The President signed H.R. 1276 “SAVE LIVES Act” into law: SAVE LIVES Act allows VA to soon provide COVID-19 vaccinations to all Veterans, their spouses and caregivers. We now have the honorable opportunity to expand our efforts to vaccinate all honorably discharged Veterans (regardless of eligibility for VA healthcare), Veteran spouses, certain (eligible) caregivers, and overseas Veterans against COVID-19.
Northport is able to provide COVID-19 vaccines based on the new law based on the supplies available. The signing of the SAVE LIVES Act, VA now has legal authority, to expand vaccinations to all Veterans, their caregivers, spouses and CHAMPVA beneficiaries. The SAVE LIVES Act requires VA to prioritize vaccinations of Veterans enrolled in the VA health care system.
Facilities may use local discretion to vaccinate those who qualify under the law if they have adequate supply; at this moment Northport has enough supplies so we continue receiving Veterans in Building 5 as a walk-in from Monday to Friday from 9-2pm.
VA is working hard to vaccinate those who qualify under the law. VA is taking several actions to prepare to successfully roll out the SAVE LIVES Act across VA:
o Working with Health and Human Services (HHS) to increase allocations of vaccine supply to meet demand.
o Developing an automated VA system to record Veterans not currently in the system.Those eligible under the new legislation include:
o All enrolled Veteranso Non-enrolled Veterans as defined in the new legislation, including those without service-connected disabilities and who have incomes above VA’s threshold.
o Overseas Veterans who rely on the Foreign Medical Program.
o Veteran caregivers who are enrolled in either the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers or the Program of General Caregiver Support Services.
o Veteran caregivers enrolled in certain Geriatrics and Extended Care Programs, such as Veteran Directed Care, Bowel and Bladder, Home Based Primary Care and VA’s Medical Foster Home Program.
o Civilian Health and Medical Programs of the Department of Veterans Affairs recipients
o Veteran spouses.
In the meantime, Veterans, caregivers, spouses, and CHAMPVA beneficiaries newly eligible under the law can go to www.va.gov/covid-19-vaccine to register and indicate their interest in receiving a vaccine from VA. Signing up will also give users regular updates about VA’s vaccine rollout process. Explain they can also go to VA’s main page www.va.gov and click on link near the top of the page “vaccine information page.”
Again, Northport VAMC is running COVID-19 vaccination clinics in Building 5 Monday to Friday as walk-in from 9:00am to 2:00pm as authorized by the SAVE LIVE Act.Veterans and families can also sign up to get vaccinated through your employer, pharmacy or local public health office. We encourage you to take the first opportunity you have to get a COVID-19 vaccine at the most convenient location for you. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we prepare to offer more vaccines.
Again, I cannot thank you enough for what you all are doing every single day to take care of our Veterans, especially during this long-running pandemic. I recognize that we are all pushing ourselves, sometimes more than we should, and I encourage all of you to step back and take the time to destress, breathe, and take care of yourself. We’re all in this together.
Sincerely,Antonio Sanchez, MD, MHSA, FAPA, FACHE
Executive Director
Northport VA Medical Center
The clinic is located at the Northport VA Medical Center Campus, located at 79 Middleville Road, Northport New York 11768. Please follow the signs and police vehicles to the vaccination clinic area.
