when Community Care ends?
The authorized episode closes, records come back to VA, and your VA team takes over any follow-up. See Moving Your Care Back to VA.