Medical Care for Veterans

The Cuyahoga County Veterans Service Commission offers bus tickets to qualified veterans for transportation to the VA medical centers. If you have been “outsourced” to another clinic or medical facility by the VA, you may also qualify for bus tickets. You must provide proper verification of your appointments at the time of your request. If you are a new client to the agency, you will need to provide your DD-214, Social Security card and verification of 90 days of Cuyahoga County residency (i.e., Driver’s License, State ID, or lease) along with your appointment verification.

VA medical care is limited to the veteran, not his or her family, in most cases. It has gone through extensive changes in the last few years and we will not try to explain who is and isn’t guaranteed treatment at this time. We will say, however, if you need care and you are an honorably discharged veteran, we will do everything possible to secure care for you at a local VA medical center.

The VA medical centers can treat qualified veterans for any and all medical problems (dental care is the one notable exception and it is reserved for those with service connection for dental conditions or when deemed needed by the VA).

The prescription mail-in program is exceptionally good for those veterans on limited incomes. After the VA’s doctors have placed you on a maintenance program, the VA pharmacy will mail out your monthly prescriptions.

The VA hospital system is the largest in the free world so you must be willing to “hurry up and wait” (reminds you of the military), but if you can bear with the system, the money saved and medical care rendered are worth the effort. One of the things that will help you move through the system more smoothly is to have prior medical care, prescriptions and treatments listed, so that you can inform the VA of your complete medical history.