Veterans Equitable Resource Allocation (VERA)

The Veterans Equitable Resource Allocation (VERA) database, is operated by the Allocation Resource Center (ARC) in Braintree, MA. The ARC is part of the Resource Allocation & Execution Office of the Office of Finance. The database is developed from the Patient Treatment File, National Patient Care Database, Fee Basis Medical and Pharmacy System, Decision Support System (DSS) National extracts, DSS Derived Monthly Program Cost Report (MPCR), Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) Minimum Data Set (MDS), Clinical Case Registry (CCR), and Home Dialysis Data Collection System, the Pharmacy Benefits Management database and the Consolidated Enrollment File. Most of the clinical data is Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture data which is transmitted to the Austin Information Technology Center (AITC) where it is retrieved by the ARC each month. The ARC also retrieves DSS cost data from the AITC as well. Some additional information is received from the Hines Pharmacy Benefits Management and the CCR databases. The data from these sources is combined to develop patient-specific care and cost data for each hospitalization or visit at the location or treatment level. Aggregate tables summarize this data for reporting and analysis purposes. The VERA databases are the basis for resource allocation in the Veterans Health Administration.