The Department of Veterans Affairs announced on Wednesday that it has rolled out a new identity verification login option from CLEAR and established a pilot program at six medical facilities to help veterans create online VA accounts in person.
The new services are billed as part of a broader digital modernization effort being spearheaded by GovCIO to enhance VA’s online services and integrate the CLEAR1 security identity platform onto the VA.gov website.
Veterans now have the opportunity to voluntarily create CLEAR accounts to access their VA services using facial recognition. The agency’s platform also offers other log-in services that use biometrics for identity verification, like Login.gov — the government’s single sign-on service for federal and state platforms — and ID.me — another private sector offering that can be used to verify users of federal platforms.
Veterans who create CLEAR accounts can also use the service to sign into Medicare.gov through a similar partnership announced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services earlier this year.
The CLEAR accounts used to access VA.gov are different from those operated by the company that allow users to access CLEAR-verified airport security lines.
“Veterans want better customer service and convenience, and under President [Donald] Trump, VA is delivering,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a statement. “This technology is another way we’re changing VA to put Veterans first and make it easier for those who have worn the uniform to get the care and benefits they’ve earned.”
In addition to the new login option, VA is deploying CLEAR pods at selected medical sites to help veterans create identity verification accounts while at the facilities. Veterans who visit these biometric verification kiosks with the proper identifications can have their photos taken and then used to create CLEAR accounts.
The on-site identity verification pilot is now active at VA facilities in Atlanta, Georgia; Brooklyn, New York; Orlando, Florida; Palo Alto, California; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Washington, D.C.
During a Wednesday interview on CBS Mornings, CLEAR CEO Caryn Seidman Becker said veterans can go to VA.gov and verify their identities with “one selfie, and you’re in.” She said the CLEAR pods’ pilot program will also allow the firm “to meet veterans where they are and help them to enroll there.”
