ATLANTA — Today marks the beginning of community health care delivery to our local Veterans under the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) contract awarded to Optum Public Sector Solutions, Inc., part of UnitedHealth Group, Inc.

“The new Community Care Network (CCN) contract awards reflect our ongoing commitment to increasing Veterans access to care,” said VA Secretary Robert L. Wilkie, “and were designed based on feedback from Veterans and other stakeholders.”

“We are confident it will greatly improve care coordination for Veterans here in our area and improve the timeliness of payments to our local community providers,” said Atlanta VA Health Care System Director Ann Brown.

TriWest Health Care Alliance has been managing VA’s community care network in the area and will fully transition responsibility to Optum over the next 30 days. VA community providers contracted by TriWest will not be automatically enrolled in CCN, so they will be required to sign up with Optum to continue providing services to Veterans under CCN.

VA’s new community care network is made up of six regions. Region 3 includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. VA is deploying this new network in phases to ensure continuity of care coordination. Veterans will continue to receive care from their current community providers during the transition.

The new network serves as the direct link between VA and local health care providers providing an industry-standard contract vehicle for VA to purchase care. Optum will manage the network and process claims for payment to local providers on behalf of VA.