Use of Long COVID Clinics in the Veterans Health Administration: Implications for the path forward.
Long COVID is a serious chronic illness that can present in many forms and impact daily functioning and quality of life. Without curative treatments, management of long COVID requires coordination and ongoing access to multidisciplinary care. Starting in 2020, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), established a national network of Long COVID Clinics (LCCs). In this retrospective cohort study of 494 547 veterans with documented SARS-CoV-2 infection in the VHA from March 2020 to April 2022 (n = 494 547), we examined trends in ICD-10 U09.9 diagnosis code use for long COVID and LCC use in the VHA up to May 2024. Overall, 5.9% (n = 29 195) of patients in our cohort had a documented U09.9 code and 2% had at least 1 LCC visit. Among veterans with a U09.9 code, 17.4% (n = 5089) used LCCs. LCC use rates were low across all patient subgroups. LCCs were more available to veterans residing in the South census region (28% vs <7% use rate) than veterans in other regions. Developing evidence about LCC effectiveness and ensuring equitable access to LCCs within and beyond the VHA will be critical in meeting the evolving needs of people with long COVID.
